Inquiry Question: How does a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner’s understanding of physics make him or her more effective?

Jiu Jitsu is the gentle art. While you do end up breaking peoples bones, it’s the fact that you don’t need 8-inch diameter biceps to beat someone. You actually use their own body against them, through the power of phyiscs ooooooh. By using their own body weight and momentum, you can throw them around, over your body, and have them in a choke. You use forces of gravity, momentum, and other physics to grapple your opponent and send them into an armbar, kneebar, or a number of other chokes and holds.

We examine this fighting style today because the moves that Jiu-Jitsu artists train lie firmly in physics, more specifically, torque and momentum. In the case of an armbar, you use the persons joints and arm against them, and you use your legs as a fulcrum, essentially magnifying the amount of force you can exert on your opponent’s arm.

A kneebar works the same way. You use your legs as the pivot point, and their leg is the fulcrum. Pushing sideways relative to the knee inflicts major pain on the opponent, and your knowledge of physics, more specifically, the pivot point you make with your legs, increases your effective stopping power.

Say you’re a relatively small person fighting a much larger person. Using your knowledge of physics, you know the large man’s center of gravity is much more higher up. You can use this to send him to the ground faster, as the old saying goes, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Once on the ground, take their knee or arm and get them into one of these holds, or a number of other ones and utilize your knowledge of torque and fulcrums to make him cry uncle.