Researchers in neuroscience and neuropsychology are finding strong evidence that learning new skills throughout your life (especially as you get older) prevents many of the mental problems associated with aging.

While the grappling in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu may not be as glamorous as the high flying kicks or one punch KO’s of other martial arts, it represents an unavoidable reality that you need to accept if you want to truly be able to fight and defend yourself. The flashy moves fall away in the heat of a real fight and the winner is rarely decided by a spectacular karate chop or Steve Seagal-style wristlock. In the real world, the victor is usually whoever is able to protect themselves while gaining control …

Many of the major problems with other martial arts doesn’t lie in their techniques but in their training methods—in how they train, not just what they train. A technique may make perfect sense and work “in theory” but be so dangerous or so difficult that there’s no way to practice it realistically. Traditionally, martial arts have tried to solve this by resorting to katas and forms (memorized patterns of movements), cooperative one and two-step sparring (”I do this, you do that, then I do this…”) or highly restricted or formalized …