Gracie Jiu-Jitsu against Multiple Opponents?
Question of the Month: “I know that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu has been proven effective against single opponents but how reliable is it against multiple opponents?”
Angie A. (Pittsburgh, PA)
Answer: Performances made by martial artists such as Jean Claude Van Dam, Steven Segal and Bruce Lee in Hollywood Blockbusters have led the people to believe that one person is capable of defeating 2, 3, 4 or even 100 opponents at once. People often forget that movies are scripted and that the opponents these actors are up against are told precisely when to attack and when to fall.
Many instructors of high flying, spin kicking, flashy disciplines spend their days claiming that their styles consist of techniques proven effective against multiple attackers but what they forget to include is that these techniques are only reliable if you are able to stay on your feet and if you land each strike with 100% accuracy. The chances of you staying on your feet against two determined opponents is slim to none and as a result you can bet that your ability to survive the situation relies almost entirely on your ability to protect yourself and defeat your opponent as quickly as possible once the fight goes to the ground and this is where Gracie Jiu-Jitsu comes into play.
Although we are not going to lie to you and say that GJJ is guaranteed effective against multiple attackers, we can say that the more you perfect your GJJ techniques the faster you will be able to incapacitate one opponent and as you increase your efficiency against one opponent, you will be increasing your chance of survival against multiple opponents.
Additional Note: For what it’s worth, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu representatives have challenged and defeated representatives from nearly every system of self-defense which claims to be effective against multiple attackers.
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