cptdeath, I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Brazillian Jiu Jutsu, the style popularized by the Gracie family and widely viewed as the dominant style in NHB/UFC type fights. Agreed, that particular style, which is more derivative of Judo than our art (I'm Aralis' husband ) is indeed not all that great in real world situations.
What we study is sho bu do ryu jutsu, something about as far removed from BJJ as TKD is from Judo. We focus on 8 basic principles, the first 3 are a series of joint locks, the others consist of various throws, pressure points, nerves, arm bars, etc. Basically it's a defensive art that adresses just about any situation you might come across in the real world, our rendori almost always consists of avoiding or injuring and moving away from multiple attackers, with and without weapons. We even encorporate gun control, retention, disarms, and of course general gun safety.
