The real artfulness of Jiu jitsu is in the ability to grapple an opponent with your legs: For the overwhelming majority of people on this planet, they will go through their whole lives using their feet and legs only walking and running. This shows immediately when you ask them to perform other tasks with their legs – they have no experience with using their feet and legs for fine motor skills and they usually fail hopelessly in that activity. This is sad because the human body is vastly stronger and with far greater endurance in the lower body than the upper body. The most efficient use of our body in most activities that require some horsepower is to use the tremendous strength and endurance potential of our legs and hips whenever possible rather than our weak hands and arms. This is especially true in combat sports where you have to take on larger opponents. The day you begin Jiu jitsu training you must make a concerted effort to improve the dexterity and coordination of your feet and legs so that you can incorporate them as much as possible and as early as possible in your grappling training and development. Your Jiu jitsu game will only begin to improve when you switch from being upper body centric as most people are when performing skill tasks – to lower body centric. This fundamental shift is the basis of early development in the Jiu jitsu journey.
