Does YOUR instructor allow you to visit/train at other gyms??!!

[Hillary]

Coming from Arkansas you really don't have a choice. There are few competitions locally and even fewer high ranks. My coach encouraged it and would call ahead to friends he'd train with to see if I could visit and roll. Those guys would recommend other gyms with friends, and I think now I've been to 80 or 90. I had a full list but I got lazy somewhere around 40. I wouldn't train at two places in the same city as my home gym, however, unless the instructors were friends. That's like having two girlfriends in the same city, it just can't end well.

I didn't really pick up games from all the different gyms; my game is quite reflective of my instructor Roli. We're both tall and lanky, we favor the closed guard, grinding passing, and a simple yet detailed style. I picked up details, though. It takes me 5-10 minutes to teach a position because I'm very into details and understanding why you do things. If I don't know, I tend to get my face smashed. So I can pick any random position--my N/S choke for instance--and I can credit Roli, Marcelo Garcia, Denilson Pimenta, Renato Tavares, and one of my blue belt students for the details.

It was also like a mini-competition each time I went to train. That's not to say people didn't roll friendly, I mean the unknown aspect. In your gym, you know the guys. You know their game; you have a strategy. Each visiting gym is a surprise, it might be something you've never seen before. I can't count the number of times after class I went up to someone (I didn't do this to black belts until brown belt, however) and asked, "Hey, that sweep/sub/etc you got, could you show me again?" If they said no, I just smiled and said thanks for the roll, but most of the time they're happy to show you. More often than not they'd ask you to show something reciprocally, and that's always cool.

Contrary to what I often see written on forums, one of the most powerful things I've had said to me came from a friend I met in Rio who now teaches a few hours away. He told me the most important reason that people knowingly let me train at their gym when I train many places and I know many people (afraid that I'll show their secrets, I guess) is because I never stopped being loyal. I never pretended I was going to switch teams, I wore my team's patch on my back,* and I also was very open about what I was doing when visiting to train. Especially in Brazil, guys will train with friends from other teams fairly often now but no one wants to train with a 'creonte.'

*I also always had a blank white gi handy because some school rules do not allow patches.

I also made sure to always err on the side of respect in gyms. I come from a very non traditional background but when at a new school I always bow when entering the mat, shake the hand of the instructor first then of the rest of the black belts, and wait to see if I will be paired before asking someone to roll. It seems silly and unnecessary, but no one ever got mad at someone for being respectful.

So yeah. Be polite, be thankful, be honest, and be respectful. Cross training a great supplement for your jiu jitsu.

 

[SheerTechnique]

^ You're awesome Hillary!!!

 

[kjg1672]

I'm kind of surprised so many gyms are open to this. Not many gyms in my area do, and I can think of at least on instructor you would ask to leave the school if you continued to do it.

 

[Tommip]

I guess it can be mind blowing to have many girlfriends in different towns That's why I wanna some day to go to Brazil and States to train!

From September to early May I train in the gym in my studying city. During summer times I train at the city where I am from. I respect both places, but I know and owe to compete under the name of the first one, because that's where I began my journey of BJJ. I respect people from both gyms and I'm also friends with all of them whom I know as well. Doesn't matter that one is Hilti BJJ and the other one is Alliance. I think the most important things are to remember the roots, to respect others and to be polite. I know that's not always enough. You just have to live with it.

 

[BCarr]

We totally encourage it....but then again, we are a not-for-profit university program. Just happened to keep it going all these years. Some school owners I know even offer discounts to our students (for more than just dropping by) because they know the kids are pretty much broke and are already training a number of days per week with us.


But at a certain level, you have to get out and train with friends you meet along the way. I think that's kind of what the brotherhood of what we do is all about. And yeah....it is very much about how you go about your visit. I've met some awesome people over the years and been welcomed into many great training centers.

 

[tk99]

Allow? No comprende. Do what you want.

 

[Darkslide632]

Never been an issue. If it was an issue, I probably wouldn't train there in the first place.

 

[chunglii]

Hell no.

I honestly don't see the point in training at multiple gyms unless they're different styles(go to muay thai gym for striking, bjj for bjj).

