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“Dude, Al Bundy could kick our asses!” was how my friend Brad explained that Ed O’Neill – an American actor famously known for playing Al Bundy in the sitcom “Married…With Children” – was a Jiu Jitsu black belt under Rorion Gracie.

This got me thinking: what other celebrities or famous people practice Jiu Jitsu? I started to do research in Wikipedia, but I soon discovered that someone had already done the work. Wikipedia used to have a page titled “List of Celebrity Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Practitioners” but the Wikipedia community deleted it.

Thankfully, because of the wonders of the Internet (and Wikipedia’s liberal sharing policy) the contents of the article have been preserved at a couple places around the Web. Here is the article at a site named Wikibin; here is a direct link to a PDF version.

Some of the more interesting people on the list include Maynard James Keenan (lead singer for Tool), Milla Jovovich, Jason Statham, Paul Walker and Guy Ritchie.

Last night, after some deliberation, I skipped class. I’ll make it up soon enough.

I attend class about 3 times a week, but I aim for 4. Sometimes it’s only 2. The number of classes I attend depend on the usual things: work, I how I physically feel, etc. No surprises there.

When I think about class attendance I remember I conversation I had with another student about five months ago. His point was that you should never “over do it” when I comes to attending class: you should go to class as you want to and when you feel like it. Not following his advice, it was argued, can lead to burnout or injury.

He gave multiple examples from his Jiu Jitsu career of people who would sign up, start training, and get pumped. Very pumped. These people attended class whenever they could (5 times a week or more) and usually advance quickly. But unfortunately, after their first belt, or even as soon as 8 months into training, they would begin to burn out, their attendance would decline, and most of them would quit. Exceptions abound, of course, but this was the pattern he observed.

He also discussed how Jiu Jitsu should be fun. When it stops being fun, you should take a look at yourself and your training. In even some of the highest levels of athleticism (the Olympics, for example), trainers often ensure their pupils are having fun and enjoying themselves because it can be a key factor to not only their happiness but their success in the sport. Jiu Jitsu should be no different.

I tend to strongly agree, and this philosophy largely guides my attendance decisions. Jiu Jitsu is too fun, interesting, and empowering for me to give up, and I plan on doing it for a long time. I follow these guidelines because I don’t want to get sick of, stop liking, or get burnt out on the martial art.

Well, kinda. JAKKS Pacific is finally getting ready to ship action figures based on various UFC fighters this November. Announced last year, the

“.. new UFC product line from JAKKS(TM) will be collector-focused, and the license covers UFC legend Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, Brock Lesnar, Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira, Michael “The Count” Bisping and UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva … and its classic and current roster of star fighters.”

While those are some famous names, my first choice would no doubt be Royce Gracie. He seems to be the only character in a gi – an appropraite uniform for such a famous Jiu Jitsu practioner.

MMA Warehouse seems to have a (complete?) line of them for sale here.

http://www.mmawarehouse.com/v/vspfiles/photos/jak-1001-2T.jpg // T&C

This evening I was watching the film Blindness. There is a scene early on when two blind people get in a sort of tussle, a small fight. I thought immediately of Jiu Jitsu.

When I first started Jiu Jitsu there where some moments when I thought how successful one could be when rolling with their eyes closed. In fact, when I roll know, I often think about how much Jiu Jitsu relies on feeling. I contrasted this with my previous martial arts experience where “forms” (like Karate’s “katas”) were a primary form a learning. Obviously, these exercises, like other drills in most other martial arts, rely heavily on vision as you see what you do, and do it, in three dimensional space.

Jiu Jitsu – especially on the ground – is tremendously different. Feeling – more than any other martial art I can think of – has a tremendous role in what happens.

If you have rolled even once you probably understand this. You feel the person trying to manipulate your body and vice versa. Of course, vision has its importance in Jiu Jitsu, too.

Blind Rolling

The natural corollary of this is the idea of having drills or rolling sessions where both participants are blindfolded. It could be a fun experiment. Both participants would have an equal handicap – and both would have the opportunity to improve the “feeling” part of the game. Obviously, safety would need to be considered; having “ground rules” could make the experience safer.

Update (5/31/9): As this video from Jiu-jitsu 365 proves, perhaps “blind rolling” really does have its importance.

pic credit(s): http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewmcvickar/8021849/