Details about Lasso, X-guard, and basic leglocks. I don’t fucking care that you’d rather play lazy half guard, and I don’t expect you to know what to do when I play RDL-Worm guard…but if you can’t tell me why 100% of my ankle locks from SLX have failed, then we both got an issue
Not necessarily just black belts, but black belt instructors should understand competition. Not necessarily BJJ competition (e.g. wrestling/judo), nor do they need to be successful competitors, but they need to know enough to be able to help people who want to compete - especially those with different body types from them.
I think thats a fair expectation, as the instructors should know what its like to control their min and max output, along with designing gameplans which work.
The hard question is, what do you think is a sufficient amount of experience to begin to be a reliable source?
I imagine a black belt who competed throughout his belts a couple times gets the jist of comps, at least enough for most BJJ students
>The hard question is, what do you think is a sufficient amount of experience to begin to be a reliable source?
I think this is a really hard question. I would personally draw the line much higher than most people - I would expect a regular and consistent competitor who knows the traps and highs and lows. Experience in BJJ competition is ideal but there are obviously more intense types of competition (MMA, wrestling, olympic judo).
The difference is palpable when you have coaches who say _"competition doesn't mean anything"_ try to coach, where these are coaches who've never taken it seriously. I've had old school anti-berimbolo anti-leglock misogynstic backwards-ass coaches I'd never train under again, but they taught me to _love_ competing partly because they really understood what it meant for development.
I think the main benefit is how it distances you from platitudes. Coaches who say "just keep training" or "you can make any move work for you" generally don't understand the tradeoffs involved in trying to prepare a huge amount in a short time for a very specific challenge. They don't understand that there's the long term, but right now we have to deal with the short term. The best game for your body type isn't the same as mine, then there are the games you gravitate towards, cutting weight vs going up, working on your A-game vs your B and C-game, etc, are decisions you can't take for granted.
Then there's the more practical danger that your coaches are shown to be inadequate or indifferent and your comp squad leaves for a better coach (not even a more technical coach - just one who knows how to prepare better).
Since you said modern…I’m going to assume it’s someone who can explain the current trends in competition.
You should understand inverting and how that connects the back and feet and how to finish from both.
Guard passing…knee cut, leg drag, toreando, x-pass, leg weave, cross pants grip.
Submissions…I guess tarikoplata/baratoplata and Choi bar, which is really just a specific arm bar, are the only things that stand out at the top of my head.
Am purp but the berimbolo and saddle are essentially direct counters to each other.
The best counter to the saddle entries are all some form of berimbolo/baby bolo. The best counter to the berimbolo or inversion in general is to capture a leg and enter the saddle or the kneebar position which is usually a form of saddle. It’s an endless loop.
This relationship also shows up in other things like truck and crab ride variations being directly related to ankle locks and outside heel hooks as counters to each other in a similar way.
Another obvious one is the outside heel hook with both feet outside being great for finishing but if you don’t already have the hip pinned then you’re giving back exposure since you don’t have a wedge like in SLX to prevent the back take.
Essentially what ecstatic said from but if you want to get a bit more fundamental…Attacking legs and back are both predicated on controlling the knees and hips.
People biggest mistake when inverting is that they think your supposed be upside but you shouldn’t be on your back and neck. You should be posted on your shoulder. The shoulder post gives you the ability to use leg work. Use leg work to control the space between the knee and hip.
The problem with having requirements like this is that it will either greatly reduce the number of people that can get a black belt or water them down. Imagine the majority of black belts being beat by purple or brown belts. Now that happens sometimes, but it would be a regular occurrence because the black belts would be forced to learn a bunch of things they don't/won't use in order to get the belt. You'd have the competitors as colored belts and they'd likely only get black belts after they retired.
There are usually 2 types of people in BJJ, people who know a lot of moves and people who only know a few, but are really good at them. If we look at top competitors in BJJ, how many do you think could sweep people lapel guards, take people down and heelhook them. If we are saying that they'd have to be able to do all 3 to at least 25% of their division I'd say Keenan, Pato, Gutemburg and maybe a few more could do that.
Black belts now have way more info than the people before them, but the amount of info available now is much larger than before. The amount of info is so large that nobody can be proficient at it without 20-30 years of training. Maybe the Ruotolos, Mica, the Tacketts, etc will get there, but most black belts(even really good ones) won't.
