Be Honest: do you even train throws/takedowns at your BJJ academy?

At my school every white belt class starts with a standing lesson, which can include of a handful of methods of taking a fight to the ground (slip a punch to double leg, throw a jab to double leg, trip from rear clinch, outside leg hook from clinch, body fold from clinch, pull guard from double unders).

Advanced class will depend on the block of instruction for that cycle. But there is an entire block of takedowns and throws.
This is pretty much what we do, but we never start live from the feet.
 
Are spacetime and EvenFlow the same person?<DCWhoa>
 
Why did you still feel the need to reply?

Why are you even here trolltime?

Don't you have a 3 second video of yourself to shoot and edit while wearing a hilariously undersized and unbuttoned kimono?
 
how often is jake shields there? im a huge fan i heard he went to renzos for awhile

Jake has been on his own for many years. I trained with him a few years ago in his SF school. Yes, he’s been training with the Danaher group for a while.
He smashed me mercilessly and I greatly appreciated it.
 
Jake has been on his own for many years. I trained with him a few years ago in his SF school. Yes, he’s been training with the Danaher group for a while.
He smashed me mercilessly and I greatly appreciated it.
lol man id love a chance totrian with him he has such a different style sin e he never trained in gi he seems to mostly pass from knees which shuts down the spinny de la riva types i had no idea he had his own gym i know he use to have a school in berkley but thought he shut it down
 
Well, it’s not his own gym per se. Gilbert has El Niño training center. He also trains at a small school run by his friend. He’s more of a freelancer these days. He’s still fighting and competing. I think he’s around 37. Eventually he’ll retire, I think, but not yet. He’s still learning and getting better.
I’ve trained with a who’s who of top mma and jiu Jitsu world class fighters. Jake, for me, has been the toughest roll. He just keeps coming. Never gets tired, relentless pressure. Now that he’s on the dds, he can heel hook me 5 times in five minutes.
lol man id love a chance totrian with him he has such a different style sin e he never trained in gi he seems to mostly pass from knees which shuts down the spinny de la riva types i had no idea he had his own gym i know he use to have a school in berkley but thought he shut it down
 
We have the option to start standing if we want to, so I usually pick yes. I love takedowns and wrestling in general. It is quite fun to sometimes wrestle jerky grapplers who don't train standing grappling enough to be effective.. they try so hard lol
 
I have trained with Olympic judoka and good European/world champions and medalists. But this was at judo camps and some 'Master Class'. Example, I have had randori with guys like Arsen Galstyan, Mikhail Igolnikov, Beslan Mudranov and Khasan & Khusein Khalmurzaev and a few guys who compete on the IJF world tour events.

It isn't at bjj, because they usually focus 100% on judo, but it was a very cool experience.
 
I train with a couple of collegiate wrestlers and judo black belts. I could train takedowns all the time if I wanted to, but I’d have to make the effort. We almost never train them in class.
This has been my experience as well in two of the three gyms I've trained at. The third is an MMA gym with an affiliated BJJ gym. The BJJ instructor from the affiliate school almost never does any takedowns. The guys from the MMA gym do them constantly in submission grappling classes and get the BJJ instructor to work them into gi classes when they attend.
 
We will have a formal lesson on takedowns maybe once or twice a month.

The problem is my gym isn't spring loaded to take falls. What's worse is people also don't practice ukemi or know how to properly concede takedowns so they will hurt themselves - even during drilling. As a result I have to limit myself to takedowns where people have a very small chance of hurting themselves (e.g. armdrags, throwbys, doubles, etc.).

Generally whenever a roll initiates and uke stands to pass, I will also stand to engage them on the feet. If they're game then we trade takedowns but if they sit down then I will too and basically pull guard.

I also will sometimes grab someone after class and rep out a takedown.

Luckily my instructor knows how to protect himself so usually we will start almost every roll standing. I make a strong effort to get back on my feet if I am taken down to continue to get reps in. Weeekdays are usually gi while weekends we will wrestle.

The weekend open mat is where I get most of my volume in. Usually the guys are a little tougher and we have more time, so I will ask people to go live with only takedowns. Problem here is I am usually going with teenagers or adults who know nothing, other than my instructor.

Sometimes I'll meet with someone outside of class to drill takedowns and go live with a specific exercise (e.g. fight for double unders).

