Private Lessons! Is it worth the price of $100 per hour?

G

Graciebarra 847

Blue Belt
@Blue
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
615
Reaction score
0
I am thinking of taking some privates! They are very expensive and to the forum members here that took privates was it worth the money?

Also did the privates make you better instantly?

What detail were you missing that you picked up from the private?


I am thinking about taking some private lessons but am a little hesitant due to the price tag! However I think it would be cool to have a blackbelt for 45 minutes straight to answer any question you may have!
 
I never had private instruction per-say, but I will tell you I learned the most when working alone with my instructor.
 
Depends on who you're learning from, what your needs are, how much you can afford, all those things.

I wouldn't do a private just for the hell of it, to get better in general (unless you have money to spend). Go in there with a focus, i.e. "I need to work on my deep half guard" or "I need to work on sweeps from my butterfly guard." That will make it more worth your while.
 
It's worth the money because say you are paying on average $5-10 per class, you will learn 10-20 times more when you are by yourself. But I understand the idea that losing that much money in an hour may seem like a waste. I have never really done a private with a black belt though; Depending on your belt, I would just recommend having someone more advanced than you spend some time with you and help you. Maybe find a purple and tell them you will buy them lunch to spend an hour with you and help you with whatever you need help on. It is a cheaper alternative and you will still learn quite a bit.
 
Yeah what NinjaBlack said. For someone of a lower rank it really isn't worth it to have lessons with a black belt, and in all reality that isn't what BBelts are for. Assuming someone is a white belt the difference learning a technique from a purple belt instead of a black belt is miniscule; both will have technique light years beyond you so save your money. Hell if all you want help with are the basics then I say just ASK a blue belt or new purple to help you out; it is there job to mentor new people.

The only time I spend money on a private with a brown or black is if I want to learn one specific technique that they do particularly well, and even then it still doesn't make DOING the technique any easier.:icon_sad:
 
Just befriend a purple belt and have him kick your ass privately in the corner area of the gym.
 
i have 1 or 2 privates with Braulio Estima most week worth evey penny.plus you get to brag to your mates you roll with the ADCC absolute champion
 
Depends on your level and if you have an organized plan to make the most out of the lesson. What helps me is to know what the instructor specializes in and develop a plan from there. For example, I took a lesson from Pablo Popovich in Florida a few months ago and structured it around the focus to ask him what he does mentally to prepare for tournaments, to learn a little of how he passes guard (as he is obviously awesome at that skill set) and then roll a bit to feel what someone at that level trains like.

I feel like I got a lot out of my lesson that way and have structured most of my lessons in a similar way. Hope that helps some!
 
What SSR & Bacon said.

I've found the biggest gains for me aren't full hours, they're just me asking 3-5 minutes of my instructors time, and then working on it the next chance I get. Nothing complex like "show me the entire butterfly guard", but "say I'm in this position, I'm getting passed/swept/choked, what do you recommend?" We'll work on a couple variations, and then I have more than enough to work on for a while.

Bacon made a good point, and one that many people don't get. This game isn't about whooping ass in the gym, it's about finding people that can kick yours, having them do what they do best on you, and you trying to stop them. Having trouble getting your guard passed? Roll with guys that can run through your guard like butter. It sucks at first, but you'll find your guard retention abilities go through the roof.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't do privates, not at all. Just that you are maximizing your existing training as much as possible.
 
pailum117 said:
Yeah what NinjaBlack said. For someone of a lower rank it really isn't worth it to have lessons with a black belt, and in all reality that isn't what BBelts are for. Assuming someone is a white belt the difference learning a technique from a purple belt instead of a black belt is miniscule; both will have technique light years beyond you so save your money. Hell if all you want help with are the basics then I say just ASK a blue belt or new purple to help you out; it is there job to mentor new people.

