bjj questions

kdowling

if you train with two different clubs (equal time in both) how do you decide who to represent in competition, without disrepecting the other?
Or are you better off entering as "no club"?

also if you are shedding a few pounds to make a certain weight class are you allowed to be a pound or two over or do you have to make weight exactly?

Clive

kdowling wrote: »

if you train with two different clubs (equal time in both) how do you decide who to represent in competition, without disrepecting the other?
Or are you better off entering as "no club"?

also if you are shedding a few pounds to make a certain weight class are you allowed to be a pound or two over or do you have to make weight exactly?

Your best bet is to talk to the instructors, if you say no club you could annoy both of them.

There is absolutely no allowance for weight in BJJ competitions - if you miss weight, you're disqualified.

EnjoyChoke

Creonte.

da-bres

What ever team you want to represent the most, its your money, your time, so your decision.

dubdamo

kdowling wrote: »

if you train with two different clubs (equal time in both) how do you decide who to represent in competition, without disrepecting the other?
Or are you better off entering as "no club"?

also if you are shedding a few pounds to make a certain weight class are you allowed to be a pound or two over or do you have to make weight exactly?

Lads is it normal to train in 2 BJJ clubs at the same time. I work shifts,don't finish until 10 pm on the days I work,living in Meath so would be looking at clubs North Dublin,Dublin City Centre,in early 40's so not interested in MMA, was looking at Coolmine and Morgcetago in Cabra and City Centre, just don't know if its the done thing to switch between clubs like that.

r_obric

dubdamo wrote: »

kdowling wrote: »

if you train with two different clubs (equal time in both) how do you decide who to represent in competition, without disrepecting the other?
Or are you better off entering as "no club"?

also if you are shedding a few pounds to make a certain weight class are you allowed to be a pound or two over or do you have to make weight exactly?

Lads is it normal to train in 2 BJJ clubs at the same time. I work shifts,don't finish until 10 pm on the days I work,living in Meath so would be looking at clubs North Dublin,Dublin City Centre,in early 40's so not interested in MMA, was looking at Coolmine and Morgcetago in Cabra and City Centre, just don't know if its the done thing to switch between clubs like that.

If your going to do it you should speak to the instructors in both clubs and explain your circumstances, if you don't do this it can piss people off, as for competing that's another can of worms.

lukeyjudo

dubdamo wrote: »

Lads is it normal to train in 2 BJJ clubs at the same time. I work shifts,don't finish until 10 pm on the days I work,living in Meath so would be looking at clubs North Dublin,Dublin City Centre,in early 40's so not interested in MMA, was looking at Coolmine and Morgcetago in Cabra and City Centre, just don't know if its the done thing to switch between clubs like that.

Hi Mate! That's no bother to me pal. Come up any time I really don't mind!

-Lukey

aFlabbyPanda

i've trained in 2 different clubs but it was the same instructor so it wasn't too much of an issue. I only started in the second club as I wanted more gi classes than what the first one offered.

When I competed I entered under the club I started with at the begining.

Barry.Oglesby

Like Joey said, it's your buck, do what you want. I think the only time someone would get miffed is if you were somehow dishonest with them. Like maybe you were professing your undying love for the club and all it stood for, but then went and competed under another banner It's about the least important thing to worry about. Have fun, enjoy the sport. If you like the team you're with then stick with them. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that I let my guys train wherever they want, when they want, as long as it doesn't mean they'll miss a session in our place. Our team training comes first, but there's enormous benefit to the team for my guys to be exposed to different ways of training, different games etc. etc. It's different in the UK, USA or Brazil where that exposure comes through highly regular competition (once or twice a month), we just don't have that in Ireland and it's especially important for smaller clubs like ours.

Honestly, sometimes seeing what's discussed about BJJ on this forum really drives me nuts. With the sport being so young and so misunderstood it's far more important to foster links between clubs and to promote BJJ generally, bring it into the public consciousness in the same way that Judo or Karate is. I don't think people understand how obscure BJJ is and how difficult it is to get new people into the sport. Maybe if people spent less time worrying about issues like who'd get pissed off and why and more time generating a positive message about the sport and what it offers then every club and every practitioner would benefit.

