Rolling with other BJJ Gyms outside your own affiliation.

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comquest

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Hey just wanted to get some input on how you all view rolling with other BJJ gyms outside your own? It could get boring and predictable rolling people in your own gym and I believe in order to improve you should roll with people outside your gym i.e maybe even a competitors gym. This is a sensitive subject for various reason such as competitiveness, technique, loyalty etc..Thanks for the feedback.
 
Isn't it called competition? ;)

But on a side note, sure it never hurts to roll against other clubs with different styles etc. Leave the politics to the president...

Although training at your biggest rival's academy may not be a wise idea.
 
The biggest problem is how the people at the other gym perceive your presence. If they assume you are there to take notes and talk about gym taps, expect to face the toughest guys and get worked. If you have an understanding before hand it will most likely be positive.

IME going to a rival gym is not a good idea at all. Too many agendas for training to be 100% positive.
 
It must be a BJJ thing? In Judo, all you have to have to practice in any dojo in the US is a membership card from USAJUDO, USJA or the USJF, and you are welcomed like family. Our coach actively encourages us to workout with other clubs, i have been to Gracie Barra clubs, Aikiado clubs, JuJutsu and sub wrestling.
This is what Judo is about, it didnt stop evolving in 1882, if it was usefull, Kano Sensei would incorperate it in Judo.
 
I train at other gyms as much as possible (like if im travelling through town ect). The gym im at now we dont have any big rivalries or whatever so its all good. Its nice to get to roll with people of different styles.
 
It's not uncommon at all for me to train at other local academies besides my own. To me, the politics are way too out of hand. I have friends that train at other academies who I work out with regularly. I'll go around and visit periodically with some other schools around the area, and it's never really been an issue. You just have to be open-minded and try to stay out of all of the politics and just train. Having said that, when I go to other schools, I wear a plain gi with no patches showing my particular affiliation. The local guys who know me know where I train, but I don't really feel the need to advertise it when I'm visiting someone else's academy, just out of respect for them, if nothing else.
 
This is one where the answer varies from school to school, but there is typically at least one place in most areas that has a couple of days a week (often weekends) for "open" classes that are known to be open not only for members of that school but also for people at different schools and even different styles. Try to find one of those and attend.
 
For the most part, here in Louisiana the different gyms have a good relationship and there aren't really any rivalries. It's common practice for us to cross train with other gyms as far as 1-1/2 - 2 hours away, and these are all gyms underneath different affiliations.

I've trained at 3 gyms besides my own and been invited to train at 3 others, all of which compete against our school in tournaments.

Grappling is just starting to grow in Louisiana over the past few years. So there seems to be a lot more open attitude about training with different people than the normal BJJ politics a lot other areas deal with.
 
I try to get out and train at other schools when I can, and encourage my guys to do the same.
 
It's usually more of a problem with Brazilian instructors, rather than American instructors.
 
It's a good thing, but there's a lot of politics involved. In general I tend to only go to other gyms where I know some one who can "vouch" for me. I've been lucky though, every other gym i've been to treated me like a part of the family.
 
I am really lucky that we can train with pretty much whoever we want. We are Carlson Gracie by way of Marcus Soares yet my instructor has trained with the Machados, a tone of Gracies, ATT, he recently brought in Leo Santos from Nova Uniao and a host of others. He doesn't care who we train with and from what he has told me, neither does Marcus.
 
jasond said:
For the most part, here in Louisiana the different gyms have a good relationship and there aren't really any rivalries. It's common practice for us to cross train with other gyms as far as 1-1/2 - 2 hours away, and these are all gyms underneath different affiliations.

I've trained at 3 gyms besides my own and been invited to train at 3 others, all of which compete against our school in tournaments.

Grappling is just starting to grow in Louisiana over the past few years. So there seems to be a lot more open attitude about training with different people than the normal BJJ politics a lot other areas deal with.
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I'm in the same scenario pimp. I train at Cajun Karate under Micah and train up in bossier, Been offered to train in Houma, NOLA, and Lake Area anytime I'm around that area. I think it's one of the coolest environments ever. Especially because I rarely seen a true ego. No one wants to get tapped by an outsider but they don't take it like it's competition either.
 
I've often thought about stopping at this local MMA gym for a while. Not really to check it out, but moreso because i can't stand the place and want to tap people left and right.
 
When I travel I swing in as many gyms as I can, its always good times. Did three in one week last year , had a black eye and could barely move, btw im getting too old for this shit.
 
I say just run it by your instructor, and keep him/her in the loop. I don't really have any gyms in my area besides mine, but there may be a couple opening up and I will probably stop by if my instructor doesn't mind.
 
I am going to train at another gym tonite. I want to try out the classes since I may no longer be able to train under my instructor. I am pretty nervous because I dont know how I'll be accepted. I also recently got my blue belt and even though I tap most blues at my club, I dont know how I will do again other blues.
 
STFUjiujitsu said:
I'm in the same scenario pimp. I train at Cajun Karate under Micah and train up in bossier, Been offered to train in Houma, NOLA, and Lake Area anytime I'm around that area. I think it's one of the coolest environments ever. Especially because I rarely seen a true ego. No one wants to get tapped by an outsider but they don't take it like it's competition either.
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You can add Morgan City to that list. Hit me up anytime you're going to be in the area.
 
Training at other gyms in BJJ is a tricky situation. This is because of the dual nature of BJJ. It is a martial art, but it is also a competitive team sport at a lot of places as well.

The goal of any martial art is individual improvement. No matter what level you start at, you want to become the absolute best you can be personally. The only real measurement of your progress is your own goals, so how you are progressing compared to others is not that big of a deal.

From a martial arts perspective, ego free training at other schools is perfectly fine. In fact, it ought to be encouraged. It raises your own level to be exposed to different styles, and it also simultaneously raises the level of your new training partners as well. In the martial arts, this is a good thing.

However, BJJ is also a competitive team sport. The goal of a competitive team sport is not to be the absolute best you can be. The goal is to defeat your opponents. This is where the complication of training with other teams arises. Mutual benefit is not the goal (at least not a direct one). In fact, giving any benefit to a competitor is discouraged. This is simply the nature of competition.

This isn't just true of BJJ either. Any competitive martial art will have this issue. There were some posts on here about how Judo is so much more open about training. I am sure those stories are true, but it's only because competition must be stressed less than the martial art aspect at these schools. If you think about a Judo Olympic team, there is no way in hell that one guy from one team could just pop in to practice with a rival team right before the Olympics. The coach from one team will not train competitors from the other. That would be a conflict of interest from a competitive standpoint.

These kind of training restrictions are one of the main drawbacks to competitive martial arts. Of course, there is also a lot of clear benefit to having competition in the martial arts. I personally like the competition aspect. But there are some negatives which is why even some really practical and effective arts swear off competition.

The dual nature of martial art and sport in BJJ is where the trickiness and variation comes into play. If we were talking about football and not BJJ, it would be very obvious as to why you can't just pop in to practice with a rival team. However, since BJJ is much more than just a competitive sport, it gets complicated.

I've seen BJJ schools run the gamut from completely cool with people training other places to expelling anyone who ever does so. I don't think it really has anything to do with Brazilian versus American, traditional versus progressive, etc. Mostly what I have seen is that the schools that have the strictest regulations about training with other gyms also have the most serious competition teams.

It's not necessarily right or wrong; I think it just mostly comes down to whether you view BJJ as a martial art or a competitive sport.
 
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