Jujitsu Club brings popular martial art to Lawrence

When Chris Clemmons practices Brazilian jujitsu, he might look lazy. With his back to the mat, his opponent's legs trapping his hips, Clemmons waits for a mistake. He sees his opportunity when his opponent moves one hand from Clemmons' chest to the ground to steady himself. In seconds he's performed an omaplata, using his elbow to hook his opponent's arm and force his upper-body to the mat. Now, Clemmons could roll forward and dislocate his opponent's shoulder. His opponent, whose arm is trapped behind him and around Clemmons' waist, taps out instead. At 175 pounds, Clemmons outweighs his opponent by 25 pounds. But he knows that unlike other martial arts, such as karate or judo, size and strength do not determine the winner.

"Jujitsu is an equalizer," Clemmons said. "Generally a smaller guy can win or come close in a fight."



Clemmons, Lansing junior, is the instructor and founder of KU's new Jujitsu Club. He's a black-belt in Japanese jujitsu, from which Brazilian jujitsu spawned. Approved in November, Jujitsu Club is the fifth martial arts sports club at the Student Recreation Fitness Center. It's one of the first local signs of increased jujitsu interest nationally.

A decade ago, the United States Ju-Jitsu Federation had members only in a few coastal states. Ernest G. McPeek, membership director of the USJJF, said it now has members in every state. He's watched membership increase over the last ten years and estimated that there are 5,000 to 10,000 practitioners in the U.S. today. Anime and televised mixed martial arts competitions fueled U.S. interest in jujitsu according to Derek Kerr, vice president of the National Collegiate Judo Association, based in Colorado Springs, Colo.

But when Clemmons moved to Lawrence from Manhattan, Kan., he found few opportunities to practice. Ki-June Park, grand master at Lawrence Tae-Kwon-Do School on 18th and Vermont streets, teaches hap-ki-do, or Korean jujitsu. Other martial arts schools in Lawrence use elements of jujitsu in their martial arts, but don't teach it exclusively.

"If anything would prohibit the spread of jujitsu it would be lack of instructors," McPeek said.

Jujitsu originated hundreds of years ago, likely in Japan, as a form of warfare. It is comprised of mainly groundwork, emphasizing the use of locks and holds to force an opponent into submission. Today, the concept of jujitsu is nearly inseparable from the Gracie family. Around 1930, Helio Gracie adapted Japanese jujitsu to better serve his smaller build, and so developed Brazilian jujitsu. In the early 1990s, Royce Gracie garnered attention in the U.S. by using it to defeat a string of larger opponents in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

"Royce Gracie went on that show and just about dismantled everybody that he came up on," Kerr said. "And everybody said, 'Hey I want to do that'."

The UFC is a mixed martial arts competition and one of the highest-grossing pay-per-view sports today. Jujitsu is just one martial art that the ultimate fighter uses, but Kerr thinks that the UFC's violence has kept jujitsu from evolving into the sanctioned sport that Judo has become. 


"All these people are coming in and changing the art. It's a professional fight," Kerr said. "In some sense you see aspects of savagery."

Others see the UFC as a misrepresentation of the martial art. McPeek said that jujitsu is about self-defense. In competition, a competitor wants to break his opponent's defense. A touch on the cheek demonstrates that as much as a punch in the face.

"Martial arts is not about violence. It never has been," McPeek said. "The UFC is about violence and that's the main difference."

Back at the gym, Clemmons is bringing two members at a time to the mat to spar, or practice fight, for the group. He considers size when making the match. With more experience, size will become less of a factor. For most of his members now, their experience comes from mixed martial arts on TV, high school wrestling or the past month's practices. For this match, Clemmons decides to go in himself against a new guy, freshman Dustin Befort.

What the members do know, they shout from the sidelines in support of the underdog.

"Don't let him sit so high on you!"

"Buck him down!"

"Roll him to your left!"

"Lock his leg, roll left!"

Clemmons said he has about 16 members in the club so far. Among his group today, a 120-pound sophomore with a background in martial arts, a 200-pound junior who comes for the cardio and 190-pound freshman whose interest was piqued by a TV show, though not the UFC. For him it was Fight Quest on the Discovery Channel.

"It looked fun and I have a lot of fun doing it," Rick Holladay, freshman, said.

Of course, not everyone's happy about the way jujitsu has risen in popularity. Park, who remembers when his was the only martial arts school in Lawrence in 1977, is saddened by the direction he sees hap-ki-do and other martial arts going. The Eastern philosophy of internal power, which for him is as important as the physical power, is often lost on American-born instructors.

"They don't know what they teach, that's the problem," he said. "It's at best martial sport, martial play."

It is play for Clemmons, at least in part. He disliked karate as a kid because he preferred a sport where you could roll around, like wrestling, which he took up in high school. He said that's one reason he enjoys jujitsu.

As for the Jujitsu Club, Clemmons enjoys himself when the atmosphere is laid-back, serious, and ego-free. Though he's a fan of the UFC, he's not a fan of violence at practice.

"If you go too far, you break an arm. If you go too long, you pass out," Clemmons said. "I'm not breeding fighters here."