I don't mean that as a slight on the original poster. My answer in a nutshell would probably be this: Be honest and communicate well in your dealings in the same way that you would be if you were selling a bike, or talking to a friend, and no instructor can have a problem with you.

Dyr

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

I don't think people understand how obscure BJJ is and how difficult it is to get new people into the sport.

You gotta be kidding :eek:

Barry.Oglesby

Bambi wrote: »

You gotta be kidding :eek:

No, in what way do you mean?

Dyr

I work with blokes who've never trained in any martial art but would talk to me about BJJ and the Gracies. "obscure" would not be a word I'd use to describe BJJ.

Like, if tae kwondo and karate are like U2, then BJJ is like Radiohead

Doug Cartel

We at DU Judo were throwing around ideas about how we could get more members. Someone jokingly suggested we temporarily change the name to DU BJJ to trick people into joining. I actually think it could work.

Dyr

Judo is like REO Speedwagon.

Doug Cartel

Bambi wrote: »

Judo is like REO Speedwagon.

Now I feel sad.

Hanley

Bambi wrote: »

I work with blokes who've never trained in any martial art but would talk to me about BJJ and the Gracies. "obscure" would not be a word I'd use to describe BJJ.

Like, if tae kwondo and karate are like U2, then BJJ is like Radiohead

The only people I've met who know what BJJ is outside of guys who train it, is fans of the UFC**. The average punter in the street doesn't know what the hell it is.

**And I don't mean people who might watch a show now and again, I mean fans of the sport who follow it and the fighters regularly.

Sid_Justice

If you look at bjj in the context of boxing, rugby, soccer, gaa, tennis, golf (real sports) yes it is very obscure.

if you look at it in the context of ryo-jitsu-spider-monkey (martial arts) it probably isn't.

Doug Cartel

I have a flatmate who is mad about soccer, rugby, and GAA, but doesn't want to hear about anything outside that. He always makes fun of me when I'm off to judo, but when I told him I was at BJJ, there was a massive change in his reaction. Oh yeah I've heard of that he says, Isn't that really dangerous? Could I come down and see that sometime?

OK, one guy is hardly a statistical sample. How about when I was trying to get people to sign up to our university judo club this year? We do judo and non-Brazilian jujutsu, and among the pictures we had up on the poster over our stall was a guy in a gi doing an RNC (or hadaka jime as we like to call it)

Pretty much every male aged 18-22ish came up asking Is this the BJJ club? Most of them went away disappointed when I told them it wasn't. Very few could convinced to even give judo a try, and as far as I remember, only two of them actually had any experience in BJJ/MMA.

SDTimeout

Doug Cartel wrote: »

I have a flatmate who is mad about soccer, rugby, and GAA, but doesn't want to hear about anything outside that. He always makes fun of me when I'm off to judo, but when I told him I was at BJJ, there was a massive change in his reaction. Oh yeah I've heard of that he says, Isn't that really dangerous? Could I come down and see that sometime?

OK, one guy is hardly a statistical sample. How about when I was trying to get people to sign up to our university judo club this year? We do judo and non-Brazilian jujutsu, and among the pictures we had up on the poster over our stall was a guy in a gi doing an RNC (or hadaka jime as we like to call it)

Pretty much every male aged 18-22ish came up asking Is this the BJJ club? Most of them went away disappointed when I told them it wasn't. Very few could convinced to even give judo a try, and as far as I remember, only two of them actually had any experience in BJJ/MMA.

I was a little bit like that towards Judo yet after doing a few classes of it ( warm up and drills are judo , then ground work for BJJ and rolling ) I have to say I'm loving it. While I'm not loving how sensitive my fingers are as I type this after class. I am loving how it sets up for takedowns or pulling guard and tonight I learned how to set up a flying armbar, excellent.

Doug Cartel

I don't want to sound bitter, but let's face it I am. The wanted BJJ (well actually a lot of them wanted to "train UFC") and absolutely nothing else would do. Didn't matter how similar what we were offering was, didn't matter that the coach is highly qualified, or that they'd get to train with foreign students who'd been training since they were toddlers, or even that the whole thing would only cost them €5 for the year. BJJ is for cage fighters, other martial arts are for kids and guys who wear pyjamas in public.

OK, rant over.

