Okay, the Americanization or as my friends call it the moneyization of BJJ seems to be here in full force.  It is all about the money baby!  Certain legit BJJ Academies and teachers have decided that they are willing to give away BJJ rank to people who learn without rolling.  To progress in BJJ you really, really must roll with other practitioner’s that are below your rank, above your rank etc.  This applies to all grappling systems by the way.  I will give you a hint as well, it really applies to all martial systems if you want the really have the skills desired of a serious martial practitioner.  You must have some form of measurement against other exponents of that system to achieve the skill sets of that discipline.

Unfortunately, there is big, big money in online training or creating a training method where no one ever gets hurt.  The bad is that no one really learns the skill sets required at least not in BJJ or a serious martial system.  I have personally watched online trained BJJ people come in and get smoked by a person who has been actually training with just a few months of experience.

Look at these links for some of this bastardization of BJJ and how it is starting to creep into this system:

http://www.bjjee.com/bjj-news/guy-never-sparred-receives-gracie-university-blue-belt-in-mail/

http://cdn.forums.sherdog.com/forums/f12/rigan-machado-designs-jiu-jitsu-system-without-sparring-celebrities-2963981/

Actually the article the forum is citing:

http://jiujitsumag.com/rigan-machado-looking-to-change-the-jiu-jitsu-landscape-forever/2/

or because this was cited on sheerdog the actual competition record verified of the instructor in question:

http://www.bjjheroes.com/bjj-fighters/rigan-machado

I have known for a long time that there are BJJ practitioner’s or pseudo practitioner’s receiving rank while really only taking private lessons with an instructor.  This is not the way to really progress and learn the skill sets of BJJ.  No instead if you are serious about being a BJJ practitioner you need to roll with a lot of different people and have a lot of exposure to how different people do things.   After a long time, lots of sweat, bruises, bumps and probably some injuries you may then actually earn your rank rather than having it handed to you in a country club setting.   For everyone of us who has earned BJJ rank the hard way the above just infuriates us and or overall has the potential to diminish BJJ which is just not cool in my book!  So pardon us if we think your BJJ rank is worthless!  You got it and someone gave it to you but the rest of us do not have to respect it!  This isn’t just a BJJ thing.  I have problems with any system that waters down their requirements and training.  Instead we should all be working to improve and train better martial practitioners than our selves who are tested and prepared to defend themselves and their loved ones in a violent encounter!

Sorry if this bothers you but if it does you need to re-evaluate your training!  In the end you have pressure test your training at some point otherwise it is just fluff!

See You On The Mats!

Brian R. VanCise

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