BJJ or Wrestling

Next year I will be going into highschool and am wondering what martial arts would be the most beneficial to becoming a well-rounded fighter. I already do Judo and love it, and when I go to high school, I will either join the wrestling team, or start cross-training BJJ or Kickboxing with my Judo.

Any opinions on what to go for?

 

wrestling

pros

1. its free

2. great base for all sports....ever notice how many mma fighters start as wrestlers.....there is a reason

3. jocks git all the chicks (at least they did when i went to high school)

4. you will work harder than you ever worked before.....really the hard part is not quiting in the first 30 days
everthing else in life will be easy

me...basic training, ranger school.....easy after a season of wrestling

5. look at it practically ......you have your whole life to take bjj.....you can really only wrestle in highschool and maybe college


if you really want you can do bjj the rest of the year wen it aint wrestling season

 

and the judo will help you out too.

 

I'll second the wrestling. It's just a great place to start, no matter what you get into afterwards if you don't stick with it. My teacher in swordsmanship started out as a wrestler and it served him well in his martial studies.

But it all comes down to what you want to do. Try both and see what you get more out of. Give any art a fair shake when you start it for that matter, unless it's obviously bogus e.g. "here's how you, if unarmed, can defeat three knife-weilding attackers at once without taking a scratch"

-Mark

 

for the love of god, wrestle while you can. bjj will still be there when you get back.

 

Wrestling, definatly.

While I was training in Thailand, a Greco Roman wrestler came to train with us. Not ONE of the pro muay thai guys (1 a world champion) could clinch with him properly. He completly dominated them. While he got the crap beaten out of him outside of the clinch, its still a very important part of standup to learn.

 

Gotta go with wrestling

 

Don't flame me because I'm a newbie to MA, but doesn't BJJ have the advantage over wrestling because BJJ allows submissions and other moves which wrestling doesn't? It also takes a very long time to achieve a high grade in BJJ so why not start early and save time?

 

because he's in high school, can wrestle for free, and it's a great base style. wrestlers and former wrestlers tend to kick ass in tournaments. do the free art now, while availible, then pay to study something else later.

oh, and if you're any good, it could turn into scholarship $$$$ later on, yet another reason to train it now instead of BJJ.

 

Nk,
Just out of curiosity what weight was the greco guy who dominated the thais in the clinch?.

 

I was gonna say take BJJ because it is cooler, but maybe these other cats have it right.

 

"cooler"?

 

Yeah, BJJ is like, you know, like more awesomer.

 

Wrestling offers different skills to BJJ, so they compliment each other well, and as people have said, it's free and the best time to do it, so wrestling is the way to go at the moment.
The clinchwork and takedowns in wrestling are light years ahead of what you'll find at most BJJ clubs (hence why groups like Brazilian Top Team have wrestling coaches), and it will give you awesome conditioning. It may also give you access to a catch teacher, in which case you won't even neeed BJJ.

 

Seeing as how I was recently banned for simply posting a photo of someone wearing a wrestling singlet... I don't think I'll risk commenting further in this thread.

 

The wrestling singlet was not the issue mate, the fact you could see the guys genitals WAS the issue.

So let's go back to keep the thread on topic, and not derailing with factually incorrect, off topic chit chat?

Thanks

 

Indeed. I should start looking for one.

-Mark

 

But if I'm not even looking for wrestling on the basis of conditioning, then would you say wrestling or BJJ would complement my Judo better, and which would make me more well-rounded.

Also, wrestling is not available past uni, so wouldn't it make more sense to start at something I can continue past HS or uni? Or do you think the skillsets learned in wrestling would readily cross over to other training and not be lost?

 

I do BJJ now. If I could go back to when I was in HS and choose between starting BJJ then or wrestling. I'd choose wrestling. Finding wrestling out of HS is a lot harder than finding BJJ out of HS. Please do wrestling. For me.

 

That's not necessarily true and like everyone has said 100 times already, the attributes you may acquire will help you in a myriad of ways later.