So I have been training in both Gracie Combatives at a Gracie Garage and BJJ at a sport BJJ school for a year and a half now. I thought I would share my experiences and opinion since periodically someone will come on the board, ask questions, and get some very one sided answers from people who really have no experience with both.
"The world according to me (take it for what it is worth)."
The basis of all BJJ is Gracie Jiu Jitsu. That being said, sport BJJ is geared toward competition with rules so many schools no longer teach ANY of the pure self defense techniques. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has gone through a metamorphosis and has been adapted to fit the current competition environment.
BJJ techniques are geared toward facing an opponent in competition that also knows BJJ. The Gracie Combatives are really just a selection of the original self defense techniques taught by Helio and are not designed to be used against someone who knows BJJ.
Against someone who knows BJJ some of the Combatives work (Trap and Roll), others become irrelevant (punch block series), and other still will not work on them at all (this version of elevator sweep). That is not what they are designed for. However, in my experience they work REALLY WELL on those that do not know jiu jitsu. They work better and are more efficient than specifically BJJ techniques against these people. Some people my not believe this, but just think about it for a minute. Techniques are geared to act counter to a specific action. BJJ practitioners are much less likely to make a novice type of mistake. They have reactions to counter your technique and balance and the BJJ techniques take those reactions into account. An opponent untrained in BJJ with have completely different reactions than one trained in BJJ. Because of this certain techniques will not work on them as well, others work much better. Will BJJ techniques still work for self defense? Of course, but their are techniques in the Combatives that are more effective in this very specific situation.
Gracie Combatives techniques are great if you take them for what they were designed to do. They are not meant for sport competition, but they are still the original Gracie techniques as taught by Helio (not all of them, 36 of them to be exact).
Now onto the training in a garage vs training in a school controversy. In my opinion most BJJ instructionals are not detailed enough to allow you to learn very effectively at home without an experienced coach to guide you. Once you reach a certain level and know and understand the basics of jiu jitsu, then you can probably learn a great deal on your own with the instructionals and make them work for you without a coach. That being said I agree with many that it would be very difficult to learn on your own from the beginning without a good instructor.
Unlike the most BJJ instructionals, the Gracie Combatives are extremely detailed. They spend as much as 30 minutes to one hour on a single lesson (including explanation, demonstration, details, and drills). This makes the set very large by necessity (13 DVDs to cover 36 lessons). They cover all the most common mistakes, etc.
I really like some the BJJ instructionals like the Roy Dean Blue Belt set. It is great and for BJJ quite detailed, but not nearly as detailed as the Combatives. It cannot be, it covers many techniques in only 2 dvds. Also the Gracie Combatives is inexpensive ($120) for the amount of information that you get. I suspect that the only reason they can charge so little is that it they will make more money with everything else you buy on their site once you get hooked. Many of the things they sell on their online store are very expensive like $40 T-shirts, $45 shorts, posters, mats, belt testing fees, etc. I am not hating on them, it is business and they are very, very good at it.
I doubt that any BJJ instructor is going to have the time or means to make a set nearly as detailed as the Combatives. If they do it will have to be way to expensive for most people to afford.
Perceived weakness with the Gracie Combatives: no sparring until blue belt.
Alot of people really area against this and I can understand why. They are good things about it and bad things. How many of you have been injured multiple times or re-injured and had to take some significant time off training? How many have had to quite completely. I know that I have had to take months off because of injuries. The journey from white to blue is got to be one of the most injury prone periods in jiu jitsu because you really do not know how to roll safely at first and you do not know your own limits. If you knew the basics and were comfortable on the ground by drilling techniques and fight simulation drills for 250 hrs before competing for sparring you would be much less like to injure yourself. That would make you much more likely to continue your journey in jiu jitsu. This makes everyone happier. You are happy because you can continue to learn injury free, the Gracie's are happy because they have satisfied customers, you continue to train and buy things/spread the word and make the Gracies even more money and hence more happy.
Obviously the other side of this is that since you do not spar until later in the game you are not learning as quickly (maybe this is partially balanced by time out for injuries?). I believe in sparring. I think that it is what really sets this martial art aside from others. You can spar full speed and power and see if it works. Everyone can walk away unscathed (usually) and do it again the next day.
In my opinion it is very hard to pick up "clean" technique in a school. To really get technique clean and crisp you have to drill, drill, drill, drill...you get the picture. There is no time for that in class usually. In my experience you are usually exposed to too many techniques in too short a period to really learn much or build any reflexes. If you are lucky you pick up one and eventually in the next few sparring sessions you can make it start to work for you. I feel that this is a really inefficient way of learning. What I get most out of class is the sparring.
The Combatives is much better for learning technique, BUT again these techniques are not really great for BJJ. And the sparring is lacking until later of course.
Conclusion: Training Gracie Combatives is not better or worse than training at a sport BJJ school. They both have different purposes. I am glad I have done both. I love the sparring. One thing I have learned from the Combatives is that in order to make my sport BJJ better I really need a training partner with whom I can drill BJJ technique. That combined with class would be a great combo.
