- Joined
- Feb 13, 2011
- Messages
- 770
- Reaction score
- 18
So I got Covid at age 45. It felt like a flu but more severe. After it was over, I felt very weak. This was at the start of the lockdown so all gyms were shut down anyways. I changed jobs, moved to a new state and thought that my BJJ days are over. I started working out in my garage and now, strength wise, I am back to my 400 lbs squats and all the other lifts are not far from where they used to be.
I am thinking about going back on the mat but I can sense that my motivation for training has changed. I am no longer looking to compete in tournaments. I am interested in self-defense and real world application. I also see myself teaching sometime in the future. As I move from mid-40s to late 40s, I have to think about retirement. At this stage in life BJJ is more about building friendships, growing in something that I know will come in handy if it ever comes to that and teaching becomes a reason to stay on the mat.
I have two schools near me. One is a Gracie University affiliate. They are a small operation with a small number of grapplers. The assistant instructor is a blue belt just like I am and the head instructor is a purple. One thing I respect about Gracie University schools is that they remain true to real fighting. You will see a lot of MMA built into their BJJ as students will evade punches and strikes and they always assume a striking opponent. Now open guards, no guard pulling. It is very basic with a lot of emphasis on high profile moves.
I like this because in my BJJ training a lot of times, coaches will show you stuff that had no real world application. Yet you had to drill it because that was technique of the day. Sometimes it would be weeks after weeks of technique drills that never sank into me because I never believed in them. With Gracie University, they have thrown out all that and designed a curriculum that I feel I would have chosen for myself if I had become a black belt and had the freedom to specialize in a few selected techniques. This is BJJ the way I would want to have it delivered for me. The problem is that this school has a lot of lower belts and not enough of high end grapplers.
If I go a little farther out, there is another BJJ gym based on a totally opposite philosophy. The coach prides in the competition team and they have a few black belts under one roof. Here you will see a lot of younger, athletic guys and girls trying flying arm bars and berimbolos and a lot of nonsense that I would never spend my precious time with. The good thing is that they have an MMA team so practicalities of combat can be addressed separately.
I am torn between which of the two places I belong? If I sign up for one then I would like to commit myself for it for years. I am told that if my goal is to teach eventually, then Gracie University is the place to stay away from. No one wants to affiliate with them and they are a problem child within BJJ world. They made some bad marketing decisions like online belts etc and that reputation has stuck with them. I wonder if a black belt from this lineage would have the same respect as anyone else? I wonder if long term affiliation with them would cause a disconnect from the rest of the grappling world? While I appreciate their emphasis on real world application of BJJ, I sense a certain negative vibe from others about them. Am I being paranoid?
I am thinking about going back on the mat but I can sense that my motivation for training has changed. I am no longer looking to compete in tournaments. I am interested in self-defense and real world application. I also see myself teaching sometime in the future. As I move from mid-40s to late 40s, I have to think about retirement. At this stage in life BJJ is more about building friendships, growing in something that I know will come in handy if it ever comes to that and teaching becomes a reason to stay on the mat.
I have two schools near me. One is a Gracie University affiliate. They are a small operation with a small number of grapplers. The assistant instructor is a blue belt just like I am and the head instructor is a purple. One thing I respect about Gracie University schools is that they remain true to real fighting. You will see a lot of MMA built into their BJJ as students will evade punches and strikes and they always assume a striking opponent. Now open guards, no guard pulling. It is very basic with a lot of emphasis on high profile moves.
I like this because in my BJJ training a lot of times, coaches will show you stuff that had no real world application. Yet you had to drill it because that was technique of the day. Sometimes it would be weeks after weeks of technique drills that never sank into me because I never believed in them. With Gracie University, they have thrown out all that and designed a curriculum that I feel I would have chosen for myself if I had become a black belt and had the freedom to specialize in a few selected techniques. This is BJJ the way I would want to have it delivered for me. The problem is that this school has a lot of lower belts and not enough of high end grapplers.
If I go a little farther out, there is another BJJ gym based on a totally opposite philosophy. The coach prides in the competition team and they have a few black belts under one roof. Here you will see a lot of younger, athletic guys and girls trying flying arm bars and berimbolos and a lot of nonsense that I would never spend my precious time with. The good thing is that they have an MMA team so practicalities of combat can be addressed separately.
I am torn between which of the two places I belong? If I sign up for one then I would like to commit myself for it for years. I am told that if my goal is to teach eventually, then Gracie University is the place to stay away from. No one wants to affiliate with them and they are a problem child within BJJ world. They made some bad marketing decisions like online belts etc and that reputation has stuck with them. I wonder if a black belt from this lineage would have the same respect as anyone else? I wonder if long term affiliation with them would cause a disconnect from the rest of the grappling world? While I appreciate their emphasis on real world application of BJJ, I sense a certain negative vibe from others about them. Am I being paranoid?