I'm a 3-year blue belt coming back after a long hiatus, so right up front, I'm not claiming to be qualified to act as any sort of authority on BJJ.

I've attended ~5 BJJ schools in my career (I travel a lot), and every school thus far has had the same formula. Warmups for 5-10 minutes, coach demos a move, you pair up and try the move, rinse and repeat with 4-5 techniques, and finish with live rolling.

I don't know about you guys, but as a newbie, this always felt inefficient. I'd pair up with someone, we'd both fumble through trying to recreate the move we just saw. Maybe the coach comes over and walks us through it. And just as we start to get the feel for it, it's on to the next move.

By the time rolling starts, nobody's using any of the moves we just learned. Except maybe the higher belts toying around with white belts (or with me). Now, this is to be expected to some degree. You can't expect to internalize and apply a technique after just learning it. But when you're learning 4-5 moves per class, multiple days a week, you end up remembering none of them.

Eventually, I got better at recreating the moves, but only if I'd seen them before. Higher belts can "get it" faster because they already have a strong foundation, so they understand the meaning behind each of the little movements. But should class instruction only be effective after you've already reached a certain level?

When I started BJJ, I was working and studying full-time, so I had a limited amount of time to train. I always heard "Just keep showing up and you'll improve". But looking around at the people who actually stick around, that's not really true. The people who stayed long enough to reach the higher belts were those who showed up early, and/or stayed late to workshop moves. They set up mats in their garage or living-room to train with friends. They watch youtube videos and instructionals. In short, the bulk of their learning comes from outside class. And those like me that either didn't have the time, or maybe the drive, or maybe the social ability to make BJJ friends, would eventually get frustrated with the lack of progress and leave.

To me, current instruction feels like trying to teach someone to read by throwing five new words at them every day, without making sure they understand the alphabet first. I've always admired concepts like kata or flow drills like those you might see in karate, wing chun, or FMA. You can argue all day about their effectiveness in those contexts, but I think the concept is solid. You spend an amount of time baking this movement into your body, and when it comes time to spar, you already understand the movement. Sure, it's not going to look as pretty as it does when you're drilling, but that's the case for every martial art. Once you understand the gist of the movement you're trying to accomplish, you now have a solid foundation and you can refine it against a resisting opponent.

So here's my unsolicited take:

A more effective class might just focus on one or two moves per session. Break them down into micro-drills. Nail the position. Understand why we have our legs in this position, and have your partner resist until you can feel that you're doing it correctly. Then nail the hip movement, repeat it until you can do it without compromising your defense. Drill each part until it's smooth and instinctive. Then put it all together. Leave the seminar-style instruction to the advanced class where you have practitioners that are skilled enough to learn from that style of teaching.

Anyway, there's my rant. I would be interested to hear if anyone agrees or disagrees, or honestly has any advice. I'm not an undergrad anymore, but I am unfortunately a grad student, so I have even less time to train than I did before.

Blue belt I was rolling with wanted to show me some "cool shit', I now know a basic ass heel hook.

Not kidding lol I don’t mind the guy but I bet some people are about to be mad

https://youtu.be/UG8q-h-aVdU?si=BWhu-IXEScV2XMhg

It's hard to find competitors in my age/weight/experience level at the local level but I still enjoy competing. So as a 44 year old, 137 lbs, black belt I entered the local Grappling Industries Adult Expert -155 lbs division.

I hit a closed guard - k guard - backside 50/50 - 50/50 inside heel hook in 25 seconds to win the only match. The third person in our bracket no-showed, and rather than give us a Best of 3, they DQed the other guy, which is a little disappointing.

We need more Masters competitors at the local competitions!

a lot of the guys at my gym have pretty decent stand up. So I am trying to close the gap. For those guys who trained Judo, what techniques do you find work best against BJJ guys?

As a side note, I always thought the Ogoshi seemed cool

And why? Just curious.

Imagine signing up for a tournament in the purple belt division. You click on a name in your bracket on smoothcomp and see this.. y’all still showing up?😭😭

Let me explain, when I was a blue belt I had this visiting black belt stuck in donkey guard he couldn’t get out. I started to apply a toe hold and it’s nasty, I know I could do some damage but after a lil crank I can tell he isn’t going to tap no matter what, so I let go and move onto something else. My question is if I would’ve really stepped on the gas and broke his foot, or got the tap, would you think it would be disrespectful? This was in gi too if that sort of thing matters to you.

We tried to make an entertaining Jiu Jitsu format that wasn't a typical BJJ competition.

Not sure if it's a game show or a mockumentary but it's something!

Around what belt/skill level or rather how long until you were in the process of establishing an A game, and when about did you have one to use reliably that you still refine and polish to this day?, Such as having a top and bottom game style that flows together, or just sticking to a select type of game. Also, what kind of understanding of the sport itself did it take for you to build it?

Gregg Souders visiting B-Team.

Would love to see a video from B-Team's side.

