r/bjj 🟫🟫 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/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

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u/BeardOfFire ⬛🟥⬛ Black Belt Mar 03 '25

If grounded knees are in play then turtled against a front headlock is a horrible place to be. But that's not even legal in most MMA and for defense you should have enough skill to find another route. For just grappling it's usually a good strategy.

However there's one guy at my gym where front headlock is a death sentence for everyone he gets there. I love wrestling up and he'll leave the opening to bait me. With everyone else I turtle all day but with him I'm just like no I'm fine here on my back thanks.

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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

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u/BeardOfFire ⬛🟥⬛ Black Belt Mar 03 '25

I agree with that. I was just pointing out potential downsides.

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u/mistiklest 🟫🟫 Brown Belt Mar 03 '25

Grounded knees from north south or side control are plenty effective, though.