Every BJJ school trains in no gi, and has trained since the beginning.
Like I said, I believe that there will be eventually something called American Jiu Jitsu. Grappling does not belong to us, and neither do the techniques. BJJ is Judo, like I said, simply put.
So yes, I can see AJJ coming as a different style of grappling and developing in such a manner over the course of the next couple decades. There are tremendous differences between a greco-freestyle-top oriented jiu jitsu, "standard" BJJ, and Gracie Jiu Jitsu.
But right now, there is no such a thing as American Jiu Jitsu. The difference in mentality does not constitute a different martial art, and grappling as a whole is so widespread, information is disseminated so quickly that the art does not have a chance to incubate and develop independently from everything else in order to become different enough to call itself a different "style", or a different martial art.
I am proud of BJJ, but it isn`t ours. And americans have every right to do what they want with it and change it and call it their own, very much like we did. You even have the tools and the background to do it succesfully.
But now? Too soon. Not different enough, not distinguished enough, not relevant enough.
I will counter your points and then we can agree to disagree. You say that every BJJ school trains no gi, that is true..but how many do not use the gi at all?
You say the difference in mentality does not constitute a different martial art but I say the ability to execute your mentality does! Straight BJJ cannot execute that mentality against someone trained to defend takedowns very well. There are several examples out there but the ability for a BJJ artist (especially before moving judo and wrestling coaches in house) to take down a good or even decent wrestler or judoka was the exception, not the norm. So Gary Goodrich may decide today to adopt a mentality to teach his students to take guys down and submit them but is he CAPABLE of consistently executing that mentality or demostrating that mentality?
The answer is no. BJJ, especially old school BJJ had just enough takedown to get an untrained guy to the mat. Thats it. Everyone else they relied on to take THEM down in order to finish the fight.
Lets examine 2 world champion BJJ players. Murillo Bustamante and Fabio Gurgel.
Both of these men were the cream of the crop in regards to BJJ. Multiple world titles, black belts under respected teachers. Murillo trained under Carlson who had the "mentality" no one can argue this. Fabio is one professor removed from probably the best wrestler the family had, Rolls Gracie..BOTH of these men are just 3 instructors removed from Count Koma himself!!
They both faced an opponent and one won and one lost, Jerry Bohlander.
Jerry Bohlanders claim to fame was being a Lions Den Product and fought both of these men as a relative newcomer to MMA. He was a fresh faced 23 or 24 year old when he went up against these world champions. In addition Jerry had a 5th place finish in the CA sectionals. Not a bad wrestler but he did not even place at state.
So he was not even close to world class or "black belt level" in wrestling.
In the fight with Murillo he was able to counter every takedown Murillo tried. It was a guard pull that got them to the mat. In essence he turned Murillo from a BJJ black belt to a boxer for about 5 minutes. At the end Busta won the fight via upkick. Terrific! He won and he used BJJ to do it BUT his take them down mindset did not work against what most would consider an above average wrestler, that is it.
In the fight with Gurgel it was much worse. Gurgel is also a world champion in BJJ. His instructor was trained by Rolls himself who was a very capable wrestler. In this fight Gurgel could not take down Bohlander nor could he counter Bohlanders takedowns. In fact Bohlander had very good control of the entire fight from the top. While he did not Hurt Gurgel, gurgel could not do much if anything with Jerry. In other words, he may have had the mentality but not the ability to execute.
In other words a man who was probably not in the top 20 in CA in HIGH SCHOOL was able to "outwrestle" (not outfight) 2 of the best BJJ guys in the world?
My point being if world champions cannot execute that "mindset" versus average to above average fighters that train for it what makes you think it is part of the "system". It is part of the system only in theory.
Now on to AJJ Shields is a very capable wrestler, he is vary capable at Jiujitsu he CAN execute his mindset even against the stiffest competition. He has the skills to do it. In order to do that you have to had trained differently at some point, if you want to have students be able to do what you do you have to train them in a manner to do it.
Listen I have a mindset that I can run 30 miles. I dont train that way, therefore cant.
We have seen BB world champs get stuffed by HS and JR College wrestlers yet I am being asked to believe that "Oh we train this way all the time."
I am sorry but if that is true, something has to change because it is not being effective.
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Before anyone points out the handful of BJJ guys that are awesome at takedowns, 1st realize they are the BEST out there, they are not the norm, for every one of them there are 1000 that are horrible...2nd most train a completely separate system to improve their takedown game..For instance no one looked at Gonzaga's inability to takedown his opponents and say "He really has to improve on his BJJ takedowns!" 3rd wrestling is not just takedowns and td defense.