TJ-Jitsu

An interesting topic, if I can add.... Firstly the sport is becoming more popular and many competitors are just tough athletes that are not particularly skilled in their standup, wrestling, or their jiu jitsu but are decent enough to put the three together. It takes a lot of time and investment in order to learn how to submit people, especially in mma and especially are higher level guys. So some just aren't good enough.... Some have great jiu jitsu competitions records, but passing the guard in a submission wrestling match, in a jiu jitsu competition, and in an mma scenario have the potential to be 3 completely different circumstances. Consider: -The use of the gi (unavailable in MMA) allows some to use grips to compensate for lack of appropriate pressure that would otherwise be needed without the gi. The jacket and pants should be used to compliment your game, but naturally enough too many rely on it instead and are unable to pass a guard without it. -An opponent who's not trying to get to his feet (say in a submission wrestling match). Many guard players stay on their backs because theres a penalty if they stand up and get taken down. What you see now is a complete disregard for any pressure whatsoever when it comes to passing and instead see people running from side to side and trying to cartwheel over top of people to circumvent the guard. These types of passes, while valuable in competition, are significantly much less useful when your opponent doesn't WANT to engage in any sort of ground fight whatsoever. Given that amount of space, they simply stand up. If our particular fighter doesn't know how to get in to the game, smash, and pass (which we can assume since hes standing up to avoid it in the case of competition) this becomes a severe handicap. The lack of use of a full guard in grappling competitions- Practicing full guard techniques is not savy for a winning competitions strategy. People know to NOT get inside the guard in competition because they cant score or attack if they do. This is where you see people avoid their opponents full guard like the plague. This then results in all these elaborate guard games that rely on tying people up with their own jackets and belts. The full guard is almost useless (almost...) in competition to the point where higher level fighters don't even attempt to jump to full guard (those that do pull guard) because its just so difficult to get- they'd rather jump right to their half/spider/ guard etc etc. In short, the reaction of your opponent is going to be much different in MMA than it will in a submission grappling event. People WILL attempt to stand up if you don't know how to apply pressure to keep them on their back (while you're attempting to open the guard and pass). This is a difficult skill set to learn and practice- if you're off by a bit your opponent is scrambling to his feet. Most of the sweeps and submissions hit in competition occur when your opponent is attempting to pass/ open the guard. Most people competing in MMA could care less about doing either since they can strike from that position. If you're not used to playing this game often, this can spell trouble. One may be a black belt with their spider guard sweeps, but be a blue belt from the closed guard. Someone could be a world champion because their top game is unstoppable, and as a result they have no guard game (because they neither play it nor do they need to)- which becomes a severe problem when they face someone better at takedowns than themselves (wrestlers, for example). These are just skimming the surface. You can be a bjj world champion because no one can stop your butterfly sweep- but can feasibly not have any other strong position. You cant submit from guard, you cant pass a guard (without the gi) and you cant take people down. This is 5 points, and a severe obstacle to overcome in competition. You can be an Abu Dhabi champion because you're a world class wrestler that takes everyone else down (4 points) and stalls the rest of the match. No passing, no submissions, no guard work Then, you can be a "submission only" tournament champion doing nothing but footlocks. Footlocks are very alluring in these types of competitions because theres no good reason NOT to go for them. Heres the problem in the transition- a footlock doesn't give you positional dominance (like cross side or mount, for example) and it requires two hands to execute. This typically means the person attempting said leglock is giving a good opportunity for the other person to come on top and in doing so leaves them defenseless to any strikes (consider Pe de Pano vs Arlovski and Franklin vs Shamrock). This is irrelevant in sub only and you can continue to hit those leglocks from every position in these tournaments. Suddenly they become less desirable when your opponent can drop a couple of bombs on your head while you're attempting it- and if you lose the lock you lost everything you worked for on the ground (remember this guy may not want to stay involved in that ground battle). Then you have to take into account the 10-9 scoring system on top of rounds. If your passes leave a lot to be desired and you're down on the score cards, why not keep your opponent down and hit a few shots to get up on the score cards? These are just some of the reasons why you can see a guy who has "world class jiu jitsu" get on top of someone and not know how to pass a guard. This is why someone can be a world champion and doesn't know how to fight from his back. At the end of the day jiu jitsu is jiu jitsu. You move the same way regardless of the fight. The issue is the ruleset- the ruleset is what emphasizes particular positions and techniques over another. Don't misread this post- this doesn't mean that just because someone hasn't done no gi they don't have pressure when passing, or because they've got good takedowns they don't know how to submit from their back but no more is this the case that if someone is an accomplished jiu jitsu competitor is this a guarantee they can.....

