Combining techniques from 3 or 4 different schools to catch a sub.

[Waldorf]

But.............. They dont even know the "grab there leg" defense unless they somehow magically "feel" that that is an intuitive way of defending the head & arm choke.

I mean really, think about that for a minute. How in the hell is someone going to come up with that type of defense on there own?

As Balto pointed out earlier, I think by "reverse engineering" most of the attacks, aka good posture, you are going to avoid a lot more subs than a technique based defense. I remember learning the grab the leg defense during an open mat on as a white belt. I think I got caught in an arm triangle and was trying to pull my shoulder out of my neck some how. My instructor came over and said you can accomplish it better like this and it showed it to me. It took about a minute to show me and has come in handy plenty of times.

But I've probably avoided a lot more arm triangles by having good posture on the bottom of mount or wherever, and I've spent multiple classes working on mount bottom posture and escapes. I think BJJ defense is taught more like this and while I think teaching some late counters is good, its more important to spend time teaching being in good position in the first place.

 

[JosephDredd]

I'm kind of having the opposite experience.

I've trained at a catch/bjj hybrid (Larry Hartsell affiliate), a different catch/BJJ hybrid (Ceccine tapes and a Gracie brown belt), judo, and three different BJJ schools. It's under my current professor that I'm making the most progress I've ever made and part of it is because he's streamlining what I do. I'm taking privates with him and many, many times I'll do a move I learned at a different school (or even from a different instructor at his own school) and he'll say, "That is good, but (lists cons). I would suggest you (modifies or shows simpler move)." and he ends up setting me with a move that is much better in really subtle ways (quicker to sink in, does not leave me out of position, has more options if blocked, uses his energy against him) etc etc. It reminds me of how people talk about learning from Rickson, how he beats you while doing almost nothing.

So, yeah, in getting much, much better I'm basically unlearning most of what I've learned previously.

 

[nefti]

Joh Frankl is an amazing instructor. That being said, i don't like teaching defenses to the technique I just taught, it makes students give up on the techniques out of frustration .