I've always felt this way.
Alright, I'll share my story....
I started at a Rickson Gracie/Pedro Sauer academy. The jitz there was the best around, and I soon found that their jitz was amongst the best anywhere. I trained hard and received my Blue Belt in 7 months! This was quite an accomplishment at this academy, they were traditional, it usually took 1 1/2 to 2 yrs to get. The test, I paid for with pain and $$$, 4 hours and 90 techniques against two larger opponents, with about a year or more experience on me. If that wasn't enough, my instructor wanted to spar, and tried to throw me from a clinch, and folded my knee backwards (completely ripped the acl off) three months before the test!
Skip forward a little and at a seminar, Pedro told us that we needed to "cross train" with different styles. So I went to DC and trained with Ryan Hall, then caught a seminar with Eddie. Eddie and I hit it off and he showed me "the way" I remembered every single detail of what he taught me and used against higher belts with much more experience than me ;) I even used it the very first time against my Black Belt and he couldn't get out of my Lockdown, and just gave up. He said okay what are you gonna do now?
So that's when I started noticing he wasn't treating me like the prodigy he did before. I had been a "family member and key holder" to this academy for 5/6 years!!! I always shared my knawledge, didn't matter. I tried to ignore it, but when Rickson came into our academy and my instructor wouldn't allow me to come to the seminar, I knew it was time to go... Rickson was the whole reason I joined that academy! In the 12 hours I trained with Rickson I learned more than in 5 years of Jiu Jitsu!! No exaggerating, cereal! Super Cereal!!! That was my home....
So here I am, I can't open a 10th Planet here, because my instructor is a Police officer, and he would constantly harass me and my students. I have seen him do this before, to other students he had a prob with. I would not even put my students through that.
So I'm trying to get relocated, Eddie knows where and as soon as I get there, there's going to be another Moon on the board ;)
This is the beauty of this community! We have all been shunned, laughed at, or some other form of degradation for what we believe, and how we think. 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu has united us and given us a home, a way for free thinkers to gather under one banner! Now it is our jobs, those who have been saved, to go out and share the truth! Open more peoples minds, and have a sanctuary for those that have no mats to call home!
I had a Gi guy come in for a private like two weeks ago or so. While he was waiting around he went to some plaza to kill time before it started. He told me he ran into some Black Belt at another local Gi school..The kid was wearing a jj shirt and they started talking. The BB asked him why he was up here and the kids said to get a 10th P private from Kevin Green. He told me the BB rolled his eyes and said "I dont like that 10th Planet stuff, but Kevin is a real good" does that make any sense. If Im really good, and I use 10th P, wouldnt that mean 10th P is really good...any way, the kid had a good session and said all my shit was "sick" and he drove 2 hrs back home and will be back next week. So at the end of the day...its all just white noise.
This is how I started... I learned from lots, but didn't agree with most.....then I found 10th Planet.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10thpla...ta/4914230016/
I hear you...my place is the gym for misfit fighters....we like it that way :)
I've been very fortunate to have very open minded instructors wherever I've gone. I couldn't imagine being scolded by another adult just for trying things during open mat.
Awesome story :)
"Eddie knows where and as soon as I get there, there's going to be another Moon on the board"
Houston Is a great place to live! lol, Look up the Woodlands Tx.
I've experienced similar circumstances. I bet there's millions of guys across the world that have to keep it under wraps while training at traditional places...more branches are definitely needed.*