Thursday 21 July 2022

Saturday 2 July 2022

The Key to Success in BJJ Training



The Key to Success in BJJ Training


BJJ Melbourne

An old training partner of mine once jokingly told me that one of his pet peeves about JiuJitsu is that you cannot buy anything to make yourself appear legit. It doesn't matter if you're not very good at other sports, such as cycling, you can buy an expensive bike and gain instant respect and credibility.

BJJ was much tougher. It wasn’t possible to make yourself seem more credible by spending money on JiuJitsu. The mats don’t lie. You can buy an expensive GI or name-drop all the legends you trained but if you are lacking in actual jiujitsu skills you will be found out and exposed as soon as you start rolling. This happened quite a few times at my old gym. A new visitor with a questionable rank would turn up and get destroyed on the mats by the competitive blue belts and purple belts.
Our gym, The Carlson Gracie Boiler Room, was small and basic. Sometimes up to ten people from all over the world from Brazil & Eastern Europe lived and slept there. The training was very intense, and the majority of people who tried a class almost never returned. We just wore cheap judo gis. It didn't matter how you looked - what mattered was how many times you got tapped out on the mats and how you did in the last tournament.
Inevitably, this would change. Any sport that becomes more mainstream will always attract different types of people. In the past, BJJ was only for people who really wanted to fight. Sparring sessions at my old gym were the closest you could get to having a street fight without getting seriously injured or arrested, which is why people turned up night after night.
In some ways, I miss this type of culture in BJJ and MMA. In the past, it was about who could actually fight and about testing yourself rather than fancy gyms, sponsorships, and social media influencers.
Even if you're fighting and competing, you still need to be aware of all these new developments, but I always encourage my fighters not to be distracted by the bright lights and to concentrate on the hard work on the mats.
‘It's tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 am when you've been sleeping in silk pyjamas’
Marvin Hagler

Come train with us at Australian Combat Sports Academy BJJ - 325A Darebin Road, Thornbury, Melbourne.


Friday 1 July 2022

My BJJ grading criteria

BRAZILIAN JIUJITSU GRADING REQUIREMENTS 

BJJ Melbourne

After my last article, I have been asked what I would consider the criteria & benchmarks for progression through the ranks to black belt in BJJ. Obviously as previously discussed there are no standard grading criteria across the board in BJJ. The requirements can vary greatly from school to school. But here are some of the things which I consider most important and useful when deciding if a student is ready for promotion:
Consistent attendance:
I only grade students who train regularly and consistently. Jiu-Jitsu isn't something you do every day for two months and then take six months off. Promoting students who train like this would send the wrong message to the consistent students. Ultimately this would damage everyone's chances of progressing. Regular attendance is important, but the student must also be improving.
However, if they are regularly attending training and still aren't improving, then it implies my coaching is ineffective. Those who come to class regularly will improve, and it has nothing to do with how talented they are or even how good I am at coaching, it has more to do with Jiujitsu being such an effective system that practically anyone can develop the skills with dedicated practice.
Success in Competition:
Competition is one of the easiest and most reliable indicators of your ability. If you win your division in a decent-sized competition. (Ie. you won several matches to get to the final) then in my opinion you deserve to get promoted to your next belt.
I don’t see any point in holding students back so they can keep winning white belt divisions again and again.
Sparring Performance at the gym:
The majority of BJJ students have very little interest in competition. Most just want to learn and develop the skills. Sparring in class is how they gauge their improvement.
Rolling in the gym isn’t the same as competing in a tournament. There isn’t the same level of intensity or pressure. Instead of trying to win at all costs, the best competitor in the gym might be working on his weak areas or trying out new strategies. If a non-competitor student can consistently hold their own against students with a higher belt, then it is obvious they should also be promoted to the next belt.
Technical Ability:
Some students can do well in competition at the lower belt levels or do well in sparring at the gym but if they rely more on their strength and athleticism rather than really understanding techniques then in my opinion they aren’t ready to progress to the next belt. Demonstrating and executing JiuJitsu techniques correctly rather than just muscling through them is essential. i
How you Roll:
Being able to roll or spar properly is important for progression in most styles of martial arts but especially in Jiujitsu. There are very few advanced techniques in BJJ. In other martial arts, you don't learn certain advanced techniques until you reach a certain belt or rank. In BJJ you generally learn everything at the same time, but what changes is the way you roll.
Beginners often roll in an uncoordinated way and hurt their training partners with accidental elbows and headbutts. Experienced grapplers roll in a smooth and controlled manner avoiding erratic unpredictable movements and without cranking on submissions. They know how to apply as much or as little pressure and energy as it takes to achieve the objective. They don't try to bully or dominate the lower belts.
Being a good fit for the Gym:
It could be argued that this may be a selfish motive for the coach to promote students, for after all, what difference does it make what the student's attitude is, so long as they are winning medals and can beat everyone at training?
As mentioned previously the majority of BJJ students don’t care about competition. Very few could tell you who the current world champions are let alone the champions from five years ago. In order to learn BJJ, you'll need to surround yourself with a supportive team. Establishing the right team culture is crucial. If one student has the wrong attitude, it can bring the entire team down, so having the right attitude and mentality is more important than talent or medals.
Fitting in with the culture of our school is a very important factor for me. Having students who win competitions is important, but it is not important enough to spend hours every night with people you do not like because of their attitude or because they are competing or training for the wrong reasons. In addition, I've found that these types of people result in the gym losing more members.


Long Term BJJ Training

Eleven years ago since I got my black belt and I thought this would be useful advice for anyone who is in the earlier stages of their JiuJi...

Popular Posts