More BJJ bullshido - The Gracie Combatives Licensing Program™

[Teh El Macho]

I will be extremelly surprised if the Gracies turn this into a series of drills followed by a certification with no sparring at all. Let's knock on wood.

[Teh El Macho]

Also, and a bit off the tangent, but this rubs me wrong, too:

Although thousands of instructors claim to teach pure Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, over 95% of them actually teach the sportive based Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and simply use the Gracie name to add marketing value.

FWIW, BJJ instructors are quite vocal in distancing themselves from anything "Gracie". The claim above is plain bullcrap.

[Pandinha]

Also, and a bit off the tangent, but this rubs me wrong, too:

Although thousands of instructors claim to teach pure Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, over 95% of them actually teach the sportive based Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and simply use the Gracie name to add marketing value.

FWIW, BJJ instructors are quite vocal in distancing themselves from anything "Gracie". The claim above is plain bullcrap.

I have to agree. I once wore an old GJJ shirt to ATT to pick something up, it was nearly ripped off of me.

[UpaLumpa]

You guys do realize that
1- 80 hours of small group instruction is probably more than what most people will get in a year (if you weight for group size).

2- Many people get their bluebelts in about a year

3- Bluebelts (speaking as one) aren't actually that good, you're just comparing them to shit.

[meataxe]

OK, we need a new tag for people who are 2-week blue belts. Wow, I could be a badass by Halloween!

[ignignokt]

Official blue belt stuff aside, it's pretty dishonest for them to endorse people that have trained for only two weeks as good trainers. It's hard enough to learn something as deep as that in two weeks, much less teach it to someone else.

I could be wrong about this, but if someone trained jiu-jitsu for 80 hours over the course of 20 weeks, as opposed to 80 hours over two weeks, I think their muscle memory would retain the techniques better. Frankly, sometimes when I'm shown three new techniques during the course of a two-hour judo session, I usually retain only one well enough to try to apply it a week later. I know that I kinda suck, but I doubt that the people taking the course would be all that much better.

[UpaLumpa]

While overload may be a factor, your muscle memory comment is just silly.

[Askari]

Official blue belt stuff aside, it's pretty dishonest for them to endorse people that have trained for only two weeks as good trainers. It's hard enough to learn something as deep as that in two weeks, much less teach it to someone else.

In their defence, they claim they are only allowing people who are already instructors to take this program.

If you are a club owner there is some assumption that you have some sort of teaching skill.

However well, or not well, that skill might be developed.

[Cassius]

3- Bluebelts (speaking as one) aren't actually that good, you're just comparing them to shit.

Ditto. Also, Brazilians tend to care way less about handing out blue belts than Americans do.

[Matt W.]

How much does it cost, again?

[jtkarate]

If this gets out of hand and they are giving out black belts in BJJ, I'd say this was getting out of hand, but with the Matt Furey advertising put aside, this has more positive than negative for any school that has ZERO grappling inhouse.

I will agree that it is a good thing for someone who wants to add grappling to their school.

But for somone to be able to move a student up to the rank that they technically have is utter crap.

Also doing this is going to create a whole wave of frauds saying they teach GJJ just because they got a pretty little certificate for their 80 hours of training.

So yes it does have pros to it but I believe that the cons will far outweigh them.

[ninjafetus]

Since we pretty much don't know how the rank issues will work, I won't comment on it. But regarding the statement that, "this has more positive than negative for any school that has ZERO grappling inhouse," I would argue that it would depend on the quality of instruction. I would rather a school not grapple then grapple incorrectly. I shudder at the thought of the "arm bars" that the TTU self defense class was teaching; if any of those girls tried to use it, they'd just get themselves hurt.

[djchangster]

I dont doubt it doesnt take long to learn 34 techniques...I skimmed thru the BJJ book, and know most od the moves off by heart

i could probably teach most kickboxing techniques within a day


but its Mcdojo nonetheless

[chingythingy]

This is simply Gracies marketing their Combatives program they developed for the Army to MA schools. There seems to be a little quality control in that they require instructors to evaluate and promote to blue belt.

However, this is diluting the blue belt level in most cases. There are a lot of stories of seminar promotions and other such stuff. There seems to be schools that promote to blue faster than others - some tougher schools it takes 2+ years, competitions, and a higher level. Others only 1 year.

I guess they get away with it a little more quality control at the purple level. But personally I wouldn't want to be one of those guys. White belts from a good school love to kick the shit out of them. I bet you get a lot of people like that that get to blue and quit. I think it's a lot better idea to be a little tougher at the blue belt.

But yeah - Gracie McBlueBelt.

[Askari]

I skimmed thru the BJJ book, and know most od the moves off by heart

Which BJJ book is this?