Blue to purple on your own?

Throatyogurt said:
a no instructor blue ????? are you kidding me. you must suck ......go to a real school and tell me your a blue ..........post results. poser

Lol, he lives in Romania idiot (I think from reading one of his posts on the UG)

Yes, you can reach the level of a proficient grappler without training in the Gi, regardless of what these idiots say who have it out for you because you might realize how very little use the Gi has in a real life situation. The Gi will NOT help you very much at all in No-Gi submission, a street fight, or a MMA fight.
 
I suspect you'll need to train with the gi more.

I started wrestling with some guys I can beat with a gi but can't without.

I train under black belts and I have no confidence I will ever reach purple belt...
 
It depends on the "instructor." Generally however, belts are not handed out that easily as it takes more than a "few" times watching someone roll, to determine the status of their game or capabilities/knowledge. There are so many different ways to measure technique (i.e., rolling with advanced students, larger opponents, people of different athleticism, etc). But if Royce did award you your blue, he is definitely someone who is qualified. i believe the Gracie's hold "higher" standards than other instructors as they enhanced the art of jiu-jitsu. If you rolled with Royce one time and he awarded you a blue belt, I would find this hard to believe. But, in essence, it depends solely on the instructor or person issuing the belt and their criteria. Also, no-gi is different than training with a gi. I personally believe that beginning with a gi allows people to acquire more "vision" in terms of positioning, and submissions. Training strictly no-gi is kind of like taking a "shortcut" to this art and will not allow you to gain nor understand jiu-jitsu as a concept in its entirety.
 
tudor_bjj said:
Guys, I'm a blue under Royce. The fact that I train on my own (actually I have a class where I train some 10 - 12 guys; I don't charge them) made me develop a special "feeling" about the game. Cause I don't have anybody to ask "what should I do here?", I became very attentive on the details of the game and especially to the "Why?" I do that.


My friend. I must laugh aloud at your suggestion that you are good enough to make up a system as good as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on your own as you go. As if you were the second coming of Helio Gracie. You can make progress on your own, I guess, but it's extremely limited. I train with Rickson and his folks in LA and I cannot imagine the level of creative energy it took to come up with this stuff to the point where it actually works if you train. But you don't invent a whole new art like this in a couple years. You're being
 
dont listen to all the haters. What you need to do is train. Keep mixing it up and train with as many people as you can. You need to compete. Sambo, Judo, Wrestling whatever you got but compete. You need to wear the gi, if you arent doing Gi you are simply just doing submission wrestling. You need to buy some videos. Its not as good as real instruction but you have to deal with the hand your dealt. Lastly keep in mind that before their was Jiujitsu their was someone who had to create it. You may never be the worlds greatest and hell you may not even get a bonafied purples belt but if your happy thats all that matters.

personally I know of alot of individuals who can go to national championships and defeat purple belts easily and they never got promoted above blue.
 
johil d'o said:
My friend. I must laugh aloud at your suggestion that you are good enough to make up a system as good as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on your own as you go. As if you were the second coming of Helio Gracie. You can make progress on your own, I guess, but it's extremely limited. I train with Rickson and his folks in LA and I cannot imagine the level of creative energy it took to come up with this stuff to the point where it actually works if you train. But you don't invent a whole new art like this in a couple years. You're being
I dont think he is suggesting he is making up his own moves or developing his own system.

I think he is suggesting he has no instructors who to turn to to ask "Okay, what is the best move from THIS position" or "He has me in THIS sub - what do I do now?" and as such he has to consider the problem on his own and decide on the best move to use by himself.

As for Helio Gracie - I like your suggestion of the "second coming" as if he is some sort of resurrected deity. As for inventing a "new" art - well... I'm not gonna re-hash THAT old debate.
 
You have a jiu jitsu black belt instructor in Serbia which is right next to Romania but you know that already. But since you just got your blue, you still have a long way to go b4 purple. I've been blue since beginning 2002....
 
