Treading Water - how to progress my BJJ

[Apperz]

Hey Guys,

Sorry to make such a personal post asking for free advice, but I'm hoping that maybe someone has been in a similar position to me and can offer some advice / inspiration.

I have been training 'MMA' for about 6 years now. I've had a few fights, but in all honestly I'm not a massive fan of it as a sport. I enjoy watching it, but the competing aspect not so much; I did it because at the time it was the only NoGi way of competing.

Now, though, it seems there are other options. NoGi grows more and more popular and competitions are beginning pop up around the country. Most importantly, I've fallen in love with the 10th Planet Community (as you can probably tell by my rising post count!) and Eddie's way of teaching (through MTS). For about a year I had a group of 4 people working the warmups and in a drills session two-three times a week followed by a weekly lesson from Brent Smith (of PCE) via his website.

Things went really well, of the 4 of us 2 competed and medaled in almost every competition we entered (note: I was entering blue belt level in both gi and nogi as I've previously fought MMA). A few months back, however, we heard the sad news that our building (where we hired a room) had been sold and that we'd have to find somewhere else to train. We found somewhere else, but it is only available to us one day a week. Everyone lost motivation and now it is just two of us training the 10th Planet warmups on the day the gym is available to us.

I've been able to keep busy by attending an MMA class twice a week, but the owner isn't really keen on Jiu Jitsu at all. He is an MMA guy through and through and can be quite derogatory to BJJ (he has a wrestling background and feels that BJJ is a lesser art that will always come second to a decent wrestler). Pretty much all our lessons focus on ground and pound or wrestling takedowns... I show up and spar at the end.

The nearest 10th Planet gym is Birmingham (I've met the owners and they are awesome), but it is a good 90 minutes from me and I don't drive, so that's not a possibility right now. There is a guy called Pedro Bessa who does a gi class in Bristol (Pedro is a student under Andre Galvao, Talas and Terere), so I could train there a day or two, but it is still at least an hour's travel there and an hour back - so it isn't the kind of thing I could do 5 days a week.

What I'm wondering is if anyone else has been stuck in a similar situation: training at an MMA gym, but trying to improve their jiujitsu and how it worked out / what they did. I'm not really sure what to do about it. My options are either to keep training and sparring the MMA guys, travel to Bristol and train with a high level gi guy a day or two a week or start my own NoGi 'club' (not class and keeping in mind I will have only beginners to train with).

Again, I'm not expecting any answers, but kind of hoping that someone who has been in my position - trying to improve their BJJ whilst training at an MMA gym - has a view / opinion / insight they can share.

Thanks in advance all.

[Brian Debes]

My first gym was an “MMA” gym, probably of worse quality than the one you are describing. I was there for a year and a half. I had the mastering the rubber guard book as well as one other person who had the book and had self taught themselves some of it already. But no way to get reps regularly. I got all my rep (attempts) live but mainly I got smashed and repeatedly injured. My rubberguard didn’t really start coming together into I moved to a gi gym for 6 months (that gym hated rubberguard and didn’t want me to do it but I still had way more progress there). People just weren’t good enough at the MMA gym to keep me from going straight to pyramid or triangle. After that the gi gym shut down though, and it really wasn’t what I wanted in the long run anyway. My path after the gi gym was to find a place like you did to train independently. I found that place at the local colleague. I flew out to see Eddie over and over again and also went to as many seminars FROM ANYONE as I could.

I feel like you need:
1. to find a better place to rent, one that can give you 3 or more days a weeks. Maybe ty to volunteer to teach free somewhere, maybe a karate gym or something? That could potentially help make their program more dynamic and draw a different cliental for them while giving you exactly what you need and if you pulled that off you wouldn’t have to “rent” anywhere.
2. Travel to train at least once every two weeks. Take a bus, take a train, get somewhere legit. You need, most importantly, the feel of legit training partners but also the chance to have a legit coach watch/trouble shoot things he teaches in person is gonna help, even if you don’t like most of what he teaches.


I hope this helped some, best wishes buddy!

[Nick Paul]

I also started at an "MMA gym" and the grappling was no gi but super basic. Not a lot of high level grapplers to train with, and no real coach to speak of. Which is how and why I found 10th Planet and started teaching myself the system for close to a year. I started making the trip out to 10th Planet Chicago a few months ago on any available weekends I have, and my grappling has substantially improved since then. Having a good coach is a huge asset. Then out of nowhere a few weeks ago, we had a Royler black belt move to our city from Brazil and he's coaching at our gym full time now. (Even though he's a gi believer, he has nothing but respect for 10th Planet). If I were in your shoes I would go train with Galvao's guy as much as you can, and respectfully ask him if you can work some no gi with him. Your attitude is right on track though, I'm sure you'll find the best way to get quality mat time in

[brianspinaltap]

Hey bro,

This might fly in the face of popular opinion, especially with all the youtube training available, but if you don't have a real (as in you can meet!) teacher that you genuinely respect, preferably a black belt, that can make you feel part of something, part of a family, I don't think you can make it on your own. Humans need to feel part of something and like they're going somewhere. We need support on a physical and emotional level.

