Gracie Combatives - What the hell?

Jimmy Cerra

Jimmy Cerra

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So I got an email from Rorion's school. Ya, I know it is basically spam, but sometimes they distribute some interesting material. I also like to stay aware of what's going on in the BJJ/Judo/martial arts communities - same reason I signed up to Lloyd Irvin's email list among a few others.

Well the latest one has an advertisement for "Gracie Combatives." This system lists only 34 techniques that they claim are the most useful for self defense. They claim, "as a result, the U.S. Army, CIA , FBI, Navy Seals along with hundreds of Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies have officially adopted the Gracie Combatives
 
Oh, and everyone who passes gets a blue belt at the end of the course:

The Gracie Combatives program provided us with 34 essential Gracie self-defense techniques organized into 22 lessons. Each one hour class covered one stand-up technique and one ground technique. Rener walked my instructors and me through each class to ensure that we understood the techniques, key teaching points, common mistakes, and safety considerations. Once satisfied, he certified us to teach the course and to award up to four Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy stripes to white belts. When students complete the course, they enter the next step in their training -- fight simulations -- during which the real effectiveness of the Gracie Combatives program becomes evident as they combine the techniques in a series of drills. Once the student is proficient in fight simulation, Ryron or Rener assess them for promotion to blue belt...again, not just any blue belt, but a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy blue belt. That alone is an amazing incentive for your students and it gives your program undeniable credibility regardless of your personal skill level as a jiu-jitsu practitioner.
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:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
Holy fucken dogshit. Rorion the hoar!!!!! Giving cunts a belt that took me years to earn in 22 lessons without rolling and a test? These guy will be absolutely shithouse.

Fuck You Hoarion.
 
Hey Frodo, I've been to way more than 22 lessons. Give me a blue belt tomorrow.
 
It doesn't really bother me if they make money off of people who want to become a badass instantly.
 
mmmm this is why i belive rorion and royce have not evolved with sport bjj.
a blue belt after what looks like a 22 day long intro class.
 
Frodo said:
BDON911, can you pass the general physical fitness evaluation, which consists of 6 pull-ups, 21 push-ups, 51 sit-ups and 51 squats? What stiff requirements... LOL
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Let's just skip that part and call it a deal
 
"Once the student is proficient in fight simulation, Ryron or Rener assess them for promotion to blue belt...again, not just any blue belt, but a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy blue belt. That alone is an amazing incentive for your students and it gives your program undeniable credibility regardless of your personal skill level as a jiu-jitsu practitioner. "

Freakin belt farm.
 
Gracie Academy site said:
Official Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Belt Promotion

At the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy, a blue belt is awarded to anyone who perfects their understanding and execution of the Gracie Combatives techniques. Since you will be licensed to offer the complete Gracie Combatives course to your students, you will be authorized to promote them up to fourth degree white belt level. Up to two (2) times per year you can arrange to have a Gracie Academy Head Instructor visit your training center to evaluate all fourth degree white belt holders and award blue belts to those who qualify.
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I'd be interested to know exactly what they mean by "perfects their understanding and execution of the Gracie Combatives techniques".

Also, judging by the "two times per year you can arrange to have a Gracie Academy Head Instructor visit to evaluate all fourth degree white belt holders and award blue belts to those who qualify", it would appear that there is an element of assessment by someone who has at least some idea of what they're doing as opposed to 2 week instructors.

As far as I can tell, the wording doesn't make it absolutely clear what is required for the blue belt, or indeed if it isn't a 'Gracie Combatives' blue belt rather than GJJ/BJJ. However, even if that proves to be at all mitigating, the various other details - like NDAs - remain concerning.
 
This really isn't that shocking to me.

For some reason, there is this attitude in the BJJ community that BJJ belts and rankings are somehow immune to the problems that plague other martial arts. This just isn't true.

People sell belts in BJJ. People get promoted for reasons other than technical skill. People just flat out commit fraud sometimes.

Within your own dojo, providing that you train with a good instructor, the belt ranks can mean a lot if they are awarded legitimately. However, once you start dealing with people from schools you don't know personally, you really can't take a rank on face value at all. You have to evaluate their skill on an individual basis, just like what you have to do in every single other martial art with a ranking system.

So I'm not too shocked that this is happening. It's a long standing tradition in the martial arts world. It's a shame, but for those of us who try to hold the belt ranks to a higher standard, it should be very obvious when we encounter someone who has earned a rank in this manner.

And for the record, I do feel that this program is complete BS. But then again, so is most of the stuff that comes from Rorian's intellectual property that is "Gracie JiuJitsu."
 
this is oriented i think towards LE and private security firms. its a selling point and i dont think anyone outside of that program would hold that belt as meaningful.
but it is a weird way to sell something. rorion is rore for money i guess
 
white belt for 1 year 3 months and counting: and damn proud of it!
 
talk to rorion or lloyd about that, they will fix you up with some for a few easy installments
 
RGJJ_matt said:
this is oriented i think towards LE and private security firms.
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I don't think so - judging by the site, this is mainly directed at school owners, including what are referred to as "sportive based Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu" schools. It does mention LEOs and the like, but in an attempt to provide evidence of the curriculum's efficacy:

Gracie Academy said:
Why every school of martial arts MUST offer Gracie Combatives
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Here it is from Rener's mouth. It's after the Triangle Choke demo:

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The thing is, the Gracie Combatives course, as I understand it, is more of a self defense course, designed to teach average, unskilled, unathletic people how to defend themselves against a larger, stronger, more athletic oponent. It's basically a crash course in self-defense. It's not designed to prepare you for jiu-jitsu tournaments.

As a Gracie Academy student, you start out by taking the combatives courses. Once you've taken each class twice (there's a schedule) then you can move on to the advanced class where they teach more advanced techniques and include sparring.

As far as being a belt factory, well, my cousin and bro-in-law have both been training there for almost a year and they're still white belts. I honestly don't know how they can justify giving out a blue belt to someone after only two weeks unless they already have some BJJ training and just want to get one from the Gracie Academy for bragging rights or whatever.

As far as them being greedy, I'm sure they just have had a lot of people asking them how they could become GJJ instructors so they decided to make a program to fulfill that need.

I guess I don't understand why there is so much hostility around here toward the Gracies.
 
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