Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu      

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art, combat sport and a self-defense system that focuses on grappling and in particular, ground fighting. The art was derived from the Japanese martial art of Kodokan judo in the early 20th century, which was itself developed from a number of schools (or Ryu) of Japanese jujutsu in the 19th century.

It promotes the principle that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend them self against a bigger, stronger assailant by using leverage and proper technique—most notably by applying joint-locks and chokeholds to defeat the other person. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu can be trained for sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition or self-defense.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ as it is commonly known), evolved in the no holds barred fighting arena in Brazil.   BJJ fighters would routinely enter contests known as Vale Tudo fights in order to test and refine their art.

In the early 1990’s members of the Gracie family moved to the United States from Brazil.   They set out to showcase the effectiveness of BJJ to the western world by running the first Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC).

In the first UFC fighters from a variety of martial arts styles, including, karate, kung fu, boxing etc where pitted against each other with almost no rules and no time limits.   The event was won by Royce Gracie (a BJJ stylist), who beat all the other stylists, many of whom outweighed him considerably.

Since then the UFC has grown and is now cornerstone by which all Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) events are judged.  

Even though the UFC and MMA has evolved greatly from those early days, BJJ remains one of the very few martial arts that consistently proves itself as effective in limited rule competitions’.

BJJ also continues to evolve and improve.   Of most note is the inclusion of Greco Roman and freestyle takedowns and takedown defense in the curriculum of most BJJ schools.

If you don’t train in BJJ or at least some form of it your chances of being successful in MMA events is greatly limited.   BJJ training also provides you with a distinct advantage over other martial arts as you will learn to physically control a person who may be bigger and stronger than you in a way proven to work.   Many martial arts claim this, but BJJ is the only one proven to actually achieve it.

BJJ offers numerous opportunities for any one of any age to learn a practical martial art and a combat sport that is safe for any one to compete in or to simply train and have fun, whilst learning practical skills.   In competition BJJ, there are no strikes, and events are won by skill at applying leverage and control over another person.  

BJJ training is safe and fun.   It is for men and women.   In fact women have regularly shown how they can compete against men and beat them using BJJ.

The BJJ classes taught at Casey Elite Martial Arts are run by Wayne Ardley.   Wayne is an experienced grappler who has been training in BJJ (and other grappling systems) for in excess of 12 years.   Wayne is an approved Will Machado BJJ affiliate, and continues to train under John Will (Australia’s most senior and respected BJJ Instructor) and Doug Meijer (BJJ Black Belt)

He has also trained in a number of other martial arts, having a total of more than 20 years of martial arts experience.

As an instructor he is able to clearly break down the techniques and then pass on those skills to you the student.

You are invited to come and experience BJJ, it provides a good workout for your body and mind.