see if you can find someone that you can work with at your dojo (is that what you call the jjj or krav maga place you work at?) that will let you test out your escape(s). what i consider to be the beginning of my journey in martial arts happened when i started questioning what i was being taught and attempting to use it against someone who wasn't just going to let me do it--this was well after i had been doing martial arts for some time. you'll probably need to establish some ground rules so neither of you get hurt. but you know, try to use the techniques you've been taught to get one of your jjj or krav maga buddies off you. cheers.
Consider yourself lucky you're finding this out now. The way I learnt wrist locks not working was in the middle of a fight with a huge (prison weights) crack/heroin addict. I was so naive I actually though it was as simple as "grab and twist"! After that I got my butt down to somewhere that practices with resisting opponents
What area of the country are you in? If it's anywhere near Swindon or Reading, there are loads of local BJJ clubs. I'm assuming you're not a million miles from there if a white belt traveled just for a quick demo!
I would also recommend not fighting crack head muscle bound ex cons using pressure points unless you have solid waza training. I think there is a congruent theme to our advice.
Is anyone else amazed that a BJJ whitebelt would give a seminar on BJJ. I'm a whitebelt, and as far as I am concerned it would be highly inappropriate for me to give a seminar. Firstly I would be risking embarrassing myself if there was someone who actually knew what he was doing at the seminar, secondly there would be a risk of misrepresenting the art. If someone asked a whitebelt to teach a class I would really hope they would graciously decline, and perhaps pass the enquiry on to someone who is actually competent in the art. Trewornan, don't judge BJJ by the ability of a whitebelt. Also I wouldn't bother trying to learn from seminars. In my opinion, for the average student the bare minimum of training required to progress at a reasonable rate would be 3 hours a week, being formally instructed in a class environment, rolling with a range of people many of whom are better than you. The occasional seminar will make no difference to your ability. Seminars are useful to supplement your training in an art, but not to replace it.
I'm in Aylesbury but I'm already doing 7-8 hours of MA a week in three different disciplines so I'm pretty close to the limit of what's practical anyway. I could probably fit in another hour somewhere but 3 hours a week on a regular basis is unlikely. Maybe this is something to put on a back burner for when I've got a little more slack in my schedule. Although if I can do an hour a week with some guys from kickboxing/krav I think I'll at least give it a try. The video of the guy explaining why it wouldn't be as easy as you'd think to grab his balls did make sense - or at least seemed to.
I consider myself a good kicker and a semi decent boxer. My wife has been doing BJJ quite intensely (6-7 times a week) for 3-4 months but she gets the better of me every time we spar under MMA rules. People need to give BJJ more credit than it is due.
So amazed. I'd feel uncomfortable doing something like this for free, let alone taking money for it (to be fair, OP didn't specify whether the white belt charged for this 'seminar'). I've travelled as a grappling dummy for seminars, but hosting a seminar? No freaking way!
I know a number of people from the BJJ/Judo clans in that area. I know a couple of guys from RGA and have attended a few classes and they are friendly and helpful. There is also a national level judo training facility in the area. Man you are spoiled for choice. Perhaps you might want to back off what you are doing a little and go and check out what is available and see how things compare. Personally (and that is really the only way any of us see things) I would be interested in whether the facilities I train in meet my needs. That can mean quite a few things to different people. If you want some exercise and a chance to learn something new then maybe anywhere will do. If you want to learn how to grapple or fight against an aggressive striking opponent then you wouldd probably want to be more selective. If you don't get what you wnat/need from where you are studying then maybe you should be studying somewhere else.. that isn't a criticism of their system or themselves but more that you are working towards fufilling what you need in the best possible way. FWIW LFD
First thought - white belt giving a seminar? What the hell? I can understand a white belt dropping by to pass a few techniques to some mates in an informal fashion but not as a seminar. Did you pay money for this? My thoughts in response to your comments... a) As to BJJ being primarily self defense this will depend on your mindset and goals while training. A lot of people train with only the sport context in mind but if you are thinking of the applicability of each technique you are training to self defense it will bring your farther in my opinion. b) I agree it's possible. What you already know may be suffcient. But BJJ is still better. How sufficient your current knowledge and training is will largely depend on how you train it. I'll drop the term 'live training' in here. It's important. c) True. But the basics are always going to be sooo much more important to the point where a lot of those things become irrelevant enough that you may not need to train them. Also, as has already been mentioned you need to have the basics down to even use these. I do however see the value in doing more self defense style training in BJJ rather than solely focusing on sports. It's one thing to hear about eye gouges etc not working and another to see for yourself. Even something as simple as something trying to hit you can open your mind up a bit.
