Today, martial arts are more popular than ever. Fighting styles like BJJ and wrestling have more trainees than ever before. As a result, more and more people understand the importance of training in them. And still, wrestling and BJJ are widely different, so which is better?
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is better than wrestling because it teaches more effective and practical techniques for self-defense and other fighting situation. Although both teach grappling, BJJ will teach you how to submit an opponent regardless of your opponent’s size. However, we cannot say the same for wrestling.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of all martial arts. I appreciate the positive impact they had on their trainees, and hence, the world. Nonetheless, you’ll usually find one more suitable to your desires than the rest.
While I just said Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is more effective and practical than wrestling, some will find the latter more enjoyable. Thus, they’ll stay consistent if they choose to learn it.
Because of that, knowing the differences and similarities between the two—is crucial before you make a choice. You don’t understand how important it is to select a martial art that’s as suitable as possible to you.
From my experience, more people will find BJJ suitable to them than wrestling. That’s because of the many positive attributes and benefits it provides to its benefits.
The nature of the elegant martial art that is Jiu-Jitsu—is irresistible. When you start training in it, there’s no going back; You will get addicted.
This article will discuss and examine the differences and similarities between BJJ and wrestling. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced trainee, knowing such information is a must, especially if you’re picking between the two.
Before we dive in, if you want to read about BJJ vs. Catch wrestling, I wrote an article addressing that as well.
What is BJJ?
The art of ground grappling, or BJJ—is a widely trained martial art globally. Many of its trainees report feeling more confident, with better self-esteem, and with an improved physical shape. Truly, there’s no losing from training Jiu-Jitsu.
In BJJ, you’ll learn ground grappling. In fact, these are the most effective fighting techniques you can learn, as they’re highly effective and can finish a fight in seconds.
Most ground grappling techniques Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu teaches are chokes and submissions. These types of movements are practical for self-defense and applicable to real life.
Now, let’s examine what wrestling is and whether it’s effective or not.
If you want to read more about the physical benefits of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, do ensure you follow the link to an article of mine.
What is wrestling?
Wrestling is a martial art that can be traced back to ancient times, or more specifically, 3000 BCE. Even back then, people loved it because it provided them with entertainment and that’s why it became popular.
Wrestling is a martial art that teaches takedowns and throws, another form of grappling. Although different in its core from BJJ, both martial arts are suitable for self-defense and applicable to real life.
As such, learning both of them is a wise choice, regardless of your goal.
Wrestling also provides countless mental and physical benefits, such as increased confidence, reduces stress and aggression levels, lower violence levels, better self-esteem, and improved physical shape.
So, to conclude, learning wrestling and BJJ—is a wise choice!.
Differences between BJJ and wrestling
All martial arts serve a similar purpose. However, their approaches are usually extremely different. For example, while one fighting style teaches how to attack using one technique and defend with another, other martial arts may teach the opposite.
And still, their purpose remain the same, to attack effectively.
In our case, BJJ and wrestling are widely different. Nonetheless, their purpose is the same; both’s goal is to teach you how to fight and defend yourself using grappling techniques.
From now on, the story changes. Both BJJ and wrestling use different fighting approaches to beat the opponent. As a result, one is going to be more suitable to you. As such, you’ll stay consistent in one.
So, let’s discuss the three primary benefits between the two martial arts.
If you want to learn more about why BJJ is so addictive, do follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
#1 – Explosiveness
The first difference is explosiveness. Primarily, while wrestling is a martial art that uses explosive power to take down the opponent, BJJ is more elegant and slow.
In that case, think with yourself; do you prefer learning a fighting approach that teaches you to take down the opponent quickly? Or, do you rather learn a more elegant and slow style?
Of course, explosiveness doesn’t always mean better. So, what difference does it make?
Wrestling is more likely to better your physical shape, as it’s more intense. Truly, I don’t know any other martial art that will get you to go through such intense training. That, of course, comes with many physical benefits, such as burning more calories.
Nevertheless, explosiveness doesn’t mean more effective. Therefore, wrestling isn’t better than BJJ because it’s explosive. Think about it, when a Jiu-Jitsu trainee gets taken down and pinned to the ground, one can still come out victorious.
BJJ is elegant and practical. Even if you’re on bottom, you can still submit the opponent, if you know what you’re doing. Of course, BJJ includes highly intensive training, almost as much as wrestling. So, I wouldn’t be worried if a wrestler were to pin me to the ground, I would still be able to win.
Because wrestling is as explosive as it is, its rate of injury is higher. Unfortunately, that happens because the fight can end in literal seconds. As a result, putting an end to it at the right time is difficult.
Despite its global popularity, professional wrestling has a largely poor record of looking after performers’ health and wellbeing. Facing barriers of class, economics, snobbery, lack of unionization or representation, as well as the expectation of macho toughness.
SOURCE
#2 – Technique
The second difference is the techniques our fighting styles teach. Although you can claim they both teach grappling, their fighting approaches are widely different.
