Why do I do this? Honestly I think that question has gone through the mind of almost everyone who does Jiu Jitsu. It’s painful, it’s difficult, it’s humbling, it’s time consuming and a bunch of things that could be seen as negative. So why put yourself through something like that? For me there’s infinite positive things to counteract the aches, pains, peaks and valleys of BJJ. It is confidence building, mentally challenging, supportive, honest, fun, and far superior to any chain gym or yoga class I’ve ever been to. You have to be engaged in training, you need to be present. The consequences of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are the fastest track to mindfulness I’ve found. Physically and emotionally doing Jiu Jitsu is one of the best things someone can do for their lives. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself.
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It takes a long time to level up in Jiu Jitsu. It’s not impossible to be a black belt in four years of training, but the number of people who have done it is really low. There are no child black belts in BJJ, and the adult belt progression begins at 16. Every instructor has different criteria for what demonstrates that a student is ready for promotion, and there’s a taboo about asking what you need to do to reach the next level. Some promotion criteria are effort, technical execution, personal growth, and tournament performance. A stripe or belt can be based on one or all of these things. At Chuva Brazilian Jiu Jitsu we don’t do belt gauntlets or testing fees, and if you get promoted, then you’ve definitely earned it.
I started training BJJ in 2003, 10 years after UFC 1 and 2 years before The Ultimate Fighter. It’s a cool time to have started BJJ, especially as a 15 year old kid. There were only a handful of black belts in Arizona, and comparatively very few in the country. Most people who trained were fighters or wanted to be fighters and technique videos came on vhs. I got to come up in a mix of old school Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and more modern training techniques and it took me a long time to really appreciate the lessons imparted on me. I have seen such crazy growth in this sport since then, it will be very interesting to see what the next evolution brings.
People in law enforcement need to train martial arts, and now more than ever they need to train grappling. Throwing strikes looks violent, it looks excessive. If you can take someone down, pin them, and manipulate their joints to an arrest hold without causing visible damage, it looks better to the general population. The training received by law enforcement officers is not enough for them to be truly effective on the street, and with everyone now having cameras, how combative situations are handled has an incredible impact on public perception of police. If you are not training at a martial arts school, you should be drilling defensive tactics consistently to build muscle memory. Train if you can, but absolutely put the work in to make your life easier and keep yourself safe.
I believe the saying experience is the best teacher. Sometimes you only learn by being part of a situation. This happens frequently in BJJ. Whether you end up in places you’ve had instruction on or a tangled mess of limbs with no discernible position, the lessons stick best with real time application. The most frequent example of this for new students is keeping their arms in tight. You can say it until you’re blue in the face, but usually they figure it out better after being repeatedly armbarred. It’s a hard journey and we all try to make it a little easier for the next generation, but Jiu Jitsu will always require work.
I say this all the time, Jiu Jitsu is hard. So what can you bring to the gym, that will make everyone’s life easier? The attitude of perseverance. The attitude that you can and you will. It can be on your own time, and it doesn’t need to be perfect, but if you want to learn BJJ you have to work. I came up as a physically limited kid in a class of grown men, but the expectations were the same. I see differently abled people grapple all the time. You can do it, but if you don’t put the work in it won’t get any better. Make an effort, persevere, not just on the mat, but everywhere in your life.
Learning outside of the academy is very important to success in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Personally, I am always looking at different BJJ social media to update what I know or learn new perspectives. That’s something I did even as a white belt. I was on forums, reading books, subscribing to magazines, anything I could find that might show me something I could use. As my grappling ability has grown, much of what I research is small changes or moves that I already know but don’t use. Your research can also benefit your training partners, as the exposure to new or different techniques allows them to grow. You get the results of the work you put into your training, so use research as a mechanism for the growth of your skills.
So first, there’s a difference between dirty moves and illegal moves. Dirty moves are the grey areas. The Vagner Rocha smother, four finger squeezes, and movement incentives using the sharp points of your body are examples of dirty moves. I will admit to being a proponent of somewhat nefarious practices to achieve my BJJ goals. However, I also understand that I live and die by the sword. That’s probably the best advice I can impart to anyone on this subject, and it applies to life as well. If you want to play in the grey area of acceptable behavior, you have to be ready for the consequences. Also, be wary of less savory tactics on people of higher rank as they have accumulated many skill sets that stay in the shadows. When those skills are brought to light it can be rather demoralizing. In short, make calculated decisions in your approach to the grey areas of grappling.
How is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu effective? There are two main ways in my opinion. One is a gap in skill. Royce Gracie’s success in the early UFC’s was predicated on a gap between his skill and his opponents. So how can you execute these techniques on someone who has a near equal skill level? Forced compliance. The Carlson Gracie route and a classic BJJ game relies a lot on pain compliance. “If I make it hurt, you’ll give me submission opportunities”. A newer approach is to funnel an adversary into predictable circumstances until you have reached a desired outcome. This can be seen in the games of both Keenan Cornelius and Levi Jones-Leary. They both have well known places that they want to put a match, and excel at reaching those places. Attempt to implement these strategies of compliance when training and see what you gravitate towards.
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AuthorThis is the blog page of Chuva BJJ. It's where you will find information that seems pertinent to the academy. Archives
October 2024
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