As Wikipedia says:
“Japanese jujutsu systems typically place more emphasis on throwing, immobilizing and pinning, joint-locking, choking, and strangling techniques as compared with other martial arts systems such as karate.”
Practicing any martial art is good for exercise, close study with a good teacher is good for self-discipline. Proficiency in a martial art isn’t necessarily going to turn you into bad-ass. Getting into fights is a Bad Idea, and any worthwhile teacher will discourage that.
Jiu-jitsu has evolved quite a bit over the years, and forked several variants. Judo and aikido are both descended from jiu-jitsu, as is the somewhat notorious Brazilian jiu-jitsu as practiced by the Gracie school. BJJ is heavily into grappling and ground-fighting. It’s not as “pretty” as some other martial arts to watch. It sees a lot of use in competitive-fighting tournaments like UFC and that ilk.
Traditional and Brazilian jiu-jitsu variants are not likely to be especially easy to take up. There will most likely be some hard physical training involved to get “up to speed”. Judo and especially aikido are likely to be easier in this regard, although any martial art will be challenging physically if you are out of shape.
Effectiveness against multiple attackers is dependent on the level of skill you have. Running away is always the best defense. Judo is pretty useless against multiple attackers, since it is a formalized one-on-one sport. Of the various jiu-jitsu variants I’ve looked at, only Aikido focuses on defense against multiple attackers (Aikido is entirely defense-based, and is one of two arts I usually recommend for beginners, the other being tai chi.)
@XOIIO Now then, there’s no need to be mean or call names here. You’re better than that. We don’t know for sure that Eggie is an Ed Gruberman…
@Eggie Don’t be this guy.