Jiu Jitsu is Broken & How to fix it

[@Davin-b1r]

As a D1 wrestler who has it ENGRAINED to maintain an “attack” mentality! I think this is an extremely insightful breakdown

[@bristoncraigson9151]

Thank you

[@psychotropy101]

Brown belt here 🙋🏽‍♂️ I 100% agree. Whenever I teach, I always remind my guys to always keep a "street" mentality while training.

[@derrickrobinson7269]

I've always had this mentality coming from an MMA gym to a pure grappling gym. My A-game is wrestling, passing, control, then chokes, but if I get taken down, I immediately try to stand up by turtling, 4-point, kicking away to use the tactical getup. I play bottom guard with much more emphasis on wrist control, bicep control, and keeping my head protected. My goal is to stand up or sweep using Dog fight, K Guard, or wrestling up. I will pull guard if I have the correct grips and immediately go for Williams Guard, which in my opinion, is the best against strikes if you cannot do rubber guard. I'm in a gym full of leg lockers, RDLR, and other leg configuration players. Gave me great leg lock defense, and I use them myself if I see the quick opportunity for a sweep, but using it as a go-to never made sense to me

[@bristoncraigson9151]

Right On

[@biashacker]

Finally someone speaking the truth. The guard that Levi used would not be applicable in a self defense scenario. Levi would have gotten beaten down. I saw this when I trained at AKA and especially when I trained at Extreme Couture.

[@theadaptiveone]

My friend, I am in 100% in agreement with you, at my own gym i'm literally one of the only students preaching the reality of self defense. Many times it just falls on deaf ears and people look at me like I'm stupid.

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@theadaptiveone unfortunately there is a growing divide in Jiu Jitsu. Self-Defense application needs to be a prerequisite for Black Belt attainment IMHO.

[@biashacker]

I hear you man. One guy told me that, this is not what BJJ is for. He said if you want to learn self defense train MMA. Of course this was one of the dumbest statements I had ever heard in my life. If I had to choose between Ruotolo and Levi to help me in a street fight, I would choose Ruotolo hands down.

[@perryBJJ]

Good video! -- I personally agree with you 100%, as would probably most guys who started in the 90s. Today, jiu jitsu is a "big tent" martial art. All kinds of people view it all kinds of ways. But MOST practitioners view BJJ primarily as a sport. That's where all the energy and focus is. As an instructor, if you mention "self-defense" or talk about strikes in a typical jiu jitsu class, you can sometimes feel students are not interested. -- Some are -- but many students think: Why are you talking about this in a BJJ class...? What does this have to do with jiu jitsu? As you well know, that's NOT the way it used to be. When I started, people were mostly there because they wanted to be able to use this stuff in a fight against another human being. Period. I agree with the philosophy that the more disparate rues-sets which exist, the better; Gi , no gi, reaping & all leglocks legal, combat jj rules... whatever. The greater the number of rule sets, the better for the art -- not the sport, but the art. Playing strictly to one rule-set, is what damages most combat sports. They start to get silly exploiting the rules.

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@perryBJJ thank you for the input and interaction with the video. I appreciate it.

[@bristoncraigson9151]

Cheal Sonnen just said it better than I ever could.

[@acd-combatives]

I totally agree with you. All the training/ energy going into guard pulling would be better served training your Tomoe Nage to roll into a mount or to throw & stand up. Guard should be "Plan B".

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@acd-combatives I love sport Jiu Jitsu. I believe training for the sport of Jiu Jitsu will make you a very formidable Martial Artist. My problem isn't with the sport itself. My issue is with the guard pulling strategy and what it's doing to the art. Thanks for watching Bro.

[@gailvalleymartialarts]

I think the problem is simply that they basically removed strikes from Jiu-Jitsu due to the tournament rules. Just always train with strikes and hope they will one they have a popular competition rule set with strikes.

[@jeovaandersonLA]

In my humble opinion, the most efficient and least tiring jiu-jitsu is to play passing, but it is also the easiest, the "new jiu-jitsu" serves to combat the "old jiu-jitsu" with berimbolos, k guard, de la riva... these guard and the game behind is pure art. Levi proved that a truly good guard is extremely difficult to deal with. It is much more difficult to have a good guard than to know how to pass the guard. That is why those who play 90% passing have a mediocre guard and when they are swept by other people who are good at passing, they have a bad time.

[@jeovaandersonLA]

Pulling guard is an alternative that weaker people have found to beat stronger people in Jiu-Jitsu, it is extremely unlikely that you will beat someone as skilled as you but 10, 20.. kg heavier. What will happen is that he will take you down and probably fall into a position of extreme advantage, such as mount and side control. A good pull to guard eliminates the risk of you suffering this (a good pull to guard is done with grips and controls). Of course, in a street situation it is extremely dangerous, but that is not its purpose. Its purpose is to combat the typical stronger and spammer knee slice/ side chest passing.

