Are Gracie Barra Gyms legit?

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Evenflow80

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I joined one 2 months ago and from what I've seen.... people get promoted (at least with stripes and blue belts) by length of time rather than skill or competition.

We have like a 70 year old vet with a missing leg who never rolls but he's still getting stripes on his white belt. me and everyone else is happy for him of course regardless. But others I have one stripe only and quite frankly they suck when I roll with them but the still get thier stripes as long as they show up minimum 3 days a week .

What the general consensus on GB schools? are they McDojos?
 
Forget about belt rankings. Focus on the quality of technical instruction and your improve your game.
 
Commercial rental property is not cheap in Merica. At the end of the day, gotta pay the bills.
 
Ishaq said:
Forget about belt rankings. Focus on the quality of technical instruction and your improve your game.
Click to expand...

This.
But to answer your question, SOME GB schools are really legit and some aren't. You can say that about almost every affiliation but GB is the largest and get the most backlash.
 
Belt systems are purely for commercial reasons. True martial arts would do away with that silliness.
 
Here we go with uppity guys that say their school never give stripes or they really have to work for their belts, etc.

Also we need to make room for the karate kids who say belts only hold your pants up.

I've been to a few Gracie Barra gyms. Everyone I've been to has been alright. I don't train exclusively at one but they are bjj gyms that try and appeal to everyone. You can get good instruction from them so long as your instructor knows how to somewhat teach and isn't a huge fraud.
 
GB has a really good structured curriculum, and in general the schools are run by competent black belts. They have some marketing/contract practices that I don't care for, but I don't think they scam people (they're pretty up front about what you have to pay, wear, etc. even if you don't like it). As a beginner you're going to learn good, solid, fundamental BJJ at a GB. In terms of higher level competition, that varies a lot from school to school and coach to coach. Some of the best coaches in the world like Draculino, best competitors like Felipe Pena, Edwin Najami, and others, and some guys who still do a lot of both like Roger Gracie, Braulio Estima, and Romulo Barral. But many GBs are just normal neighborhood schools, though because of the elite connections you often do get fairly well priced seminars from big names.

I wouldn't worry too much about the rankings stuff. GB ranking politics can be a bit bullshit, but it probably won't affect you or the quality of what you're learning.
 
Pretty much what Uchi Mata wrote. From my experience, the instruction is very solid and the instructors encourage a lot of rolling. But most of them do promote way too easily, IMO. When I first started BJJ nine years ago (at a non-GB school), you basically had to be a phenom to get a purple belt in three years. It's common at GB. I also think if you're 40 or over you're even more likely to get promoted because it's more likely you can afford the high tuition.

But like a previous poster stated, gotta pay the bills.
 
Maybe, just maybe, they are using different criteria to grade a 70 year old disabled than they are you.

Maybe, just maybe, different people require different levels of motivation and the coach realizes pieces of athletic tape on a belt doesn't mean much and their larger goal is to keep people training.

Maybe, just maybe, you are treating a blue belt as much more than it actually is.
 
Maybe try chop off BOTH your legs; you'll get promoted WAY faster than that 70 year old loser.
 
I've trained with a GB school for nearly two years, and prior to that trained at a different school in a different town for two years also. I got to 4th stripe white belt at the old school, and am now 1st stripe blue at GB. The old school was smaller in numbers and had some good competitors in there and I sometimes felt lost and I got regularly smashed lol. When I started at GB I found the training was a bit less tough and physical, less sparring, and stripes were going on white belts more quickly. Fees were higher too. However the curriculum at GB is well structured and beginners seem to progress well as they seem less overwhelmed. Beginner retention seems better too, probably helped because of dedicated beginner classes. Overall I'm happy, and the vibe and quality of teaching is great at GB. At my old gym they had a stronger competition drive and catered more to the higher grades in the class rather than the lower grades, but the higher blues and purples I train with at GB are good. Legit imho.
Btw personally I don't think people should get a new belt until they compete a few times either, but that's just me.
 
Evenflow80 said:
I joined one 2 months ago and from what I've seen.... people get promoted (at least with stripes and blue belts) by length of time rather than skill or competition.

We have like a 70 year old vet with a missing leg who never rolls but he's still getting stripes on his white belt. me and everyone else is happy for him of course regardless. But others I have one stripe only and quite frankly they suck when I roll with them but the still get thier stripes as long as they show up minimum 3 days a week .

What the general consensus on GB schools? are they McDojos?
Click to expand...
if I owned a school and a guy came into my gym with one leg I'd probably give him a stripe for just walking through the doors.

as to GB, the schools I'm familiar with had over 200+ students. no way the professor was going to keep track of when everyone should be promoted. those attendance cards and promotions based on attendance make a lot of sense with so many students. it's real easy for other school to talk shit about GB's system when you only have 20 students.

like others said, if the instruction is good and you are improving, that's all that matters.
 
ChumsGum said:
if I owned a school and a guy came into my gym with one leg I'd probably give him a stripe for just walking through the doors.

as to GB, the schools I'm familiar with had over 200+ students. no way the professor was going to keep track of when everyone should be promoted. those attendance cards and promotions based on attendance make a lot of sense with so many students. it's real easy for other school to talk shit about GB's system when you only have 20 students.

like others said, if the instruction is good and you are improving, that's all that matters.
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This.

I train at a non-GB, big name competition based school. They have over 200 students, taking various classes taught by 4-5 different instructors. There's no way for any 1 instructor to completely keep track of the capabilities of all the students. So we have attendance cards so they know how often you're training. With the exception of the regular competitors who the head instructor knows well, everyone else at my school gets promoted largely based on attendance.
 
Every school is different. there will never be an overall standard of stripe or belt promotion.

At my school, I have been horrified at some of the stripes / belts dished out over the years, however I just get with my own training (which is the most important).
 
Evenflow80 said:
I joined one 2 months ago and from what I've seen.... people get promoted (at least with stripes and blue belts) by length of time rather than skill or competition.

We have like a 70 year old vet with a missing leg who never rolls but he's still getting stripes on his white belt. me and everyone else is happy for him of course regardless. But others I have one stripe only and quite frankly they suck when I roll with them but the still get thier stripes as long as they show up minimum 3 days a week .

What the general consensus on GB schools? are they McDojos?
Click to expand...

It isn't really kosher to shit on pity belts.
 
Fwiw, the one GB affiliate in my city is running the scene right now. Their fighters win
 
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