Hello,
I know this has not been updated for a few months, but I would like to objectively set the record straight for both BJJ and the Gracie Combatives Program. Many people here are not informed enough about the point of the Gracie University online training. It is NOT the case you can just mail any video of their techniques and they will mail out belts to all who send in a fee and video. The video evaluation has specific guidelines and paying attention to detail is essential.
Here I will lay out the difference between both BJJ and the Gracie university online program, which includes the combatives program as well. I have trained at a Gracie Barra affiliated school for six years and earned a purple belt. I do both prgrams! The Gracie Barra I will address as BJJ and the Gracie university as GJJ as many have done here already. BJJ really doesn't have a set lesson plan that students can know in advance what the lessons will be or what techniques will be learned in a set month. It is pretty much up to the instructor. So you can learn more techniques than me per se if you have a better instructor. You can learn the coolest sweeps and counters if your instructor happens to be a better or more informed instructor than mine instuctor or the next guy's instuctor. So that is a negative guys. On the positive side, most legit instuctors take pride in arming their students with enough quality to roll with any other school and fare well. It looks bad on the instuctor if Bob's white belts are better than Joe's Purple belts. So live rolling gives BJJ a more realistic sense of the techniques. That is a big plus. The bad experience many peole have is that the live rolling comes with pain and injury when rolling with jerks. Jerk is the guy who is going all out to win --even cheat and not care just as long as he doesn't get tapped. All BJJ schools have at least one of these guys. That aside, many BJJ guys don't care about quality or form in techniques: the form is not correct due to speed of the technique being applied to get the guy to tap. In rolling, we try to tap the guy quickly before he can counter it so form is often sacrificed. The main goal is to tap the guy and not care how the submission looks (ie, wrong grip, hips too high when stepping over, no total control of the opponent,etc). GJJ has a focus on repetition to imporve form and over all effectiveness of a submission. GJJ requires both form and the result to be positive. BJJ has a focus on the result -- who cares how pretty my arm bar is as long as the guy taps. GJJ makes the claim that art cares about form: what can be better than a beautifully executed arm bar and a submission to boot? Art requires control over your own body as well as control over the opponent. How many top BJJ experts have sloppy form? I have not seen any. So at the high levels form is usually there for both BJJ and GJJ. The difference is GJJ tries to instill quality form EARLY and to keep it. BJJ won't get that till purple or brown. GJJ has more specific details by FAR on how to execute each technique. Anyone who views the lessons at Gracie University will see clarity and crazy detail I did not get. BJJ you sort have to figure out things many times for yourself. GJJ makes learning easy and makes it impossible NOT to understand. GJJ makes the claim knowledge and Understanding is a different mindset from the BJJ counterpart. Part of that is Rorion's claim that a GJJ guy doesn't have to be athletic and have the skill to beat a biger, stronger and more athletic opponent. This is huge. No one addresses Rorion's claim. Is it true or not? GJJ teaches combatives to beginners and then goes through the master cycle. The master cycle teaches more advanced moves according to rank. Each stripe learns more than the previous one. This like in the old days where brown belts learn more than the lower ranks. Things are rank specific. BJJ is not rank specific. You learn what ever the instructor likes. So there is no separate rank lessons. Any one can learn the technique of the day. GJJ does hold back. GJJ claims that given enough repetitons the techniques will be automatic just like Katas in the other Martial arts. These automatic reactions should be in the quality of form as practiced. So the quality should be high in form and execution. No one can argue that the older arts did not practice this way. Practice thousands of repetitions with no resistance then gradually add resistance to 100 percent all out resistance -- being a jerk opponet. This is what GJJ is doing. BJJ does not. BJJ is to roll enough for you get the technique to work. If you don't understand then ask but aw well, too bad. BJJ rolling creates toughness. GJJ createsattention to detail to get the tap. This post is too long now. Hopefully I made some distinctions without bias and the reader sees it that way. Any comments, critques, questions, just ask.
I guess logic just makes sense to me. Too bad it doesn't to everyone else, if it did..me and my wife would get in a lot less arguments :icon_chee