[@jeovaandersonLA]

You can see that unlike the old guard styles like half guard, butterfly guard, closed guard etc... obviously they work, but the current guards like x guard, single leg guard, k guard, these guards give you much more control of the distance and balance of whoever is on top, without letting the passer get close to the point of imposing his physique.

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@jeovaandersonLA With respect, I disagree that guard passing is the easier game. You and I are talking about two different things anyway. I'm speaking about the martial ineffectiveness of guard pulling in an actual fight and how the sport of Jiu Jitsu should reflect that. I'm talking about rewarding strategies that keep Jiu Jitsu relevant as a martial art. If there are no punches being thrown and your only concern is the (Game) of Jiu Jitsu, guard pulling against a heavier opponent can make sense. Especially if you are playing the point game and you know you are outmatched in stand up. However that is not my concern. Try to play De la Riva and Berimbolo when it matters and punches are coming at you. You may wish you spent more time on takedowns and top fighting then. If that's not a concern of yours, no biggie. More power to you. Just be aware of the blind spots in your Jiu Jitsu.

[@jeovaandersonLA]

@@bristoncraigson9151 That's my point. Pulling guard has the sole purpose of fighting jiujitsu fighters in jiujitsu matches, we agree with that. But if we were to talk about real confrontations, do you believe that the ground is the best place? Even if you are on top? If it is 1v1 self-defense environment, no external complications in the perfect environment i agree with you .

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@jeovaandersonLA Frist of all I want you to know that I appreciate you engaging with the video and offering your opinion. I am going to give you my background ONLY to qualify MY opinion on this. It's not my intention to come off arrogant. My intent is to encourage people to think about Jiu Jitsu a little differently. We both love the art and that is clear. I spent 8 years in the Army and in that time I was deployed to combat three times. Two of those deployments was with the 2nd Ranger Battalion. Since then I have worked in Law Enforcement for 9 years. I have seen a lot of real violence up close and personal. My experience has shown me that my training methods are correct. In an actual confrontation where I have had to subdue people without causing them serious harm takedowns and knee rides were implemented and very important. I never needed a "Perfect Environment" and a was able to adjust to the circumstances around me. Because of my training I have been able to takedown larger assailants with ease. It has come up from time to time where an additional assailant engaged me. In those times, because I was ON TOP I was able to return to my feet and escalate to a higher level of force. If I was on bottom that would not have been an option. Don't misunderstand me, I love having a dangerous guard, I just refuse to use it as a strategy. No art, I don't care what they say can realistically address the multiple assailant scenario, with the exception of Weapon Arts. But that is a different conversation.

[@bristoncraigson9151]

My apologies to Levi Jones-Leary for butchering his name.

[@DonaldNairn92]

100% agree. I’m lucky enough to have only ever done MMA. Trained for nearly 14 years, and never worn a gi or received a belt. I like to think, my ‘mma mentality’ approach to grappling is much more sensible than diving on heel hooks like most young grapplers I encounter. I try to keep this mentality in my coaching as well, but you have to admit, teaching/ learning/ doing berimbolos and crazy leg entries and silly guard attacks is so much fun lol

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@DonaldNairn92 no doubt, very fun!

[@umoplata]

Please keep in mind, I'm 100% in agreement in theory and I'm not at all talking about anyone's accomplishments in terms of fighting. I've done plenty of that myself but that's why I realize it's not for most people. If we want to know where Jiu-Jitsu will be in 10 years, you don't have to guess. Look at where karate is. Look at where taekwondo is. This is the natural progression of combat systems that were initially started as combat systems, but those are too hardcore for the masses. They will then find a derivative of it that they enjoyed doing. That's more palatable to them. They will then do that and the money goes in that direction. Then there's just a bunch of hardcore guys on the side salty talking about back in the day or what helio Gracie used to do.. it doesn't matter if you can smash everyone every single one of those upside down inverted guard players in a fight because they picked up their toys and walked away. They don't want to fight. This is the whole thing. Everyone has a different direction and a different objective where they're training. I can't tell them this is how you have to do it if they say. I understand what you're saying but I want to play this game over here. So when I say an alternative I'm not talking about efficacy as a fight. Everybody competing in terms of anything to do with combat knows you can't do that. Hopefully pulling guard to when fights all the time but 99% of people are not doing that. I go back too NFL football. People are fanatics about watching it, but they don't want to play it even on a beer League level for the most part. So when I say alternatives or answers when I'm talking about is what alternatives can you we or the rest of the what I would call conventional jiu-Jitsu practitioners come up with that. The masses can also participate in or support. I find that with the competitor's ego is the big problem. Bing fighters you want to fight to show that you have the answer and as a result the ability to work together is very minimal. So when it comes time to organize and to put that aside and work as a group, it's very difficult which is why there is nothing at all across the board in Jiu-Jitsu through that capacity. You're the best fighter Sean proof. Get your money retire. Call it a day. That's the formula for the most part. What is in it for the rest of the people? The only people I can see who sort of started something along those lines what it's the Gracie Brothers and you know there was a lot lacking there. But it's palatable for the average everyday person. And again the truth is people don't care about being punch proof long term. They just want to play at this point so I am 100% behind any type of alternative whether it be a group of people whether it be on loosely knit Network of people whether it be just resources. Something but talking about it being broken doesn't make any sense because Jiu-Jitsu is doing better than ever. They just had a tournament with 10,000 competitors at over $300 a pop. That's $3 million. Who can I tell that the art is broken when they're making lifetime money every weekend with their events after saying no, I don't want to fight..

