Dark Science Jiu Jitsu

DON'T TRAIN LIKE A WORLD CHAMPION!

As a second degree black belt who has practiced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for 19 years, and trained with some of the most competitive and dominant teams on the competition scene, I can assure you with 100% confidence that it is not in the best interest of most people to train like a world champion.

If you've got a family that depends on you, and bills to pay that come along with that. It is not in your best interest to train like a world champion.

If you have career aspirations that do not involve Jiu Jitsu, and the potential to advance in that career, then it is not in your best interest to train like a world champion.

If you have a previous health condition or a predisposition towards getting injured, it is not in your best interest to train like a world champion.

Just to add perspective, keep in mind that the majority of Jiu Jitsu practitioners that have the time, focus, talent, and mindset to become a world champion will not achieve their goal. A large number of Jiu Jitsu practitioners are ultimately forced out of training, due to serious or nagging injuries.

A few moments of recklessness can lead to a lifetime of discomfort.

The key to longevity in this martial art that we love, is to train within your abilities, select a school with a knowledgeable and responsible instructor that provides a safe training environment, and select your training partners with discernment. Train only with those that you trust to be mindful of your health and well being.

Training hard and training safe are not opposing philosophies when you commit to being mindful and training within your capabilities.

This is what it looks like when a person that doesn't know what they're looking at tries to recreate a Jiu Jitsu technique. Check out the orientation of the arm and elbow, and position of the hips in the second arm bar. Red rash guard guy has to be a white belt, at best. Wanna learn Jiu Jitsu? Go get proper instruction.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/719676913837589

Craig Jones’ Crazy Armbar at B-Team Sparring – Wild Finish! 🥋💥During a B-Team sparring session, Craig Jones hit one of the wildest armbars we’ve ever seen! 😳He modified a saddle entry into a slick Yoko Sankaku transition, turning it into an unexpected and brutal armbar finish.Creative. Technical. Nasty. 💪This is why Craig is one of the most innovative grapplers in the game.💾 Save it, 🔁 share it with your teammates, and ❤️ like if you love creative grappling!#jiujitsu #柔術 #bjj #martialarts #submission

The quality of your training partners plays a major role in the development of your Jiu Jitsu game. Regardless of the belt levels, there is always a base level of respect, trust, and understanding that must exist between training partners. We are each responsible (to a certain degree) for each other's safety and well being while training. Such as making sure that you 1) respect the tap and immediately cease whatever you're doing to elicit the tap and 2) make sure that you are giving your training partner enough time and ability to tap, in order to avoid injuring them.

If you tell your partner that you just want to roll light, or flow roll, then be a person of your word and honor that.

If you're looking to train like it's the finals of the world championships, make sure that your training partner is aware of that, and is agreement with it. Trust, remember?

Taking a cut throat mindset in your training; viewing your training partners as disposable bodies for your training utilization, will inevitably result in you becoming "that guy" or "that chick" and you will find yourself with a rapidly diminishing pool of people willing to train with you...and that will be your loss.

Quality training partners and a diversity of body types and Jiu jitsu games is a necessity, that all practitioners must accept and respect.

With any guard, you must constantly give the person within your guard something to worry about. In other words, you must always attack, and thereby force your opponent to defend. Defending a legitimate threat will always take precedence over attempting to pass. So your goal is to select and chain your attacks in such a way that it funnels(forces) your opponent into a continuous stream of dilemmas; having to choose between one bad option or another.

Because in the end, failing to attack, is merely waiting to get passed.

All too often there is a disconnect between the goals that people say that they want to achieve, and what they are actually willing to do to achieve them.

Even the greatest of mentors or instructors cannot lift you to greatness if you are only willing to invest a casual effort.

If you truly want to be great at something, you first have to genuinely commit yourself to it. Then you must formulate a plan, and dedicate your focus and effort towards executing it.

Whether consciously or subconsciously, people will always make time for the things that are most important to them. For everything else...that's what excuses are for.

Your opponents can't pass/attack and defend themselves at the same time. Put them on the defensive and keep them there.

What is the value of the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu colored belt? It's value varies from person to person, instructor to instructor. Though as instructors, the ones that evaluate and decide when a student has proven that he or she is ready to be promoted, the determination of value ultimately falls upon us.

Unlike many other martial arts, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is unique in that progression in the art is reliant upon and determined by the student's ability to effectively apply techniques against a resisting opponent, and to defend and counter against an actively attacking opponent.

In a perfect world, instructors evaluate strictly by that criteria(with consideration of the student's attitude and mindset as well). But in the real, post-Covid world, where many gyms are still recovering, and instructors may be pressured by financial obligations and/or personal ambitions....

There are rumors circulating that Mark Zuckerberg has been training for less than a year. And judging by his performance at the BJJ Tours tournament in Woodside, CA this past May (I was there coaching), I would definitely believe those rumors.

So then, does he deserve to be promoted to blue belt? Personally, after what I saw with my own eyes, I would say no, but I am also not his instructor. Dave Camarillo, someone known to typically be quite strict and stingy in handing out belts, is his instructor.

I don't know what variables and/or pressures were considered in making the determination, but judging by his face in the picture, they may be ones that he is not fully proud of.

Instructors have an obligation to teach their students to the best of their ability, and to evaluate them honestly. When students demonstrate that they're ready to be leveled up, only then do you promote them. Otherwise you're sending the wrong messages, not only to the students promoted prematurely, but to all the others watching.

When it becomes chess and not checkers, it's a different game.

Always seek to train intelligently. True progression is the goal.

The non-verbal reprimand. 😂

How much extra time do you spend drilling techniques? Do you regularly connect with your training partners before or after class?