I agree with this and as a result its difficult to say what one means by "good strike." Like the old adage goes, its the punch you don't see that knocks you out- not necessarily the hardest one. What qualifies as a good strike? I'd say you'd have to first determine what your intent is and under what conditions its being thrown. A powerful strike that doesn't land or is blocked is not as good as one that does land, but is much less damaging. In general I'd say a deciding factor for me is whether or not the strike is telegraphed and again, this kind of returns us to whether or not something is landing. Food for thought- I see plenty of people that come to the gym and can wail on a heavy bag- they can make it move all over the place and the sound resonates throughout the gym- but some of these guys get in the ring/cage and have no power behind their actual strikes because they've no idea how to move, balance themselves, chain their attacks, or follow and hit a moving target (that's also trying to hit them). I have other opinions on this, but others have covered some of those points.

Im not correcting anything- just offering another way of doing the same technique.

Ohh, Im sorry. It took me a while to get this post. I thought Rusty meant rough and it was one of those ironic nicknames.... not your actual name. I wasn't critiquing the use of the term sensei or anything. If you don't mind I'd like to suggest a detail... Turn your underhooking arm upside down- so as to put your thumb in the belt. This will make it easier to step over (you wont be putting all that pressure on your shoulder) and it'll also do a great job of killing any attempted hip escape there after....

Sensei Rusty?

Not completely true here. Gracie Barra has nothing to do with Rorion, Gracie Humaita is under Royler, Pedro Sauer was given permissions by Helio to use the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu name and logo before he died...and it's documented and Legal. Carlos Gracie schools are not the same as Rorion's schools, nor are Renzo's. The Machado brothers, despite a different last name are all Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (they are cousins who trained with them). Last but not least is Royce, who has his own association. Lot's of options for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu if you don't want to pay Rorion. Of course, there's the main Gracie Academy and their affiliates, which are directly under Rorion and his sons. But that's not necessarily a bad thing I didn't say a Gracie affiliation was an affiliation with Rorion- hes just the one that copyrighted it and has legal premise to use it. Yes, Im aware Humaita is under Royler- Barra is pretty much Carlson Jr and several relatives falling in between. Lots of people are affiliated with one instructor or another- some coming around more than others. It still comes down to what I said previously- Gracie Jiu Jitsu is a marketing strategy nowadays. That doesn't mean its good nor does it mean that its bad. I'd simply say its a neutral observation. Proof is in the pudding- how does the guy teach and perform on the mat.

Actual ring experience tends to be far and few between, but theres a reason why its a good thing: You can quickly see if someone is "proven" or not. There are lots of people out there teaching all kinds of stuff that have never been in a fight a day in their lives. Are you really going to take lessons from someone who's never been involved in a fight? That's like taking swimming lessons from someone who's never jumped in the water. Then there are those that learn "street reality self defense" that they learned in the military/prison/bouncer job/ previous life etc.... Practically anything can work in those situations, because really when you're talking about those situations you're talking about fighting novice opponents that have no idea what they're doing. Ring experience provides you with a fight against a skilled (or semi skilled) opponent. In a world full of frauds and users, this is a great filter. So this means that anyone without ring experience shouldn't be an instructor right? Not really. It comes to whether or not this instructor can actually perform and accomplish what hes claiming despite your best efforts to defend it. Maybe he's older and cant do this- does he have any students that can? It really is such a small part of proving one skillset- but there are several people out there that were great fighters but are horrible teachers. Likewise there are also many that were terrible fighters but really have a knack for teaching. There are so many variables to making a good instructor and ring/ fighting experience is a nice perk but not really what I'd consider a requirement.

Looks like your standard run of the mill RBSD stuff. RBSD is usually pretty bad. Self defense is fighting. Fighting is self defense. What differentiates is the mentality and the mindset. A punch thrown in the gym is the same as the one thrown in a competition is the same as the one thrown at the guy in the gas station. Its really that simple, but some people have an unnatural desire to make things more complex than they need to be. Stick with your jiu jitsu

I'd try to attend ALL the academies and check to see how the classes are run and how you enjoy them. "Gracie Jiu Jitsu" really doesn't mean all that much now. It used to mean that there was a strong emphasis on self defense and practical street oriented jiu jitsu. Now all it means is that you're paying Rorion royalties.... So to go in depth its incredibly easy to get an affiliation with Gracie Barra and lots of people use the name to get students in the door. Don't mistake this to suggest that Barra is a bad school by default (they certainly aren't- they've got lots of top level competitors) but by the same token just because someone is flying the Gracie banner doesn't mean they're hot stuff or incredibly well versed in what they're teaching. So in short, the proof is in the pudding. It'll be difficult for you to ascertain how skilled each instructor is, so make sure you do your homework. Perhaps most importantly though is how much you enjoy being at one school or the other. Most people choose one school over the other not so much because its the "best" but more because they felt most welcome.