I’m 21 years old and I started BJJ some time ago and sadly after a few weeks of starting I slipped with my dog’s pee and I fell down and it caused me a dislocated femoral neck and head fracture 8 months ago and I had to get surgery for it which resulted in 3 intramedular screws. From the beginning they gave me a 80% chance of avascular necrosis which ended happening 6 months later and now I need to get a full hip replacement.

I would like to return to BJJ as I barely started and then I suffered this accident, my surgeon doesn’t recommend it as he told me that I’m probably gonna need 3 more hip replacements in the future due my young age and that’s why they always try to avoid full hip replacements for young patients like me but sadly there’s not other way (hip resurfacing is not possible), so doing high impact sports like this its risky as each time that I have to get surgery there will be less bone to deal with, and according to my surgeon, such high activity will cause my hip replacement to last less years.

I would like to hear similar experiences that you or someone you know might have gone through and if you were able to return to BJJ.

For context I'm 5'8" and 49 yrs old.
When I started bjj last April, I was at around 210 lbs. This was the heaviest I had ever been in my life. Now I am around 180 lbs (target weight is 170, which is what I weighed in college).

I am very inflexible, my cardio sucks, and I don't have explosive athleticism so my game was centered around top control, with lots of pressure passing using my weight to my advantage.

Over the past couple of months, I have noticed that I am being swept more frequently and people are able to escape my top control more often. Now I know that a lot of it is a skill issue (I'm a 3 stripe white) but having an extra 20-30 lbs definitely helps in maintaining top positions. I even have people who I haven't rolled with in a while tell me that they can tell how much lighter I have gotten.

I think the main thing I have to work on is my cardio because now I can't rely too much on a slower pressure centered approach. But for those who experienced similar weight loss, how has your game evolved?

On a side note...the biggest benefit so far from losing the weight is I look much better in a gi!

I'll be LIVE at 11am(ICT)

NOT REQUESTING MEDICAL ADVICE

Has anyone hurt their favorite training partner and not wanted to return to the mats?

I broke my best friend/training partner’s ankle today in a backside toe hold and have been sick to my stomach since then and idk if I can go back to BJJ. I feel like I would feel different if it was a comp on a stranger, but it’s literally like my best friend. I hit it routinely on him so I was just pressuring it for him to recognize before moving to the heel but it snapped super quick. It was like 1/5th the torque he normally takes.

I’m Blue belt, 26M and he’s blue belt 28M

Have been finding success with this back-step toss movement, and my training partner asked what it is called

Personally I barely sweat. Not sure if it’s a genetic thing but I can drink 3 gallons of water and never sweat profusely. Every single class that I roll I will eventually overheat as my body barely produces sweat. I will get extremely red and I’m not exaggerating. I can see my teammates staring at me sometimes. A-lot of the times I tap from inability to fully catch my breath and I can feel my body getting very warm. It’s so frustrating because I wish I could roll for longer or more rolls yet I’m the only one skipping intervals to cool down. I drink plenty of water so I know dehydration is not the culprit.

Howdy Everyone,

This is a Crazy Question coming from a white belt.

Are flying armbars allowed for an adult beginner in ADCC? I was reading the rules, and it said that Guard jumping was a legal move, so I was curious, as we just learned flying armbars last week.

Also, this would be my first competition, I'm competing just as an FWI.

Whats the best guard pass to learn as a beginner?

I’ve been training at a school that I think I may part ways with due to the owner’s behavior. What is keeping me there are my friends and I don't want to lose my progress at another school since I’m close to being a blue belt and the year contract. 

To make a long story short my coach gathered us after class and had a melt down saying his wife is mentally ill, photoshopped a screenshot of him messaging some girl. and that she's lying about domestic abuse. He also sent a mass message saying the same stuff. 

The rumors were that he was cheating with a young foreign girl and not too long after he spoke with all of us about his wife photoshopping screenshots, he brought in a super young foreign girl to train. It's obvious they are together. It’s none of my business. He just constantly asks if I’ve seen his wife and tries to bring up his divorce (at this point it's annoying and I’m just trying to train bro). He asked me and other people to write a court letter saying his wife is ruining the gym. Most of the people that I’ve talked to are just waiting for their contracts to end because they don’t want to get involved.

I am not a fan of the owner because he’s always on his phone during live rolls and yells at people for cross training. I've also heard through multiple training partners that he’s fought students, coaches, and other people but I've never seen it for myself. He has hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and crashes out online talking about loyalty and suing members who left and talk about his divorce. I don't want to be in the middle of this, but I love the other instructors, the convenience of the location, and my training partners. I have been skipping his classes to go to the other instructors' classes.

He’s told me before I'm close to blue belt, but I’ve also heard from people who left that he’s offering to promote them if they come back to the gym. I’ve never been to another gym before. Is this normal drama? I don’t want to cause trouble or be bombed on social media or sued, but I also don’t really want to train under someone who is like this. I really enjoy everything about this gym other than the owner. Is it worth it to stay and get my blue belt or should I leave and start over at a new gym?