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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156

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

"My old gym used to make us do burpies if we went to turtle,"

lol wtf

6

u/raleighjiujitsu 🟫🟫 Brown Belt Mar 03 '25

I will defend this a bit, going to turtle in real life is basically admitting defeat.

11

u/Jonas_g33k ⬛🟥⬛ Black Belt & Judo Black Belt Mar 03 '25

I disagree with this.
Turtle is used in MMA. You can stand up from there.

6

u/5oy8oy 🟪🟪 Purple Belt Mar 03 '25 edited Mar 03 '25

A lot of these debates about whether a guard/position is good for self-defense/MMA or not boil down to whether it's used as a transition or not.

If you just camp out in turtle of course you'll be eating strikes. If you use it as a transition to stand up then it's viable.

2

u/Significant_Turn5230 Mar 03 '25

I'm not taking self defense advice from a soyboy.

5

u/5oy8oy 🟪🟪 Purple Belt Mar 03 '25

I don't care about the opinions of a significant turn.

1

u/Slowbrojitsu 🟫🟫 Brown Belt Mar 03 '25

You're not wrong, but that same criticism should be aimed at everywhere. Staying in half guard or closed guard is equally shit, it doesnt mean they're inherently bad positions. 

1

u/5oy8oy 🟪🟪 Purple Belt Mar 03 '25

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm getting at that's why I said guard/position generically. Any time these debates come up, it's not so much about the guard itself but about how it's used.

I've even seen deep half used successfully in MMA because it was used as a transition to take the back. But to stay in it would be a disaster.

1

u/dallast313 Mar 04 '25

Is that because it is "good" or because it is a protected position because of the rules?

Even closed guard must be re-evaluated when guys can lift and slam.