Sid_Justice

There was a time, when I was only a wee nipper in 1970, when telling people you did martial arts was bit of a wow factor. I think with all the nonsense that gets practised under the name, and along with the debunking of all the myths and urban legends, people found out martial arts were the biggest fraud since the moon landing. BJJ however, has restored some of that awe and intrigue, that a little frail dude can be some ninja.

Barry.Oglesby

So what have we learned? That BJJ is more well known than some martial arts?
That college freshers make poor decisions?

I knew that already.

I don't think our experiences are the same. If I say I do BJJ or Jiu Jitsu, people either don't have a clue, think it's the same as MMA, or think I do some sort of meditation or Karate. I rarely if ever come across anyone who really knows what I'm at 6 days a week.

If I ask the man on the street what Judo is, he'll know instantly. If I ask the man who reads this forum what BJJ is, he'll probably say it's full of elitist pricks who bitch about each other and everything else that isn't BJJ. It isn't of course, it's full of good people but the most vocal on the internet hiding behind anonymous usernames tend to not reflect that.

Sid_Justice

maybe it's as simple as that, if you walk in the circles of 18-25 college kids, they all know what 'BJJ' and 'MMA' and 'Groundfighting' are but if your mates are all in their late 30s with volksvagen estates and labradors they may not be so informed.

Doug Cartel

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

If I ask the man on the street what Judo is, he'll know instantly.

He'll have heard the name, certainly, but press him on the details and see where that gets you.

Barry.Oglesby

Sid_Justice wrote: »

maybe it's as simple as that, if you walk in the circles of 18-25 college kids, they all know what 'BJJ' and 'MMA' and 'Groundfighting' are but if your mates are all in their late 30s with volksvagen estates and labradors they may not be so informed.

I don't think so. Based on what I see people are radically misinformed about what BJJ is regardless of how much they know about MMA.

In any case, I don't want to get bogged down in semantics about it. My issue is that people direct far too much energy towards the stuff that surrounds the training and not enough promoting the positive aspects of it. Case in point, I came on here to make that point and we've ended up with a debate on how stupid people who look for BJJ are etc. etc.

Y'know Doug, maybe the people who thought your club was a BJJ club just wanted to train BJJ and not Judo?

Doug Cartel

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

Y'know Doug, maybe the people who thought your club was a BJJ club just wanted to train BJJ and not Judo?

Yeah totally. All these guys who apparently don't know what BJJ is were dead certain that they wanted to train BJJ and not judo.

Barry.Oglesby

Man you come on to try to say something positive and you just get hauled in.

I'm out. Best of luck to you all in your training wherever it takes you. Bring the love.

Sid_Justice

Doug Cartel wrote: »

Yeah totally. All these guys who apparently don't know what BJJ is were dead certain that they wanted to train BJJ and not judo.

is bjj not better than judo though?

Doug Cartel

Sid_Justice wrote: »

is bjj not better than judo though?

Maybe if all the BJJ practitioners could just pull together, some day it could grow into something really big!

Barry.Oglesby

Doug Cartel wrote: »

Maybe if all the BJJ practitioners could just pull together, some day it could grow into something really big!

Oh I get it now. I thought you had something to say but you just have some sort of ax to grind. May I suggest a whetstone or just a hobby. Might keep you off the internet and stop you from píssing on other people's chips.

Doug Cartel

No axe. I just find it hilarious that you guys can't seem to see how cohesive you all are as a group. Compared to other martial arts, or even the BJJ I was involved in in Scotland, you guys are fairly tight. Perfect harmony, no way, but reasonably in tune.

Barry.Oglesby

Doug Cartel wrote: »

No axe. I just find it hilarious that you guys can't seem to see how cohesive you all are as a group. Compared to other martial arts, or even the BJJ I was involved in in Scotland, you guys are fairly tight. Perfect harmony, no way, but reasonably in tune.

Well I'm glad you get a good laugh about it. Now if I were you I'd be thinking to myself "what am I doing in a thread called "BJJ Questions" if I have no stake in BJJ, nothing positive or even critical to say, and essentially nothing to add to the debate other than to look down my nose or make sarcastic comments? Is there not something better I could be doing at 11.30pm on a Wednesday? Would I not be better leaving it to people who are interested and saving my wit for a chat up line or even a judo thread?"

