fighting

Story: Kid Uses Jiu-Jitsu To Humiliate Bully – POV: “Victim”

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This short story mirrors the story in my previous post, which was told from the point of view of Ty – the “bully”. Here, we see how Quince – the “victim” – experienced their encounter. The two stories were a quick attempt to explore possible complications to the narrative of the innocent victim taking physical revenge on an evil bully.

Quince’s Story

Quince tried never to look at Ty. He thought it was the best way to avoid getting noticed by him. Ty was a bully who called other kids names, and seemed to start fights for no reason. Quince wasn’t too scared of him though as he did jiu-jitsu, and had been trained in how to handle a bully – even one a lot bigger than himself like Ty.

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12 Year Old Kid Training Jiu-Jitsu Like A Professional Athlete (Icaro Moreno)

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I saw an interesting exchange on social media in the last couple of days. It was in Portuguese, but you can see English translations below. It was in response to a post by/on behalf of jiu-jitsu phenom Icaro Moreno, a 12 year old from Brazil who is a 5X IBJJF Pan Kids Champion. He has an Instagram with nearly 150K followers: https://instagram.com/icaromorenojj/

Icaro Moreno (right) with Cole Abate
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Summary of Video By ‘Jordan Teaches Jiu Jitsu’ On How To Beat Bigger Opponents

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I thought I would summarise the key points of this recent video, which is a useful one for small beginners. In particular, the tips should help those who are already familiar with the basic details of grappling, but may be lacking an overview of certain concepts:

1. Avoid most submissions from the bottom/guard (especially triangles) – because a big opponent will have a lot of weight and size available to defend, and if you aren’t successful with the submission, you may lose position completely as you lose the submission. Guillotines at least are relatively safe to attempt from the bottom.

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Why Modern Grappling May Be More Pacifist Than Other Martial Arts

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Grappling is about using throws, takedowns and holds to dominate an opponent, rather than punches, kicks and other strikes. By ‘modern grappling’ I’m referring mainly to modern jiu-jitsu and submission wrestling as used in mma (with some overlap into other grappling arts like judo).

Whereas traditional martial arts tend to stay strictly codified, modern grappling has evolved constantly in recent decades, based on the refinement of moves in full-intensity fights. This is reflected in training, which includes a big element of free fighting.

Note that modern jiu-jitsu is often referred to as brazilian jiu-jitsu or bjj, due to the powerful influence of fighters from that country in its evolution.

Pacifism is opposition to violence as a means of settling disputes. This is not exactly the focus of martial arts, as they teach you to fight (by definition), and prepare you for physical confrontations where force may need to be used. In a real fight situation, self-defence may be impossible without at least some *offensive* moves. So pacifism and martial arts may not sit easily together.

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MMA Book Recommendations

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*Note: I have listened to all of the books below as audiobooks, but I’ve pointed the links to paperback editions*

This year, I’ve listened to the following two books about the rise of modern jiu-jitsu grappling. For anyone new to the subject, these would provide a great insight into the revolution that has taken place in martial arts in recent decades, sparked by the Gracie family:

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