Rambo you wrestled, what would you say the level of your TYPICAL purple belt is in takedowns?
Also what would you "estimate" your typical BB instructors level to be in takedowns?
Just curious
Good questions, and both very hard to answer. I'll take the second one first.
My instructor is very hard to take down. I've never taken him down cleanly. I caught him with a fireman's carry and a single leg (one time each), but he reversed me on both the second we hit the ground before I could come close to securing the takedown. He is competent with freestyle wrestling takedowns, and has good judo and greco. His sprawl hurts. But, he is also a former MMA fighter, and competed in San Shou, which involves throws, so maybe that has something to do with it.
And that's why it's hard to answer for the "typical" black belt, or even purple belt for that matter. First of all, there is a wide disparity. A ridiculously wide disparity. I once rolled with a black belt who, upon me telling him that I wrestled through high school and was fairly decent, admitted that his takedowns sucked and pulled guard when we started from the feet in no gi (and promptly subbed me). On the other hand, there are guys like my instructor who come from more of a fighting/self defense background and stress being at least competent in takedowns. I put many of the Gracies in that category, believe it or not. They weren't beats on the feet, but many of them (those who trained it as a martial art) had decent judo and could take someone down (not Royce though, so don't pull that one on me). I recently rolled with a brown belt no gi, and I couldn't take him down despite the fact that he was feeding me a single so he could work on counters (and then mauled me on the ground). And many BJJ practitioners have a prior grappling background (such as myself, or those who are far better than me in wrestling/Judo), so while considering themselves a BJJ practitioner, they may also have excellent takedowns. And then in the middle you have black belts who although they are sport competitors, prefer top game, and are good at takedowns. Those guys I would consider at the level of lower collegiate wrestlers, or recreational black belt judoka (though I have little basis for comparison). The guys who aren't good at takedowns at all make up 60% if I had to guess, but because that 40% remaining is significant, it's hard to generalize that. Guys with prior backgrounds in takedowns tend to teach BJJ with more takedowns involved.
So for the black belts, you have guys who admittedly suck at takedowns, guys who have prior training and therefore excellent takedowns, and guys in the middle who by the time they reach black belt are actually rather good, but inevitably not as good as someone with pure wrestling or judo training.
As for the purple belts....the same issues come up. I'm a purple belt myself, and I haven't competed in wrestling for 6 years. I'm relatively confident that I could take down most purple belts my size who don't have a prior background. However I have been taken down in competition by guys who I'm pretty sure had no prior backgrounds in judo or wrestling. I can take down all the blue belts I train with regardless of size (I'm a small guy) at least in no gi. The one other purple belt we have is much larger and takes judo, but I still get him down from time to time. In competition, most guys I've faced do tend to pull guard, and a good number of guys at the purple belt level just have atrocious takedowns and can't even do a proper penetration step. So again it varies. You have guys with prior takedown experience, guys who are pretty competent (like the ones who have taken me down), and the guys with virtually no takedown skills at all.