I train at what I believe to be the best bjj gym in my city, so I doubt I can get drastically different training and instructors anywhere else. I wouldn't want to eitther because i'd have to pay for multiple gyms and even more gas. And tournaments are where you can test yourself vs different people, not other gyms.

 

[Calibur]

It's not a big deal to visit if you do it the right way. The reason why a lot of instructors frown on it is that most people don't know how to do it the right way.

The right way is to just pop in a friendly gym occasionally to visit with a friend or pay respect to another teacher. This is not normally an issue.

The issues come up because people try to train indefinitely at multiple gyms at the same time. While this can work in some scenarios, it requires serious coordination between all of the instructors involved because training has to be cohesive overall. Most instructors don't have the time to be dealing with this all over the place for each student so they just don't allow it.

Where most people run into problems is they don't realize that it is impossible to train regularly at multiple places if the places aren't on the same page. If the programs are uncoordinated, they will clash and all parties involved will get frustrated. You could sit everybody down and get the programs coordinated, but that is a lot of work and isn't practical in a lot of situations.

I am training indefinitely at more than one org. I regularly do drop ins at a 3rd. What are the scenarios and coordination you are referring too?

I have had very few issues.

 

[Jdonw]

Unless otherwise traveling, I don't think white belts should visit other gyms. You should stick to learning from one instructor instead of being confused by multiple sources. You are also only taking from the gym, with little to offer in return. That being said, at purple belt, I feel I should train at multiple places more frequently in an attempt to adapt to multiple styles, rather than getting the same rolls at my gym.

My instructor is fine with it, except specific gyms. Sometimes there is politics in an association that it is best to steer clear from, even then, I'd just be encouraged not to go.

 

[Einarr]

I've trained at Gracie Barra, Alliance, and SBGi gyms. I've personally never seen an issue with this.

I think the best attitude is that which is prevalent in Judo; train wherever you want if it's a legit school.

 

[WiolentOne]

Yes, but with the understanding that I am acting as a representative of our gym.

 

[rowdstar]

am i gonna be the first to say they've trained at a place that openly frowned on it?
there was no way it was cool to train someplace else in the same town. and definetely NOT if you were an upper belt.

and if you went out of town it was considered polite to ask the instructor where you could train at there when visiting.

people training at more than one place in the same town were asked to leave.

where i am at now, you could go and train wherever you want. just be honest about it. but maybe also dont expect to get extra attention come competition training time. but even that is a maybe.

when i have gone to other countries or other states and trained i wore my belt, i wore my schools patch and told them where i was from. and yeah, everyone wants to test you, but thats the game. not like the people who wear white belts when they're not or pull other crap like that when going to new places.

 

[AzRich75]

Our instructor encourages it and even practices it himself. He travels for his work and is always sure to pack his gi so he has a chance to train where he has to go.

I have done the same thing since before I started training with him. When I had to work out of town, I would find a local academy and stop in or call to introduce myself and ask if it was cool to get some rolling in while I was working in town. I never had a problem with it.

Now I am allowed to train at any BJJ Revolution affiliated school when traveling and I also get some mat time at Salas Gracie Jiu Jitsu when I visit my family in Mexico.

Locally there is just too much school drama.

 

[Balto]

I am training indefinitely at more than one org. I regularly do drop ins at a 3rd. What are the scenarios and coordination you are referring too?

I have had very few issues.

One example:

Gym A is training to send guys to one competition. Gym B is training to send guys to another competition. The competitions are two weeks apart.

The week before Gym A's competition, the instructor has everyone take it easy to peak for the competition. However, the same week is three weeks before Gym B's competition, so Gym B is training at maximal intensity.

You can't do both at the same time and do your best. You have to pick one, and it is probably going to cause awkwardness at the gym you didn't pick because you are putting your own needs above those of the team. You're basically telling them that you're only a part of the team when you feel like it, and that doesn't go over well.

Another example:

Gym A and Gym B both follow progressive lesson plans. Regular attendance in class is essential to keeping up because everything is connected and the skills build. If you don't develop the base skills, you can't just jump in to the later skills properly.

