Get With the Program

So let's say someone decides to give Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu a try.

Most schools are pretty small, and so don't have programs dedicated to the needs of beginners. New students are normally mixed in with everybody else. Even so, there will only be a half-dozen or dozen students.

If you're lucky, they'll assign somebody to keep an eye on you and to be your partner for your first class.

There will be a warmup, and then the instructor will call everybody over, to explain and demonstrate the night's lesson. The chances that it will be something appropriate to a newby are incredibly low, so most likely you won't be able to make heads or tails of what's going on. People then go off to work on what they've just been shown. After a while, they get called back for the next section, and then more practice, and so on.

After perhaps half an hour of this, comes free-rolling time. Many schools describe new students as “fresh meat,” and only half in jest.

You and your partner roll for a few minutes, and then partners are swapped, and another roll, and another swap, and another roll. An equivalent would be going skiing for the first time at a resort that has no bunny hill, and where you are started out on a run called, “The Widow Maker.”

The chance that you'll be heading home without injury are dismally small.

I have met plenty of people who tried out Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in just such an old-school environment, were injured, and never went back.

Most don't last more than one class, and for those that do, it doesn't get any better for a very long time. Those few that eventually find success in such an environment tend to be big, and strong, and athletic. Those the least likely to succeed are those for whom Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was originally intended.

It wasn't always this way. When the Gracie Family first developed their art, it was taught one-on-one in private lessons. There was no rolling with anyone for a long time, and then only with their private instructor. His whole motivation was teaching, not dominating, and not on trying things out on his student.

When the art was spread to the USA by Rorion Gracie back in 1978, he also taught via private lessons. However, as things grew, this became impossible. One-on-one became the exception, rather than the rule as group teaching took over.

Status and promotion became the reward for being able to dominate other students on the mat. The better you rolled, the better you were regarded. The reverse was also true.

The original Jiu-Jitsu was a street-effective method of fighting, but what was being taught in the Academies became less and less focused on real combat. The goal was to gain maximum effectiveness in beating other trained, Jiu-Jitsu practitioners. Tournaments came along and accelerated this trend.

On the school mat, punching isn't allowed, or kicking. Neither is it acceptable in a tournament. Techniques were developed for just such a type of sparring, and mastered, in preference to those dealing with striking opponents.

Along came the birth of the UFC. In those early days of mma, pretty much anything was allowed, except for eye gouging and biting. It was as close to real-world fighting as could be imagined. It was a tournament-style setup in that 8 to 16 competitors from various fighting disciplines had at it. The winner of 3 out of the first 4 events was Rorion Gracie's younger brother Royce Gracie. He had been trained in the original real-fighting version of Jiu-Jitsu, and won easily.

This attracted even more students to the Academies.

They faced the lousy learning environment I've described above.

Things changed when day-to-day management of the main Gracie Academy in Los Angeles was passed on to Ryron and Rener Gracie, the two eldest sons of Rorion. At least things changed in their version of the art, called Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

Ryron has said that classes were running at about 10 to 15 students. He and his brother decided that had to change things significantly to turn this around.

They developed a new curriculum for beginners based on the original teachings of their Grandfather Helio, and their father Rorion. They returned to a self-defence focus. It was both a return to the art's roots, and a response to the desire of prospective students.

Nobody ever walked in the door saying they wanted to take lessons, “in order to get good at rolling around on the floor with other Jiu-Jitsu people. I have no interest in learning how to protect myself if I'm really attacked.”

They also wanted Jiu-Jitsu to be more for everybody. This meant the dangers of rolling had to be eliminated from the beginner Combatives program. When the art was first created teaching was done safely through private lessons, but due to numbers this was no longer realistic for most students.

Students would work in group classes, containing people of every size, shape, age, and gender. Lessons would be explained, and partners grabbed to work with. Lots of senior students were around to help correct mistakes. Movements are learned in precise detail.

After several months of this, students get invited to an extra class called Reflex Development. This is where students first have to try and apply their skills in an unscripted environment. Occasionally, they are paired with a higher-ranked student who has been carefully trained in his role. They attack the student using the many aggressive moves that the student has been learning how to handle. The higher-ranked student never throws in some weird high-belt stuff in order to defeat or dominate their White Belt partner. They are there in the role of instructor; helping the student to succeed.

After a mandatory minimum of 8 months of such training students are permitted to test for promotion to Blue Belt. They must prove themselves able to do each and every one of the techniques that make up the Combatives curriculum, and to handle a 4 minute string of unscripted attacks by a higher-belt partner.

Receiving a Blue Belt is a pretty big deal. It marks graduation from the Combatives program, and transition into the advanced class.

This is where students start to learn all the other types of Jiu-Jitsu techniques, both street-applicable, and sports-oriented. It is also at this point that students start to free-roll.

You might think that this is when students become, “fresh meat,” but it isn't. They have enough skills so that they don't feel totally out of place. They have also learned when they are in danger, and know how and when to tap out.

Interestingly, as more and more higher belts are graduates of the Combatives program, they have brought the safety-consciousness and supportive attitude along with them. A fresh Blue Belt getting paired with a Brown Belt isn't a nightmare, but more like a five minute private lesson. Injury rates remain thankfully low.

The success of the system shows in the number of students who train at the Gracie Academy in LA. Before the program of Ryron and Rener Gracie, there were only a few classes a week. New students were mixed with old, and numbered from 10 to 15 people. Now they run 9 Combatives classes for White Belts every week. Attendance at each is typically about 30 to 50 students. They also have 2 weekly Reflex Development classes which are just as big. There are 11 advanced classes per week, and they attract even more students. They have also started spreading their system around the world, and have thousands more in their various programs.

This is the system that the Gracie Academy is spreading around the world.

I first gave their school near here a look-see about five years ago. What I beheld was the Combatives program in all its glory. If they had been a place where White Belts were expected to roll on the first day, I'd have walked right out. I was 55 at the time, and never would have survived. Now, five years later, I may not be able to beat every 25-year-old I spar with, but I am able to roll with them.

It's truly a great time to be a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu student.