The only time I spend money on a private with a brown or black is if I want to learn one specific technique that they do particularly well, and even then it still doesn't make DOING the technique any easier.:icon_sad:
Click to expand...

see, the difference between a BB and a pruple's instruction, is that the BB will be able to identify more flaws, and help you create a game that is solid for you. A purple typically wont have that much knowledge.

Right around when I first started (4 months in) I took some privates because I got an INSANE deal. It was awesome because my teacher spent time creating MY game. He saw my strengths/weaknesses, and thus developed a game that would best suit me. Being such a noob, it wouldnt have made sense to spend 6 sessions correcting issues at that level, as it would just be things that would hopefully get ironed out over time.

Having a game created for me, helped me by leaps and bounds. I started thinking more and more about transitions and chaining attacks together. After some time, people in class kind of caught up, but my approach was completely different than theirs, and still is. After about 8 months of training, I got another pack of privates for christmas. I was thinking about holding off until I had more experience, but I was still so excited about the impact that the first pack had on me, that I couldnt wait. Now that I had my basic game down, my teacher was really able to focus on expanding it. emphasizing on adding new attacks or setups based on my strengths, and recovering from failed attacks.

I would say that $100 is a bit pricey for a non decorated BB, but it could also prove to be invaluable.
 
Never had privates , but my thoughts are the following , please comment on them.

When we drill 3 new moves in a regular class , they tend not to stick , its just to much , ill probably be able to demonstrate them later, but theyre definatly not in my system , i wouldnt ( be able to) use them in rolling.

I'd imagine that if you spent an hour in a private you'd get totally overloaded with info , maybe it would help if you'd take notes what you learned and than in the next times you're on the mat you drill the stuff he showed you?

I like the " buy the purple belt lunch " idea by the way:D
 
CHOKER28 said:
i have 1 or 2 privates with Braulio Estima most week worth evey penny.plus you get to brag to your mates you roll with the ADCC absolute champion
Click to expand...

That's an incredible opportunity. I was at a seminar of his once and I still use a few of the techniques he showed almost every time I'm in someone's guard. I can't imagine how much help it would be to have someone of that caliber be familiar with my game and giving me private lessons.

As far as the TS - I don't think $100 is that bad for a private lesson from a black belt. Right now because of my schedule I attend classes when most people are at work so I get extremely small class sizes and sometimes one on one lessons on specifics that I want to work on from Brown Belts 1-2 times per week. It's helped my game A LOT! I would echo what a lot of the others are saying in that the most 'bang for your buck' would be to first start with a good purple belt and have him solidify your game to the point where you can actually use the refinement that a brown/black belt offers.

Brown/Black bets have a level of refinement to their games that it's hard for a beginner to really appreciate unless they already have a solid base of fundamental skills.
 
i would say if you know exactly what you want and you have someone who can teach you those things then yeah sure. but many bjj competitors were made out of not doing privates.

i know of a few brazilians who think charging that type of coin to people is kind of crazy since its mainly a recent thing people are doing now a days.
 
Yes, if you go in knowing what you want to learn about. I did some privates with a few different people. The last two I did were great. I had questions on things like Butterfly guard and escapes where I feel my game got better because of the privates. I've done privates with my instructor where they watched me rolling during the week and then we had a private and they were like "When you are escaping side control, you aren't doing X correctly" and that helped a ton. I also had the disposable cash at the time =p

I also see the other side. A long time ago, I was out of school a semester and took some BJJ classes and a semi-famous BB came to town. A dude was looking for someone to go in on a private class with him so I said okay. The BB paid no attention to us, showed us the same thing he showed the guy who was there before us and played with his phone 90% of the time.
 
^are you serious? what was his name?!?
 
In my gym if you've got the time any of the higher belts will help you/show you whatever it is you want/need work on, when I first started I was going everyday, and learned as much as I could and even now, if I have a question or want to learn something I can stay afterwards or come on a different night to learn, their are privates at my gym but usually for guys wanting to train with my instructor and it's usually Judo
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,053
Messages
55,463,738
Members
174,785
Latest member
JoyceOuthw

Share this page

Back
Top