If I could quit bjj and do nothing but wrestle I would. But I'm trying to make the best of the situation using what I've mentioned above, in addition to consulting knowledeable forum members and Master Youtube.

I can takdown everyone in my gym except for my instructor using this method, but that's not saying much given that they all know next to nothing.

Tldr - 1 or 2 formal classes per month. Some self directed training more often.
 
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At my academy we can go a month or more before having a random class where we drill takedowns or hip/judo throws. To say its a big gaping hole in our training in an understatmenet.

What surprised me though is so far I've competed against guys from established gyms like Atos, Gracie Humaita, AoJ, and others and I was surprised that in every single case within seconds of starting it usually just ended with us in the ground in a half guard scramble, with no takedown points awarded.

It made me wonder if takedowns/throw training is lacking in most BJJ gyms. How often do you train and drill them at your academy?

this harkens back to another recent thread, but i've become increasingly convinced that maybe the greatest deficit among bjj practitioners is the failure to recognize that the standup game can be "standing jiu-jitsu" rather than just mediocre wrestle-judo. In other words, I think the reason most start sitting (and view tech standups as taboo) is because they don't see a purpose in starting standing beyond the narrow goal of drilling "takedowns." Even accomplished wrestlers and judokas often feel pressured to stop developing their standup game in a bjj context, in favor of learning how to start a roll on their butts.
 
this harkens back to another recent thread, but i've become increasingly convinced that maybe the greatest deficit among bjj practitioners is the failure to recognize that the standup game can be "standing jiu-jitsu" rather than just mediocre wrestle-judo. In other words, I think the reason most start sitting (and view tech standups as taboo) is because they don't see a purpose in starting standing beyond the narrow goal of drilling "takedowns." Even accomplished wrestlers and judokas often feel pressured to stop developing their standup game in a bjj context, in favor of learning how to start a roll on their butts.


A bjj player will view escapes from bottom as 'taboo' or uncultured in training because the rules actually reward you for staying down; standing up gives your opponent an opportunity to score on you, while sitting down yourself puts you in the same situation, but takes away the scoring opportunity. In fact, standing up is also giving your opponent the opportunity to sit down, getting to a 'safe place' (in terms of scoring opportunities) without giving you any points like if he had done it while you were down (even if the ending positions are identical).

From a gamesmanship perspective, there's little to no benefit to spending training time on working to escape from a bad situation (being on bottom), because you are not formally penalized for being there in the first place (except in the most absolute terms of biodynamics); indeed, it's actually an advantage.
 
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I'd guess we train takedowns in about 20% -30% of classes. Mostly in the fundamentals and all levels, but sometimes in the advanced.

We start from standing maybe 10% of the time.
 
Not that much in BJJ classes, although our Black belts also have wrestling backgrounds. It's an MMA school, though, so there's always the Judo or wrestling class to get takedowns in.
 
Not that often, but the gym has Judo twice a week, and the Sumo club I started once a week. Getting people into Sumo is hard, as BJJ'ers already hate takedowns, and think Sumo looks lame ("lol fat guys in diapers!"). The irony of BJJ looking down on the aesthetics of another art form is not lost on me.

Whether BJJ sparring starts standing or on the knees depends on the amount of people in class really.

Regardless, there's definitely a general aversion by most BJJ'ers to takedowns; they either feel it's unnecessary ("I'd just pull guard") or too dangerous ("I do BJJ cause it's light on the bones, not like getting thrown!").
 
at almost every bjj academy I have been out, it NEVER happens. (1.) there is no space, (2.) people don't have the heart to do it because it's way harder.
 
A bjj player will view escapes from bottom as 'taboo' or uncultured in training because the rules actually reward you for staying down; standing up gives your opponent an opportunity to score on you, while sitting down yourself puts you in the same situation, but takes away the scoring opportunity. In fact, standing up is also giving your opponent the opportunity to sit down, getting to a 'safe place' (in terms of scoring opportunities) without giving you any points like if he had done it while you were down (even if the ending positions are identical).

From a gamesmanship perspective, there's little to no benefit to spending training time on working to escape from a bad situation (being on bottom), because you are not formally penalized for being there in the first place (except in the most absolute terms of biodynamics); indeed, it's actually an advantage.
Had no idea. This is sad IMO.
 
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