Some friends and I who train in Hakko Ryu Jiu Jitsu plan on taking private lessons in BJJ to improve our grappling game. We were discussing it, and did not know the ettiqutte about bowing, what to call the instructors, etc. We are totally respectful of the art, and do not want to offend the instructors or other students who may be present. Any help on this would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.
You'll find that BJJ is actually really laid back with respect to the Japanese traditions. If you want to cover yourself, just act like you would in JJJ. That should be more than enough respect. Most likely, the instructor will just smile and say that such formality is not needed. Most BJJ instructors go by a first name basis with their students. Bowing is also less common and at some schools even completely eschewed in favor of a handshake. And have a great time in BJJ. You'll find that the cross training will really help you out. Make sure to keep using any tricks from JJJ that help you in BJJ as well.
Most places have their own etiquette- some (read: a minority) ask you to call the instructor "professor" and bow at certain times. Just do whatever everyone else seems to do. In all honesty, though, BJJ is not really big on all the etiquette thingies that you have in Traditional Martial Arts, you call your teacher by their first name and generally everyone is deserving of respect (read: respect- not bowing and scraping). Oh and expect to get owned- by everyone... even a fair few of the white belts...
Bjj is really casual in most cases (some are more traditional- I.e. roy dean's academy), no need to stress. You'll most likely be calling the instructor by his first name, although it won't hurt to apply the same level of respect that you've been practicing at you jj school
I don't think anyone mentioned this but you'll probably be calling your instructor by his first name.
If you are really concerned about specific titles: Sensei = Profesor (proh-fess-SOHR) Shihan = Mestre (MESH-treh) The rest of the Japanese terminology (if used at all) will generally be done in English so you should be able to figure it out.
depends on the Professor.. mine is OG about bowing on and off the mat, which should be expected anyways.. other than that he is hella laid back, first name basis.. also depends if you are with a OG Brazilian or not.. I look at him like a very critical big brother, you have the joke around relationship but shit has to stay serious....
One of the things that I love most about BJJ is how completely laid back it is regarding tradition and etiquette. The highest ranking BJJ teacher I've ever been around was Pedro Sauer, even then I'd just be like, "hey Pedro..." and fill in the blank with my question. In general, you just shake people's hands before you roll, don't be a dick, and listen to the instructor and you'll be perfectly fine.
like everyone said bjj is very casual. in my place we actually call the instructors by their first name and almost as if they are our friends. "hey alberto, little help." at the end of the class everyone shakes his hand and takes off.
My school is uber is very laid back, save for bowing on and off the mat and we bow in before class. That being said my main instructor just went to Brazil and said he said it was far more formal at the shools he went to. Namely he said that every student (regardless of showing up on time, early, late...) would go find EVERY single student of higher rank and shake their hand. This meant the black belts had like 40 people shaking their hands before class.
There is none of that shit at our academy! We are polite tho..............as we hand you your ass, LOL
The place I trained at, we would bow to the mat before entering and exiting. At the start of, and at the end of training we would form a line by rank and one by one shake the instructors hand, and shake each other's hands. That was about it, the rest of the time was very laid back.
