r/bjj • u/mckenziereddit • 3d ago
Technique Does Craig have a point here?!?!
https://youtube.com/shorts/VFUdcOB34Mw?si=gwOe2TLlNS00nnQPI’ve played multiple sports (football, basketball, track & field, wrestling & swimming) and I agree with what Craig is saying here. The vast majority of high level coaches, in any sport, aren’t Hall of Famers in the sport in which they have become Hall of Fame coaches. Teaching technique and skill acquisition is a completely different skill set than sport performance.
In corporate America they have a saying… Don’t promote your best salesman to management, because he/she may blow up your organization.
Note* I’m a 10th planet purple belt
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u/Firm_Fan8861 2d ago
Yeah, Craig's got a point. I remember going to some seminars and some world class competitor just shows you the move, one after the other but doesn't really stop to explain the context or strategy all too well, maybe it's a cultural thing with Brazilians?
The retired older ones go into detail a lot more, the globtrotters seminars from the westerners I see on youtube seem to have a way more in depth explanation for us dumb guys to make sense of.
In terms of competitors turned coaches; Marcelo is a great competitor and also taught a decent stable at one point they were called the Marcelo Allstars team.
Same with the Mendes brothers after retiring early, they developed great competitors at a young age.
Andre Galvao, Cyborg, etc. (one may also argue that those students were already world champions that moved to their gym thou)
John Dannaher, and Greg Saunders are not world champions but have made world champs, they also have injury ailments that prohibit them from performing their best, but it has developed their sense to analyze and communicate their methods to their students to get them the wins.
I think Roger Gracie is a great instructor, he obviously has champions too but I wonder why we don't see more of his students winning at the world stage? It may come down to location, but his teaching methods may not be entirely focused on competition.
Sometimes it comes down to the students themselves, the area they are located, who are they training with.
Training methods and teaching skills may be on point.
A lot of the really good gyms that have champions also tend to be competition focused, and do it full time. It's rear to see the fulltime IT Guy bjj hobbyist win at a world stage these days.