Teaching X-guard and Berimbolo to beginner white belts before the basics?

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TheWarlock

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Here is the situation.

I am at the same gym I have always trained at. A new ownership group bought the gym and kicked the old BJJ teachers out the door. The new teacher/owner is a high profile BJJ Black Belt. Only a handful of blue belts from the old regime have stayed. One blue belt is actually his assistant and teaches while he is away(he is away 80% of the time). There are no brown or purple belts that have stayed from the old regime, so the class has 4-5 Blue Belts and all the other are beginner white belts who have never been taught the basics.

The high profile teacher and his blue belt disciple have been around for 2-3 months now. The only thing he has taught us is X-guard and Berimbolo. Every class we are drilling those moves. The Blue Belts that are still there are loving it cause they learn new stuff. Us white belts(the vast majority) that have never learned the basics because we were either just starting BJJ when the old regime got kicked out(or not even here at that time), feel like we are learning advanced stuff too quickly without knowing the basics of BJJ.

-We have never learned any submissions thus far.
-We have not learned how to pass any kind of guard.
-We don't know any basic sweeps that are not X-guard related.

This Black belt teacher of ours has trained world champions. I am not saying X-guard and Berimbolo doesnt work, because it obviously does for advanced students. But how do you guys feel about taking white belt beginners that know NOTHING in terms of basic BJJ and drilling the hell out of X-guard and Berimbolo with them for months? Some of us feel like our high profile teacher cant adjust from training World Champions, to training BJJ white belt newbies like us. I don't dare talking to him about it because Im a newb white belt and he is a Black Belt who is incredibly well respected in the MMA/grappling world.

What do you guys think about this?

Thanks for the feedback.
 
It's BS. If the teacher cared about your development he'd teach you basics, of have someone do it. It sounds like maybe he's trying to cater to faddishness in BJJ by showing only trendy sport techniques, or he might just not realize how little much of the class knows. Does he roll with you guys, or watch you roll closely?
 
I feel like most people here will take OP's side, so maybe I'll pre-emptively play devil's advocate.

The great thing about BJJ is that you can do it for your whole life, and there will always be new stuff to learn. There's no need to learn everything (or any particular thing) now -- focus on one thing now and save other stuff for later. A lot of people would be pretty jealous of your chance to learn those techniques from a high level blackbelt. So appreciate the opportunity for what it is and learn how to armbar from closed guard some other time. Or, you know, buy a dvd.
 
Who is the teacher? It seems to me like someone well known would know the importance of teaching the basics to beginner white belts.
 
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That is ridiculous. I love berimbolo and x guard, but they're nothing without a good foundation. How much are you paying?
 
We are getting really good at X-Guard drills, but most of us still can't make X-guard happen in normal sparring because we don't know the basic. In normal sparring, none of us know how escape mount, how to pass the guard, submissions from the guard, chokes from the back, escaping submissions etc.

A lot of the guys have been coming religiously for two months, but feel like we havent learned many things we can actually use in normal sparring to survive or try to finish an opponent.
 
I don't agree with people who say that berimbolo or X-guard are 'advanced' moves that should only be dabbled in at colored belts when you've mastered the more traditional stuff. You don't NEED to know the scissor sweep and hip bump sweep and armlock from closed guard to learn berimbolo or X-guard. However, what is more important is that you have a solid grasp of defense before you start specializing your offense. There's no point in knowing the berimbolo if you don't know how to recover guard. Have you asked your instructor about learning some escapes at least?
 
Shemhazai said:
I don't agree with people who say that berimbolo or X-guard are 'advanced' moves that should only be dabbled in at colored belts when you've mastered the more traditional stuff. You don't NEED to know the scissor sweep and hip bump sweep and armlock from closed guard to learn berimbolo or X-guard. However, what is more important is that you have a solid grasp of defense before you start specializing your offense. There's no point in knowing the berimbolo if you don't know how to recover guard. Have you asked your instructor about learning some escapes at least?
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Most guys don't even know that they should be blocking the opponent from pulling guard. I'm not a great guard puller, but guys just don't have a clue that it is an advantage for the person that flops to their back and can easily wrap their legs around the newb's waist.

What is painfully obvious for most Sherdoggers over here, would be incredibly enlightening to most of us.
 
You're only paying like 84 bucks a month for instruction from this world class instructor? Sounds like bullshit to me.
 
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