Do TPJJ fighters make the same mistakes as traditionalist Gracie JJ?
We all have seen that it seems the big obstacle in the growth of TPJJ is resistance from traditionalist BJJ experts who seem closed-minded to these new ideas. We have all heard "That's just a stalling technique", "you will definitely destroy your knees", and "name a TPJJ fighter who has won Mundials or ADCC" from haters of even the highest ranks, and it drives me insane. However, I wonder if we sometimes take it in the opposite direction.
First of all, this is not an attack on TPJJ, I'm a huge believer in the system. But look at the style of most TPJJ guys, such as those in all of the great videos out there. They seem to follow a few distinct paths almost every time. Now, I understand the value of having go-to moves and clear direction in your attacks, but I believe Eddie is the first to say that these techniques are best added to your grappling arsenal, and are strongest when not stand-alone. Eddie is so much more successful at them then anyone else because of his unique way of seeing things, but also because he is a JJM black belt with amazing, non-TPJJ technique and experience. He knows things like how to be heavy on top, and how to move around, from before TPJJ existed. I think many of the newer fighters miss out on the other options they could have because of their dedication to TPJJ (which is primarily a good thing, for the record).
This is not to say TPJJ is closed-minded. Call out a new idea, or something explained by a good instructor, and everyone discusses its merits on here with no bias. But when you spend all day on lockdown, you work less deep-half. When you play rubber, you don't practice spider-guard or de la riva guard as much. There are very few people like Vinny Magalhaes, or George Sotiropoulos, who have strong traditional backgrounds, but regularly attack with TPJJ, yet I feel that these will be the types who will bring its recognition to the next level. We all talk about "what if BJ Penn, or Demian Maia trained a ton of TPJJ" because people with those abilities could do things with the system that most of us could not even imagine. Well, I encourage the younger fighters to stay true to TPJJ, but also to expose yourself to traditional BJJ, and other grappling arts like wrestling and judo. I think that's how to become the next Eddie.
Forgive me for the length of this post. I want to know what you guys think about this admittedly high, but still thought-out rant. Am I just not seeing the extent to which people use other stuff? Or is it possible that, in a strong counter-reaction to many BJJ legends shunning this system, some of us return the favor and spend our training learning just about only TPJJ moves?
