Housekeeping:
I think I've traced the reason for my writing reticence and it’s not social media sapping my will to live!
Well, not directly.
I heard author Steven Johnson discussing his book writing process and how he avoids rereading as he writes as it invariably results in boredom with the work.
Boredom not necessarily fair reflection of the writing itself.
And this immediately struck a chord. I'm not writing a book, but in the shift to Substack, posting daily-ish on X and selecting posts for Medium, I've been (repeatedly) reviewing everything I've written. And, sure enough, bored by all of it.
The cure— as suggested by another writer I can't recall— is to write about what you love.
And so, with apologies to my wonderful, wonderful (proofreader of these posts) partner and pooch, my broader family and friends, all of whom I love dearly, my mind turns immediately to jujitsu.
You may have heard me describe Leftfield Training as lifestyle jujitsu.
But despite its accuracy, it’s a metaphor (and analogy) that is close to useless because I’m describing Leftfield as being like something most have little comprehension of.
Or, worse still, the wrong idea.
So today, we’ll take a closer look and while it’s no substitute for training—no single activity is— it more than warrants its place in the pantheon alongside any fitness-adjacent activity I’ve promoted in these pages.
And with the promise this will not be some self-indulgent sideshow, and that the all-things-fitness lessons will come thick and fast, that's not where we're going to begin.
Because in writing this entire piece, I feel as if I'm forever saying - hang on, wait just a minute, such are the misperceptions around this subject. So we’re going to start from the (wrong) end.
The Gentle Art of Folding Clothes While People Are Wearing Them
… As the joke goes. But many will shy from the (mistaken) idea this is all about 'fighting,’ to use one of the more neutral terms for it, because, with the popularity of MMA (Mixed martial arts) and the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), you might well be thinking thuggery. Or just violence.
Okay. But where violence is concerned, jujitsu is as good as it gets.
The difference being that grappling, joint locks and submissions afford both the practitioner and the target (relative) safety. Certainly by contrast to the damage inherent to striking.
But the key difference that elevates this involuntary yoga beyond other arts or combatives systems is the legal line in the self-defence sand.
It is always a last resort and you are right to observe the second-best defence of all: distance— the best is absence. If you are there, and you can, run. If somebody can strike you get out of range and keep increasing that distance, ad infinitum.
But if somebody grabs you, leaving is no longer an option. You have a problem. But even a basic knowledge of jujitsu makes that grab more of a problem for them. It’s that point of contact— the restraint, or any attack— that is the raw ingredient for jujitsu.
Less a highly practical and safe martial art— although it’s both—than a language of physical control.
Your literacy in it determines your physical advantage over those who don't. Size and strength are relevant only when in 'dialogue' with others of equivalent literacy in the art.
The more you know the more you minimise all other variables including ‘luck’, until any encounter is a foregone conclusion. It makes the previously impossible or at least unpredictable not only easy but repeatable.
In this regard, it's less art than science because the results are predictable. Replicable. You can ‘defuse’—shall we say— any attack appropriately. Usually gently and harmlessly. Other times, painfully but harmlessly. When called for, harmfully. And finally harmfully.
One way or another, one learns to keep one’s hands to oneself.
But to put the unpleasantries firmly into context: Excepting the pooch they’re a well-behaved bunch, but let's say, hypothetically, some scallywag from my list of loved ones above was, for some reason, subject to physical police control.
It’s not an option in any formal sense in Australian policing, but, in our strictly hypothetical example, I would hope the control and precision of jujitsu was used on them in every possible situation over any alternative. Up to and including total (unconscious) submission via chokehold.
Now before this gets applied let me further state the obvious, that we’re assuming the necessary training, and, indeed, have the star of the class. Okay. A compression of arteries on the side of the neck restricts blood flow to the brain rendering unconsciousness in 5-10 seconds. Relative size is irrelevant. Your state— not to cast aspersions on my loved ones but, again hypothetically — angry or otherwise agitated, boozed or drugged (and resistant to pain)— is equally irrelevant.
You’re going to sleep in short order.
Which may have caused some of you —not least my dear family and friends— to choke on your lunch.
Admittedly, it sounds terrible. But that’s a PR problem. The good news is you're going to wake up again shortly thereafter with no damage whatsoever. No pain. No headache. No bruising. No nothing. It’s so innocuous the most common experience is: This is not good but I can take a bit longer to figure it ou… And then you wake up looking at the ceiling.
I wouldn’t say it’s pleasant, but then you shouldn't have been resisting arrest, should you, dear proofreader?
None of which is to suggest it is ever taken lightly. I make the extreme point only because the real question is, compared to what?
Because with all the vagaries inherent to being hit (baton or punch) or, equally, hitting the ground unprotected (taser), the menu of alternatives is a lottery of lasting damage. Or worse. Even at the more benign end of the spectrum, I would hope for jujitsu over any untrained control and restraint that is that same lottery.
I’ll concede it’s not for everybody, but if you dismiss it because even gentle violence is still not your thing, I hope that works out for you. You’ll be fine unless somebody else decides otherwise.
But it’s a different story for kids. They’ll learn to swim, right? Good. Well on that basis, 12 months of jujitsu should be compulsory. There’s every chance they’ll love it, but I certainly wouldn’t force it beyond a good intro to the basics.
Won’t Somebody Think of the Children
Even in today’s cotton-wooled and safe-spaced world, physical confrontation is nearly inevitable. If you want to make it less so—and the outcome better for all concerned— a year of jujitsu will do it.
Like any predator, bullies are looking for an easy mark and kids who know how to protect themselves are not it. They carry themselves differently. Furthermore, if you have a bully on your hands, jujitsu will fix that too.
If you’re thinking you’d then just have a bully with a superpower, that’s not how it works. Kids who roll every week don’t feel the need to prove themselves because they do it all the time. And they get submitted all the time. By all sorts.
Kids rolling around like puppies playing. And for the same reason. If you don’t want to join in, get them to teach you. Watch a class. Meet the instructor. See how closely it’s monitored. Just like anything else.
Injuries? Sure, mainly strains and sprains. Nothing compared to collision sports. Or horseriding. Or gymnastics. Or ballet. And, need I say it, light years better than doing nothing.
It is physical chess and a class will often look like revenge of the nerds with rugby front rowers being worked over by kindy teachers. One a panting, struggling, red-faced mess that, in the absence of technique, is resorting to using their (2-3x) size and strength. And failing. The other looking like she could take a phone call. And do her taxes.
It’s a medium that rewards focus, calm, patience, adaptability, persistence, humility— anything you might consider a virtue— as surely as it punishes their opposites. Jujitsu offers a suite of skills that have nothing to do with fighting and travel with you beyond the dojo. It equips you for life.
And golf just doesn’t.
So with the PSA out of the way, let’s get on the mats with a brief intro to Brazilian jiu-jitsu— an offshoot, and now globally dominant style— of the original (Japanese) Jujitsu that I study.
A couple of the best teachers in the world taking you through one of the first techniques. Show your partner and/or kids. Practice.
And that’s enough for today. Next time, and now with some idea of what I’m talking about, we’ll leave the literal for the metaphorical, and the lifestyle jujitsu that is Leftfield Training.
A handy go-to when life is sitting on your chest force-feeding you pizza.
Enjoy.
- OLI