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This week I watched Rickson at Joe Rogan's podcast as well as his interview with Budo Jake.
I respect Rickson just like everybody else does and I think he has a point there, the self defense aspects of bjj may have taken a back seat, there are definitely too much schools that don't even teach the basics of self defense like simple head lock escapes, punch protection etc., instructors that in fact won't teach anything that isn't relevant in IBJJF competition.
And I agree that this is something that we as a bjj community should take care of.
But tbh I just think he is way too generalized,narrow minded not to say kind of ignorant with his comments on modern BJJ.
He kind of says Hey guys modern BJJ doesn't work in real fight, period.
He doesn't talk about that you have to use other strategy, that the priorities shift towards other techniques etc.
I mean I never really got the point of guys claiming this or that position 'doesn't work'
in a 'real fight'.
I mean really what is a 'street fight' and how do only certain techniques work there, the situations that you can be put in on the streets are innumerable.
Of course nobody would pull x-guard in a fight from the get-go, but really if you end up underneath the guy why would a simple or even advanced x-guard sweep not work on some thug if I'm able to sweep purple belts in competition with it, just for example.
I thinks it's more a matter of good and bad strategies then of techniques that 'work' or 'don't work'.
What bothers me here is that he is straight playing into the hands of all that bullshit-self defense clowns that are preaching stuff like 'Hey your sport has nothing to do with the streets bro, trust me, come in and I teach you the deadly techniques that are forbidden in your sports but highly effective like the every-problem-solving groin kick and the eye poke from bottom mount position.
Clowns that never fought but sell their bullshit kung fu or whatever under the pretext that combat sport is so much different from self defense.
He said that he is heart broken if he hears things like 'you want self defense? Go to krav maga not jiu jitsu' but does he think this is getting better if the most respected BJJ fighter of all time goes from interview to interview and explains that BJJ doesn't work in real fights anymore?
Now this bullshido jerks can argue like Ey guys even your hero rickson gracie admits that bjj does not work in real fights.
Furthermore imho teams that only training for BJJ competitions are only one side of the medal if you talk about BJJ and real fighting.
MMA is so popular in our days, so much BJJ guys also are interested in MMA, so much gyms also offer Stand Up and Judo so much people learn BJJ in MMA Gyms.
A lot more guys are training no gi, the training frequency of an average grappler is much higher than 10 years ago.
The physical attributes of a modern bjj player are much better than 10 years ago.
A lot of bjj students that want to succeed look into judo or wrestling to sharpen their takedowns.
All these points are completely ignored any time this topic is coming up.
I wish he would address this topic a little bit more sophisticated.
Thoughts?
I respect Rickson just like everybody else does and I think he has a point there, the self defense aspects of bjj may have taken a back seat, there are definitely too much schools that don't even teach the basics of self defense like simple head lock escapes, punch protection etc., instructors that in fact won't teach anything that isn't relevant in IBJJF competition.
And I agree that this is something that we as a bjj community should take care of.
But tbh I just think he is way too generalized,narrow minded not to say kind of ignorant with his comments on modern BJJ.
He kind of says Hey guys modern BJJ doesn't work in real fight, period.
He doesn't talk about that you have to use other strategy, that the priorities shift towards other techniques etc.
I mean I never really got the point of guys claiming this or that position 'doesn't work'
in a 'real fight'.
I mean really what is a 'street fight' and how do only certain techniques work there, the situations that you can be put in on the streets are innumerable.
Of course nobody would pull x-guard in a fight from the get-go, but really if you end up underneath the guy why would a simple or even advanced x-guard sweep not work on some thug if I'm able to sweep purple belts in competition with it, just for example.
I thinks it's more a matter of good and bad strategies then of techniques that 'work' or 'don't work'.
What bothers me here is that he is straight playing into the hands of all that bullshit-self defense clowns that are preaching stuff like 'Hey your sport has nothing to do with the streets bro, trust me, come in and I teach you the deadly techniques that are forbidden in your sports but highly effective like the every-problem-solving groin kick and the eye poke from bottom mount position.
Clowns that never fought but sell their bullshit kung fu or whatever under the pretext that combat sport is so much different from self defense.
He said that he is heart broken if he hears things like 'you want self defense? Go to krav maga not jiu jitsu' but does he think this is getting better if the most respected BJJ fighter of all time goes from interview to interview and explains that BJJ doesn't work in real fights anymore?
Now this bullshido jerks can argue like Ey guys even your hero rickson gracie admits that bjj does not work in real fights.
Furthermore imho teams that only training for BJJ competitions are only one side of the medal if you talk about BJJ and real fighting.
MMA is so popular in our days, so much BJJ guys also are interested in MMA, so much gyms also offer Stand Up and Judo so much people learn BJJ in MMA Gyms.
A lot more guys are training no gi, the training frequency of an average grappler is much higher than 10 years ago.
The physical attributes of a modern bjj player are much better than 10 years ago.
A lot of bjj students that want to succeed look into judo or wrestling to sharpen their takedowns.
All these points are completely ignored any time this topic is coming up.
I wish he would address this topic a little bit more sophisticated.
Thoughts?
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