While BJJ teaches you ground grappling techniques, wrestling is the art of takedowns and pinning. As a result, they’re different in how they treat fighting. For instance, BJJ encourages you to be on the bottom as much as on top. But, that cannot be said for wrestling, as the primary goal is to be on top.
That’s why wrestlers and Jiu-Jitsu trainees will learn how to deal with fights differently.
Look at it like that, a wrestling fight ends not when an opponent can’t continue. Instead, the fight ends when one wrestler pins one’s opponent to the ground on one’s back.
However, a BJJ fight ends when one trainee submits the other. As a result, the person being submitted—is unable to continue to fight, as one’s most likely being choked or submitted. As such, there’s a clear winner.
If we were to divert your attention to the outcome, it would be clear that a BJJ fight ends like in a real self-defense situation, where in it, your goal is to submit the opponent. Of course, in a real situation, you wouldn’t stop the fight even if the attacker taps out.
Follow the link to learn all about the mental benefits of BJJ. Knowing them—is a must if you desire to start training in it.
#3 – Origin
The 3rd difference we’ll discuss between the two fighting styles is their origin. One may ask, why do I care about where they come from, I already know which is more suitable to me. Well, that’s partially true.
When you know where and why a martial art came to life, you understand it more deeply. As a result, choosing between them will seem easier, as you’ll know more about them.
First, let’s start with wrestling.
We can trace back wrestling to ancient times. People constructed it for entertainment purpose. There wasn’t much of a self-defense need behind its existence. Even today, people watch wrestling not because of self-defense purposes; but because it’s entertaining.
Specifically, we can trace it back to 3000 BCE in Egypt and Greece. From that, we can interpret that wrestling is a martial art that is meant to provide entertainment to the worldwide world. Of course, it’s also effective for self-defense; but, it’s not its purpose.
Let’s move on to the second martial art, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
BJJ isn’t as ancient as our friend, wrestling. However, its purpose was different from the start. Jiu-Jitsu came to life for Samurais, who needed to learn a fighting approach to help them fight when they’re afoot and weaponless. As a result, they constructed a new martial art.
As time passed, the Gracie family started to construct and redesign Jiu-Jitsu as a new fighting style. They started preaching and teaching the world about this remarkable martial art.
Then, the organized the first UFC event and one of the family members won while using BJJ. As a result, the world wanted to learn more about it. That’s when it started to attract more and more trainees.
So, BJJ’s initial purpose is self-defense, for the Samurais. That’s contrary to wrestling’s entertainment reasoning.
Before moving on, if you want to learn more about why BJJ is suitable for self-defense, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
Are BJJ and wrestling similar?
Thus far, we’ve discussed why BJJ and wrestling are different. I mentioned that their fighting approach, techniques, and origin are different. Because of that, you may already have a preferable martial art in mind.
You may desire to learn the explosiveness of wrestling, as it can be useful not only to fighting. Or, you may want to learn BJJ because of its practicality to real life situations.
And still, these two martial arts are similar, although I previously have mentioned how different they are.
Knowing their similarities will help you reach a wiser decision, regarding which is better. While knowing their differences may play a larger role, you do still need to understand both to come to a wise conclusion.
Before we move on, if you want to save money by training BJJ at home, I recommend following the link to an article of mine on how you can do that.
#1 – Grappling
The first similarity, also the most crucial one—is what our martial arts teach. Whether you choose to study wrestling or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, you’ll learn grappling techniques.
Of course, you’ll learn it in different ways. Nonetheless, while you’ll learn them differently, grappling remains with the same purpose, to submit an opponent.
In BJJ, you’ll learn ground grappling, which is when you utilize ground positions to lock the opponent by using a submission or a choke. That’s highly effective because escaping from a submission or a choke—is almost impossible, if you’re proficient in Jiu-Jitsu.
In wrestling, however, you’ll learn takedowns grappling, an entirely different approach. And still, the purpose is the same, to pin the opponent to the ground and force one to submit.
However, in a real wrestling fight, the fight ends when a trainee is pinned on his back. As a result, the fight wouldn’t usually end if it were real, as escaping from such a position is possible; but, of course, difficult.
#2 – Purpose
All martial arts provide some value, even Tai chi, which is not as applicable to real life as other ones. In our case, both BJJ and wrestling provide their trainees with countless mental and physical benefits. Now, if we trace both back to when they were first created, we find a similarity; purpose.
The purpose of BJJ and wrestling is the same, to teach others how to fight fiercely. While the art of ground grappling is more effective for that purpose, knowing how to take down an attacker, in real life—will most likely lead to your victory.
Think about it, if you’re on top of your opponent in a self-defense situation, you’re at a clear advantage. Therefore, it becomes clear that you’ll essentially achieve the same thing whether you do the first or the latter.
So, yea, they’re more similar than you may think. After all, the purpose is everything in life. It’s the force behind our decisions. Thus, if you want to learn how to fight aggressively and effectively, you can choose both wrestling or BJJ.