johil d'o said:
My friend. I must laugh aloud at your suggestion that you are good enough to make up a system as good as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on your own as you go. As if you were the second coming of Helio Gracie. You can make progress on your own, I guess, but it's extremely limited. I train with Rickson and his folks in LA and I cannot imagine the level of creative energy it took to come up with this stuff to the point where it actually works if you train. But you don't invent a whole new art like this in a couple years. You're being
My dear friend, you can laugh aloud how much you want at things I never said.
First, I don't make up a system! What I do is this: if I want to learn how to block from the very beginnig an attempt of spinning armbar from side mount, I don't ask Rickson, I just think about solutions. Do I block his hand? His leg? Do I block with my near hand? My far hand? How do I position myself? How do I keep my hand that it's going to be attacked? Can I do something, that is going to help me, with my legs? Etc. Sometimes the answer comes easy, sometimes harder. Sometimes I get on sherdog or UG and just ask the question. And there are very few people who must laugh loud.
Second. Dear friend, this is not cosmology or differential geometry or The Grand Unified Theory. It was not created by nature or some transcendental god...
 
mogway said:
You have a jiu jitsu black belt instructor in Serbia which is right next to Romania but you know that already. But since you just got your blue, you still have a long way to go b4 purple. I've been blue since beginning 2002....
Man, I know and this can be my biggest help. But you know that I need a visa. To get a visa I need booking. But I can't book from our agencies cause they don't have a partnership with Serbia.
Second, hotels in Belgrade (as in Bucharest) they charge outrageous prices. With that amount of money (spent on hotel and travelling by car) I can travel by plane (with low cost flights) to Milano or Barcelona.
 
Tudor, check your Yahoo we can maybe fix something
 
Any training is better than none. I say go for it. You never know. Plus take seminars from time to time as you have and obviously if you are ready you may get purple. A lot of the time it depends on the person, no one thought anyone could learn bjj enough to be a black belt under 10 years but BJ Penn became one in under 4 years. You could be the next person to overcome some obstacle such as having no one to train you. Go for it and compete when you feel you are ready. I say best of luck. Better than people who don't train and say "I can't train because no one is here to teach me."
 
There are definitely degrees seperating blues and purples. I'm almost at the blue belt level now and it amazes me to see how much more a purple belt knows. Considering that, I think if you're really interested in getting that purple, you'll be needing to learn from someone who is at least a brown belt on a regular basis. I dont event hink a brown belt can promote to purple.
 
My dear friend - I think I was too buzzed when I responded so irrationally before. My apologies, my Romanian amigo.
 
johil d'o said:
My dear friend - I think I was too buzzed when I responded so irrationally before. My apologies, my Romanian amigo.
No problem, prietene (that's "friend" in romanian)!
 
johil d'o said:
My dear friend - I think I was too buzzed when I responded so irrationally before. My apologies, my Romanian amigo.
LOL. Never post on forums while drunk. Even worse, never browse ebay while drunk or you'll wake up the next morning with some strange purchases...... (the complete season of "The Waltons" ...? in Norwegian ...? WTF.....!)
 
You have to train with the gi... a decent teacher wouldn't give you purple belt if you can't fight with the gi. I have heard Luta Livre BB that when started BJJ where given the Blue Belt becouse they couldn't fight with the gi. BJJ as a system requires you to know the use of the Gi. Train hard and make the same thread in 2 years.
 
HappyJackSlade said:
Ok.Let me get this right.
1/Your say your a blue,Right.
2/has anyone given you the belt?
3/You say you rolled with Royce.Did he give you a blue belt?
4/Or are you a self proclaimed blue belt?

tudor_bjj said:
Guys, I'm a blue under Royce.


HappyJackSlade said:
Where was the seminar held and did you have to travel far to get there.
If there were other Bjj students there, there should be a school for you to train at.If you can at least get there once a week,The coach should be able to get a feel of where your are with your grappling

tudor_bjj said:
Man, I know and this can be my biggest help. But you know that I need a visa. To get a visa I need booking. But I can't book from our agencies cause they don't have a partnership with Serbia.
Second, hotels in Belgrade (as in Bucharest) they charge outrageous prices. With that amount of money (spent on hotel and travelling by car) I can travel by plane (with low cost flights) to Milano or Barcelona.

he had to travel to another country to attend the seminar, its fair to say he cant make that trip atleast once a week


HappyJackSlade said:
And the guys you taped at the seminar were more than likely just trying to work the new techniques they just learnt than trying to go a hundered miles an hour and tap you.
Its not hard to tap a person when they are trying to work a new technique and your trying to smash the crap out of them an prove yourself as a blue.

While I agree with this i principle you have to realise that in the majority of europe there is a lack of opportunities to be promoted due to the low number of black belts. Most guys are lucky if they get to train with a black belt 1-2 times a year so the chance to roll infront of a instructor and be promoted becomes jsut as important if not more so than the seminar itself. You can bet the other guys there will have been going hard to try and get themselves noticed as well.
 
basically the harder you train the faster you will get promoted or reach that next leve.
 
