i want to transition to grappling

OP, I just wanted to say I think you are going about this the correct way. I've been training MT and BJJ seperately for two years now(more BJJ than MT) and feel this is the best way to train. From what I've seen most of the guys who jump right into MMA never really get a good handle on any of the aspects of fighting. Most of these guys have bad attitudes too for some reason.
 
That would be the one. I popped something in my ribs about a week before the tourney, and couldn't even roll lightly.

shame, the Invitational was great, ran so smoothly and on time with a good number of competitors... just didn't like the scoring system
 
So i have been practicing and competing in Muay Thai and Boxing for a few years now, but i wanna actually get paid for fighting in the future. And as we all know, pickins are slim when it comes to paychecks for Kickboxers in america. So i might try my hand at MMA.

I'm not in a mad rush to go pro or anything, considering the fact that i have a VERY cozy government job where i post on sherdog all day, i just want to compete in something with a deeper talent pool that is not outside of the USA. If i lived in europe i would have no problem going 100% on the Kickboxing. but here in the U.S. there is a severe lack of sparring partners and MT specific training camps, everything caters to MMA. So i guess if i can't beat em', ill join em.

I am a fucking devout, extremist Kickboxing and Muay thai fan, with very strong beliefs that the striking talent in MMA is dismal compared to the grappling talent. But all that aside, MMA is somewhere up there in my favorites list too, so i'll be willing to try it out one day.

Now i have never grappled seriously, with the exception of a little bit of Judo in high school, and watching alot of grappling instructionals & live competitions, picking up a bit of techniques from my friends etc. Yeah i know, all that counts for squat when it comes to real grappling.

-anyways-

I wanna learn (and eventually compete in) some form of grappling, but i want to learn it as a pure art,(and seperately from my muay thai) with ranks and nuggets of wisdom and stuff. Probably not in an MMA gym, i want something with more......"structure", like more of a TMA vibe, with lots of history and "roots" i suppose. It seems like every MMA gym i look at in my area has no real structure, more like a mixbag of random shit every day. I am not even in a hurry to compete in MMA. I am just coming out of my teen years, and just really want to round out my fighting game and devote myself to a new art in the process. I also have a love hate relationship with MMA fans, wannabes, and the fact that the sport has been turning into a novelty/fad as of late, and don't get me started on all of that "meteoric rise", or "best sport on earth" propaganda that the UFC has been peddling.

So my question is, does Brazilian Jiu Jitsu have alot of tradition and ritual attached to it? Are most classes structured well with basic techniques that are worked on every day? Will i most likely feel a good sense of history and TMA-ness in a traditional BJJ class? I'm not really fond of loud talkin' tough guys is why i ask. What can i expect from a good BJJ class most likely?

Thanks guys.

if you want to get more of a traditional feel to it, i train under saulo ribeiro, his camp here in toronto called toronto bjj, our classes are all structured, always being told the history of bjj, and how it started with helio. we also do stuff such as "forma" in the begging of the class, and all the students line up according to rank facing saulo, xande when they are here training us, or our main instructor george. we then do a warm up, and tend to focus on the basics A LOT. the best way to build your ground game is solidly learning the basics inside and out. if you can, i would definately suggest going to train with saulo in san diego.
 
if you can aford it try going to a seperate judo club and bjj knowing both and combining them would be the best thing you could probably do .

or a bjj and amateur wrestling class i know alot of mma schools offer a bjj class and seperate wrestling .
 
The place where Ive been recently training bjj is damn awesome , and the guy is even a 2nd degree black belt from brazil , what more could I want .

First few lessons when I came , he always showed some complex situation to the other guys ( which there is only about 6 , which is great since I hate it when theres lots of people ) , and then came to me and learned me the basics , like if it was some private lesson wow .

Besides this hes like really nice, and always reminds that its all about fun . He teaches in a way that he shows what mistakes could be done , and why you dont go into this or this position .

If I was to compare it ... its like if someone is teaching you chess openings , and know how to do it if the other guy plays it the best way it can be played , but if he does a mistake , you dont even know how to use it against him . This guy , he shows how to react on mistakes of the enemy , hes not teaching in a way like " your always gonna do the lock right " , hes teaching it , so that even if you make a mistake you know how to get out of it .


More precise to your question , I was quite suprised how we greet each other at the beggining , at the end of the lesson the trainer has a 30 second speech " hope you enjoyed it etc " and we all shake hands , thats all...

Theres no tough guys who dont listen . Sure theyve got muscles and deep voices , but theyr very humble from my experience .

I must admit from my experience the mma gym I used to go to ... there were quite a few of those tough guys , who just used to much power when practising something where you shouldnt use it , etc . But most of them were new to it , guys who arent humble and take it more technicaly ussualy dont get far .

But like I said , from my experience , bjj ( especially with gi , no gi ... well the no-gi I went to , there were mainly mma guys , but it was still fine , better then mma lessons ) is like some judo or something , an art with some formalities , and with the tendency to like discipline , but it is also based that it is your free will to go there and that its mainly fun :) .
 
There is too much intelligence in this thread, this is not normal.

I totally agree that starting MMA as a style without prior individual style experience is dog shit. Yet I feel like this is where the world is heading.

I believe that Greco would be amazing in conjunction with your MT background. But you gotta do what appeals to you the most.

Keep it up, man. This is how the GSPs of this world are made.
 
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