On another topic, many people don’t want to start their Jiu-Jitsu journey because they think they’re too old/young. If you’re one of these fellas, read an article I wrote on why BJJ has no age limit.
Which is better, BJJ or wrestling?
When comparing two martial arts, we must assume two fighters were to fight and examine who would win. When I saw this question, I immediately had a winner in mind. However, you may not have one. So, which is better, BJJ or wrestling?
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is better than wrestling, since it teaches more practical and applicable fighting techniques. While they’re both suitable martial arts both for self-defense and self-improvement, BJJ provides more value than the latter. As a result, a Jiu-Jitsu trainee will beat a wrestler.
Wrestling is all about being on top of your opponent. However, that’s not the case with BJJ. Rather, it teaches you how to win while being on the ground with your back against the surface. Such a method is unheard of—until people have started to understand the effectiveness of Jiu-Jitsu.
As such, even if a wrestler were to pin you down to the ground, you would be able to submit the opponent from this position. Don’t get me wrong, escaping the pin of a competent wrestler—is extremely difficult. However, if you know how to use guard defensive positions, you’ll know how to react.
Watch how the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor is on his back while his opponent is on him, the same way a wrestler would be on you. Now, notice how the instructor is able to use his position to submit the opponent in many ways.
That’s the power of BJJ.
Nonetheless, it would totally make sense for a competent wrestler to submit a BJJ trainee with a solid takedown. So, yea, I guess the answer to the question is, really, it depends.
Is BJJ like wrestling?
All martial arts are alike. Of course, they may teach different variations or entirely distinguished fighting techniques. And yet, they’re similar, usually because of the reason behind their existence. All fighting styles don’t exist for no reason. Instead, someone has constructed them for a reason, usually, it’s to teach others self-defense.
BJJ is like wrestling because they both teach self-defense and fighting techniques with grappling. However, each of these styles teach a different variation of grappling. Specifically, BJJ is the art of ground grappling and wrestling is the art of takedowns and throws.
Both fighting styles will be suitable for self-defense. That’s because grappling is the most effective fighting technique you can learn.
That’s also why boxing and kickboxing masters are inferior to competent grapplers, such as wrestlers, judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu trainees. So, if you want to become a competent fighter, it’ll be best if you learn grappling and not just punching and kicking.
Of course, a healthy combination of these techniques will lead to a dynamic style, which is more effective than if you were to know only a single fighting movement.
Which is harder to learn, BJJ or wrestling?
When discussing which fighting style is harder to learn, we must look at one primary factor. That factor is how complicated the martial art is. If, for example, you wonder why boxing is the simplest style you can learn, that’s because you can learn its basics in under a month.
BJJ is harder to learn than wrestling because it’s more complicated. Indeed, the art of ground grappling (Jiu-JItsu), is unintuitive at first. As a result, it’ll take more time to learn the basics than if you were to learn wrestling, which teaches a more intuitive fighting approach (takedowns and throws).
Eventually, all martial arts will present difficulties and hardships when you learn them. However, usually, it wouldn’t be to learn a technique. Instead, the difficulty will start flowing when you need to wake up early to attend a training session.
That’s why you need an above-all reason for you to train. For instance, mine was self-improvement; I wanted to improve both my physical and mental selves. As a result, I pictured how I would look after I would be a competent fighter.
Every time I had that thought come to mind, I was fueled with motivation and fire. If I had to point to a single reason why people stay consistent with something – I would point to purpose. Your reason for training is your purpose.
Here are some examples of common purposes I notice people report having in martial arts:
- Learning self-defense
- Improving physical shape
- Reducing stress
- Bettering mental health
- Learning a new skill
- Proving to yourself that you can
- Increasing confidence and self-esteem
All of these are entirely valid purposes. I can guarantee that if you truly find your purpose, there’s no reason you wouldn’t progress like a champion.
Do keep in mind, a lack of purpose is a lack of consistency.
If you want to learn more on how to progress faster in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
Final words
To end this article, I want to emphasize my appreciation for the world of martial arts. The positive impact they had on their many trainees is remarkable.
I’m a big fan of both wrestling and BJJ. However, when I think of a personal winner, there’s one that immediately comes to mind. That is, if you haven’t understood already, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
I’ve seen the effectiveness and practicality of BJJ in real time plenty of times. If you want to see that for yourself, start watching UFC. In it, the elite of the elite compete. Now, every fighter brings one’s unique combination of martial arts and fighting.
And, as you guessed, BJJ is a dominant martial art in there. In fact, the Gracie family, who redesigned the art of ground grappling, won the first UFC competition while using this extraordinary fighting style.
As such, it doesn’t matter as much which martial art you’ll learn, as long as you start as soon as possible. That way, you’ll be able to enjoy the many benefits all fighting styles provide to their trainees.
If you want to learn more about the benefits of martial arts and why you should learn them, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.