Gap between BJJ clubs

[NewGuardBjj]

Yo,

How would you guys rank bjj clubs? Like, how do you tell if one club is superior to the next? There seem to be a giant amount of clubs with rather accomplished mma fighters, and black belts seem to be a dime a dozen these days.

It just feels like there's a lot of parity amongst most clubs in midsized cities. Of course, the top clubs are going to be better. What are your thoughts?

 

[SummerStriker]

1) The instructor's technique looks clean to you. You will become a better judge of it in time.

2) People are willing to drill solid for the whole round. Many gyms have lazy cultures where people sit around and talk about variables, UFC and their feelings on things when they should be drilling. You shouldn't have to ask someone to keep drilling because if you do they will either feel put upon or think they are doing you a favor, unless they are clearly enthused to do it.

3) They have a competition team with medals or they don't care if you go to other gym's open mats to get exposure.

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

the real answer is train there.

unless youre training bjj for mma, i wouldnt look too much into the advertised mma fighters in a gym.

a lot of big names that get dropped on bjj websites dont actually train/instruct at that gym or dont do so regularly. if those names influence you, you should make sure they will actually be there. the most legit bjj sites list their class schedule along with what instructor teaches what class.

i guess it depends where you live, but to me black belts that instruct daily/near daily arent as common as i would hope. i'm always very happy to train with a black belt. i've trained with some black belts that were certainly legit but i didnt love their teaching, but every blackbelt ive trained with so far that has 2 or more stripes has been amazing with instruction (not a huge sample size but still.)

 

[NewGuardBjj]

1) The instructor's technique looks clean to you. You will become a better judge of it in time.

2) People are willing to drill solid for the whole round. Many gyms have lazy cultures where people sit around and talk about variables, UFC and their feelings on things when they should be drilling. You shouldn't have to ask someone to keep drilling because if you do they will either feel put upon or think they are doing you a favor, unless they are clearly enthused to do it.

3) They have a competition team with medals or they don't care if you go to other gym's open mats to get exposure.

That's some good info. I've trained at two schools. One was in a small city that was in a remote region, and one was in a small town outside a huge metro. The instruction at the first school was better, but in hindsight, I could tell the teacher didn't have much exposure to the bjj world. The second school, the one outside the metro, had poor instruction, but the gym members were way more skilled, experienced, and tougher in general.

I've moved to a new city, a good sized city, that has surprisingly few options for schools. The two main schools are related, so I feel as though I should just pick the closer. My goal is to place in a few Naga's or whatever they have here. I have no larger goals.

I'm wary of the MMA/bjj gym or the MMA/BJJ/Crossfit gym. I absolutely hate crossfit. What a good way to get sore and gain nothing from it.

 

[GuardOfDoom]

I would try the gyms out, see who has the more skilled guys to roll with. I would also check the atmosphere of the gym and see if it vibes with you. But for me personally, I want a gym with ppl who push themselves and are tough to keep up with developmentally.

 

[freakroor]

It all depends on who the instructors are. Definitely try to learn from a black belt, one who is accomplished in competition, and/or has produced students who do well in comps. Also, good teachers break down details and look for/answer questions.


Attend a few classes and see if the head instructor is actually the one who does most of the teaching. Sometimes when a gym has a few high-level guys they will start to share the workload of teaching classes, which works for some students but some don't like it and would rather have a single instructor who knows them well.

Another important thing is the schedule, and amount of classes. If a gym has a world class instructor but you can't make it to more than 2 classes per week then it isn't a good fit. Look for a place that has classes every day at multiple times if possible. And don't rule out MMA gyms, just follow the same procedure when you check out their grappling curriculum. I train at an MMA gym owned by 2 world class black belts, we have grappling 2-3x per day every day of the week except sundays where its just open mat

 

[RTD1]

2) People are willing to drill solid for the whole round. Many gyms have lazy cultures where people sit around and talk about variables, UFC and their feelings on things when they should be drilling. You shouldn't have to ask someone to keep drilling because if you do they will either feel put upon or think they are doing you a favor, unless they are clearly enthused to do it.

Is this really a thing? I can see maybe during an open mats session, but if someone tried to shoot the shit instead of drill during an actual class no way that would fly where I train.

 

[Thai Otoshi]

Is this really a thing? I can see maybe during an open mats session, but if someone tried to shoot the shit instead of drill during an actual class no way that would fly where I train.

I've seen it with my own eyes. It's infuriating.

It's mainly a BJJ thing, in my experience. Only in BJJ have I seen training partners have no regard for drilling techniques. All other arts I've trained in, MT, BJJ, kenjutsu, etc. all have guys who understand the importance of drills.

 

[spelingmastir]

It's totally a thing and a good thing to watch out for. A culture like that is not good for anyone other than people who would rather talk about training than actually train. Nobody is above drilling.