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@umoplata thank you for your perspective and interaction with the video. You are right, people are going to do what they like or what they want.

[@umoplata]

​@@bristoncraigson9151there was a brief minute when I was optimistic with the JJGF rickson Gracie association but that just pretty much melted away The results we're looking for take concentrated effort and time. Certainly time because sport wasn't where it is now in 5,10 or even 20 years it took a lot of work so people who are what I would consider Orthodox practitioners as myself have to be ready to do the work without immediate financial reward and to collaborate with other people like-minded people to move the needle forward. I was thinking maybe a website to start with content. The people post something that simple. Just a open source website where if you are a again I'm just going to call them. Orthodox Jiu-Jitsu practitioner interested in fight-based concepts here you can post a blog post and a link to a video that you've created to share your idea. Something like that simple. It's a start. There's no money in it really. But at least lets people know that we exist and there's a different perspective cuz right now I'm just that crazy guy in the subway screaming into the wind, talking about back in a day and what they shouldn't do. Meanwhile, they're getting money and could care less

[@Pacopaco888]

Different styles and different game plans That’s what makes the sport interesting If you want to do self defence, I guess do Krav Maga ?

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@Pacopaco888 I'm curious, what brought you to Jiu Jitsu? What were you hoping to gain?

[@Pacopaco888]

I want to grapple with my sons when they are older

[@kuzushi_kev]

Well said!

[@bristoncraigson9151]

Thank you Sir

[@MIBSmith1]

You put it best when you said. Is it a game or is it self-defense.

[@bristoncraigson9151]

Thank you Sir

[@BOBBOB-tx7ox]

I am a student at Gracie Jujitsu Torrance. Old school jujitsu is for real fights I don't know what modern BJJ has turned into. It's not really Jujitsu it's just a grappling and wrestling mixed for points. We are taught the use of kicks, elbows, gun and knife defense. We are taught to block punches and exhaust our opponents, in sport BJJ that would be considered stalling. BJJ and GJJ are really very different arts. You know BJJ is a sport is when you start taking steroids to enhance your performance instead of getting better technically like Rickson Gracie.

[@bristoncraigson9151]

Next time I'm in California, I'd like to visit the Torrance Academy. I saw in one of their videos there was a plaque from my unit 2nd Ranger Battalion. Is it still up on the wall?

[@BOBBOB-tx7ox]

@@bristoncraigson9151 When the school moved to a bigger location and ownership changed from father to sons, the museum where the plaque was hanging was removed and I think the plaque exist in the online museum or in the back offices on the wall. I haven't seen it since the move. All are welcome anytime.

[@BOBBOB-tx7ox]

@@bristoncraigson9151 When the Gracie Academy moved to a larger building in 2018 and became Gracie University now run by Ryron and Rener the original museum and all the pictures and plaques on the walls were transferred to 3D format on the Internet. Some of the pictures and plaques may be hanging up in the executive offices, but the original museum is now online. Peace

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@BOBBOB-tx7ox thanks for the info. I appreciate it.

[@thos1618]

63% of the scores in ADCC 2024 were from Takedowns. Backtakes, Sweeps and Upper-Body submissions from Bottom are becoming a statistical rarity. Levi lost $990,000 due to being unwilling to pursue top position. Jiu-Jitsu is healing itself.

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@thos1618 thank you for that perspective. Let's hope it trickles down to the regional level. What I'm seeing locally is when the score is tied the referees rule in favor of the guard player without fail. "Jiu jitsu is healing itself" love it

[@thos1618]

@@bristoncraigson9151 Absolutely agree.

[@umoplata]

people are going to do whatever they enjoy.. sure the game us totally contrary to the original fight based jiu-jitsu practiced in the mid and late 90's but what your alternative? and i dont mean you per say but everyone who has an issue has not solution... the sport based guys silly as it seems to many have chosen not to fight when they had a chance and instead expand thier section of the art/sport where as the fight based practitioners keep talking about back in the day like they cant evolve things out of loyalty to tradition .. i totally get it and agree to a degree but its time for alternatives not trying to force other people to see the art/sport how you might.. p.s people dont want to fight mma its like watching nfl football they want to see it not do it :)

[@michaellindmeier]

Well said

[@michaellindmeier]

Well said

[@bristoncraigson9151]

@@michaellindmeier thank you Professor.