BENGALURU: Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg hit headlines when the former invited Zuckerberg for a cage fight (a form of mixed martial arts). While Musk has trained in various martial arts – judo, Kyokushin karate and taekwondo as a child, he recently trained briefly in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ). And recently, too, Zuckerberg uploaded a picture of him getting a blue belt in BJJ, creating a lot of anticipation among their followers that the ‘cage fight’ is for real.
One might wonder how this ‘Battle of the Billionaires’ has any link to Bengaluru. Well... the course of events has brought about much curiosity among people about martial arts, especially jiu-jitsu. For example, Hridya Mariam- George went into a rabbit hole of researching jiu-jitsu before finally enrolling for it. “I wanted to learn a form of martial art for self-defence.
While I was confused about what I could pick, I came across many jiu-jitsu videos and started reading about it. It’s been a life-changing experience since the time I started learning it. I am self-aware and feel much better,” says Mariam-George, an HR professional. Tom Hardy, Guy Ritchie, Jason Statham, and Nicolas Cage are just some names from Hollywood who practice BJJ.
In Bollywood, actors like Ali Fazal, Vidyut Jammwal, and Prateik Babbar were also practitioners of this martial art form. Vinayak Shetty, the founder of the martial art studio The Dojo, points it out to be a great form of fitness activity that also improves mental resilience. “Martial art forms are a tool for self-improvement and help the mind apart from the physical workout.
People are excited to learn these traditional methods and find they make great strides in their overall form and fighting skills. Jiu jitsu as the name translates is the ‘gentle’ art where underlying technique bridges size and physical strength discrepancies,” explains Shetty, adding that all the top UFC athletes achieved success through such holistic cross-training.
Uma Maheshwar Reddy started practising jujutsu 10 years ago for self-defence and quickly fell in love with the sport. He took his passion for this sport very seriously. Currently, in New York City at the Marcelo Garcia Academy, he is preparing for the Asian Games this year. He mentions that both Brazilian and Japanese jiu-jitsu are not very fundamentally different. “Japanese jujutsu was a form of grappling developed by the Samurai clan for self-defence.
BJJ evolved from Japanese jujutsu and judo when Mitsuyo Maeda introduced the arts to Carlos Gracie and Helio Gracie who are known as the founders of modern BJJ. The ultimate goal of BJJ is to finish an opponent via a choke or joint lock, which can be traced back to the original days of Japanese jujutsu,” explains Reddy. He adds, “Though the fight is not confirmed yet and might be a witty banter between the two tech superstars, their potential fight is much-awaited in the grappling community as it can help bring more interest and people to the sport.” BJJ is also popular for its many competitions.
Ashwin Naidu, founder of The School of Martial Arts, says, “It’s easier and softer to learn since you are not actually hitting someone. However, BJJ has gained popularity owing to many sporting events. It is also used in Mixed Martial Arts. With three months of proper practice someone can be out there playing the game,” he says.