 

[Marfa]

I can't fathom a good instructor who would let it happen without trying to stop it.

I understand "shooting the shit" with other people if there is not enough mat space for rolling, or doing it during a light warm up, but not while drilling.

 

[Rich959]

It's totally a thing and a good thing to watch out for. A culture like that is not good for anyone other than people who would rather talk about training than actually train. Nobody is above drilling.

Much like 'warm ups', there are some that blow off drilling because they're lazy, but sometimes it gets blow off because the manner in which it's carried out is stupid & is not a valuable use of time.

Drilling isn't inherently valuable in all it's forms. If it's poorly thought out, it's almost as useless as sitting around talking about training.

 

[SuperAzn812]

Instruction quality and drilling time is what I look for. You can roll your ass off all the time, but you will eventually slow down your progression if that's all you do.

 

[Thai Otoshi]

Much like 'warm ups', there are some that blow off drilling because they're lazy, but sometimes it gets blow off because the manner in which it's carried out is stupid & is not a valuable use of time.

Drilling isn't inherently valuable in all it's forms. If it's poorly thought out, it's almost as useless as sitting around talking about training.

Confirmed shitshooter.

 

[Balto]

I've seen it with my own eyes. It's infuriating.

It's mainly a BJJ thing, in my experience. Only in BJJ have I seen training partners have no regard for drilling techniques. All other arts I've trained in, MT, BJJ, kenjutsu, etc. all have guys who understand the importance of drills.

It is a very unfortunate thing. But it is indeed very real.

I consider it a litmus test of the gym. I'm actually surprised it got mentioned so early on in this thread because most people miss this detail.

Just watching to see whether people will actually drill during drill time and actually roll during roll time will give you a good idea of the caliber of gym you are dealing with. It is hard to go very wrong with a gym where people are sincerely training. Some gyms are better than others, but I've never come across a truly bad gym where everyone was sincerely dedicated to training during training time.

During rolling/drilling, count how many people are sitting out or otherwise just messing around. If it's more than one or two, it's time to find another gym.

 

[D1wrestla]

Yo,

How would you guys rank bjj clubs? Like, how do you tell if one club is superior to the next? There seem to be a giant amount of clubs with rather accomplished mma fighters, and black belts seem to be a dime a dozen these days.

It just feels like there's a lot of parity amongst most clubs in midsized cities. Of course, the top clubs are going to be better. What are your thoughts?

My club just got our second blackbelt (we are a marcello montiero affiliate) and I would have to drive 30+ miles further to get to the next club that has a black belt. I don't know how it is where your at but here in metro Detroit black belts are anything but a dime a dozen lol. Although at michigan top team/Detroit jiu jitsu there are quite a few but that's a little over an hour drive for me

 

[nefti]

the biggest mistake i see is thinking that because a school's compeititon team/brazilan competitors are dominant that that school is good for your average joe. It does not, I know alot of students from "championship teams" that were not good at all and it was because the school focuses on the most talented rather than the least talented in the school.

 

[Vitamin C]

My gym definitely has shitshooters. It also has dedicated drillers.
Some of the shit shooting is because the technique may be more "basic" and people feel they "have it." Why drill a basic collar choke for 5 minutes right? Pfft, just do it twice and remember you got that shit on lock. More time for butterfly stretches, holding onto your toes and shit.

 

[JohnSouth]

Drilling kinda sucks because you are not addressing or identifying your weakness.

You mindlessly repeat what your instructor randomly decided to drill that day. 50 arm bars each side....shit but hey I'm sweating so it must be good.

Now when they stop you and say...wait a minute...no do this. This is where you screwed up.

That's coaching, you will get good fast but few gyms have the patience to actually track their students progress so it's easier to do 50 sloppy, shitty arm bars.

 

[Balto]

My gym definitely has shitshooters. It also has dedicated drillers.
Some of the shit shooting is because the technique may be more "basic" and people feel they "have it." Why drill a basic collar choke for 5 minutes right? Pfft, just do it twice and remember you got that shit on lock. More time for butterfly stretches, holding onto your toes and shit.

Preach.

Who needs basics, right?

 

[Uchi Mata]

Drilling kinda sucks because you are not addressing or identifying your weakness.

You mindlessly repeat what your instructor randomly decided to drill that day. 50 arm bars each side....shit.

Now when they stop you and say...wait a minute...no do this. This is where you screwed up.

That's coaching, you will get good fast but few gyms have the patience to actually track their students progress so it's easier to do 50 sloppy, shitty arm bars.

Only if you drill at a bad school. Our drilling is nothing like that. We typically choose what we work on, and are encouraged to focus on correcting weaknesses in our A games. At most we'll work on the position that is being taught in class that week, but the moves are up to us. Also, only a percentage of your drilling should be 0% resistance, I'd say we try to do about 40-50% no resistance, 20-30% some resistance, and the rest 100% positional sparring. Much more effective that way.