Wrists to fingers

Is it Jujitsu or Jiu-Jitsu or Jujutsu?  The answer, unsurprisingly is yes… to all three.  There is the well known Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, brought into the public consciousness by the Gracie family.  There is JuJutsu, the close quarter techniques of the Japanese Samurai for use in combat when they were disarmed and then there is Small Circle Jujitsu, the style created by the late Professor Wally Jay.

Whew.  So many names.  So similar.  The arts are quite varied but what they share is a fondness for being in close, they all love joint locks and they (like most martial arts) teach the use of skill to overcome an opponent’s superior size and strength.

Today we played with a technique from Japanese JuJutsu, a wrist lock and several finger locks from Small Circle Jujitsu.  While we didn’t explicitly go over any Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques in the skill part of class, they certainly cropped up in the “free play” section of class.  The free play section was sparring very slowly with a partner and seeing if you could get any of the locks we went over (or any others) to actually work.  Why slow?  Because man are those finger locks tricky.

Keep practicing.  Joint locks get easier and more functional with time.