Very similar, but we ended up rolling on the nights when the instructors couldn't make it. I don't think the Combatives is bad at all, I just disagree with some things they do.
Once you start rolling you will be hooked just like everyone else on the board. That is exactly what happened to me.
yeah I look forward to doing more rolling at this new club. The few times I have rolled I've had a blast. The thing I need to learn is to relax more. The adrenaline gets going and it's hard not to tense up the muscles. I have been working on this more during our RDD's and will get there some day.
Remember we're not criticizing you but I think the program itself is very, very flawed. What you should understand is that bjj was for years extremely hard to rank up in. 10-15 years for the average Black belt is completely unheard of for traditional martial artist. Lately though, the Gracie's have seemed to sell out and are operating an online belt ranking that has plagued the traditional martial arts for years. This is leaving a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. As for not live sparring, I understand what you are saying about the technique being geared toward people who do not do bjj but the program itself is forgetting one very important demographic, wrestlers. Tons of people wrestled in high school and as a lot of people here will tell you wrestlers are very difficult to deal with even at a higher rank. It also does not teach you to deal with strength or weird movements your inexperienced opponent may do. I can understand white belts being limited to drills for a few weeks but not full rolling until blue belt is rather insulting to blue belts.
I'm glad you've decided to take formal classes. Your game is going to leap exponentially. Please remember though, I'm only criticizing the Gracie Program not the guys who do it.
Anyway our class runs like this: 10-15 min warm up, 10-15 min of technique (usually only one or two shown) and the remaining time (usually hour and a half) is left for sparring. Again just my $.02
I know you're not criticizing me, I appreciate your guys oppinion.
I see what you're saying about them giving out blue belts so much sooner than traditional bjj clubs. An average for students learning the Gracie Combatives white to blue belt curriculum finishes the program within 6-12 months and earns his blue belt. That said, of course I can't speak for them, but I know their reasoning. Grand Master Helio Gracie stated that anyone who can effectively defend themself on the street should be given a blue belt, so I belief this is reasoning behind allowing students a blue belt in this time frame. Because after finishing the curriculum a student will be able to defend themselves against someone bigger and stronger than them who does not know jiu jitsu. (you're correct it does not really take too much wrestling into account, some basic wrestling but no specific wrestling techniques) The time to get from blue to purple is 4-5 more years, then 4-5 more to brown, then 4-5 more to black. Then when you're ready to test for black you have to go down to the academy and do a week long test for black belt. So really it's about the same. 12-16 years of training doing it online. It's just the blue is earned sooner than other clubs.
Compare this with the other bjj clubs. They promote students to blue when the student can hang with others students of blue belt rank. This realize this takes much longer than 6-12 months. But I think in the long run, on the path to black belt the time evens out.
It's just that one way compares the student to other students as a way of deciding the student is ready for blue, and the other way decides a student is ready for blue when they think the person can defend themselves on the street against the average person.
I hope I'm not turning people off by reply back and forth, I'm not trying to argue with you guys. Just trying to get my point across why I have faith in this program and why I think it is a quality program for students to learn from.
On the other topic, I start at Pound 4 Pound Jiu Jitsu tomorrow. So it should be fun going down and getting my ass handed to me. Gotta my licks like everyone else.
Hello,
great posts everyone! I also study Gracie Combatives online and I love it. Probably because I see it for what it is. A course to prepare someone to SURVIVE a one on one street encounter if the fight goes to the ground and nothing more. It was hard for me to find a pure BJJ school other than an MMA school that wasn't focused more on the sportive aspect and not necessarily the "self defense" aspect. That is not to say that "sport" jitsu players could not defend themselves in a real street situation, it just that some of those "sport" reflexes will get your ass knocked out on the street. When was the last time your instructor asked you to pay attention to your sparring partners hands and worry about him raining down blows in the full mount, side mount, guard etc. worrying about punches and elbows and head butts adds a whole new dimension to even a simple elbow escape from the mount for example. I would never expect a GJJ Blue Belt to walk into Gracie Barra for example and expect that GJJ blue belt to equal a GB BB in pure Jiu Jitsu sparring because that is not what a GJJ BB is about. I think these two worlds compliment each other and really can only make a "complete" Jiu Jitsu player. Just my .02 cents. Much respest to you all....
I would also like to add to my previous statements that the techniques work and they work well, even against a resisting opponent. one of the things I like about the course is that you have to start from the basics and build on those like a pyramid. You don't just drill a technique and move on. you drill a technique and add the next technique to it and drill that until you have a really good understanding of the technique. This program takes time. lots of it. each lesson takes at least an hour and in most cases an hour and a half. Also you will do that lesson at least 3 times before moving on in the next iteration. Done right your will have to put in at least 150 hours of solid training with a resisting opponent. to just qualify to test you have to have done all 37 lessons 3 times and that doesn't mean you are ready. You have to sharpen your reflexes to the point of almost no hesitation and be really comfortable with the technique. As for the question about wrestlers, this struck me as kind of funny because the guys i started with were wrestlers and good ones too and even though they knew the technique I was going to attempt they still couldn't stop the sweep because the technique either works when done right, or it doesn't because you are not doing it right. you really have no choice but to get the technique correct or at least good enough to advance your position to defend yourself. I think its a worthwhile program, especially for what it was intended for. Again, much respect.
just out of curiousity how much is this program?
It's $144 if you purchase the whole course. If you purchase per lesson you end up spending $288. It's purchased at http://www.gracieuniversity.com or you can purchase the dvd versions as well. I would recommend the online versions though because if you plan to attain your blue belt and keep going you will end up purchasing the Master Cycle lessons online anyway. Might as well have all of your lessons in one spot. Plus dvd's eventually scratch/break/get lost. Online vids are there forever.Originally Posted by drx604
I took the time and watch some of the free videos and was impressed. I might try it out myself, you can still take the initave and roll with other people, even if they have No BJJ experiance, I think that is good because that is what this course is designed for. A lot of people do not like rolling with white belts because they mussle thru everything and this is what GJJ is trying to handle along with the punches and such. Not being worried about getting choked up knocked out.
Just my 2 cents. However if you can get instruction by a good BB, I would go for it.
"Hélio was too young and sick at that time to learn the art, and due to medical imposition was prohibited to take part in the training sessions. Despite that, Hélio learned from watching his brothers"
I have the DVD's and use Gracie university web site they have helped me out a lot.I go to a regular BJJ school but I find that when I watch the videos I understand the techniques a lot more. I get home and pop in the DVD and watch the tech's we went over in class. Sometimes in class I just wont understand a technique....and then I watch the vid and I am like"oh yea...now I get it" I also think the Gracie Garage Idea is pretty cool too.Even though I go to a school i would prolly go roll at a GG if we had one in my area. I would start one if I had the room.
So yeah I really like em.Especially if your a newbie to BJJ,you will definitely learn something. And plus the Gracies invented the stuff so why wouldn't you wanna see what they have to say.
Last edited by RCheko1; 07-13-2010 at 11:55 PM.
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