Take a coal out of the fire, and on its own it soon goes out. Keep it in there and it keeps burning.

I'm in Bath - not far from you? We roll no Gi every Tuesday and Thursday lunch. We're not 10p, but I've never seen my teacher stop people doing what they want when they roll. He's happy for you to roll however you want to. Evenings is Gi, but think of it as a challenge Our professor won his division in NAGA Paris last year, no Gi

[Craig Murray]

Wow that sucks man. Frustrating I'm sure, and options are clearly limited.

I would second the advice that you could try to find another place to rent. Maybe go oldschool and just start in someone's garage.

Maybe move to a different city...

[Chris Garry]

Keep your eyes peeled for any units to let. Get online daily to track what is available. Keep asking for space available on facebook gumtree etc.

Visit all and any gyms, dojos, church halls, leisure centres, dance academies etc ask if they can hire you mat space, there's probably places that could do with extra income you will provide. All the tightest groups started at the bottom not the middle or the top.

[Arman Fathi]

I also started at an "MMA gym" and the grappling was no gi but super basic. Not a lot of high level grapplers to train with, and no real coach to speak of. Which is how and why I found 10th Planet and started teaching myself the system for close to a year. I started making the trip out to 10th Planet Chicago a few months ago on any available weekends I have, and my grappling has substantially improved since then. Having a good coach is a huge asset. Then out of nowhere a few weeks ago, we had a Royler black belt move to our city from Brazil and he's coaching at our gym full time now. (Even though he's a gi believer, he has nothing but respect for 10th Planet). If I were in your shoes I would go train with Galvao's guy as much as you can, and respectfully ask him if you can work some no gi with him. Your attitude is right on track though, I'm sure you'll find the best way to get quality mat time in

+1. The gi is jiu-jitsu with more consideration for grips. It breaks the game down and could be a huge asset to your no-gi. Also, you'd have to believe that he's a no-gi expert if he's under Galvao. Good jiu jitsu is good jiu jitsu.

[Tyler_Casselman]

I feel you on that one man... its funny how many people have their start in a rough "MMA" type of gym... I'm the same... I didn't learn many techniques.. but I did learn how to survive and how to grind it out.

We had a solid group of guys there, but the gym changed owners and prices went way up and most people left...

My solution? Clear our some space in my small apartment.. put down matts and have guys (and girls) come to me for drilling and light rolling. I have about a 3m X 4m space... its enough for just about anything butt real hard rolling...

My advice: Don't play the victim - take action. Post adds online... offer free basic lessons to anyone willing to drill with you... make friends at bjj/mma gyms around town and you will find other guys who are keen on Nogi.

After about 4 months training on my place... I trained with my old mma coach (professional MMA fighter and about 20 KG heavier than me)... I tapped him twice in my rubber guard... and I have never seen him tap to anyone before or since

Keep at it man, thats the key

Here is a pic of my "home gym" me and a friends working on D'arce chokes

https://twitter.com/_TylerCasselman/...61891973120000

[J.J Weatherall]

damn, the mma gym owner/coach just sounds uneducated. I trained wrestling for 3 years in high school and one of the main reasons I started jiu jitsu is because it goes hand in hand with wrestling together, at least for me it's made my grappling so much more rounded. Hell catch-wrestling still has a place in submission grappling today, so it goes hand in hand. Plus you gotta hate it when somebody claims to be an MMA coach and has no time for jiu jitsu, for obvious reasons!

Like people have said above, its maybe time to trek around a bit, travel some distance and hit some new places where even if it is a pure mma gym (which is way more common than bjj only schools in the uk) you stand a better chance of finding somewhere you can roll with other guys who share the same interest in jiu jitsu rather than the other aspects of mixed martial arts.

I know it's easy to say you need to find somewhere else and do something about it and take action, but I also know how hard it can be in the UK. To find a gym or a school with a strong bjj programme is tough, to find one which is no gi is even tougher.
I travel a hell of a lot all over the place for work and I struggle the most with finding places to roll when I'm in England. Most gyms are aimed towards the striking game more than pure jiu jitsu or grappling, it sucks but there are places out there if you're willing to travel. Best option right now is to probably throw some mats down anywhere you can and roll with any friends you have who are in the same situation.

Like you said yourself, 10p Birmingham is a stretch to travel to on a regular basis and London is even further away from you but you need legit guys to progress so travelling does have that appeal at least.... I'm not sure anything I have typed makes any sense or is of any use but I just spent 10minutes of my train journey typing it out so I'm posting it anyway!