If Gym A and Gym B are coordinated in such a way that their schedules mesh so you don't miss any parts of the curriculum in either, then you're fine. However, it's based on 2-3x a week attendance at each, so unless you have the time and recovery capacity to train 4-6x a week total, you are going to be halfassing both. A lot of guys will end up just halfway doing both when they'd be better off just picking one.




If you train at gyms with no real structure or progression other than 2-3 random techniques a day, and your gyms don't schedule team competitions and let people go randomly, then there probably isn't much to coordinate. But personally I think those kind of gyms are extremely substandard training, and I would never pay for it. If I had no other options, I'd just start my own at this point so I didn't have to deal with that crap anymore.

All of the best gyms follow the coordinated team mentality that I described. There have been a lot of Lloyd Irvin articles on here recently where he talks about his similar training methods. They are the same as the ones in use at the other serious teams; the only unique thing is that almost all the other serious teams are headed by Brazilians instead of Americans.

At places like these, everyone is expected to be part of the team and get on the same page. If you're missing classes because of work or family, you are going to fall behind, but at least it's understandable. If you're missing classes because you're trying to split your time between two different programs, most instructors are going to quickly lose patience.

 

[Balto]

Another easy way to think about it is coaching in sports.

Let's say you want to go to the Olympics in Wrestling or something. You are going to be on a team, and you are going to have a coach. It's not a totally one way relationship; you definitely give feedback back up to your coach too. However, it's still an important relationship to honor.

Can you have more than one coach at the same time? Absolutely, and most top guys do (particularly when you start counting supplementary coaches in different areas of expertise). However, it is important that all of these coaches know each other, get along, and be on the same page. You can't have one coach running your practices a certain way, a strength and conditioning coach scheduling workouts that interfere or are counterproductive, and a nutrition coach putting you on a juice fast the week before the Olympics. They all need to be on the same team (the same team you are) and work together as one in a coordinated fashion to achieve the goal.

If you have no coaches or coach like relationships in your BJJ training, then I can see how it's not an issue. But no coach means no one taking an active role in your own personal BJJ development and goals. That will severely limit what you can achieve in your training.

 

[Stun Gun]

Yes and my instructor is cool with that

 

[Ryo]

Shaolin think its "BULLLSHHEET"

there ya go.

 

[Balto]

am i gonna be the first to say they've trained at a place that openly frowned on it?
there was no way it was cool to train someplace else in the same town. and definetely NOT if you were an upper belt.

and if you went out of town it was considered polite to ask the instructor where you could train at there when visiting.

people training at more than one place in the same town were asked to leave.

where i am at now, you could go and train wherever you want. just be honest about it. but maybe also dont expect to get extra attention come competition training time. but even that is a maybe.

when i have gone to other countries or other states and trained i wore my belt, i wore my schools patch and told them where i was from. and yeah, everyone wants to test you, but thats the game. not like the people who wear white belts when they're not or pull other crap like that when going to new places.

You are not the first. My instructor would frown on regularly training two different places without some sort of unique reason.

You can train BJJ 11x a week at our school. Obviously, most people don't do all of that. I do 3x a week. All that is expected is that you do what you can and give your 100% best effort.

If you are regularly training at two different places, you are not giving your 100% best effort to the team. You are splitting the effort up between two teams. It's like 50%/50% or 60%/40% or whatever it is. It's definitely not 100% anymore.

Again, this is regular training, not just dropping in on occasion to roll with some different partners or see a different perspective on things. That stuff is really helpful, important for overall perspective and growth in the art, and should be cool if done with consideration and respect.

But as far as regular training goes, you need that home base team. It's better to train 4x a week in one gym than 2x a week each in two gyms. After 21 years of experience in the martial arts, I think this applies to them all, not just BJJ. You just do better when you have that clearly defined home gym. You still need to branch out, but it's a branch of one tree, not two different trees all tangled up competing for the same spot.

 

[Keep it Real]

I train at a pretty well known school that has quite a few well known successful competitors.Our instructor welcomed anybody to Open mat and encourages his students to go to other schools and roll.On the otherhand I used to train at a school that only wanted his students to go to schools in the association(none in the area) and wouldn't let other students go to his open mat.Honestly, I think his main concern is that he would lose students.Be wary of instructors that don't want you to see other schools.A confident instructor doesn't care because he is confident in his product.