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UFC spurs fresh interest in jiu-jitsu

Even the Ultimate Fighting Championship owes its origins to BJJ. The first UFC event in 1993 was actually an extension of the Gracie Challenge — where a BJJ master would challenge a master in another style, to prove BJJ was more effective. The first ever UFC was won by Royce Gracie, and both BJJ and MMA have been on an upward trajectory since.

Today, BJJ is a central component of MMA’s “ground game” — the clinching, throwing, twisting and choking that takes place whenever the two combatants aren’t standing on their feet trading punches.

For this reason, it has enjoyed an increased profile as the sport continues to win new fans — something that hasn’t escaped the club organizers.
Just look at the club itinerary. In addition to the classic gi classes, where students learn in traditional BJJ, students can now take no-gi classes that more closely simulate MMA style grappling.

Once a week, the club even offers an MMA for self-defence class — applying MMA techniques to real life self-defence situations a student could find themselves in.

Still, the Western Brazilian jiu-jitsu club is not the UWO MMA club, and it’s not just seeking to capitalize on the MMA fad.
“We were actually the judo club first, from 1993 to 1997,” Nath explains. “I was an assistant instructor in that club, helping the new people. Then the head instructor left, we formed the jiu-jitsu club and I’ve been running it since 1998.”

And while both the club and the art of BJJ has seen newfound interest as a result of the MMA boom, both still enjoy healthy interest and commitment outside of MMA fans.

“When people are asking about our club, they usually ask about the no-gi classes,” Nath continues. “It’s funny because it’s the gi classes that are the most popular and get the most commitment. The no-gi classes are just for refining what we learned in the gi class.”

The first part of a typical BJJ club class is instructional. The class learns a new technique, escape or choke from the instructor, with help from student volunteers. Then, the class will work on drilling the new move, practicing the proper steps with a live partner. The focus is on proper form in each step, and the drilling helps ingrain these motions as muscle memory.

The last third of the class involves light sparring, or “rolling” as it is commonly known in BJJ, where students refine their overall game against one another.

Far from competitive, rolling is never done at 100 per cent strength and the point is not to win or defeat your partner. Rather, its purpose is to refine technique and to build social bonds amongst the students.

“When I first started watching UFC, I didn’t know what it was,” Aman Segu, a second-year health sciences student, explains. “I just liked the sport and I wanted to learn the ground aspect of it. It’s only once I got into learning BJJ that I found out why I love it — because it’s like a game of human chess.”

This is a three part series on MMA at Western. Read part two and three.

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