Does Gracie Barra actually have a system that involves striking?

An interesting (but poor quality) video from GB Long Island. I'll look for a better one. Note that in the description it is stated that they train Muay Thai as well.

 
I found another one, the video is better. It's about closing the distance specifically



And another one of bad quality. They also call it MT.



It seems relatively common. If it is a good instruction or not I will not venture to say :)
 
The gym I used to train at was once a GB affiliate I think, and their fundamentals class had a fair amount of striking technique training and takedown entries from striking sequences. It was kinda fun although probably not the most efficient use of time to be perfectly honest - if I wanted to learn MMA it would be more efficient to take MMA classes?!
 
Old Man said:
I don't see how you starting on the knees and then pulling guard is forming any habits. Being on your knees in a relaxed training environment, and then calmly and consciously pulling guard, is nothing like starting from the feet in a competition. I can't imagine you'd all of a sudden pull guard in a competition because you started some training rolls from the knees.

If you want to work exclusively on your guard, then the most efficient way is to start in that guard position. But in an academy where everyone is trying to get a bunch of rolls in, not everyone wants to work on whatever guard you're working on.
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Well then we have a difference of opinion, which is fine. Every school has different practices and the best for my preference has been ones that start rolls on the feet and progress to TD and sub on the ground. My first Judo school did that, as did a BJJ place I formerly trained at but both were exceptions to the norm. If your objective is training for sport or fight training, debating any other starting position is really talking which practice is LESS unrealistic. Starting in common guards - full, half and butterfly as we've been doing since our school re-opened last month, with partners switching top and bottom position every round is the lesser of two evils IMO. But I'm happy to agree to disagree on that. As you say if your objective is to work on ground game, the important thing is to get on the ground and engage regardless of starting position.
 
ChickenBrother said:
I still fail to see how starting from knees offers any advantage over starting in guard. If as you say, the intent is to maximize time on the ground, why not start in a ground position that actually occurs in rolling rather than an unnatural one that doesn't? Like you pointed out earlier, it only instills the habit of conceding a TD from a neutral position. And it's a neutral position that doesn't organically occur in BJJ.

In practice, everyone can get better and needs improvement at both top and bottom games. I've found that a lot of "pure" BJJ guys are better at bottom than top and this is great for me because they want to work on their top games as much as I want to practice my guard.
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It's a disadvantage to Judoka who would rather pass your guard standing by throwing directly into side control?



But for real, positional sparring is the way to go imo. Especially if there are too many people on the mat to safely do standup (will that even ever happen again? coronalife).

Start some rounds in guard, but start others in side control, other rounds in mount / back mount.

So many people claim they want to learn how to escape side control, but they groan when you say "we're starting in side control, reset after any sweep, submission, or scramble that gets the bottom player to their knees or feet. No switching, same player goes to bottom on every reset for 5 min THEN we switch top and bottom for the next 5 min".
 
sb413197 said:
The gym I used to train at was once a GB affiliate I think, and their fundamentals class had a fair amount of striking technique training and takedown entries from striking sequences. It was kinda fun although probably not the most efficient use of time to be perfectly honest - if I wanted to learn MMA it would be more efficient to take MMA classes?!
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Reasonable people can disagree about this though. The topic of how to apply BJJ in an actual fight arguably falls within the ambit of BJJ.

The fact that something might be illegal in sport BJJ cannot possibly be the test of whether it's "real" BJJ.
 
EndlessCritic said:
Reasonable people can disagree about this though. The topic of how to apply BJJ in an actual fight arguably falls within the ambit of BJJ.

The fact that something might be illegal in sport BJJ cannot possibly be the test of whether it's "real" BJJ.
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Sure, I'm down with that. Actually the opposite of my stance could easily be argued, that for those of us who have no interest in MMA, at least this way we get some combat applications. In the end I'm glad I did it earlier in my BJJ journey but wouldn't want to be spending time on it now.
 
karatefoo said:
See above question.

I had also rolled with a few GB students and it seems like they often get promoted too quickly. Is their system more of a self defense that includes strikes or do they focus on sport bjj?
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We used to have a "secret" striking class taught by a professor who has extensive kick boxing experience including pro fights when he was younger. I dont know how it is because I never went . I'm sure he is pretty good though.

And yes we do get promoted too quickly and I hate it and even spoke up about it. I'm a little over 4 years into it and already a 2 stripe purple which is absurd to me and essentially locks me out of competing. It is what it is . All i worry about now is training 4-5 times a week and doing my best
 
Evenflow80 said:
We used to have a "secret" striking class taught by a professor who has extensive kick boxing experience including pro fights when he was younger. I dont know how it is because I never went . I'm sure he is pretty good though.

