Things BJJ'ers don't like about BJJ

one of these days i'm going to drive down there and train since it's only a couple hours away. have to pick the right weekend though. occasionally, my wife takes the kids out of town for the weekend. last time she did that, i drove down to the creation museum in kentucky to see first hand the insanity going on there. wish instead of going to see nonsense, i spent a couple days training.

 

Iirc renner's degee is in marketing. No sunprise there!

 

I think the thing that I most dislike about BJJ and actually all martial arts in general is the weirdoes it attracts...but hey it comes with the territory.

the Gracie god worship. Im not religious at all and bowing to a picture of another human is a no no in my book.

 

That happens in JMA too. Pictures of Kano, Ueshiba and even in my own style of Karate we have a picture of the Kancho that is bowed to too.
I'm not a fan myself either.

 

In japanese arts it exists because bowing can be akin to shaking hands, however the majority of bjj gyms Dont do this at all, the gracie acadamy and Gracie Barra seem to more much more up for this however.

 

When I was more into Judo, it was a very traditional gym where everyone lined up, bowed to the photo of Kano, and class was run with a very strict etiquette. Not exactly my thing, but it was a Japanese Instructor, mostly Japanese students, and was just a cultural thing. So no biggie, when in Rome and all that.

My BJJ gym is a lot more like wrestling practice with a gi in terms of culture. Warm up, drill whatever the instructor wants you to drill, then roll. Or if guys are preparing for competition we focus their game and conditioning a little more. No lining up, no bowing, not a lot of formality at all.

Honestly, the BJJ way (at least at my gym) is a lot more my style. I know some places are more formal than others, but I'd say in general BJJ tends to be a lot more laid back in its culture.

My disclaimer is that I train at a Machado gym, and the other places I've gone to roll are Machado lineage... so I'm only speaking from my own experience here.

 

Dusting off an old thread here I know, but something else that came up over the holidays there:

A young assistant coach* getting at someone for "only training twice a week". I've seen this quite a bit. There seems to be a real attitude in BJJ that people who merely train twice a week simply aren't committed enough. In any other martial art I ever tried, someone who went to training twice a week, every week, was considered a pretty committed.

It's an odd attitude. Certainly I would agree that for local competitions, someone should maybe consider doing 3 or 4 sessions a week. If you just want to develop skill and get a little bit of a workout, twice a week is fine. I've seen plenty of purple belts who are killers who have got there by training twice a week. I've also seen another guy get his BB this year having trained twice a week as injury meant that was all he could manage. Admittedly it took him 14.5 years to get his BB, but good to see it's possible.

 

The lack of standardized nomenclature and codification. Too many different names for the exact same techniques (from school to school) among which many stupid names that don't describe what's actually being done. It's very confusing for beginners -which hurts bjj's attractiveness imo - who need clarity.

 

At our school we only name the solidified positions. DLR, butterfly guard, side control etc. We don't actually use names.

 

Most BJJ names are pretty darn clear, nearside armbar, far side spinning armbar , cross collar choke, bullfighter pass, Sidecontrol etc, seems pretty clear to me.

Also beginners should just learn what there coach is teaching, and the names s/he uses, its only newbie YouTube warriors who get confused about names.

 

Most is cool. How about the many that are not?

No.

 

What names are confusing?
Is it the ones named after their originator?

DLR guard, darce choke etc?

 

i think it helps to write the techniques and positions down. i like how john danaher talks about the problem. he always uses the correct terminology and stresses that his students do also.

 

Like there are three names for the D'arce Choke. I don't know what the bullfighter pass is for instance.

 

here's my only big gripe, and this applies to all "martial arts" gyms: there's always one to three guys that either don't ever wash his/her gi, or take a shower.

look, maybe i'm a little more sensitive to odors than others. i always wear a clean gi, shorts and rash guard, and i wash ever day. i don't use deodorant or anti-perspirant--haven't in over 20 years--so i *have* to wash and use clean equipment. and let's say it's a really hot day, and i've been biking, i will wash off before i go to the gym, just so i don't stink when wrestling my bjj buddies.

but some people, i mean high ranking dudes, just stink. it's horrible and i don't want to roll with someone that doesn't respect me or themselves enough to stay clean.

 

http://bjjscout.com/2014/10/21/positional-studies-the-japanese-necktie-w-richie-martinez/

Ive always thought that Darce is the nogi version, and brabo is the gi version, but not everyone keeps that definition.
Do you mean an anaconda (the wrap up is opposite to a darce), of course then there's a japanese (darce derivative) necktie.

Bull fighter pass (torenda?) Is double knee grips, fake one way, run around the other, as if your a Spanish bullfighter trying to outwit a charging bull.

 

I wouldn't say that is obvious.

 

I've always thought that the appropriate etiquette is a shower before and after BJJ.

 

More so then "yama arashi" in Judo is, what else would you call it, the run around the outside pass is quite a mouthful.

 

Vaporizer...magic sweep...fat elvis...skinny elvis... those many technique names with little to zero descriptive factor and those that also go under many other names depending on who you talk to.