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Jiu Jitsu and Starcraft

Blogs > Mutaller
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Mutaller
Profile Blog Joined July 2013
United States1051 Posts
Last Edited: 2022-02-19 06:44:52
February 18 2022 04:09 GMT
#1
I have a strong belief that starcraft players would love the martial art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ or JJ). There’s some things that I think translates very well. I can talk about the history of the martial art forever, but it’s a grappling martial art that evolved from judo practitioner that taught a family in Brazil. So grappling is a one on one competition, you don’t want to grapple when there are multiple adversaries.

One of the biggest things about JJ is you can practice “roll” nearly full speed and live to see another day. In practice and in the sport JJ you do not strike. You do learn strike defense and self defense, but no one is going to try punching you full speed unless you’re becoming an mma fighter. Other martial arts you focus on hitting bags or pads designed to be hit. With this being said you can learn where you stand in the gym, you know who you can tap (gg) and people you can’t. I think some Muay Thai gyms have light sparing, but in JJ you can try harder. Keep in mind you don’t want to spaz out or hurt your practice partners. You don’t want to have a reputation of hurting people and the amount of people you roll with is reduced. You keep your controlled aggression and go all out for when you compete.

Now that I covered the one on one aspect of JJ, we must talk about tapping. I think it’s obvious, but tapping is forfeiting from a match by tapping with your hand on your opponent, or saying tap if you’re incapable of touching opponent. In JJ there is little to no luck. The difference in between Sc and JJ is that forfeiting is a must if you’re going to lose. JJ if you don’t tap you’re going to snap (joint) or nap (choke). I now want to talk about gging in sc and how it feels to tap in JJ. In sc you can forfeit the game without gging, in JJ you need to tap. The same feeling arises when you don’t want to gg as when you don't want to tap. The difference is JJ you’ll injure yourself if you don’t. My gym has a motto “tap early, tap often” it’s because practice rolls don’t mean anything and you need to leave the ego at the door. Starcraft you can maintain that ego and f10esq or n out of the game. Sure there’s luck involved and saying the game is good may not be accurate in your mind, but I think the mentality of leaving the ego at the log in screen can be helpful.

Another thing is a JJ belts are hard to obtain. Ever heard of a 10 year old have a black belt in something, well it takes 10 years of persistent training to acquire a black belt in JJ. It takes 2 years just to get the first belt (blue). So your efforts are hard fought. Keep in mind there are always money grab and culty gyms, be sure to do your research. So the dedication to improvement that starcraft players have translates to JJ very well.

Do any of you practice a martial art? How does it relate to starcraft for you? And do you think what I mentioned above is accurate?


***
"To practice isn't for you to get better now in the present. Practice will never betray you and will always come back for you in the future." -Jaedong
Chris_Havoc
Profile Joined August 2016
United States600 Posts
February 18 2022 21:31 GMT
#2
I used to be a martial artist back in the day before my body went to hell (a story for another day), and I used to do both kung fu and BJJ back in the day. Martial arts is how I got the nickname Havoc but I digress.

Much of what you say is accurate and can apply to StarCraft and competitive gaming as a whole. For me it's a mindset. I'll keep this simple but I got better at StarCraft and other game by treating it more as a martial art than as a game, in terms of the training and the mental discipline required to be successful.

Owner of the SC2 Esports Anthology channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SC2EsportsAnthology
LuckyOwls
Profile Joined February 2022
United States12 Posts
February 21 2022 11:51 GMT
#3
Is there a good martial arts if you just want to learn self defence but don't want to get bones broken in practice.
I feel very conscious of my lack of training when i'm out at night or in places with drunk people so it would be good to know I could at least disable someone and then run the fuck away.
BjoernK
Profile Joined April 2012
194 Posts
Last Edited: 2022-02-22 07:38:17
February 22 2022 07:37 GMT
#4
@LuckyOwls, I think BJJ is pretty much the sport you are looking for. There are a lot of bogus martial arts which won't help you at all in a real fight.
Martial arts that help are among others:
boxing
kickboxing (and variants)
wrestling
bjj
american football
rugby
... anything that allows going (nearly) full force against full force.


Of those bjj is probably the one with the least amount of brain damage chance. If you have a bad back I would be careful about training bjj.


NotJumperer
Profile Blog Joined July 2005
United States1371 Posts
February 23 2022 10:06 GMT
#5
--- Nuked ---
lestye
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States4209 Posts
February 24 2022 02:04 GMT
#6
I only took a few classes of karate. Am i too old to do BJJ if I'm im in my 30s?

My fear is that me in a class would loook like that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer beats up little kids...I think the Office did something similiar too.
"You guys are just edgelords. Embrace your inner weeb desu" -Zergneedsfood
Mutaller
Profile Blog Joined July 2013
United States1051 Posts
February 24 2022 05:27 GMT
#7
On February 24 2022 11:04 lestye wrote:
I only took a few classes of karate. Am i too old to do BJJ if I'm im in my 30s?

My fear is that me in a class would loook like that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer beats up little kids...I think the Office did something similiar too.


Plenty of people start BJJ in their 30s. I would tell your practice partners your injuries, so that they will not make them worse. You can train without competing
"To practice isn't for you to get better now in the present. Practice will never betray you and will always come back for you in the future." -Jaedong
Starlightsun
Profile Blog Joined June 2016
United States1405 Posts
February 24 2022 05:46 GMT
#8
On February 23 2022 19:06 Jumperer wrote:
I feel that jiu jitsu helped improve my starcraft performance greatly, especially in LAN settings. During the game If I feel that I'm losing I have the option of going up to my opponent to take him down and put him in a kimura.


LOL
EquilasH
Profile Joined April 2009
Denmark2142 Posts
Last Edited: 2022-02-28 16:48:49
February 28 2022 16:37 GMT
#9
I practiced Muay Thai in a gym for about a year and I don't think it matters much which martial art you practice to get that healthy mindset of leaving your ego at the door. More so it's about the gym - for sparring sessions in Muay Thai it was more about getting hits in and not going full force.
You could practice those same kicks, punches, knees and elbow hits on a punching bag at full force, as well as combinations on pads. For the combinations on pads it was a bit different how hard people went but my usual partner and I preferred both going close to full force when training with pads.

You left your ego at the door in the sense that pretty much everyone was better than you at the technique when you start - even in the beginner's class (yes, even the 40 year old guys who weren't in nearly as good of a shape as you). Then when you move to the more advanced class, again almost everyone is better than you. Everyone accepts that fact and are only there to help you get better if you find the right gym.

In terms of cardio the sport pushes you pretty much as hard as you want. For some people that might be a little less but for me it was just before I was about to puke of exhaustion. No one blamed anyone if they had to take a break.

Unfortunately I had to move and there's no gyms close to me but as soon as I'm able to I wanna be able to train martial arts again. Whether that's going to be kickboxing, Muay Thai or BJJ (those would be my preferred 3).

In short, I think it's about finding a martial art that fits you but more importantly finding a gym that focuses on the right things.
wat
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