Thoughts on my first BJJ class as a Judo black belt.

[migeru29]

Yesterday I took my first BJJ (university of Jiu-Jitsu - San Diego, CA). I'm a Judo black belt and I wrestled in high school and won the Cal state games in wrestling once and third place in Judo twice.
Long story short: AS EXPECTED great solid ground game, very cool martial art really, and the best martial art without a doubt for ground game (even better than sambo). I was having a hard time against some blue belts, not the light ones but the heavy/tall ones. Now 2 disadvantages (in my opinion).

There were occasions were I could literally stay in a grappling hold (osaekomi in Judo) like for forever if I wanted to. But I felt the pressure to keep changing positions and try submissions because in Jiu-Jitsu that's only 2 points worth and I just can hold the guy for to long. Lets think about this: How exactly is that a bad thing? When I am holding a guy down there is no doubt that's domination and there is no doubt that in a street fight and MMA is great an advantage. Why would I risk position or go for submissions if you are f* controlling a guy like that?

Second: If you are going to start standing then at least try to take down or throw your opponent, how exactly pulling the guard every single time is going to help you in a real MMA fight? You can be great submissions artist but if your grappling for taking down sucks then it's like almost useless! This guys I was really impressed how unbalanced their grappling is, GREAT SOLID ground game but amateur wrestling like it was almost ridiculous. Is this a normal thing in BJJ? That's really a very bad thing in my opinion.

Conclusion: I will be practicing only BJJ for now and on, sometimes Judo can be boring and I've a lot of fun. But if I ever have a son I will start him on Judo/wrestling for sure and later on BJJ.

I apologize for my bad English since is my third language.

 

[Wizzlebiz]

Personally id advise going to a actual MMA gym. They do sessions of all arts so there is a well rounded feel to it. At a MMA gym you would find people who not only are good at bjj but at judo, wrestling, striking, and some sambo.

When you go to a practitioners gym you will be able to exploit weaknesses because they train 1 singular martial art. Will not be the same at a MMA gym.

 

[Respek]

Congrats with your first BJ, OP. Feelsgoodman.jpg

 

[Dogo1]

Good post

 

[SuperSuperRambo]

There were occasions were I could literally stay in a grappling hold (osaekomi in Judo) like for forever if I wanted to. But I felt the pressure to keep changing positions and try submissions because in Jiu-Jitsu that's only 2 points worth and I just can hold the guy for to long. Lets think about this: How exactly is that a bad thing? When I am holding a guy down there is no doubt that's domination and there is no doubt that in a street fight and MMA is great an advantage. Why would I risk position or go for submissions if you are f* controlling a guy like that?

Second: If you are going to start standing then at least try to take down or throw your opponent, how exactly pulling the guard every single time is going to help you in a real MMA fight? You can be great submissions artist but if your grappling for taking down sucks then it's like almost useless! This guys I was really impressed how unbalanced their grappling is, GREAT SOLID ground game but amateur wrestling like it was almost ridiculous. Is this a normal thing in BJJ? That's really a very bad thing in my opinion.

You are asking questions that your training environment was not meant to answer. You entered a class that is training for a sport BJJ environment, and by this time sport BJJ is well divorced from a focus on practical application (even if there is a practical application). The answer to those questions would probably be "Who cares, we're not training for fighting."

 

[Haj01]

You make a good point, if you have too much emphasis on the ground game without the actual means to get the fight down to there, i.e. takedowns. Then it can hinder you in a street fight.

 

[Pankratios]

I have been training BJJ for the last 6,5 years and Judo for only two months.
I hate to see people not even trying to fight for a takedown and instead just trying to double pull guard.

My son is definitely starting with Judo and later switching to BJJ. Judo training is much more demanding and more athletic. From my experience in the kids in the local Judo club are much more athletic that BJJ kids.

 

[Nnedd]

This is an interesting perspective, and one that I think is common. SuperSuperRambo touched on this, and I'll add my own two cents.

Recently, at class, our instructor took a minute before class to basically defend our style of bjj. He emphasized that our school teaches repeatable, executable, effective and efficient techniques which will help us to succeed not only on the mat, but in life. As he said, you might have a date with someone i the future that you don't know about, and when that hour comes, if that person ends up on top of you in a parking lot, you will be able to escape and hopefully control.

He prefaced that by commenting that after a local tournament over the weekend, there had been comments by a new member that we don't train enough sport or competition style bjj. We train takedowns, control, escapes and finishes.

Not that either is better than the other. His point was that sport and competition are not the focus of our school. If that is what a guy is looking for, we can teach it and he can learn it, but on a nightly basis, we're training a different kind of jiu jitsu. I think it was a naive criticism on the part of the new member, who wasn't identified. I do well at competitions, my instructors do well. Really, a guy has to be accountable at some point for his own progress.

Anyhow, I think TS mindset was kind of apparent in the mention of points. If I can hold a guy down, and he can't escape, that's just as valuable to me as anything else. TS can get whatever he wants from bjj, and not all schools are teaching the same stuff.

 

[DIRTYCOP]

Yesterday I took my first BJJ (university of Jiu-Jitsu - San Diego, CA). I'm a Judo black belt and I wrestled in high school and won the Cal state games in wrestling once and third place in Judo twice.
Long story short: AS EXPECTED great solid ground game, very cool martial art really, and the best martial art without a doubt for ground game (even better than sambo). I was having a hard time against some blue belts, not the light ones but the heavy/tall ones. Now 2 disadvantages (in my opinion).

