What is your school/dojo's "Focus"?

[Evan_The_Kid_1]

Just a general question. What is the main goal for your gym?

My gym is pretty MMA focused. Like, most of my teammates and I train for Mma competition more often than not (have a few ammy champs at the gym). We have dedicated Kickboxers/Thai boxers as well, and of course people do grappling tournaments, but MMA competition is our main focus.

When we do just straight grappling, we still keep MMA in mind (unless you're specifically training for a grappling only comp) and when we do Muay Thai, it's the same thing. I'm sure alot of shools do this but some vary.

For example, there's a "MMA" school in my town that's really only sport jiu jitsu focused. They still compete in MMA, but sport jiu jitsu is what they really train for.

Is your school MMA focused, grappling comp focused, kickboxing/boxing/Muay Thai focused? Or something else entirely?

 

[asian-glow]

My school is probably the complete opposite of yours - not very mma based. My current instructor basically lightly modified the curriculum of his previous instructor. I am unsure what this curriculum is designed to do specifically other than offer a narrow exposure to classical bjj positions. No one at my school competes and most of the guys are in their mid 30's.

Based on what we learn, I think the school's focus is to cater to the interests of these non-competitive, married dudes - self defense and fun. We are being trained to handle ourselves in a limited physical altercation with an assailant who is an untrained striker and a grappler with some training.

I say untrained striker because we used to do self defense drills where for some reason our assailant only speaks in haymakers and only strikes with his hands from the feet or when in closed guard. I say grappler with some training because we assume our assailant may know bjj but not anything that deviates too far from top control and the basic guards. We also assume our assailant is unschooled in takedowns and we somehow are, despite never practicing them live. Not sure how well the self defense aspect is being ingrained but it's a nebulous term anyhow.

The fun part depends on who you ask but is generally being accomplished. Most aspects of class people can agree are at least necessary if not enjoyable. Some of the people here are tired of getting their ass whooped and bum themselves out. My instructor usually reassures them in some kind of life lesson way. He seems to enjoy giving these talks and people seem to enjoy receiving them. I usually give the opposite advice to be a counterpoint to my instructor. Also because I enjoy it.

 

[Calibur]

My coach is a very good Judo guy in Japan who couldn’t quite make it to the olympics but won a lot of BJJ tournaments.

He became a very popular BJJ coach but I think he really just wants to teach judo.

Unfortunately all his efforts to incorporate takedowns into the class have (heh heh) fallen flat.

 

[EndlessCritic]

I currently only train at a local open mat once a week. There is a healthy mix of styles, but a lot more leglockers than I've ever experienced before in my BJJ life.

 

[TheLastEmperorReurns]

My gym is MMA focused but the jiu-jitsu program is very competition-oriented (NAGA, grapplers quest, etc.) and we do really well in those tournaments.

Very physical and athletic-performance oriented.

 

[tekkenfan]

most gyms today are super ibjjf oriented i think jiu jitsu was at its best from 2009-2011 cause guys had a good understanding of open guards by then and still had there strong fundamentals and takedowns

 

[yetanother]

most gyms today are super ibjjf oriented i think jiu jitsu was at its best from 2009-2011 cause guys had a good understanding of open guards by then and still had there strong fundamentals and takedowns

I would say the takedowns and fundamentals of the IBJJF elite are at an all time high.

 

[mattemate]

most gyms today are super ibjjf oriented i think jiu jitsu was at its best from 2009-2011 cause guys had a good understanding of open guards by then and still had there strong fundamentals and takedowns

I don't know man. I'm at a more sport oriented academy now. As you know I started at a Relson affiliate with Phil back in the day.

A few weeks ago, I went to an open mat at the Relson academy here. Didn't know anyone, but people were cool. First roll was with a brown belt, about 45. I was just kind of flowing and got caught in a baseball bat choke early as I passed (which was funny because it's a go-to move for me, but I didn't recognize the trap from this side, as few of my current teammates do thay setup). Anyway, I turned it up at that point, passed his guard at will and smashed him the rest of the roll. And the rest of the room, same thing. A three stripe purple felt like a mid level blue, a four stripe blue like a new blue.

