Rickson on Gracie Breakdown

[Jason Mallory]

[Aiden]

I agree with a lot of what they are saying. My first BJJ school was all competition focused. No self defense. The second one I went to taught it all. It was a great school well rounded school. It is true what they were saying about the drive for competition over time corrupting the original combat intent of the martial art and turning it into a sport, taekwondo vs taekwondo, karate vs karate, BJJ vs BJJ. Practicing the sport is great, it is what most of us obsess about however, it shouldn't be at the expense of the original intent of the art.

[Jason Mallory]

I also agree with the idea of teaching fight-ready jiu jitsu.

Jiu jitsu needs a governing body like Judo, Taekwondo, Boxing etc. It sounds like Rickson is trying to create this with his federation but honestly... Jiu Jitsu is too fragmented in my opinion. I can't see the IBJJF submitting itself to be governed by Rickson's federation.

[Arman Fathi]

I can't see the IBJJF submitting itself to be governed by Rickson's federation.

I'm impressed with Rener and Ryron for how far they went to align with Rickson. I like the quote where Ryron said basically, 'whatever Rickson says, of anyone in the world, we listen.' I think Rickson is the guy to unite all of jiu jitsu. There'd be one guy he'd have to convince to get the IBJJF on his side, and that's Carlinhos. That obviously remains to be seen. I don't think any self-respecting jiu jitsu school owner would write off what he's saying or effectively trying to do.

[brianspinaltap]

I think it's good to know the self defence side, but if I'm honest with myself, I find it unfulfilling to learn - if that's all jiujitsu was I'd get very bored with it. It's all the techniques that come from fighting another jiujitsu person that keep the art alive and vital. You need both.

Also, people that just do self defence and nothing else for 20 years end up as freaks. Just saying.

[HerbChao]

Was listening to this in the background at work as well; I def agree on the fine line between balancing self defense jitsu vs the sport/no strikes part. I'm a bit torn on the white belt with the blue stripe down the center (if I describe and understand it correctly) but it helps finally get more people to respect the Combatives part of Gracie Academy then long term it might be better.

EIther way, props to Rickson to working to unite folks

[Aiden]

I think it's good to know the self defence side, but if I'm honest with myself, I find it unfulfilling to learn - if that's all jiujitsu was I'd get very bored with it. It's all the techniques that come from fighting another jiujitsu person that keep the art alive and vital. You need both.

Also, people that just do self defence and nothing else for 20 years end up as freaks. Just saying.

I don't think that they were saying self defense was all JJ was. I think they were saying it was just the foundation. I can understand how doing JJ just for self defense can become boring. The Gracie brothers have described multiple times how the sport JJ mentality in regards to grips, clinch, distance management is very different from self defense JJ. They want the self defense JJ to be the base for the practitioner to understand and get reps in what works in a fight instead of JJ vs JJ only.