I have met a couple of BJJ practicioners here in Korea, nothing higher than blue belt, and have been more than impressed with their stuff. I should say, I have done a mixture of Judo, Jujutsu, and Aikido over twenty years. I am a bit rusty at Judo having not done it four four years (injury) and they were all over me on the ground (their chosen territory), but couldn't do much against me standing up, or so I felt. Anyway, my thought is this. No one would call modern sport Judo as Jujutsu nowadays, and from what I have seen of BJJ, it has even less in common with Jujutsu - in the Jujutsu sense that I practiced it - atemi, kicks, throws, weapons and so on. Sure, BJJ is excellent in competition, and I wish I had the time to learn it to improve my groundwork, but is that all it is? Groundwork? If so, can it be really called Jujutsu? For comparison, think of those Aikidoka that say Tomiki Aikido should be called something else - not - Aikido - because of its competitive element (I disagree here as I have seen Tomiki stylists do great Aiki). My limited impression thus far of BJJ is - "wrestling in a keokogi". Please enlighten me to what other stuff (than groundwork) exists in the BJJ curriculum. Any links to informative sites appreciated.
Rupert Atkinson