This is all more or less accurate, but if you don’t mind I’m going to use it as a launching pad to rant.
BJJ guys try to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to discussions of “grappling”. How many times do you see people proudly talk about how BJJ (or even ADCC) is the “most open” ruleset, where you can do anything you can do in Judo or wrestling and then some?
This is utter idiocy, of course, because the IBJJF (and ADCC) rulesets do not reward takedowns or throws or pins like any other grappling art in the world. In Judo you can win by a dominant throw OR a 20-second pin (past the guard only) OR a submission. In Sambo you can win by a super-dominant throw OR a point differential from takedowns, throws, and pins OR a submission. In wrestling you can win by a Pin, (sometimes you can win a period with a dominant throw), OR a point differential from takedowns and dominant ground work. In Catch you win by Pin OR Submission.
BJJ is the odd one out in their treatment of takedowns, throws, and pins. BJJ is the odd one out in only rewarding going from bottom side control to top side control if you arbitrarily happen to get your legs between the two of you for a millisecond. BJJ is the weird one that rewards a gentle ankle pick into someone’s guard, which you then pass after 3 minutes of struggling, more than a rib-creaking harai goshi directly into side control.
Imagine if there was an ADCC-caliber grappling tournament where takedowns could get you anywhere from 1-5 points or instantly win you the match, where if the top guy separated from the bottom guy on the ground the bottom guy had an obligation to stand and engage, guard pulling counted as a takedown for the other guy, being ahead by 12 points instantly won you the match by technical superiority, and submissions only got you 2 points and restarted to standing? But you could totally do everything you can in BJJ. Would we be saying that this is an open ruleset that BJJ guys should go into to prove that they’re really the best “grapplers”?
IBJJF BJJ is largely about how good at guard play and guard passing you are. That’s a fraction of what grappling is to the entire rest of the grappling world. They could rename it “guard grappling” and it’d be fine. When BJJ guys say “best grappler” and use it to refer to someone who has no takedowns they should be aware that there are a ton of unspoken conditionals around that phrase.
Going to preface this by saying I agree 100% now. I used to be the guy you complain about though. Maybe even worse. How was I rehabilitated, you may ask yourself? Let me tell you.
I remember those early days wistfully, when I first drank the acai and said "BJJ wins again," all the time. I was a young teen, so it was even worse, because I thought I knew everything. I did BJJ, and so of course I had the "it's all that I do so it has to be the best otherwise I'm not doing the best" mentality that sparks console wars over video game systems, but lacked the self-awareness to see it. My thought process was that BJJ focused on submissions, i.e., fight enders. Breaking joints or choking people out. A pin seemed less Xtreme to me, because it didn't finish anything as authoritatively as a submission. So wrestling was clearly inferior. Judo/Sambo were less inferior than wrestling, since you could still submit, but the win by ippon didn't make any sense. "So what," I said to myself, "if their shoulders touch the floor? If you throw me down I can still choke you out!!" (Operationally defining submission still as "the only authoritative way to win.") Vale Tudo and MMA were cherry picked for confirmation bias. "Ha!" I would say to myself. "Your pin is worthless; I'll eventually escape, and then choke you out!!" If someone got ground & pounded, it's because their jiu jitsu wasn't good enough (closed guard was the answer to stopping ground and pound, in my adolescent mind; people who got ground & pounded needed to work on their guard/guard recovery clearly. If they had, well, they would've been able to stop the GnP, and then choke the guy out!!).
It's important to point out, too, that I knew functionally nothing about wrestling, Judo, or any other non-BJJ grappling art. My knowledge of takedowns was limited to the bi-annual "takedown day" at class, which I dreaded, because it was tiring, and besides, getting taken down was a mistake that could be remedied. Remedied by choking you out. Not to mention everyone knew wrestling was just about who was stronger or better conditioned; there was no technique to that. At most, all I needed was the concept of what a sprawl was. At worst, a better guard. End of story. I could put stand up guys to sleep, but they couldn't make me stand up. I continued being an awful human for quite a while, as most teens do. I competed; sometimes I won, sometimes I lost. I got my blue belt at 16, became even more obnoxious because I felt I had authority now.