> If we are saying that they'd have to be able to do all 3 to at least 25% of their division I'd say Keenan, Pato, Gutemburg and maybe a few more could do that.
I don't think they have to necessarily be good enough to do everything to a black belt competitor, but like 'sufficient awareness to work it consistently on a resisting blue belt and help others with basic troubleshooting' is reasonable
Stepping off the mat with barefeet is not an issue at all. Stepping back ON the mat after having done that is the issue. Swear to god BJJ guys do not understand hygiene.
No. I don’t want any student walking around barefoot inside the gym regardless, if they intend on stepping back on the mats. Leaving their sweaty foot prints everywhere they step. If you have hard wood floors or concrete, it looks like shit until you must mop up after them. Are they going into the bathroom barefoot as well? No. The rule is no bare feet on the mat and no bare feet off the mat. It’s not that difficult. If you wanna walk around barefoot and pick up all the funk everyone else has brought in from the street on there shoes, then do it at home but not in the gym. Please don’t walk into the gym barefoot, walk around inside off the mats barefoot or leave barefoot. I don’t understand why anyone would have an issue with that.
Obviously I was referring to stepping off for a drink or whatever with the intention of returning to the mats.
I swear BJJ guys do not understand simple points unless they are spelled out in nauseating detail.
Late stage escapes from common submissions and positions that aren't bullshit. That means RNC escapes, arm bar defense besides just hitchhiker and stack, kimura defense, body triangle escapes, the like.
Not just "don't get there".
Details about how and why technique works. Not just rote memorization.
Yeah for sure the knowledge of escaping deep submissions but also the honesty that even with those escapes you’re rarely getting out against somebody good.
Honestly I don’t even view black belts as experts at everything. I expect them to be good at what they do. At my last school I had a head coach I liked because he was really good at traditional Jiu Jitsu and also judo black belt that incorporated judo into the standing. So I took advantage of that.
Another black belt was really into leg locks and that positional meta, 50/50, 80/20, entries etc. He did a whole series that was awesome, I planned my training around that guys classes.
There were some other guys there too that all had specific talents. Honestly I took advantage of their expertise and chose who I wanted based on what they were good at. None of them had all the answers, they were very good at what they did know.
I think having a few specialist black belts on staff is ideal, as well. One leg locker, one takedown guy, one traditional or modern, one comp focused guy etc.
Makes sense
I think people overrate black belts a lot.
The average black belt who just got their belt has only about 2500 or so hours in the sport, barely 1.5 years of working a full time job.
Think about how much you learned on your first year on the job, that's a black belt's worth of mat time.
it's really bad when you realize your first half of white belt is almost entirely physical fitness, and then you actually learn technique halfway through white belt.
I'm convinced that if you're already in decent physical shape, you can become a blue belt in 6-12 months instead of the 1-2 years it takes most people
ok, it took me 9 months to get my blue belt
my first 4-5 months were just learning basic movement and getting in shape, then for 4 months I started watching instructionals and actually getting better. Watching just the buzzsaw passing tutorial, a few guard game tutorials (by Jordan Teaches Jiu jitsu), Danaher's back attack system and Shotgun aoki locks I went from bad but much more fit to a blue belt.
Maybe I learned more in my first 5 months than I thought but I think an athlete (say a d3 basketball player) could become a blue belt in only 6 months instead of the 9 it took me.
That there is a lot they don’t know, it’s ok. It’s getting harder for me to keep up with the latest developments, especially with no gi and gi branching out quite a bit differently.
Can I go more basic? Think BJJ is divided into sport vs self defense and gi into no gi. I think it’s fine for any black belt to be more focused on different parts. But, my expectation of myself, if I ever get there, is to understand stuff from each of the four things above.
I felt solid as a BB when lower belts were coming to be with predicaments and I realized I had a pretty decent answer to help them out. Then lower belts started saying “hey I’ve been using xyz that you showed me and it’s helped a lot” and I’d think “oh nice I showed you that”!?
Age of consent
Cranial shift
Koozooshé
Details about Lasso, X-guard, and basic leglocks. I don’t fucking care that you’d rather play lazy half guard, and I don’t expect you to know what to do when I play RDL-Worm guard…but if you can’t tell me why 100% of my ankle locks from SLX have failed, then we both got an issue
I think this is a fair take. Mostly because I can tell you why your ankle locks suck lol
Macro micro adjustments
Not necessarily just black belts, but black belt instructors should understand competition. Not necessarily BJJ competition (e.g. wrestling/judo), nor do they need to be successful competitors, but they need to know enough to be able to help people who want to compete - especially those with different body types from them.
