Goshinkwai Ju Jitsu

Just to give you a bit of background, on how I came to start training in Ju-jitsu. I was originally going to join a ballet school (very different from Ju-jitsu I know!). However, when I signed up for the ballet school I had to wait for the new term to start. When the new term started I went back to the ballet school with my father and found that it had moved locations. The new people that now owned the building did not know the forwarding address for the ballet school. At that point, I had a great sight of relief, as could not really see myself jumping across a stage in a tutu! Then, came my perfect opportunity to suggest that I would like to do a martial art like Karate. My father decided he wanted to look into what was available and which would be the best for me to do.

After a couple of weeks, we found out that a family we had been friends with for a long time had in fact been training in both Karate and Ju-jitsu for 4 years at the time. I was of course delighted at the news, at it would make convincing my dad a lot easier. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I started to train at their Ju-jitsu club. The reason for my father allowed me to do Ju-jitsu and not Karate, was simply because Ju-jitsu is predominantly a self-defence art, where as Karate concentrates more on attacking moves.

I am now a brown belt in Ju-jitsu after six years of training, within both the British Ju-jitsu Association and the World Ju-jitsu Federation. I have not progressed further that this simply because I am currently taking time out to concentrate on my studies.

Ju-jitsu has helped others and myself in the following ways:

1. Built confidence – It has built confidence in my family, because they do not have to worry about me as much as they use to, whenever I go out with my friends at night. For me, it means that I am equipped to defend myself in almost any situation (excluding any involving a gun), if I were to have any unfortunate encounters! This became more important to me, when I started living away from my family to setting up my own home and travelling alone most of the time.
2. Health and fitness – It is a great way of keeping fit and healthy. They use a combination of cardio-vascular, stretching and muscle tone exercises throughout your training. You also learn the importance of warming up and cooling down properly during exercise. A great way to keep yourself in shape with the supervision needed to prevent you from doing yourself any injury.
3. Stress Management – It helps to maintain a calm and stress free lifestyle. As you can release all the daily tension built up in your body, after a good vigorous training session.
4. Social – It is a good way to make new friends. I met a lot of new people by joining the club that I trained at. I also had the chance to travel to tournaments in different cities between other clubs. Being the type of sport that you can join at any age, you will get the opportunity to mix with a variety of different people from all age groups and backgrounds. You could get your whole family to join with you!
5. Equality – Just as there is no discrimination against age, there are a variety of different classes available to cater for the needs of a variety of different people. For example, if you are a woman who has had any unfortunate encounter with an attacker in the street on day, you may want to join Ju-jitsu to improve you ability to defend yourself, but may not feel confident enough to train with a man. As a result, there are women only classes available within most clubs. They also have separate Junior and Adult classes for those parents who are only confident with leaving their children to train with other children.
6. Potential Part-time Career – Once you have completed your Brown belt you can train to teach people who are working towards the other belts below the Brown belt level. The higher you progress of course the more people you can teach and you can effectively set up your own small business, teaching other people to train in the sport.
7. Safety – As you all get a licence to train in Ju-jitsu, you can ensure that you are being trained correctly, within the standards of the professional Ju-jitsu organisations.

Overall, I think Ju-jitsu is a must try for all (and don’t worry if you are not physically able to take part, Ju-jitsu is also a great spectator sport to watch you friends and family!).