I'm pretty sure the seed that would cause my creonte'ism occurred around 17 or so. I wanted to start doing leg locks because of Genki Sudo, because he was so fucking cool. I mean, fuck me, who doesn't want to be like Genki Sudo? It was during his heydey too, so I was totally entranced. My teammates hated me for it, but I became the leg lock blue belt; the guy who sacrificed learning anything related to guard passing or guard play so I could skyrocket to mediocrity. It worked. I was a leg locking fool, tapping people I had no real right to tap (and in fact couldn't tap without leg locks). Leg locks from bottom were tough. I didn't really understand butterfly guard beyond leg lock entries, but I could make it work sometimes. The real prize, though, was being on top. All the guards people played were totally naive to my leg attacks. I knew if I was in their guard, I could find my way to a leg lock. It was here that a connection was made in my mind: being on top was better than being on bottom, even if I'm in their guard.
Throughout my blue belt, I put this theory to the test, and found that being on top was actually pretty great. It was a better game plan to just be on top, leg lock a guard, or get to side control/mount and submit. Submissions though, were still king. I just figured out that it was easier to do them from on top than from on bottom. At least less exhausting. I stopped competing for a bit during this period because other things came up (actually getting dates, jobs, being a teenager, etc.), and leg lock rules were bullshit. But eventually I crafted my own (horrible) game plan, and on the day after I got my purple belt, I went to compete (the leg lock rules were better than blue belt, after all).
I went into my first match, my opponent pulled guard, I leg locked, I won. Validation. So sweet.
Match 2. I am immediately taken down. Because of my non-existent guard game (other than random leg entries from the bottom), my game plan was to simply stand up and try to spam more standing leg entries, or hope my opponent pulled guard out of intimidation. I did, to my credit, manage to scramble up to my feet through a working knowledge of butterfly guard. Taken down again. I think at this point he saw that I was just going to keep standing up rather than play a guard I didn't have, so he let me stand up again. I try to get head and arm control to slide into a leg lock. I get taken down again. Jesus christ this is exhausting. I think the final score ended up being 8-0, all takedown points. My mom was video taping my matches so I could review later (that's a lie, I was hoping to make a highlight reel), and when I watched it again, I heard her say, "is he dumb or something? why does he keep standing up? there he goes, down again."
For better or worse, I signed up for the nogi division too. My first opponent went for a single, and I had a flash of rememberance, of a Genki Sudo highlight reel where he did a backwards roll to counter a single, so I did it and somehow ended up in this guy's half guard. By the grace of god I got two points. I desperately try to pass, but can't keep him down. He gets back up, takes me down twice, and I lose again.
I was shocked. SHOCKED. Everything I knew was a lie. Top was better than bottom, undeniably. Just look at the bjj point system. You dont give 4 points for achieving work guard. Being on top was easier on my cardio (which sucked) and gave me better leg attacks. I briefly even consided learning guard passing, but itd be a year or two. Til I actually focused.
All I knew was that top was good, and takedowns controlled who was on top. Ergo, takedowns were important. Purple belt I acknowledged i used leglocks as a crutch and retooled my game (but still leg locked). I needed to pass in situations where there were no leg locks. Still no guard at this point (duh I'm gonna take you down), but that was when stand up was valued. When I learned it controlled who got to play what game in bjj.
I was lucky enough to go to a reilly bodycomb camp where he showed suplexes. He made a point that there was a method of throwing people so they can land safely. I Inverted that concept and said to myself, are you telling me you can choose how they land? That you could dump someone on their head and KO them, and never allow a submission attempt?
I started working takedowns, passing, and guardplay all at the same time. I was missing literally the most fundamental bits of grappling. I've taken this integrated approach that "grappling" is controlling your opponent, without strikes (as opposed to just choking you outtt!) and ran with it ever since. I've trained multiple reilly camps, judo, wrestling, but newly have fallen in love with sumo. What can I say, I'm a weirdo. Im a first degree black belt now, and I feel like I have more to learn about grappling than ever before. Both standing and on the ground, and the relationship between the two is going to lead to a supermassive meta shift once the bjj community embrace takedowns like they do leglocks. What a time to be alive.