Why Jujitsu?

Previously, grappling arts were pushed aside whilst other more visually pleasing martial arts became popular, such as Karate and Kung Fu. Recently with the advent of Mixed Martial Art (MMA) competitions, people have realised that Jujitsu is much more useful as a martial art. Many of the previous martial arts dealt with free standing fighting, where fighters are free to move on their feet and kick and punch from anywhere they please. An important observation from nearly all fights is that the fight will inevitably be taken to the ground, for either of these reasons:

One of the fighters takes a hit which causes them to momentarily lose balance and fall to the ground. It's unlikely that they will have time to get back up in the case of a street fight, as the other person will likely try to the keep the felled opponent on the ground as they are in a much weaker position to defend and attack against kicks and punches.
One of the fighter's rugby tackles the other, or simply shoves the other person. This is common with the lead up to the start of a street fight for example.
During the course of the fight, one of the fighters loses their balance and falls. This case is common if you consider the majority of fights are between un-practised fighters or when alcohol/drugs are involved.

Once the fight goes to the ground, what has been learned about the striking martial arts cannot be put to use by the person on the ground. In this case, the person must get up as quickly as possible without taking too much damage (which isn't likely) or must use other methods of attack and defence. During the early days of the UFC when it first started, many of the fighters using traditional styles, such as Boxing were quickly taken out of their element once on the ground and other flailed around hopelessly, not knowing what to do before quickly falling victim to a choke or arm bar.

Royce Gracie defeating an opponent with an armbar.

This is where Jujitsu and other grappling arts come in. If both fighters are on the ground, the one who is able to manoeuvre around the opponent and attack whilst on the ground is more likely to be successful and win the fight. This has been seen countless times during UFC fights - both fighters end up on the ground and the one that manoeuvres them self into a more dominant position wins, usually by "ground and pound" or submission.

So to summarise, to be successful in a fight, not only must the fighter attack and defend well whilst standing, but also on the ground because this is probably where the fight will end up. Without a balance between fighting on the feet and on the ground, a fighter would be neglecting a huge area of skill and limits their success in a fight. Therefore, Jujitsu is the ideal art to learn in addition to a striking art as it allows a fight to pick and choose where and how to attack, giving them a significant advantage against others who only practise striking arts. Even on its own, Jujitsu gives a fighter a significant advantage against opponents because a fight will nearly always end up on the ground and the Jujitsu fighter will be in their element. Another advantage of Jujitsu is that whilst other arts rely on the speed and strength of the fighter in relation to the opponent (such as boxing), it is possible for much weaker and lighter opponents to succeed against stronger and heavier fighters. This is because Jujitsu takes advantage of the opponent's strength and targets weak areas such as the neck because these typically are nowhere near as strong as the rest the opponent's body.

MMA and UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock.

This was the case when the UFC first came to air, with much smaller and lighter fighters such as Royce Gracie defeating much larger and stronger opponents such as 220 pound Ken Shamrock.

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