What was it like in the early/old days?

[bigkick]

Last night a newbie tweaked my knee pretty nicely. I tapped quick and spat out something like, "dude, watch the knees!" A minute later, however, I changed my tune and added something like, "don't worry about it; I made a mistake and you took advantage of it." So yeah... I'll be sore for a bit but don't think there was any serious damage.

I've heard a lot of stories about the early days at my school, late 90s - early 2000s, and how things were simply much rougher and tougher - instructor being far from the chill guy he is today, spazzy guys getting beat down after class, challenge fights, etc., etc.

I'd love to hear from some guys who've been involved with BJJ for a while. How have things changed? I'd have to think that average guys, whatever that means, never would have come into a gym in the first place. But now that BJJ, or MMA at least, is a bit more mainstream you get guys wanting to channel their inner BJ Penn or whoever coming in...

 

[winterbike]

We'd walk to the gym in the snow, uphill, both ways. Talking back to the instructor? Paddlin'. Belt untied? Paddlin'. Tapped to a choke? Paddlin'. Fancy spinning shit? Paddlin'. Leglock? Paddlin'. And we had respect for our elders, and never took drugs, and weren't lazy and entitled like this generation. And our music was more refined, of course.

 

[bigkick]

Lol. Nice... Guess I deserved that.

 

[Ivaylo Ivanov]

The time I started BJJ (year 2000), everyone in the gym was there because of Pride and UFC.
Majority of the practitioners were tough guys with previous experience in wrestling, judo or general troublemakers.
At least half of the gym was participating in the MMA classes of the same gym (quite big one in Tokyo).
A lot of the guys participated in MMA fights (Cristiano Kaminishi and Carlos Toyota are from the famous names).
I dont recall any of the guys, entering in BJJ just to practice BJJ. It was a skill set, required to complete overall fighting ability

 

[Jack Handy jr]

There's something these kids do nowadays called an "inverted guard" though I am anatomically incapable of this type of guard.
And Even if I was physically capable of doing it.

The thought of the men who raised me Chuck Norris, master Segal, Schwarzenegger, Stallone,Van Damn Lee Majors, Michael Dudikoff, Sho Kusugi,Lorenzo Lamas, Don "the dragon" Wilson (basically anybody that's appeared in the expendables) seeing me do it. and their subsequent shame is enough to never even attempt it.

 

[Ivaylo Ivanov]

The BJJ seminars at that time were held by people like Mario Sperry, Walid Ismail, Bustamante, Paulo Filho, the Nogs...
Half the time they will focus on certain techniques, applied if the opponent is striking from different positions...

 

[These Two Hands]

There's something these kids do nowadays called an "inverted guard" though I am anatomically incapable of this type of guard.
And Even if I was physically capable of doing it.

The thought of the men who raised me Chuck Norris, master Segal, Schwarzenegger, Stallone,Van Damn Lee Majors, Michael Dudikoff, Sho Kusugi,Lorenzo Lamas, Don "the dragon" Wilson (basically anybody that's appeared in the expendables) seeing me do it. and their subsequent shame is enough to never even attempt it.

I dunno... The way Cyborg Abreu does it is pretty cool... And he's only two divisions lighter than me, so I could potentially shave that weight off...

In terms of guard retention and setting up subs, guys I train with are pretty handy with inverted stuff even with striking included.

 

[SummerStriker]

All we had back then were armbar counters to Osoto Gari, Americanas and headstand guard passes. That's it.

 

[karma2burn]

This is what the gauntlet used to be like...

 

[Uchi Mata]

I started in 2000 or 2001 (can't recall exactly). In addition to BJJ, my coach was an MMA fighter. That was common, most people who were serious about BJJ did it to get ready for MMA, or at least for self defense. Sport BJJ was hardly a thing, I think we have maybe 2 tournaments a year within easy driving distance. My coach was also a purple belt, yet still one of the highest ranked guys in the state at the time.

Technique was pretty basic. There was closed guard, half guard, and open guard. No one really talked about anything else. Guard passing was pretty much just pressure passing, old school double unders and over/under, I think maybe we did knee slices as well against half guard. We focused a lot on submitting people from superior positions rather than guard play. Our rolling was rough, and we rolled with MMA gloves and light strikes with some frequency.

It wasn't any better than it is now, far worse in fact, the technical level was so low. A lot of the roughness was just to make up for not having good technique. But I do think the MMA glove sparring is useful for everyone to do at least a little of. And everyone who trained was pretty serious about it, which was nice.