There were occasions were I could literally stay in a grappling hold (osaekomi in Judo) like for forever if I wanted to. But I felt the pressure to keep changing positions and try submissions because in Jiu-Jitsu that's only 2 points worth and I just can hold the guy for to long. Lets think about this: How exactly is that a bad thing? When I am holding a guy down there is no doubt that's domination and there is no doubt that in a street fight and MMA is great an advantage. Why would I risk position or go for submissions if you are f* controlling a guy like that?

Second: If you are going to start standing then at least try to take down or throw your opponent, how exactly pulling the guard every single time is going to help you in a real MMA fight? You can be great submissions artist but if your grappling for taking down sucks then it's like almost useless! This guys I was really impressed how unbalanced their grappling is, GREAT SOLID ground game but amateur wrestling like it was almost ridiculous. Is this a normal thing in BJJ? That's really a very bad thing in my opinion.

Conclusion: I will be practicing only BJJ for now and on, sometimes Judo can be boring and I've a lot of fun. But if I ever have a son I will start him on Judo/wrestling for sure and later on BJJ.

I apologize for my bad English since is my third language.

I think you need to realize that there are 3 different styles of BJJ

1) BJJ for self defense
2) BJJ for Sport Competition
3) BJJ for submission only

The training for each one is very different from one another

 

[Leify]

So, if you're at the university of jiu jitsu. I can think of at least two guys who would be more than happy to stand with you.

Saulo and Xande put a lot of emphasis on fighting for the takedown, even if not all of their students do.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

Yesterday I took my first BJJ (university of Jiu-Jitsu - San Diego, CA). I'm a Judo black belt and I wrestled in high school and won the Cal state games in wrestling once and third place in Judo twice.
Long story short: AS EXPECTED great solid ground game, very cool martial art really, and the best martial art without a doubt for ground game (even better than sambo). I was having a hard time against some blue belts, not the light ones but the heavy/tall ones. Now 2 disadvantages (in my opinion).

There were occasions were I could literally stay in a grappling hold (osaekomi in Judo) like for forever if I wanted to. But I felt the pressure to keep changing positions and try submissions because in Jiu-Jitsu that's only 2 points worth and I just can hold the guy for to long. Lets think about this: How exactly is that a bad thing? When I am holding a guy down there is no doubt that's domination and there is no doubt that in a street fight and MMA is great an advantage. Why would I risk position or go for submissions if you are f* controlling a guy like that?

Second: If you are going to start standing then at least try to take down or throw your opponent, how exactly pulling the guard every single time is going to help you in a real MMA fight? You can be great submissions artist but if your grappling for taking down sucks then it's like almost useless! This guys I was really impressed how unbalanced their grappling is, GREAT SOLID ground game but amateur wrestling like it was almost ridiculous. Is this a normal thing in BJJ? That's really a very bad thing in my opinion.

Conclusion: I will be practicing only BJJ for now and on, sometimes Judo can be boring and I've a lot of fun. But if I ever have a son I will start him on Judo/wrestling for sure and later on BJJ.

I apologize for my bad English since is my third language.

The objective of Bjj isn't to hold or pin is to submit, if you can make him tap via strong kesa pressure good if not, the guy on bottom can just say that you are not doing anything to him, he's just chilling on bottom... In fighting terms, for example, you have someone in hon kesa, yes you can pin him but if you want to strike, you will have to let go the trap arm, and your pin in gone.

For Bjj competitions, Tds are not that important, but Bjj is practiced for different aspects your experience wil vary a lot going from gym to gym

 

[rickjamez]

Weird, that you're training at Saulo's gym and experience only guard pulls.
From what I have seen from Saulo online, he is very much in favor of teaching judo and takedowns.

 

[freakroor]

When I am holding a guy down there is no doubt that's domination and there is no doubt that in a street fight and MMA is great an advantage. Why would I risk position or go for submissions if you are f* controlling a guy like that?

you ask about MMA / real fighting, well..

i guess if your goal is to hold somebody down until the fight is broken up, then your wrestling and judo will work for that.

but most fighters like to finish. and in a self-defense situation, holding somebody down indefinitely may not be the best option

 

[powerBJJ]

how exactly pulling the guard every single time is going to help you in a real MMA fight?

not everyone doing jiu-jitsu is going to do a mma fight,

When I am holding a guy down there is no doubt that's domination and there is no doubt that in a street fight and MMA is great an advantage. Why would I risk position or go for submissions if you are f* controlling a guy like that?

because this is bjj and if someone just staled in a position that would be so fucking boring. if it was a real fight obviously your going to hold that position.

 

[DoctorTaco]

Part of the reason people were pulling guard was because your a judo BB. It's an intimidating prospect and everyone is afraid of getting dropped on their head.

 

[DaGenius]

You're training at one of the best Bjj academies in the world so I have no doubt you'll be a savage soon

 

[lechien]

I went to a judi class.
One guy pinned for 1 minute.
And laughed when I just relaxed and did not fight out of the pin.
He claimed victory because under judo sport rule, he won.

That was interesting training.

 

[Coati858]

As he said, you might have a date with someone i the future that you don't know about, and when that hour comes, if that person ends up on top of you in a parking lot, you will be able to escape and hopefully control.

My dates were never like that.

 

[Calibur]

I think you need to realize that there are 3 different styles of BJJ

1) BJJ for self defense
2) BJJ for Sport Competition
3) BJJ for submission only

The training for each one is very different from one another

Saying the training is very different from one another is like saying cake with chocolate frosting is completely different then a cake with vanilla frosting.

It's only different to people who are trying to sell frosting or to people who have no idea how to bake a cake.

 

[migeru29]

Part of the reason people were pulling guard was because your a judo BB. It's an intimidating prospect and everyone is afraid of getting dropped on their head.

I think you nailed it. I believe this is the reason.