World class BJJ practitioner Tim Spriggs dropped the question regards the tactics being focussed on by many bjj players today. Tim is a absolute beast on the mat and well rounded athlete and hit on some great points in his post so I figured I would take the time to respond.
World class BJJ practitioner Tim Spriggs dropped the question regards the tactics being focussed on by many bjj players today. Tim is a absolute beast on the mat and well rounded athlete and hit on some great points in his post so I figured I would take the time to respond.
Tim you are 200 percent right on this point but it’s beating a dead horse.. everyone trains for their own reasons and like it or not the art has split into very different off shoots from the complete art of jiu-jitsu you saw with guys like Jacare, Renzo, Alan goes, Murillo Bustamante etc..
The sport of BJJ is growing every year.
Mixed martial arts is popular world wide with BJJ recognized as a key fundamental to success in a mixed martial arts and combat in general.
Yes without a doubt there there are purple belts who have no clue how to clinch a standing opponent with strikes in the mix, and on the other side of the coin lots of self defence of fight based bjj guys who have never taken a moment to learn the reactions to Berimolo’s, worm guards and other very grip specific tactics that work great in sport bjj.
I guess that is really my whole point..
People practice BJJ for their area of interest, The way i see it the only danger is when a student comes in looking to learneffective self defence or fighting skills and instead ends up spending most of thier time focussing on the finer points of avoiding the knee reap, double guard pull strategy and other sport oriented techniques as the full picture of the art.
With the art growing as fast as it has over the past 15 years there is no doubt some specialization was bound to take place.
And as a result most of grumbling we hear from Classical 90’s and 2000’s era BJJ artists are complaining about the facts the new generation is focussing too much on just the tactics applicable to the modern tournament battlefield.
The trouble many of these old schooler’s have relating comes from the fact, most people starting BJJ in the 90’s such as myself only did so to become better fighter and martial artist.
Doing tournaments was fun but never looked at as anything more than a tool to further that objective.
Today with BJJ is polular as it is there are students introduced training and learning the art only in its sportive element knowing nothing about the old school combative history of the art.
Murillo Bustamante – Pioneer for effective bjj in mixed martial arts
Personally I don’t have any preference in styles and love everything everything from ground work of Judo, BJJ sambo and Wrestling to striking tactics taken from Muay Thai, Karate, Savate and Boxing, but when you really break it all down in a real fight there are no styles & all the names are just labels.
“More on that in another blog post sometime perhaps”
Really there are only “so many” effective ways to bend someone arm back and get that submission, or avoid taking damage in getting a fight to range where you can effectively use your grappling skills and none of that is owned exclusively by any particular style.
Style comes into effect tournament time in the sportive application of your art.
With all the rules strategy and tactics it takes to compete, absolutely you had better be up to datepercent on all tactics and techniques likely coming your way or don’t expect much success.
“sport bjj players aren’t going to dominate in the ufc tomorrow but very few if any mma fighters can cross over and dominate in the gi either”
MMA or self defence based BJJ stylists who haven’t taken the time to develop their modern sport BJJ games are generally in serious trouble vs high level practitioners of the sport when fighting under those rules..
To sum it all up being complete in your abilities is best. but as the saying goes
“Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight”
Knowing when to focus on the right skills is crucial for success in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu as a sport and martial art.
