![]() The bow essentially says, “don’t take what I do next too serious!” It’s a way for your dog to say, “hey let’s play and wrestle and I may bite a little but it’s all in the name of fun!”Īs I stated earlier you don’t see the bow in all BJJ schools and often not even between practitioners. Essentially it’s the same thing your dog does when you come home from work.Īccording to the Wolf Information & Awareness Center, “The play bow is a deep forward bow, kind of like stretching but there is no yawn, just an occasional woof-like vocalization with paws stretched forward, rump raised high, and tail straight out or wagging.”Įven captive red wolves have been known to respond to the human play bow with their own bow. Wolves and dogs exhibit a behavior called the “play bow”. Believe it or not, bowing is even seen in the animal kingdom. The Japanese believe that the head is the most important part of the body, and by bowing, they are showing their respect and gratitude. For example, in both formal and informal situations it is expected that you bow at least 30 degrees. ![]() The act of bowing in Japan is like a handshake on steroids! In Japan the bow can take on many meanings based upon the situation, depth of the bow, length of time held, etc. When I visited Japan in 1997 (my then BJJ teacher Allan Goes was fighting Sakaraba in Pride-4) I remember being in awe of seeing the hotel front desk person bow when I entered the hotel. In Japan the birthplace of Jiu-Jitsu the bow takes on an all-new meaning. The bow and phrase “Namaste”, which literally means, “I bow to you” is commonplace in most yoga classes. This was often done as a sign of respect or gratitude. ![]() In European cultures you see references of men “bowing and scraping”, or pulling the right foot across the ground as one bows. The act of bowing, or bending the torso as a social gesture is seen in just about every culture throughout the world. In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools there seems to be a divide on whether you should bow or not? I’ve been to some schools that are super laid back and nobody bows, and I have seen schools where everybody bows and schools like the one I train at where it’s left up to you whether you want to bow or not. Whether it’s bowing when you enter the school, to classmates, to instructors, most school have this as a normal practice. Bowing has become so instinctual that I catch myself bowing from time to time when walk into a store! In most schools bowing is very much a part of the martial arts culture and tradition. Since then I always bow when I walk into any martial arts school, regardless of style, etc. My teacher explained that when we bowed we were “clearing the calculator”… that, “this was an opportunity to remind ourselves to be clear and present for our lesson.” I thought that was pretty cool and I never forgot my first martial arts lesson! The one thing I do remember was that when we walked onto the training floor we paused and bowed before we entered. I’m sure it was some variation of a front kick and some punch and block combination from a horse stance or something “karate-kidesque”. I don’t remember any of the techniques I learned. I took my first martial arts lesson over thirty years ago.
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