Kids of BJJ Today and What They Are Not Learning or Maybe They Are?

I absolutely agree. The issue was, for me, my school's environment. It's in a highly competitive area and, as a private school, we had plenty of financial support from parents (so it wasn't much different from a club in that regard). Furthermore, I was the whipping boy because I was the youngest, most mild-mannered coach who had no pull in the hierarchy. I was easy for parents to bitch at because I was at the bottom of the totem pole.
Ah, shit, I completely understand, why I'm very hesitant to get involved in private schools or schools where I'd be the whipping boy. Earning my way up is one thing, being the parents sole person to complain to is another.

I got really really lucky with the place I'm at and under the kind of coach you want to coach your kid and controls the room. He's been teaching me a lot.

I hope you find a better fit
 
Ah, shit, I completely understand, why I'm very hesitant to get involved in private schools or schools where I'd be the whipping boy. Earning my way up is one thing, being the parents sole person to complain to is another.

I got really really lucky with the place I'm at and under the kind of coach you want to coach your kid and controls the room. He's been teaching me a lot.

I hope you find a better fit
Thank you. I'm actually in an entirely different line of work now lol. I'm glad you're doing well.

The disputes we had over the kids' weight classes and whatnot was ultimately what made me the angriest. We were pretty proactive about not letting guys cut much weight, but parents were very adamant about starving and dehydrating their kids. When grown men fighting for money want to do that, I say go for it; I hated seeing kids with academic priorities coming to practice when they haven't eaten since the weekend though. I had to hear about how Johnny should be in a certain weight class because the head coach's policy is that they'd wrestle in the class he chose or not at all, so there was no point bitching at him.
 
Thank you. I'm actually in an entirely different line of work now lol. I'm glad you're doing well.

The disputes we had over the kids' weight classes and whatnot was ultimately what made me the angriest. We were pretty proactive about not letting guys cut much weight, but parents were very adamant about starving and dehydrating their kids. When grown men fighting for money want to do that, I say go for it; I hated seeing kids with academic priorities coming to practice when they haven't eaten since the weekend though. I had to hear about how Johnny should be in a certain weight class because the head coach's policy is that they'd wrestle in the class he chose or not at all, so there was no point bitching at him.
Our youth club's head parents are making their 8-10 year old's cut weight...like weight that you have to wear plastics to sweat... it's been driving me fucking insane. I was able to (in a round about way) to get all but one to stop. The one kid who is had a dad who (insert hick southern accent) who was a state champion in the 1970s...in tennessee :rolleyes: and runs the club.

The biggest thing that annoys me though is that all he teaches is cow catchers instead of proper go-behinds or head-in-the holes. What I mean is that instead of making it fun and teaching the kids good habits and fundamentals.. they are teaching techniques to win as much as possible in youth...even if it means they have shitty habits and won't win in middle much less high school. Along with the fact they're running intense practices with suicides. I had to stop helping and focus on the middle school and high school to keep myself from getting in trouble
 
Our youth club's head parents are making their 8-10 year old's cut weight...like weight that you have to wear plastics to sweat... it's been driving me fucking insane. I was able to (in a round about way) to get all but one to stop. The one kid who is had a dad who (insert hick southern accent) who was a state champion in the 1970s...in tennessee :rolleyes: and runs the club.

The biggest thing that annoys me though is that all he teaches is cow catchers instead of proper go-behinds or head-in-the holes. What I mean is that instead of making it fun and teaching the kids good habits and fundamentals.. they are teaching techniques to win as much as possible in youth...even if it means they have shitty habits and won't win in middle much less high school. Along with the fact they're running intense practices with suicides. I had to stop helping and focus on the middle school and high school to keep myself from getting in trouble
Our weight cut policy was pretty much case-by-case. If coach thought you handle a bigger weight cut, you'd get to do it. Most, however, only cut a few pounds to the closest class and were commonly a little smaller than the other guy. Upperclassmen got a pass to cut more weight because of their experience doing smaller ones though.

Lots of parents would come to me wanting their sons to cut a lot to move to a (varsity) weight class were we weren't as strong and I had to tell them that wasn't our policy, much to their chagrin. I was just the biology teacher, what did I know about wrestling? Guys trying to cut 20 pounds and wrestle an hour after weighing in is not in any avenue healthy, but it's almost insane to have a teenager do it IMO. It's a different story when your fighting the next day or something.