HappyJackSlade said:
Ok.Let me get this right.
1/Your say your a blue,Right.
2/has anyone given you the belt?
3/You say you rolled with Royce.Did he give you a blue belt?
4/Or are you a self proclaimed blue belt?

tudor_bjj,Im just trying to get things strait thats all.
I take my hat off to you for trying to go it on your own.
But bjj is more than just 95% no gi.
Gi and no gi go hand in hand and compliment each other.
You have to understand that you get new blues and experience blues.
And people who train by themselves often feel that they are at a higher level than they realy are.
And the guys you taped at the seminar were more than likely just trying to work the new techniques they just learnt than trying to go a hundered miles an hour and tap you.
Its not hard to tap a person when they are trying to work a new technique and your trying to smash the crap out of them an prove yourself as a blue.
Did you try to use any of the techniques you learnt at he seminar when you rolled with the blue belts you tapped,Or did you just go there to test yourself against the others at the seminar
You say you rolled with Royce and other belts "students".
Where was the seminar held and did you have to travel far to get there.
If there were other Bjj students there, there should be a school for you to train at.If you can at least get there once a week,The coach should be able to get a feel of where your are with your grappling

Just my 2 cents worth

1. Royce awarded me the blue.

2. I train no gi for a reason. I'm trying to promote BJJ in Romania. But here people are not in touch with MMA, ADCC and the likes. They are, the vast majority, into striking arts (esp. TMA: kyokushin, ashihara, aikido etc.). They say that only kids fight on the ground. So I gathered a bunch of guys that I train (no charge). It was so hard make them believe me in BJJ that telling them to buy a gi (a third of the monthly income in Romania, BTW - cheap judo gi I mean) could have been a turn off for them. Plus, three of them train for MMA competition. Actually one of my "students" will have his first MMA fight in nov. and he is only 18.

3. Boy, nobody that I rolled with was trying to exercise any god damn technique. You see, although I'm 6'0 and 180 lbs, I'm not strong at all (and have some very bad back problems), not even flexible or fast. I'm just normal (that's why I like better rolling with gi). Those guys were trying to smash me. I don't want to sound cocky but check this out: rolled with one blue (no stripe) - armbar, toehold; another blue (2 stripes, trained a month at Gracie Barra) - RNC; another blue (3 stripes, brother of the instructor of the gym) - swept him from x-guard and side-m., spent 3 min. in his side-m going for subs; one judo brown - RNC in less than 1 min., got his back from pulling half-gurad on him; another blue (3 stripes from gracie Barcelona) - ambarred me (damn!); tapped like 4 or 5 times the only two white belts that I've sparred with; I played a lot of spider and butterfly.
One more thing, I can't go hard on anybody, cause it's not anything hard or strong in my game.

4. I didn't try the techniques Royce showed because: a) except for one, I knew all of them; b) you probably know that in Europe Royce's seminars are very basic oriented and esp. self-defense.

5. The seminar was in Falze di Piave (Treviso, Italy), 2 hrs. by plane from my country.

6. I didn't really want the blue belt (itself), but it was strange to come to a BJJ class where your "instructor" was a white belt. I went to Royce seminar, first cause I have been to another and it was an awesome experience to hang around with him and second cause he's the most recognizable figure from BJJ in Romania. I don't want the purple, either. My initial question was strictly about the level of being purple, not testing and actually getting it.
BTW, at this seminar was a guy who has been doing BJJ for 10 years and was a white belt. He was not interested at all in promotion. Royce gave him the blue, he accepted it (not handing him a belt, but telling him), but after Royce left he said he will not wear it, cause he loved too much his white one :).
 
HappyJackSlade said:
tudor_bjj.Please tell me what you think a Purple belt level is.
Waiting with baited breath :eek:
Man, don't give me easy traps like this. I'm not going to fall. You know, just like I do, that nobody can give you a exact definition of what a purple belt is.
But let me tell you this: I rolled with a purple last year at Gracie Barcelona (who was promoted early this year to brown) and I couldn't even be close to passing his guard and he was just sweeping me like I was 5 yrs. old (he was not going after subs). This I think should be the difference IMO between a "normal" blue and a "normal" purple. As the saying goes: if white doesn't know SHIT and blue knows some SHIT, then purple knows a lot of SHIT.
 
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