Lots of good advice here. My 2 cents: a. Probably not primary tool - given the choice you don't want to go to ground. But sometimes punching someone in the face isn’t the solution (though it makes me weep to admit it) and you may end up on the floor anyway, so you should probably have it there as plan B b. Depends a lot on what you are learning, but I would suggest that the staples of bjj are extraordinarily valuable. (I speak as a 300lb plus guy who has done a bit of rolling & I get routinely owned by much smaller guys who take their grappling a bit more seriously) c. 'Dirty' tactics seem fine but generally fail on two points - 1. you can't rely on any technique you haven't drilled under pressure 2. don't overestimate their effectiveness; most people who train hard have carried on after accidental eye pokes, groin shots etc. I have finished quite tough sessions with broken fingers, and that is without the adrenaline/drugs/booze of a streetfight Generally ‘self-defence techniques’ are a but overrated imho, and repetition and experience are underrated – there is no ‘magic’ about a jab or a left hook, it is the craft of a decent boxer that elevates them to fightstoppers. Likewise with bjj – you may only need to have a couple of decent sweeps, a choke and a guard pass in your toobox – but it is hours of practice that turn them into lifesavers. And bjj does that drilling and rolling better than anyone
This. Times infinity, this. I've done a variety of different MAs, and have just started hunting for a new BJJ school (moving cities sucks). The thing that attracts me to BJJ so much is the ability to drill and roll under live situations with relatively minor risk of serious injury. There's only so much hard sparring you can do before you break your nose, or do some other mischief to yourself. Doing this puts you out for a little while, and you lose valuable training time. BJJ is so useful, from my perspective, specifically because you train so hard at it. In my opinion, a good chunk of the reason you can train that hard, and as regularly as many of us do, is because you're well and fit. This training means I have issues not using guillotines. I did KM once, and found it really hard to break a learned pattern of wrapping my arm around someone's kneck whenever their head ended up waist height. BJJ is really unlike any of the martial arts I've seen in 'aliveness', if you'll excuse the silly word.
This is, I believe, exactly the same rationale for Kano's creation of judo from jujitsu - the techniques you can train under pressure repeatedly are more useful than the more dangerous techniques that you can't spar with (not wanting to open the whole judo v bjj can of worms!)
my two cents. A.) Hey you need to do whats best for you as a person regardless, but the problem I see first of all is I'm guessing you were only learning sport based techniques. As many have mentioned I don't see how a white belt is teaching anybody. Looking back on how bad I was just as as a new blue belt, compared to now I shutter at the idea. the problem is you more than likely saw no or very little BJJ/ gracie jiujitsu self defense techniques. Even though their persistent marketing can get very annoying Rener Gracie and his families combatives system do indeed touch on and make self defense a very important aspect. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSS7IYSs7WY"]The Principles of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu with Rener Gracie - YouTube[/ame] B.) doubtful. C.) not going to beat a dead horse seeing as many have already commented on this type of thinking, but yeah the most important aspect is your position first- none of these "dirty"tactics will defeat an entire bjj skill set ,just usually **** the guy off more. I've always thought "what can you say about your entire martial arts career, if out of all of the years of training, when in a bad spot you respond with the same tactics 12 year old untrained girls respond with.