We prioritized conditioning and durability and our guys were never worn out from the weight cut, so we still did well. We rarely put a guy in the sauna or a suit, but a few guy could cut weight no problem and thus got to cut more. It breaks my heart to think of younger guys (kids) dropping tons of weight. Collegiate and Olympic guys are different though, and high school is a grey area IMO.

Good fundamentals make good wrestlers, no questions asked. I was really only good at body throws because my high school and youth days consisted of nothing but takedowns, and fortunately I excelled enough in that area to wrestle in college. It was rough having "meh" top and bottom skills at that level.

As a coach, my school drilled duck-under, go-behinds, arm-drags etc relentlessly because that's what we found to be the best, but also still fun. Ground work was pretty standard, but much better than what I got. The school has great coaching and produces well-rounded guys. The problem was that when you have parents funding gear, trips, etc a lot of the coaching authority goes out the window. It didn't matter to a lot of the parents that their kids were benefitting physically while also getting a phenomenal education. It was so weird to see.
 


Holy shit, not cool. But….

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If it is within the rules, why not? There is always judo and wrestling also..

I think the rules need to be changed so take downs become an equal component of the sport, not just a peripheral.

You'd never show someone a video of the Miyao's or Keenan Cornelius if you were going to show them what BJJ was about.
 
I think the rules need to be changed so take downs become an equal component of the sport, not just a peripheral.

You'd never show someone a video of the Miyao's or Keenan Cornelius if you were going to show them what BJJ was about.
Why not? The point with those guys is that they have such good guards, they would rather get straight there than to attempt a takedown and get subbed, reversed, or in the full/half guard of the opponent. It makes sense. Once it hits the ground, it's pure jj.
 
Can someone tell me why pulling guard is a bad thing to learn? It has been shown to work and is basically a takedown if you think of it as you putting them where you want to be.
We have done a few exercises where one of us starts on the feet the other one is on the ground and we have to try to pull them down or hook their leg and make it a ground battle butt scooting works really well there.

Sure it isn't preferable to buttscoot but it can happen to be the best option sometimes. I am of the opinion takedowns should be trained 20-30% of the time in BJJ because it is useless if you cannot get them down.
As long as the technique is effective it should be taught in my opinion.
 
Our weight cut policy was pretty much case-by-case. If coach thought you handle a bigger weight cut, you'd get to do it. Most, however, only cut a few pounds to the closest class and were commonly a little smaller than the other guy. Upperclassmen got a pass to cut more weight because of their experience doing smaller ones though.

Lots of parents would come to me wanting their sons to cut a lot to move to a (varsity) weight class were we weren't as strong and I had to tell them that wasn't our policy, much to their chagrin. I was just the biology teacher, what did I know about wrestling? Guys trying to cut 20 pounds and wrestle an hour after weighing in is not in any avenue healthy, but it's almost insane to have a teenager do it IMO. It's a different story when your fighting the next day or something.

We prioritized conditioning and durability and our guys were never worn out from the weight cut, so we still did well. We rarely put a guy in the sauna or a suit, but a few guy could cut weight no problem and thus got to cut more. It breaks my heart to think of younger guys (kids) dropping tons of weight. Collegiate and Olympic guys are different though, and high school is a grey area IMO.

Good fundamentals make good wrestlers, no questions asked. I was really only good at body throws because my high school and youth days consisted of nothing but takedowns, and fortunately I excelled enough in that area to wrestle in college. It was rough having "meh" top and bottom skills at that level.

As a coach, my school drilled duck-under, go-behinds, arm-drags etc relentlessly because that's what we found to be the best, but also still fun. Ground work was pretty standard, but much better than what I got. The school has great coaching and produces well-rounded guys. The problem was that when you have parents funding gear, trips, etc a lot of the coaching authority goes out the window. It didn't matter to a lot of the parents that their kids were benefitting physically while also getting a phenomenal education. It was so weird to see.
-Yeah, struggling on top and bottom is freshman's biggest struggle in college haha. More states need to advance their high school wrestling on the mat.. beyond running halfs and sloppy cradles on puds and cutting good kids

- I was lucky in high school to be at public high school that funded ourselves, and didn't recruit. We took extreme pride in beating private schools haha

-our team as a whole cut too much weight, but that was as much as being in Ohio as anything. None of the kids on the team in TN (who are literally cutting no weight), get that our 182 pounder would probably be at 160, to not be undersized in Ohio. Or that the returning Placer from my high school is as big as our 120

The line between actually "cutting" weight and managing a few pounds in high is a grey area though I agree
 
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My daughter is 9 and not even 50 ponds at her last tournament. They barely have classes for that as it is, there's no point trying to cut. Last time she was put in 60 and under/10 years and under with 4 boys. She probably would have been better off jumping to guard or butt scooting, but contested the TDs anyway.
 