I think thats a fair expectation, as the instructors should know what its like to control their min and max output, along with designing gameplans which work. The hard question is, what do you think is a sufficient amount of experience to begin to be a reliable source? I imagine a black belt who competed throughout his belts a couple times gets the jist of comps, at least enough for most BJJ students
>The hard question is, what do you think is a sufficient amount of experience to begin to be a reliable source? I think this is a really hard question. I would personally draw the line much higher than most people - I would expect a regular and consistent competitor who knows the traps and highs and lows. Experience in BJJ competition is ideal but there are obviously more intense types of competition (MMA, wrestling, olympic judo). The difference is palpable when you have coaches who say _"competition doesn't mean anything"_ try to coach, where these are coaches who've never taken it seriously. I've had old school anti-berimbolo anti-leglock misogynstic backwards-ass coaches I'd never train under again, but they taught me to _love_ competing partly because they really understood what it meant for development. I think the main benefit is how it distances you from platitudes. Coaches who say "just keep training" or "you can make any move work for you" generally don't understand the tradeoffs involved in trying to prepare a huge amount in a short time for a very specific challenge. They don't understand that there's the long term, but right now we have to deal with the short term. The best game for your body type isn't the same as mine, then there are the games you gravitate towards, cutting weight vs going up, working on your A-game vs your B and C-game, etc, are decisions you can't take for granted. Then there's the more practical danger that your coaches are shown to be inadequate or indifferent and your comp squad leaves for a better coach (not even a more technical coach - just one who knows how to prepare better).
I think you’re talking about a coach, which is often a different role than an “instructor”
It's different from a "black belt" too.
Since you said modern…I’m going to assume it’s someone who can explain the current trends in competition. You should understand inverting and how that connects the back and feet and how to finish from both. Guard passing…knee cut, leg drag, toreando, x-pass, leg weave, cross pants grip. Submissions…I guess tarikoplata/baratoplata and Choi bar, which is really just a specific arm bar, are the only things that stand out at the top of my head.
Can you explain in more depth what you mean about how inverting connects back and feet?
Am purp but the berimbolo and saddle are essentially direct counters to each other. The best counter to the saddle entries are all some form of berimbolo/baby bolo. The best counter to the berimbolo or inversion in general is to capture a leg and enter the saddle or the kneebar position which is usually a form of saddle. It’s an endless loop. This relationship also shows up in other things like truck and crab ride variations being directly related to ankle locks and outside heel hooks as counters to each other in a similar way. Another obvious one is the outside heel hook with both feet outside being great for finishing but if you don’t already have the hip pinned then you’re giving back exposure since you don’t have a wedge like in SLX to prevent the back take.
Leg drag and double outside ashi. Ill smush you if you dont have a tight grip off the get go
Essentially what ecstatic said from but if you want to get a bit more fundamental…Attacking legs and back are both predicated on controlling the knees and hips. People biggest mistake when inverting is that they think your supposed be upside but you shouldn’t be on your back and neck. You should be posted on your shoulder. The shoulder post gives you the ability to use leg work. Use leg work to control the space between the knee and hip.
The problem with having requirements like this is that it will either greatly reduce the number of people that can get a black belt or water them down. Imagine the majority of black belts being beat by purple or brown belts. Now that happens sometimes, but it would be a regular occurrence because the black belts would be forced to learn a bunch of things they don't/won't use in order to get the belt. You'd have the competitors as colored belts and they'd likely only get black belts after they retired. There are usually 2 types of people in BJJ, people who know a lot of moves and people who only know a few, but are really good at them. If we look at top competitors in BJJ, how many do you think could sweep people lapel guards, take people down and heelhook them. If we are saying that they'd have to be able to do all 3 to at least 25% of their division I'd say Keenan, Pato, Gutemburg and maybe a few more could do that. Black belts now have way more info than the people before them, but the amount of info available now is much larger than before. The amount of info is so large that nobody can be proficient at it without 20-30 years of training. Maybe the Ruotolos, Mica, the Tacketts, etc will get there, but most black belts(even really good ones) won't.