And yes we do get promoted too quickly and I hate it and even spoke up about it. I'm a little over 4 years into it and already a 2 stripe purple which is absurd to me and essentially locks me out of competing. It is what it is . All i worry about now is training 4-5 times a week and doing my best
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If you want to compete, compete, don't worry about your level.

Lessons, experience, and growth found in competition can be hard to find in normal training. If you are thinking you are not at the right level, competition can be an accelerant of progress.

To each their own, of course. But don't let your perception of your level stop you. If that is your only obstacle, overcome that and compete.
 
Different GBs will have striking/MMA classes dependent on who runs the school. Some of the ones in Florida have some pretty successful fighters coming out of them.
 
Evenflow80 said:
We used to have a "secret" striking class taught by a professor who has extensive kick boxing experience including pro fights when he was younger. I dont know how it is because I never went . I'm sure he is pretty good though.

And yes we do get promoted too quickly and I hate it and even spoke up about it. I'm a little over 4 years into it and already a 2 stripe purple which is absurd to me and essentially locks me out of competing. It is what it is . All i worry about now is training 4-5 times a week and doing my best
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I've heard this about GB but haven't rolled with enough GB guys from different gyms to have a strong opinion. The guys I have rolled with seemed legit to me. But whether promotions are early or late relative to other schools, I think the most important thing is at least having consistent standards.

Place I'm at now is very inconsistent with belt promotions both by time and skill, and it's frustrating for a lot of people and lowers morale. You could have a kid that busts his ass 5-6 days/week and giving a hard time to blues and some purples. But coach won't give him blue for whatever reason. We had a young pro fighter that was close to brown skill level (and he wasn't muscling moves, was very relaxed and technical), before coach gave him purple. Then there was a laid back 24 yo guy that was a little overweight and getting subbed by new blues, but had been training for 5 years so coach gave him purple. Coach said he wanted the promotion to encourage him to train harder and get better. If coach was uniformly hard on everyone or otherwise uniformly lax on standards, at least there would be a clear standard. But it seems he uses belts as a tool to selectively sandbag or early promote depending on the student.
 
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shunyata said:
It's a disadvantage to Judoka who would rather pass your guard standing by throwing directly into side control?



But for real, positional sparring is the way to go imo. Especially if there are too many people on the mat to safely do standup (will that even ever happen again? coronalife).

Start some rounds in guard, but start others in side control, other rounds in mount / back mount.

So many people claim they want to learn how to escape side control, but they groan when you say "we're starting in side control, reset after any sweep, submission, or scramble that gets the bottom player to their knees or feet. No switching, same player goes to bottom on every reset for 5 min THEN we switch top and bottom for the next 5 min".
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LOL this is the truth for anyone that's trained Judo - but I didn't want to say it because I get accused of being some kind of Judo apologist even though I've now trained BJJ longer than I have Judo.

But yeah, starting from your worst position on the ground is the way to go (as long as your partner is OK with it). In hindsight I wasted my first few years rolling with BJJ guys because I was just focused on "winning the roll," i.e. doing what I was already good at, which was taking them down and staying on top without getting swept.
 
Old Man said:
It's just a neutral position. If you are not able to smoothly start rolling, then you're doing it wrong:

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Man this video is cool AF.:cool:

But we don't look like this @ all in Judo class. Once we are on the ground... it stays on the ground, that's how we train. We always go for the hold.

<bball2>BJJ looking specifically ne waza... is it's strength... the mind set here???????
 
karatefoo said:
See above question.

I had also rolled with a few GB students and it seems like they often get promoted too quickly. Is their system more of a self defense that includes strikes or do they focus on sport bjj?
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I think they have a set of self defense program that has some techniques against striking opponents.

About the topic of early promotion, it is none of our business.
To be honest, just don't worry about others and just keep focus on your own improvement..
 
Nnedd said:
I go their open mats because it's a chill environment, and there are people from all over town. It's a good atmosphere.

I say that because I want to qualify that I like lots of GB guys and enjoy going to their school for open training.

They have a "Strike Based BJJ" program, that they sometimes call "Vale Tudo Style" training. They post videos and such on their social media.

It's....not good. I watched video of a round once that was mostly two guys on the their knees, lightly boxing eachother, on their knees.

Boxing from the knees.

They were training boxing, on the knees. From what I've seen, that about sums up the quality of the strike based training that I've seen in their school.

Anyhow, that's my story.
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The one in my area does not do open mat for outsiders but sometimes they show up at open mats in other gyms.
 
Midget wrestling is about the most stupid thing There is... you don’t want to fight for a td? Sit your ass on the mat and one plays guard the other plays top, simple as that
 
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