Fighting colours

Spectators, mostly fellow soldiers, call out pieces of advice from the sparring mat’s perimeter, some of which penetrate the cloud in which I’m now lost. “You’re using too much power, too much speed,” and I grow even more confused. Holding a brown belt in Muay Thai kickboxing with four years of real-time experience, I know that speed and power, used with the correct technique, are the factors that keep me upright throughout bouts – but you’re not supposed to be upright in this kind of fighting. Crap. 

 

“By contrast, blood chokes (strangulations) cut the flow of blood to the opponent's brain, causing a rapid loss of consciousness without damaging any internal structures. Being ‘choked-out’ in this way is relatively safe as long as the choke is released soon enough after unconsciousness, letting blood back into the brain before oxygen deprivation damage begins. However, it should not be practiced unsupervised.” Very reassuring. 

My ability to think in any slowly fades and colours start to bend and blend. When everything blackens and silent bliss consumes me, he releases me and my perceptions come back to me. I stand amazed, stupefied and humbled. The coach approaches. “Ju Jitsu is a chess game with the body,” says 28-year-old Zaid Mirza, Brazilian Ju Jitsu World Champion. “It’s about the science of movement and understanding and acting upon the technique set in an opponent’s mind: 100 per cent of all fights start standing up, 99 per cent of them end on the ground. That’s where Ju Jitsu is most effective.

 

“All martial artists are incorporating Brazilian Jiu Jitsu moves because they’ve seen how effective it is. A fighter can’t compete professionally without these techniques. If they enter the ring or cage [to fight] with a white belt, all their years of training and experience and strength are going to be rendered worthless. The white belt will take them down as fast as he can and submit them. That’s his training.”

 

“We took 12 soldiers – all white belts with only six months of intensive training – with us to the recent Super Asian Cup just to gain some experience. We weren’t really expecting anything special out of them, but when they got on the mats, they turned out to be the main attraction. They came back to Jordan with eight medals which were awarded to them after submitting contending blue belts with years of experience. The great thing is that all the matches ended with submissions, not with points or advantages.”

 

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a grappling and ground combat sport that focuses on gaining a dominant position and using joint-locks and chokeholds to force an opponent to submit. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, having been around for 70 years, is a fairly new martial art, although its original forms of Japanese Judo (“the way of gentleness”) and Jiu-Jitsu (“the art of gentleness”) which were first developed by the Samurai, predate ancient Kung Fu. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was developed by the Gracie family after Mitsuyo Maeda, one of Japan’s top five groundwork experts who was sent overseas to spread Judo to the world, offered to teach them in return for their hospitality and help in establishing himself in Brazil after arriving in 1914. 

 

“The original Japanese Judo and Jiu-Jitsu depended on strength for submissions and reach for eye-gouging – you had to be physically superior to your opponent,” explains Brazilian-born Jordanian Mirza, who introduced the grappling art to Jordan in 2003. “But the Gracies were small people and generally weak and always found themselves back-down on the ground. They replaced strength and such with leverage. One of them, the true founder of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Helio Gracie, developed the guard for ground-up attacks which proved to be extremely effective. 

 

Gurgel is a well built 21-year-old Jiu-Jitsu prodigy. In only five years, he attained his black belt – which is like getting a PhD after high school in a week. Again, with little or no English and no Arabic, he’s mostly used for demonstrations in class. “Tagarela” they call him, which means someone who talks too much and too fast. “He’s the superstar of the group,” says Mirza. “He’s always showing off, always giving us a hard time. But it flies because no one understands him other than me and Pedro.”

 

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is certainly making its presence felt in Jordan. Last year Mirza formed the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation of Jordan under the nation’s Olympic Committee, and has established Team Mirza, which is a lineup of his students that competes in various arenas. There are currently three annual international championships held in the region which are the King Abdullah Cup, the Super Asian Cup, and the Abu Dhabi Cup.

 

“Jordanians and the Arab people in general are fighters by spirit,” says Mirza, during another break in the training. “This is good for them.”