Vision

To make great martial artists, and even better human beings by using Jiu Jitsu as a tool.

To become a good Jiu Jitsu fighter requires a serious time commitment. You will develop skills that you can show off on the mat and in competition. In some isolated instances, you might even use these skills to defend yourself, your loved ones, or stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. There is a place for all of that, but Jiu Jitsu has a much bigger imprint on who you are. You improve your ability to focus, think fast, stay calm, and stay patient under pressure. You face your limitations, learn a lot about human psychology, improve your analytical skills, and get to work on your character (pressure tends to bring your weaknesses to the surface). Perhaps more importantly, you learn principles of Jiu Jitsu that underly many techniques. All of these can be applied outside of the mats.

 A great Jiu Jitsu practitioner applies what he/she learns on the mats to their life. In doing so, they greatly improve the efficiency with which they achieve their goals. Moreover, the character of a Jiu Jitsu practitioner should never be behind their skill level. You should constantly work on improving both, your Jiu Jitsu skills and your character. 

Teaching/Learning Philosophy

Learning Jitsu should be approached like learning any academic subject. You would not just show up to your chemistry lectures in college and causally try to absorb what you can, and then without any additional review, study, or intentionality show up for a final exam.  Can you learn a thing or two about chemistry by doing this? Sure. But, you will not master or gain any serious competency in a subject with such a lackadaisical approach. Besides, there is a better way.

So how do you master the great field of Jiu Jitsu, which according to a 5-time IBJJF World Champion Robson Moura has no end? Lets take mathematics as an example. You wouldn’t try to master the whole field of mathematics at the same time. Instead you would focus on mastering specific topics in mathematics, and practice on developing specific skills within those topics. In other words, one step at a time. Or to be more precise, one Jiu Jitsu technique, and one Jiu Jitsu principle at a time.

Moreover, merely covering a specific type of math problem is very far from mastering it. You will likely have to practice specific types of problems repeatedly (and with breaks in between) to develop a working knowledge of them. 

Furthermore, a young aspiring mathematician is able to choose some of what they focus on, however they must master some topics in order to be able to call themselves a mathematician. That is, it is simply necessary to have a mastery of some topics in order to have an appropriate overview of the field, and be able to comprehend more complex topics later on. Jiu Jitsu is no different. While you can have some leeway on what you want to focus on (everyone eventually has their style and their game), there are a lot of skills that you must have and topics that you must master in order to be a good Jiu Jitsu practitioner. Drilling some basic moves will develop skills that will be essential for more advanced moves. Trying to skip steps and drilling more advanced moves right away is a mistake, as you will be missing skills that are necessary to make more advanced techniques effective. 

I would like to finish the math analogy by pointing out the curriculum is not completely chosen by the student. People who have devoted their lives to the study of mathematics decide what is necessary for students to know at different levels. That’s not to discourage students from exploring different topics (by all means go ahead, explore as much as your heart desires and your will-power allows you), but rather to prepare them for serious study and examination later on. In a similar manner, your Jiu Jitsu instructor is responsible for coming up with curriculum that will develop you into a well-rounded Jiu Jitsu practitioner, and prepare you for the comprehension of deeper layers of Jiu Jitsu years later.

Now that we are done with the math analogy, let me point out that Jiu Jitsu is different from mathematics in that it is a complex movement sport. In other words, while we can benefit a lot in our devoted study of Jiu Jitsu by approaching it like an academic subject, we can also benefit a great deal by approaching it like any other sport. For instance, lets take basketball.  

Just like it is unreasonable for you to expect to master a specific shot in basketball by practicing it for 20 minutes once in practice, it is unreasonable to learn a move to the point where you can apply it under pressure just by drilling it for 20 minutes. You might get an illusion of learning a technique by drilling it once, but you are very unlikely to learn a technique that way (There are some exceptions. For instance, a very advanced practitioner drilling a new technique that is related to techniques they have done thousands of times).  Instead, you will need to practice each technique over and over again (with breaks in between). Developing a well-rounded game in Jiu Jitsu will require deliberate and focused practice. First, you will drill new techniques, then you will try applying them in live sparring. At this point you are likely to get exposed to problems that you were not aware of existing before. You will need to recognize these problems and figure out a way to fix them. Your instructor is your asset here. They can help you a lot with problem solving.

What is a good Jiu Jitsu practitioner like?

A great Jiu Jitsu practitioner applies the principles of Jiu Jitsu on and off the mats (see vision section). Jiu jitsu is a martial art first, and everything else (including a sport, science, art) second. If you can’t apply your Jiu Jitsu without a nice mat underneath you and a referee to enforce some kind of defined ruleset, there is an issue. You should be able to apply your Jiu Jitsu skills in any setting, any outfit, and under any ruleset. Self-defense is an important component of Jiu Jitsu that should not be ignored. This involves self-defense against weapons. Back when Helio Gracie first sent his black belts to teach in the United States, he explicitly stated that one of the requirements for a black belt in Jiu Jitsu is knowledge of self-defense.

 A good Jiu Jitsu practitioner is a well-rounded one. Being a certain rank in Jiu Jitsu means your knowledge, skills, mental abilities, and character are up to that belt. For instance, a purple belt should have purple belt level takedowns, sweeps, passes, submissions (from top and bottom positions), full guard, half guard, butterfly guard, leg locks, escapes from inferior positions, and last but not least defense for all of the aforementioned moves. Moreover, a purple belt should have an understanding, ability to focus, mental toughness that are appropriate for a purple belt. Finally, a purple belt should be a noticeably better version of himself/herself in terms of character since his/her blue belt days. The discussion above applies to a seasoned purple belt. While it, in general, still applies to a newly promoted purple belt, there is some time to grow into every belt you get promoted to.

In general, it is hard for us to gauge what we do not know. This is a great hinderance to becoming well-rounded. There are two assets that can help you overcome this limitation. First, competition can expose your weaknesses. This is simply others testing your Jiu Jitsu and pointing out empirically what you need to work on. The same can be said of live sparring in practice, but gyms over time develop styles, and there tends to be less diversity in styles in a gym that you are likely to get exposed to in a competition. Second, your instructor can (very likely) easily gauge what you know and what you don’t know. What you are great at, and what you need to work on. Use them to work on your weaknesses or gaps in knowledge and skill before competitions.