"The world according to me (take it for what it is worth)."
The basis of all BJJ is Gracie Jiu Jitsu. That being said, sport BJJ is geared toward competition with rules so many schools no longer teach ANY of the pure self defense techniques. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has gone through a metamorphosis and has been adapted to fit the current competition environment.
BJJ techniques are geared toward facing an opponent in competition that also knows BJJ. The Gracie Combatives are really just a selection of the original self defense techniques taught by Helio and are not designed to be used against someone who knows BJJ.
Against someone who knows BJJ some of the Combatives work (Trap and Roll), others become irrelevant (punch block series), and other still will not work on them at all (this version of elevator sweep). That is not what they are designed for. However, in my experience they work REALLY WELL on those that do not know jiu jitsu. They work better and are more efficient than specifically BJJ techniques against these people. Some people my not believe this, but just think about it for a minute. Techniques are geared to act counter to a specific action. BJJ practitioners are much less likely to make a novice type of mistake. They have reactions to counter your technique and balance and the BJJ techniques take those reactions into account. An opponent untrained in BJJ with have completely different reactions than one trained in BJJ. Because of this certain techniques will not work on them as well, others work much better. Will BJJ techniques still work for self defense? Of course, but their are techniques in the Combatives that are more effective in this very specific situation.
Gracie Combatives techniques are great if you take them for what they were designed to do. They are not meant for sport competition, but they are still the original Gracie techniques as taught by Helio (not all of them, 36 of them to be exact).
Now onto the training in a garage vs training in a school controversy. In my opinion most BJJ instructionals are not detailed enough to allow you to learn very effectively at home without an experienced coach to guide you. Once you reach a certain level and know and understand the basics of jiu jitsu, then you can probably learn a great deal on your own with the instructionals and make them work for you without a coach. That being said I agree with many that it would be very difficult to learn on your own from the beginning without a good instructor.
Unlike the most BJJ instructionals, the Gracie Combatives are extremely detailed. They spend as much as 30 minutes to one hour on a single lesson (including explanation, demonstration, details, and drills). This makes the set very large by necessity (13 DVDs to cover 36 lessons). They cover all the most common mistakes, etc.
I really like some the BJJ instructionals like the Roy Dean Blue Belt set. It is great and for BJJ quite detailed, but not nearly as detailed as the Combatives. It cannot be, it covers many techniques in only 2 dvds. Also the Gracie Combatives is inexpensive ($120) for the amount of information that you get. I suspect that the only reason they can charge so little is that it they will make more money with everything else you buy on their site once you get hooked. Many of the things they sell on their online store are very expensive like $40 T-shirts, $45 shorts, posters, mats, belt testing fees, etc. I am not hating on them, it is business and they are very, very good at it.
I doubt that any BJJ instructor is going to have the time or means to make a set nearly as detailed as the Combatives. If they do it will have to be way to expensive for most people to afford.
Perceived weakness with the Gracie Combatives: no sparring until blue belt.
Alot of people really area against this and I can understand why. They are good things about it and bad things. How many of you have been injured multiple times or re-injured and had to take some significant time off training? How many have had to quite completely. I know that I have had to take months off because of injuries. The journey from white to blue is got to be one of the most injury prone periods in jiu jitsu because you really do not know how to roll safely at first and you do not know your own limits. If you knew the basics and were comfortable on the ground by drilling techniques and fight simulation drills for 250 hrs before competing for sparring you would be much less like to injure yourself. That would make you much more likely to continue your journey in jiu jitsu. This makes everyone happier. You are happy because you can continue to learn injury free, the Gracie's are happy because they have satisfied customers, you continue to train and buy things/spread the word and make the Gracies even more money and hence more happy.
Obviously the other side of this is that since you do not spar until later in the game you are not learning as quickly (maybe this is partially balanced by time out for injuries?). I believe in sparring. I think that it is what really sets this martial art aside from others. You can spar full speed and power and see if it works. Everyone can walk away unscathed (usually) and do it again the next day.
In my opinion it is very hard to pick up "clean" technique in a school. To really get technique clean and crisp you have to drill, drill, drill, drill...you get the picture. There is no time for that in class usually. In my experience you are usually exposed to too many techniques in too short a period to really learn much or build any reflexes. If you are lucky you pick up one and eventually in the next few sparring sessions you can make it start to work for you. I feel that this is a really inefficient way of learning. What I get most out of class is the sparring.
The Combatives is much better for learning technique, BUT again these techniques are not really great for BJJ. And the sparring is lacking until later of course.
Conclusion: Training Gracie Combatives is not better or worse than training at a sport BJJ school. They both have different purposes. I am glad I have done both. I love the sparring. One thing I have learned from the Combatives is that in order to make my sport BJJ better I really need a training partner with whom I can drill BJJ technique. That combined with class would be a great combo.