Anyone who thinks it's fine to have someone who is unqualified teach ANY martial art should go lurk at Bullshido for a while. The martial arts industry has no oversight, except that which we provide ourselves. There's no government ranking and certification process or anything like that. Price is irrelevant to the discussion. If you're learning from an unqualified instructor, whether you pay 200 bucks a month in an unbreakable 10 year contract, or it's 100% free, you are getting sub standard instruction which can result in injury or death (and this risk is not confined to the "dojo").
Bruce said he wanted the focus to be on self defense, but most of what I see out of Cora's vids is sport jits. Even if he had developed some understanding of these things, he has no idea how to apply them to self defense situations. His free unqualified self defense jiu jitsu lessons could very easily lead to one of his students getting themselves hurt outside the gym. How many of us have rolled with "self taught" people before? Who know jits cause they "study" UFC fights? Sure, they may know somewhat how to do an arm bar, or an RNC, but they don't know jits, a fact which becomes instantly apparent while rolling.
To me, it's not about even about 10pjj, it's about jits as a whole. We, the jits community are the ONLY thing that can provide any type of quality control. We have a responsibility to the consumer, and to the art, to maintain our high standards, and to point out that which is unqualified or sub standard, because no one else will, and if we DON'T, then we all suffer. The art becomes diluted over time until it eventually becomes a joke. That affects all of us, whether we're 10pjj, or Gracie Barra, or MABJJ.
Despite the BJJ explosion since 1993, we are still a small community, and we all trace our lineages back to, essentially, a couple places. It's easy to shoot an email off to GB and ask if so and so in your community holds a GB rank. That's how fakes and pretenders get caught, because we find them. Random parent walks into a gym, sees a certification on the wall and assumes all is well, having no idea how easy those can be faked. These are serious issues. How proud of your lineage are you? We all know that by heart for a reason!
The predator stuff was largely the opinion of one guy. That's the kind of thing that should be dropped. It's an unsubstantiated allegation that shouldn't be thrown around lightly. There's no evidence of any wrongdoing by Bruce whatsoever. That all comes from one guy who thinks the way he posts is weird. Fair point, but that hardly makes him a predator. I personally don't post like that about my daughter, not because I lack Bruce's pride, but because I recognize that she's young, and there could come a time when she's older that she doesn't want to have her entire life on the internet, so I don't share a ton about her. But that's my choice, because I want her to have a choice someday about how much of her life is posted out there. There's a ton of parents in my FB news feed that clearly have different thoughts on that, as I get a ton of "look what jimmy did today!" every day.
If Bruce really wants to pursue his plan of offering free jiu jitsu lessons to underprivileged kids, which is an awesome idea imho, then he needs to be willing to put out the minimal effort required to becoming qualified to do so. He doesn't need to take the hot box route, he doesn't need to compete, but he does need to train. There are a ton of opportunities out there that he could take advantage of. He could go the Gracie Garage route, learn via Gracie University, and progress at his own pace, according to his own limitations, until such time that he can satisfy the minimum qualifications necessary to teach. Alternatively he could start lessons where Cora trains. Their jits is legit, whether it's 10p or not. The point is, having a qualified instructor is extremely important. Bruce, as he is today, is not qualified to teach jits. He has options which he could utilize to change that and become qualified. Until he does so, he should not teach, and in fact, if he did, he'd wind up on Bullshido. And for good reason.
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