In other words, my sport jiu-jitsu shredded the older self defense style.

 

[Quebec Nick]

At my gym bjj is King we have the best timeslots, the most classes and the best coaches.

We have a MMA team and muay thai classes but it's far from being our main focus.classes are late at night with very few guys doing them.

Bjj wise we allow pretty much everything like heel hooks and reaping. We are about 50-50 for gi vs nogi

Conditionning is your own business, classes are for techniques and rolling. So you need to make sure to be in good enough shape to sustain the huge amount of rolls we do in class

 

[Forceof1]

I'd say we are a hobbyist gym. We have some people who compete and do fairly well- but there is no MMA team, no kill or be killed mentality on the mat. I wouldn't put us completely in the "old school self defense" gym, though we do put on gloves and do self defense techniques- we also explore modern guard play and again, compete.
Family friendly hobbyist gym about sums it up.

 

[lechien]

We focus on bjj sport competition.
It gives us structure of rules, calendar of competition for gi and nogi season and a purpose to train toward a common goal instead of just consistently smash each other senseless.

At the same time, we recoginre that competitors only makes 20 to 30 percent of our members. So we accommodate for the hobbyiest as well. Bjj is great in term of hobby, self defense, fitness, camaderie.
We try to add judo and kosen judo influence...

Also we have a beer fridge for after training .

 

[ArtemV]

Our club is suited for competitions. We learn some basic principles on how these techniques can save us in altercations, but usually we just roll and learn. We have guys that go to competitions at least once a month, but the competition isn't really high in Russia. But we have some good guys to face from other clubs.

Most of our guys cross-train, or have done in the past. I don't think anybody here can afford to work in BJJ full-time.

 

[berimBOWLoh]

my club is focused on making money. like most smart businesses are.

 

[tekkenfan]

yeha at high le

I would say the takedowns and fundamentals of the IBJJF elite are at an all time high.

yeah at high levels but at blue purple and even average brown tbh i remember blues back in 2008 era who had better fundamentals and base than some browns today alot of guys today seem so into there guards that the completely neglect other parts of there game

again im talkign about the average

 

[tekkenfan]

yeah i first went to phils early 2011 when i was a 4 month purple at that time most of the guys didnt have a open guard basically all closed and some butterfly. the only purple who was really good at newer stuff was travis orr he was basically a black belt as a purple. then the next year he got 2nd in the pan ams brown losing to garry tonin in the finals.

but yeah i heard alot of there beast guys left when donald left and took a bunch of the high level guys with but one thing those guys were great at was sub defense i hate breaking guard from knees they all had amazing knee in the ass breaks u wernt catching any of the browns there with closed guard subs

 

[Dirty Holt]

I train and coach at Cobra Kai. Mostly competitive, some guys do MMA. Unlike the Cobra Kai in Reseda, this one is very family friendly, professional, and no Kreese.

 

[Alech33]

I train at multiple places so I go to MMA gyms, Gracie/old school BJJ, new school/sub only style guys etc
There's definitely a big difference in training with all them

 

[mataleaos]

Definitely more sport oriented with 60:40 gi to no-gi split.

Gi classes include things like Delariva. So a brand new student may learn closed guard and Delariva alongside each other. A lot feels like Atos and AOJ style. Guard work includes lots of berimbolo, kiss of the dragon, and cross collar and mirror sleeve guard work. Not a ton of lapel or worm guard though. Top game is a lot of leg drags, leg weaves, knee slides, and long steps. Not as many submissions taught as in no-gi classes. Most of the subs taught are armbars or collar chokes.

No-gi obviously focuses on positions too and the classic sweep/pass game is taught but the overall focus is more heavy on using submission holds to improve position or finish. Progressing towards the back is usually the focus of the positional work; and also submission holds and back attacks from the kimura grip and the front headlock. Straight footlocks are taught at white belt along with leg pummeling and the concept of inside position with the legs. Then at blue belt the full array of leg locks and leg positions are introduced.