All Questions

In this video, a bully throws a punch at a student. They go out of frame for a second, and when they come back the bully has wrapped an arm around the student's head as if he were going for a ...

I've heard a lot of people say that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has become more sport-focused over the years and less about self defense. I understand where that's coming from, because there are so many moves ...

I am trying to keep this question as on-topic as possible, so please comment anything that you think would improve it. The number of people learning martial arts around the world is growing. Not at ...

I have been messing around a bit with the Eddie Bravo twister "banana split" and calf slicer, and the majority of the time I attempt the calf slicer, I come across the same problem . I have everything ...

I am starting to get interested in martial arts. BJJ is by far the most popular in my area, but I looked into judo, and it seems to me that judo is the more complete martial art than bjj. Am I ...

The triangle choke as used in Judo and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu has its origins in early 20th century Judo: この技法は大正十一年の高専柔道大会で六高柔道部生徒達によって初めて繰り出され、それ以降... この技は岡山六高の柔道教師であった故金光弥一兵衛九段（起倒流）...

In which conditions can a foreigner reach the title Shaolin monk? Should they go to an institute, being in homeland and training at age 4-5? Is this title reserved for a dedicated group of people?

I, like many people, want to be as prepared as possible for the possibility of getting attacked. Assuming that most people do NOT know how to fight, what kind of strikes and blocks could I expect a ...

There is a foot-sweep technique in Judo known as "the sticker", 1 2 3 4 5 though it is variously described as a variant of kosoto-gari / gake, and de-ashi-barai. How does the Kodokan classify this ...

Since BJJ primarily works on pins, escapes, takedowns, and submissions, and not much on throws, I thought that I could start learning throws to make my knowledge a little more "complete". Although I ...

DISCLAIMER: I realize that this question is similar to Punch bags in a rental apartment However, this does NOT answer my question. While both ask about punching bags in an apartment, that question ...

Wrestling is about pinning the body of your opponent into an inferior position where they are left immobile. BJJ is about surviving positions, setting up other positions, with the final goal of ...

I remember there's an Asian martial arts technique (especially China, and I believe India also has it but I don't know which tag to use for that.) that solely uses their forearms for strikes and ...

I am nervous that my BJJ training is negatively affecting my MMA skills (which is what my priority is). Many of the positions we are drilling in my BJJ class would be a bad idea in an MMA fight, ...

I do BJJ, NOT Hapkido or other martial arts that teach wrist locks. Sometimes when I am rolling, my opponent will grab a single wrist lock, not because they are trying to submit me or anything, but ...

My new gi trousers have sides with splits to allow the person to get in and out easily. I am too thin for this gi but I have to use it as I am very tall. is it ok to sew these sides up so that my gi ...

I saw this throw demonstrated earlier today in a children's judo class. The tori starts in a headlock (or perhaps puts their own head into one), pushes their inside arm through to grab at the back of ...

BJJ is a great martial arts for MMA, but unlike other arts, BJJ often sells itself as being particularly focused on "self-defense". If that is the case, why does the art not allow slams? I know ...

After its use to success by Yarden Gerbi in 2014, the IJF clarified that the "Gerbi choke" (suso-jime1) is illegal in judo: Shime-waza - forbidden Shime-waza is not allowed with either your own ...

I don't know if people that practice other martial arts have this problem, but I know people that practice BJJ have this problem a lot. I guess it is because of all the friction, but no one can seem ...

There is a lot of mixed feeling online whether ninjutsu would work well in a street fight or a self-defence scenario. Ninjutsu is a very unconventional form of martial arts; it's ancient and outdated ...

For those of you who don't know, a McDojo is a dojo or gym that operates more like an assembly line and only exists for the purpose of "fast-food belts". If you want more information about McDojos, ...

A practitioner of any martial art that has a black belt deserves great respect. However, I see all these dojos and gyms of non-BJJ martial arts, and they have multiple instructors. These instructors ...

I'm pretty sure the name of this throw is called Ippon Seoi Nage. It looks like this: I would say that it is fairly simple and it was one of the first ones I learned. It happens when someone takes ...

Seeing that I am a newbie when it comes to kicks, and I have a BJJ mindset, this question should be relatively easy to answer. I see people doing these spinning roundhouse kicks, and me, thinking ...