Interesting discussion- seems to be the general consensus that full contact is the way to go, but that doesn't mean its the only way to train. Yeah Im not a big fan of point sparring. I become a strong critic whenever anyone claims they're learning how to fight. Fun and fitness- do whatever you want. Learning to fight on the other hand is very much a science and less of an art. Anyways.... Most training ironically is not full contact even in full contact sports. When you do boxing or muay thai for example, you're not regularly getting hit when you're shadow boxing or doing bag work. With a good pad holder, you'll get a couple of things thrown your way to keep you honest but not until you start sparring are you starting to get popped. So the pros and cons- simple enough full contact lets you experience and feel exactly what a real fight is going to be like but the greater the contact the greater the risk of injury. As you tone it down you lose a little of that realism in exchange for safety. Both will inevitably be needed, but you cant train if you're injured and you cant learn how to fight if you're not getting hit (or otherwise dealing with full or close to full resistance). How much to do one over the other tends to be a personal choice.

Its neither right nor wrong- just a simple observation. The most important thing in a fight is learning how to get your hands up and protect yourself. Theres no need to focus on your kicks if you do not know how to do this. Boxing is a part of kickboxing, except until you get to sport specific techniques, details, and strategies. The first 6 months is basic stuff that will cross over to any style of fighting.

There are so many variables when it comes to being a professional and not... In short what you're looking at here is technique and conditioning. One can have amazing conditioning, but if their technique is poor they wont last more than a few rounds and this isn't taking into account offensive and defensive skills. One with good technique on the other hand (say your old man of a coach) can be out of shape, but be technically sound and have no problem sparring for several rounds. Since you're just getting started, this is what I'd suggest: Train as often as possible- ideally at least 5x a week for about 90 minutes minimum. Technique is going to be much more important for you at this point than is conditioning- you can get conditioning up to par in a couple of weeks time before a scheduled fight. Lots of shadow boxing, lots of bag work, and get some sparring in there. The goal is that all 3 should look and feel the same- for all intents and purposes throwing a punch should feel like throwing a punch no matter your target.

In short... YES To be a little more specific, this means that the technique can do either or. Just the same way that "punch" is an umbrella term for hook, cross, overhand, etc, so too is "elbow." Every way that a punch can be thrown so to can an elbow.

Im not trying to step over anyones toes (tallgeese) but I thought I'd lend a hand. Your ankle gets caught- if you keep moving your body up towards your opponents head it gets further from your ankle. Whats happening here is the more you insist on passing the weaker your ankle becomes (and the harder it is to escape). To remedy- rather than trying to bring your ankle to your hip (which you cant do because its caught) bring your hip to your ankle by pushing yourself back. Continue to drive down (as opposed to up) and your foot will pop out quite easily.

Technically 1: no 2: yes There are black belts that are anything but great, good, or even half decent instructors. Likewise sometimes one can be a blue or purple and actually teach quite well. Its one of those things where the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Technically purple and brown can give stripes and promote to the rank below them- but if one is not a black belt they typically are affiliated with one and award it at the instructors discretion.

Competitions ARE realistic (for competition sake...) Seriously though, whats good about competing (in my line of competition anyways) is learning what a fully resisting opponent feels like and learning how to deal with the adrenaline dump. After dealing with competition "real life" stuff is a walk in the park and mostly humorous at times. The other thing is learning how to adapt. Look at rule sets as a challenge to your style. Just because you're good at a particular technique doesn't mean you're going to be able to hit it equally effective against everyone. Different people yield different results.

Greetings! I think this is fairly simple- just make sure you're not opening up shop within 20 miles of his place. This is the norm in anything jiu jitsu or mma related. Eventually we all have to make a living and some of us teach to do it. Talk to your coach- he may even help you. If you open up shop there could be incentive for him to give seminars (so he can make cash for himself and get new student exposure for yourself.)