There has been a lot of talk lately on the way Rener and Ryron Gracie are doing things at the Gracie University. They say their Jiu Jitsu is pure and superior to all else. I can’t argue any of their quotes nor can I say that what they are saying is untrue. What I can say is this, it doesn’t matter what another academy does or how they present themselves, there will always be someone who disagrees with them.
So they have a set curriculum that says “if you do this, then you get this” is this a bad thing? Honestly, I don’t see anything wrong with it from my standpoint. Why? Because it doesn’t affect me and my Jiu Jitsu. Our school isn’t going to change the way we are to satisfy anyone else. Let’s be honest here, if Rener promotes a student to blue belt without him ever truly rolling, who does that hurt? Not me, not you, hell it doesn’t even hurt Rener, the only one this hurts is the student. He will go on thinking he is a noticeable force in the Jiu Jitsu world until he wraps his legs around a “tournament” Jiu Jitsu player. He will more than likely have his *** handed to him and either realize he isn’t a true blue belt or that he chose the wrong path in his journey.
I once spoke to a representative of Gracie Jiu Jitsu he said to me, “a self defense style of Jiu Jitsu isn’t the best system for everyone, it’s counterpart (tournament style) is also not the greatest. We have to see it as two different triangles, where as, a self defense style learns only the basics one step at a time until he reaches his goal, this is the upside down triangle to symbolize starting small and ending with a large amount of knowledge. Then there is the tournament style, he learns a vast amount of techniques to better understand what his opponent might do next. This is the normal triangle, this shows a large amount of input and gradually honing to his specific style that suits him best.” He then added, “the job that we as instructors need to accomplish is to be sure that each side meets somewhere in the middle. That somewhere along the line their skill level and knowledge should be very close to one another. This builds a successful student.”
What I took from that statement was your way of learning is never going to fit into everyone’s way of teaching. That just because you started on a different path, it doesn’t mean it’s the wrong one and it won’t get you to the same goal. If what one academy is doing brings more people into our Jiu Jitsu community then let them be. I’m sure they lose just as many students as any other school does. The ones that stay, they still love Jiu Jitsu. That doesn’t make them any less worthy of being part of the rest of us. This is just my opinion of course. Roll safe everyone!! Oss!
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