A few days ago I got to my gym early, so I decided to look around a bit. There are many pictures of famous BJJ practitioners quotes from them that are framed and hanging on the wall. I usually never ...

After a good warm-up, I can perform a high mawashi geri pretty easily. Without a warm-up, however, I can barely lift my leg higher than belt level. In a real-life situation, you won't have any time to ...

I realize that this is similar to other questions, but this isn't the same. This new guy just joined my gym, and was already a purple belt when he joined. Since I always try to roll with everyone at ...

Throws seem mysterious to me. Just the idea of being able to move your body in such a way that you are able to physically pick someone up without your hands and land them on their back seems like a "...

Is it solely a matter of duration or not? Why is a pillow deadlier than a simple MMA choke (BJJ, whatever)? How does it work?

I like Sambo but unfortunately in my location I haven't found any available classes. Can someone advise an (affordable) seminar (week or week-end long) for all levels that is run somewhere in ...

The Kodokan has numerous materials detailing the canonical versions of their shime-waza along with several variations. However, there are a large number of competition chokes (and novel chokes ...

I started taking Kuk Sool Won a few weeks ago. Kuk Sool Won is a Korean martial art that is basically a collection of older, traditional Korean martial arts. I found out about it because it is the art ...

The canonical form of okuri-eri-jime refers to chokes where one lapel is held with the inside of the wrist against uke's neck, and the other is pulled taught to apply the strangle. The canonical kata-...

I hear a lot of people asking why kids seem to have different belts than adults do (specifically 16 and up). The adult belts go white, blue, purple, brown, and black. The kids belt go white, grey, ...

My 9 year old grandson has a brown belt for around 7 months now. Usually he goes to regular class where all the color belts are put into their own groups. He hasn’t practiced some of the earlier katas ...

Is there a system to the way judo techniques are named? Many techniques seem to share components of names (harai, guruma, gaeshi etc) - is there a standard uniform way these words should be ...

This is something that has been on my mind for quite awhile now, so I'm hoping I can get a clear answer. Say that I was getting attacked by more that one person and I know BJJ, would it be my best bet ...

What kind of judo throw is momo-guruma? It doesn't appear to be recognised by the Kodokan by this name, how is it performed and/or classified?

Why is tsubame-gaeshi ("swallow reversal") thus named? Wouldn't it have been more natural to name it deashi-gaeshi in line with the other kaeshi counter-throws?* * Osoto-gaeshi, ouchi-gaeshi, uchi-...

Famous judoka Yokoyama Sakujirō was known by the nickname Tengu, and his tokui-waza was hence named tengu-nage: Yokoyama's specialty was tengu-nage ("mountain-devil throw"), said to be nearly on a ...

Most1 Kodokan judo techniques are named in a somewhat systematised way, describing the major visual/mechanical components of the technique (e.g. koshi-guruma "hip wheel", o-soto-gari "major outer reap"...

I recently started my three and a half year old at karate, because he had a great time at a bring a friend day. I feel that I have an active child, but he seems to be no more active than other ...

I am a highschool girl, and I need to learn how to defend myself. I’ve looked into Muay Thai but I want to find something fit for me: I’m small - skinny and short. I am very agile but I lack strength. ...

Usually Doboks for Gup grades will have a white collar, and Dan grades (black belts) will wear a black collar Dobok (not sure if there are any rules about this, but this is what I see as the common ...

I have an odd request that I believe only people who train in martial arts or boxing might be able to answer. I climb the stairs in my highrise, going through either a jab or cross motion with each ...

There are similar questions to this one across the web, but I think the problem I have is specific enough that it deserves its own question. I'm an amateur welterweight fighting at 69kg and 1.78m. I'...

Is there a way to make my knuckles harder, so if I punch someone I get less hurt and they get more hurt. Or if I miss and hit a rock the odds of breaking my knuckles is decreased? Is this possible, ...

The freestanding punching bag. At my studio it’s situation on a rubber mat, and we need to move it around to the middle of the mat for drills. I’ve seen a few instructors stand on it and somehow tip ...

I've been doing BJJ for a while, but I wanted to further improve my self defense skills. I started learning Krav Maga, which is part of the Israeli Combat System (ICS). A big part of ICS is Israeli ...