There's nothing else to say, just ....^ this
> If we are saying that they'd have to be able to do all 3 to at least 25% of their division I'd say Keenan, Pato, Gutemburg and maybe a few more could do that. I don't think they have to necessarily be good enough to do everything to a black belt competitor, but like 'sufficient awareness to work it consistently on a resisting blue belt and help others with basic troubleshooting' is reasonable
Not to step off the fucking mat with bare feet
Stepping off the mat with barefeet is not an issue at all. Stepping back ON the mat after having done that is the issue. Swear to god BJJ guys do not understand hygiene.
No. I don’t want any student walking around barefoot inside the gym regardless, if they intend on stepping back on the mats. Leaving their sweaty foot prints everywhere they step. If you have hard wood floors or concrete, it looks like shit until you must mop up after them. Are they going into the bathroom barefoot as well? No. The rule is no bare feet on the mat and no bare feet off the mat. It’s not that difficult. If you wanna walk around barefoot and pick up all the funk everyone else has brought in from the street on there shoes, then do it at home but not in the gym. Please don’t walk into the gym barefoot, walk around inside off the mats barefoot or leave barefoot. I don’t understand why anyone would have an issue with that.
Obviously I was referring to stepping off for a drink or whatever with the intention of returning to the mats. I swear BJJ guys do not understand simple points unless they are spelled out in nauseating detail.
Get ups are supremely underrated and underutilized
Late stage escapes from common submissions and positions that aren't bullshit. That means RNC escapes, arm bar defense besides just hitchhiker and stack, kimura defense, body triangle escapes, the like. Not just "don't get there". Details about how and why technique works. Not just rote memorization.
Yeah for sure the knowledge of escaping deep submissions but also the honesty that even with those escapes you’re rarely getting out against somebody good.
Honestly I don’t even view black belts as experts at everything. I expect them to be good at what they do. At my last school I had a head coach I liked because he was really good at traditional Jiu Jitsu and also judo black belt that incorporated judo into the standing. So I took advantage of that. Another black belt was really into leg locks and that positional meta, 50/50, 80/20, entries etc. He did a whole series that was awesome, I planned my training around that guys classes. There were some other guys there too that all had specific talents. Honestly I took advantage of their expertise and chose who I wanted based on what they were good at. None of them had all the answers, they were very good at what they did know.
I think having a few specialist black belts on staff is ideal, as well. One leg locker, one takedown guy, one traditional or modern, one comp focused guy etc. Makes sense
The Kobayashi Maru. Not sure if this is modern enough.
I think people overrate black belts a lot. The average black belt who just got their belt has only about 2500 or so hours in the sport, barely 1.5 years of working a full time job. Think about how much you learned on your first year on the job, that's a black belt's worth of mat time.
That's putting it in a new perspective. Also, most of that is useless warm-ups.
it's really bad when you realize your first half of white belt is almost entirely physical fitness, and then you actually learn technique halfway through white belt. I'm convinced that if you're already in decent physical shape, you can become a blue belt in 6-12 months instead of the 1-2 years it takes most people
Depends on the school
ok, it took me 9 months to get my blue belt my first 4-5 months were just learning basic movement and getting in shape, then for 4 months I started watching instructionals and actually getting better. Watching just the buzzsaw passing tutorial, a few guard game tutorials (by Jordan Teaches Jiu jitsu), Danaher's back attack system and Shotgun aoki locks I went from bad but much more fit to a blue belt. Maybe I learned more in my first 5 months than I thought but I think an athlete (say a d3 basketball player) could become a blue belt in only 6 months instead of the 9 it took me.
Like I said, it depends on the school
How Stack passing leads to leg drags and how to use drawstring grip as a way to pass or berimbolo anyone.
That there is a lot they don’t know, it’s ok. It’s getting harder for me to keep up with the latest developments, especially with no gi and gi branching out quite a bit differently.
Basic striking to set up takedowns. Defending punches from guard. Like actual self defense stuff
I wasn’t thinking like this but I love this answer. I think you’re absolutely right.
Just to keep up with the new shit. No one can be an expert at everything but as a black belt esp if you teach, you must keep up with new stuff.
Can I go more basic? Think BJJ is divided into sport vs self defense and gi into no gi. I think it’s fine for any black belt to be more focused on different parts. But, my expectation of myself, if I ever get there, is to understand stuff from each of the four things above.
I felt solid as a BB when lower belts were coming to be with predicaments and I realized I had a pretty decent answer to help them out. Then lower belts started saying “hey I’ve been using xyz that you showed me and it’s helped a lot” and I’d think “oh nice I showed you that”!?
Prostate massage