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UFC spurs fresh interest in jiu-jitsu

This is part two of a three part series on MMA at Western. Read part one and three.

The mixed martial arts phenomenon has arrived at Western and it’s set up shop in Studio 2 of the Western Student Recreation Centre, the home of Western Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

The selection of martial arts clubs offered by Campus Recreation is extremely diverse. From tae kon do to fencing, students have a multitude of options.

Yet for the past few years, one club has steadily outdrawn all others to become the most popular martial arts club offered at Western. Brazilian jiu-jitsu has seen its popularity on campus explode over the last few years. Vivek Nath, head instructor and administrator of the Western BJJ club, explains why this might be.

“Before the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, you could ask 50 people on the street and maybe a handful of them would have heard of BJJ. Whereas now, almost everyone today knows something about it.”

The boom in popularity of MMA has also been a renaissance of sorts for BJJ, which predates the modern version of the sport by a century.

Known as the gentle art, BJJ has its origins in late 20th century Brazil, when a visiting Japanese judo master taught his art to a local businessman’s son, Carlos Gracie, who in turn taught it to his brothers.

Due to their small statute, the brothers refined the art, moving the focus to leverage, control and ease of movement. The Gracie’s worked on disadvantageous positions — tripped up, pinned on the ground, choked from behind — and drilled escapes, sweeps and counter-submissions.

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