I think the rules need to be changed so take downs become an equal component of the sport, not just a peripheral.

You'd never show someone a video of the Miyao's or Keenan Cornelius if you were going to show them what BJJ was about.
So how would you change the rules?

Ban guard pull and give 4 points for takedown?
 
No horse in this argument but just wondering - I saw the clip of those roleto (spelling?) twins for AOJ rolling with Hage and they are good (I'll be honest much better than me).

Anyhow, I'm just curious, is it true their parents took them out of school to train BJJ full time?
 
No horse in this argument but just wondering - I saw the clip of those roleto (spelling?) twins for AOJ rolling with Hage and they are good (I'll be honest much better than me).

Anyhow, I'm just curious, is it true their parents took them out of school to train BJJ full time?
I heard this too. Never confirmed it but don't know what the true benefit to this. Sure to be best in the world. Maybe bjj will be big one day where it is like a big money maker or maybe in the Olympics. Right now though it is a niche sport.

Don't get me wrong,I love bjj and if I could quit my job to train and surf everyday I would do it. As a 40 year old mediocre purple belt with a family to feed, house and cloth; I don't see that possible.
 
I heard this too. Never confirmed it but don't know what the true benefit to this. Sure to be best in the world. Maybe bjj will be big one day where it is like a big money maker or maybe in the Olympics. Right now though it is a niche sport.

Don't get me wrong,I love bjj and if I could quit my job to train and surf everyday I would do it. As a 40 year old mediocre purple belt with a family to feed, house and cloth; I don't see that possible.
The other problem is that a lot of the kids (in any sport, you can argue wrestling us very much a niche sport). Who have parents willing to do that or spend the money for camps and traveling at that age, and practice. Aren't (most of the time), doing it because they love it, they're doing it because they're a trophy for their parent to live through, so for every one stud that makes it to black belt/college. You have a lot of kids burn out
 
The other problem is that a lot of the kids (in any sport, you can argue wrestling us very much a niche sport). Who have parents willing to do that or spend the money for camps and traveling at that age, and practice. Aren't (most of the time), doing it because they love it, they're doing it because they're a trophy for their parent to live through, so for every one stud that makes it to black belt/college. You have a lot of kids burn out

I guess that's a reason. Wrestling I can understand -college scholarships and olympics immediately come to mind. BJJ really has nothing like that, sponsorships aren't really that profitable, there is no prestige in it like the potential to win an Olympic medal, there are no true possibilities for college scholarships. I just don't understand it to be honest.
 
I heard this too. Never confirmed it but don't know what the true benefit to this. Sure to be best in the world. Maybe bjj will be big one day where it is like a big money maker or maybe in the Olympics. Right now though it is a niche sport.

Don't get me wrong,I love bjj and if I could quit my job to train and surf everyday I would do it. As a 40 year old mediocre purple belt with a family to feed, house and cloth; I don't see that possible.

I was just curious as i heard those two kids train 2-3 times a day and that the parents let them quit school to train full time. It just seems odd (if that is true); I'm also assuming that they must come from money so a typical education is not that much of a worry.

BTW I'm in the same boat of being older and just an average jiu jitsu player and other obligations taking priority.
 
I guess that's a reason. Wrestling I can understand -college scholarships and olympics immediately come to mind. BJJ really has nothing like that, sponsorships aren't really that profitable, there is no prestige in it like the potential to win an Olympic medal, there are no true possibilities for college scholarships. I just don't understand it to be honest.
They aren't thinking that long term...it's about the parent living through their kid, where a championshipas a 10 year old counts more than a black belt world title
 
So how would you change the rules?

Ban guard pull and give 4 points for takedown?


From the tone here I get the impression you think that to incentivize takedowns you would need to go to great lengths. On the contrary, I would say the pendulum is already swung in the other direction; it requires much more arbitrary scoring criteria to *remove* the incentive for takedowns than it does other wise.

All you would need to do is apply basic logic to the current ruleset (if sweeping is worth points because it puts you on top, then...) and make so that gaining top position, however it happens, is worth points. Then people will naturally gravitate to the most expedient methods of satisfying this criteria while denying their opponent, which would be takedowns from neutral.

Personally I think cribbing from the takedown rules in folkstyle would work good; one point escape, two point takedown, three point reversal. A nice seamless encapsulation.
 
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