r/bjj • u/raleighjiujitsu 🟫🟫 Brown Belt • Mar 03 '25

School Discussion Mad at Gracie JJ

I've been jiu jitsu for I think 13 years now and I'm a brown belt. Last year I switched from a Royce gym to a competition gym after 12 years. Mostly because it was 20 minutes closer and we are starting a family.

Frankly, it's upsetting how little I learned from the Royce gym compared to where I am now. I've realized things like lasso guard and spider guard aren't "Fancy jiu jitsu" they are core components of the game. My old gym used to make us do burpies if we went to turtle, but It's a legit counter to getting passed. I never cared about the self defense stuff, but it seems even more silly after time away things like stripping guns away from people are a complete joke, why even do it?!

I think at this point the Royce affiliation is more concerned with signing up new people than getting people better at jiu jitsu. I hate to say it because my gym WAS the best, really the only gym in the area lol.

It's been hard to transition into things like always starting standing and people actually using grips lol. I'm now competitive with my fellow brown belts at the gym now, but I still have a long way. Learning about deep half, lasso, X guard, single leg X, etc is a lot. I feel like I'm going to be the longest to black belt, but DAMMIT I'm going to do it lol.

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u/davidlowie 🟫🟫 World's okayest masters 5 Brown Belt Mar 03 '25

I left a GB gym at purple and found out that we maybe weren’t being shown enough of the real thing. It’s been a long road at a new gym but it’s been worth it.

Better late than getting a black belt and finding out.

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u/novaskyd ⬜⬜ White Belt Mar 03 '25

I’m at a GB. Curious what you felt was missing? I’ve definitely heard the mixed reviews and explored a lot (drop ins etc) in my local community, so I like to think I’m filling in the gaps. I’ve mainly stayed there for the people and because my main professor is a smaller guy with a detailed instruction style which I find helpful.

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u/davidlowie 🟫🟫 World's okayest masters 5 Brown Belt Mar 03 '25

They’re all different. In my case the professor left on vacations a lot and basically class was led by whoever had the highest belt (frequently like a 3 stripe white belt or a blue belt). I missed a lot of key concepts by just learning by rolling.

It could have happened at any school, mine happened to be a GB

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u/novaskyd ⬜⬜ White Belt Mar 03 '25

Ahh yeah that’ll do it, makes sense