I’ve been sitting around thinking and that means another thread from me. And this most comes after reading some discussion on the topic of “what techniques are there in BJJ that weren’t in Judo?” where I saw quite a few techniques being claimed as being invented by BJJ that made me laugh, because otherwise I would have cried. I don’t think it’s a secret that BJJ, or at least high level competition BJJ has changed quite a bit over a few decades. Those who have been doing it longer than I have can probably give more details on what those changes are and how vast but I’ll leave it at that. By you see many people cross training to improve certain aspects of their games e.g. Judo for general stand-up and throws. And if these people are successful, they may also be coaches and take these techniques back to their clubs and share. But with so many people cross training in other grappling arts to improve certain aspects of their game, where do you draw the line between what is truly BJJ and what is something else? Out of all the grappling styles out there how would you decide whether a certain technique came from or was primarily influenced by BJJ, Judo, catch or whatever? I’m tempted to simply give up and call it all “submission grappling”, but maybe not within earshot of my instructor.
Does a BJJ black belt do it, do they teach it, does it fit into the general bjj paradigm. The great thing is BJJ is open source, where as most ma are very much only have top down control of the arts content.
I've never really been a fan of the "true art" stuff. I'm sure if you grabbed the original Gracie and told him about reverse de la riva or octopus guard he'd think you were a numpty. Arts naturally evolve and in an art that it based very hard in competition, and is relatively young, its going to change quite a bit and draw from different sources. I think that's a good thing personally. I don't get that hung up on whether something's a judo or bjj technique personally. I use a couple of more wrestling centered techniques but by virtue of doing them in a gi in a bjj class they're part of my "bjj game" not my "bjj with a hint of wrestling game" I mean all arts come from somewhere presumably? I've seen hapkido and aikido guys do what looks like the same technique but I'm sure they don't put much thought into who came up with it first and style it from who. Now its just part of their own style.
The issue with competition shaping an art evolving, is that sometimes taking advantage of the rules reduces the applicability of the art to other situations, the great thing is that bjj has competitions under multiple rulesets so its evolution can only strengthen the art. Apart from the berimbolo of course.........
Hmm I kind of agree that BJJ is open source. I suppose it's more I have an issue with giving credit where credit is due. I'll learn it regardless because it's all pretty awesome. But when you see people say silly things like 'BJJ invented that technique' when referring to something relatively basic you have to at least raise an eyebrow. Around here as well there is only really comps under one ruleset and that's the IBJJF ones, which the referees don't even seem to know, but that's another issue.
Gotta love those "local belts who are friends of the tournament hoster" referees. One of the ones my team went to apparently had a ref who was nomming pizza on the mat. Take that over paying £100 entry fee to pay for ibjjf refs though.