 

[Kenny from MD]

We used to have guys walk in from the street and challenge us. I was the scrawniest guy in the gym, so I was usually put forward to show them jiu jitsu works, unless my coach would decide to step in himself (this was at my first gym in Baltimore). Lots of getting scratched and slammed, but you had a point to prove, so you couldn't whine about rules. Couple guys tried to hit me too (being wrapped up in closed guard stopped it) but that was the game. Ten years ago was a fun and much, much different time, and I'm not even old school. Challenge matches from the internet happened too. We hosted.

 

[McA]

In the 90s, karate, taekwondo and aikido gyms would add jujitsu, judo and sambo to their fliers, just to try to get more kids in the door. If there was a way to check qualifications, we didn't know about it back then. But if they had no mats, you know they weren't doing any take downs or groundwork.

No youtube videos. VCR tapes (usually pirated) were prized, and people wanted $5 to let you copy their copy. We would read martial arts magazines in the store without paying.

If the gym had to close (snow, etc.), an instructor would spend an hour going down the list calling people. Some people didn't answer and didn't have an answering machine, so he would try to call them back at least once. Then your mom would forget to tell you, so you'd go anyways and find the door locked and the lights off.

No google. You could drive 4 hours to a tournament, because you didn't know about the tournament that was happening 5 minutes from your house.

No girl coaches, except for the rare wife of a blackbelt who was didn't know any techniques or how to teach anybody beyond warm ups.

 

[Uchi Mata]

Also, this:

 

[Matsukaze]

If you ever attend a Pedro Sauer seminar or visit his school get him talking about what it was like when he 1st came to America or what it was like training under Helio in Rio. All the challenge matches in Rorions garage that would spill out onto the driveway. Crazy what they went through to spread the art

 

[71Fish]

Majority of the practitioners were tough guys with previous experience in wrestling, judo or general troublemakers.

What about your run of the mills Tom Foolers and Wise guys?

 

[mattemate]

I started in 2000 or 2001 (can't recall exactly). In addition to BJJ, my coach was an MMA fighter. That was common, most people who were serious about BJJ did it to get ready for MMA, or at least for self defense. Sport BJJ was hardly a thing, I think we have maybe 2 tournaments a year within easy driving distance. My coach was also a purple belt, yet still one of the highest ranked guys in the state at the time.

Technique was pretty basic. There was closed guard, half guard, and open guard. No one really talked about anything else. Guard passing was pretty much just pressure passing, old school double unders and over/under, I think maybe we did knee slices as well against half guard. We focused a lot on submitting people from superior positions rather than guard play. Our rolling was rough, and we rolled with MMA gloves and light strikes with some frequency.

It wasn't any better than it is now, far worse in fact, the technical level was so low. A lot of the roughness was just to make up for not having good technique. But I do think the MMA glove sparring is useful for everyone to do at least a little of. And everyone who trained was pretty serious about it, which was nice.

Definitely it has shifted from a tough guy thing to a super technical nerd thing, to a great extent. Fine by me, but sometimes it's good to be ready for spazzers.

 

[Dogstarman]

Also, this:

Remember this gem?


Also. I started in 2002. I stopped for a bit around 05. I was with Carlos Machado. We had good technique but like everyone said, most guys were tough guys who wanted to train mma or just wanted to be tougher.

I remember dudes almost going to fists because they were tapped or wronged in some way like a dirty tactic or something. It was crazy times.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

It sucked, needed more colorful spats and berimbolos

 

[SummerStriker]

Back in the early 00's, I was training at this BJJ school.

These two guys rolling after class were in their thirties - very macho, muscular karate men. They got really, really angry one day while rolling. The gi tops came off and they started talking shit, slapping one another in the face, punching each other in the gut, standing up and wrestling, stopping to talk shit, slapping each other - I mean like for 10 minutes.

It was some wicked shit. "You aint shit boy. You think you something." Followed by a bitch slap. Then back to fighting. They kept their voices low enough that the people in the office couldn't hear them, and no one on the floor broke it up.

The part that surprised me at the time was that when they were done, they still looked mad but they said good game, gave a man hug to each other and walked off.

 

[ChrmnMa0]

We used to have guys walk in from the street and challenge us. I was the scrawniest guy in the gym, so I was usually put forward to show them jiu jitsu works, unless my coach would decide to step in himself (this was at my first gym in Baltimore). Lots of getting scratched and slammed, but you had a point to prove, so you couldn't whine about rules. Couple guys tried to hit me too (being wrapped up in closed guard stopped it) but that was the game. Ten years ago was a fun and much, much different time, and I'm not even old school. Challenge matches from the internet happened too. We hosted.

I heard you shit on fishes too!