Believe me, I'm thinking the same and I do have a stake in this debate. With that, I'm off to bed.

Doug Cartel

Sleep tight!

Killme00

Doug Cartel wrote: »

We at DU Judo were throwing around ideas about how we could get more members. Someone jokingly suggested we temporarily change the name to DU BJJ to trick people into joining. I actually think it could work.

Doug Cartel wrote: »

I have a flatmate who is mad about soccer, rugby, and GAA, but doesn't want to hear about anything outside that. He always makes fun of me when I'm off to judo, but when I told him I was at BJJ, there was a massive change in his reaction. Oh yeah I've heard of that he says, Isn't that really dangerous? Could I come down and see that sometime?

OK, one guy is hardly a statistical sample. How about when I was trying to get people to sign up to our university judo club this year? We do judo and non-Brazilian jujutsu, and among the pictures we had up on the poster over our stall was a guy in a gi doing an RNC (or hadaka jime as we like to call it)

Pretty much every male aged 18-22ish came up asking Is this the BJJ club? Most of them went away disappointed when I told them it wasn't. Very few could convinced to even give judo a try, and as far as I remember, only two of them actually had any experience in BJJ/MMA.

Doug Cartel wrote: »

I don't want to sound bitter, but let's face it I am. The wanted BJJ (well actually a lot of them wanted to "train UFC") and absolutely nothing else would do. Didn't matter how similar what we were offering was, didn't matter that the coach is highly qualified, or that they'd get to train with foreign students who'd been training since they were toddlers, or even that the whole thing would only cost them €5 for the year. BJJ is for cage fighters, other martial arts are for kids and guys who wear pyjamas in public.

OK, rant over.

Dude,

Judo is an Olympic sport and by far the most popular martial art in the world. I'd say it's more popular than BJJ in Brazil. BJJ is growing fast, but it has a long long way to go before it even competes with Judo in number of practicioners.

As for the confusion of freshers students, well you could simply say that BJJ and Judo have a lot in common and that they both use similar throws, reaps, pins and submissions. Then offer them a free first class and you'll have them hooked.

Also, Dong-hyun Kim and Karo Parisyan are both Judo fighters who have fought in the UFC, so you could say you "train UFC"...if you really wanted to :eek:

Good luck with the new set of freshers in September

PS: Oh and BJJ. It's awesome. Try it, you'll love it. Maikkomi did :D:D

Doug Cartel

Killme00 wrote: »

Judo is an Olympic sport and by far the most popular martial art in the world. I'd say it's more popular than BJJ in Brazil.

Brazil is one of the main countries in the world for judo, it's massive over there. Over here, not so much.

As for the confusion of freshers students, well you could simply say that BJJ and Judo have a lot in common and that they both use similar throws, reaps, pins and submissions. Then offer them a free first class and you'll have them hooked.

I don't particularly care if they do judo or BJJ, it's that in the course of canvassing a huge load of collage age people, I found that a sizeable number of them do know what BJJ is and that they are interested in doing it. It's not that obscure.

PS: Oh and BJJ. It's awesome. Try it, you'll love it. Maikkomi did :D:D

I have done BJJ, I do like it. I only stopped when I moved over here because I couldn't work it into my schedule. I'd even tried to start back into it recently, but only made it in for 2 sessions before I broke my collar bone doing judo.

Killme00

Doug Cartel wrote: »

Brazil is one of the main countries in the world for judo, it's massive over there. Over here, not so much.

Judo is still big in Ireland. Isnt there an Irish Judoka qualified for the next Olympics?

Doug Cartel wrote: »

I don't particularly care if they do judo or BJJ, it's that in the course of canvassing a huge load of collage age people, I found that a sizeable number of them do know what BJJ is and that they are interested in doing it. It's not that obscure.

Yes, they've been exposed a little through UFC commentary, but your response below applies.

Doug Cartel wrote: »

He'll have heard the name, certainly, but press him on the details and see where that gets you.

Chris89

Are you serious here, Doug Cartel? So what if they dont want to train Judo? Similarly who cares if they dont want to train BJJ?

Whats your point!?

Doug Cartel

My point is that BJJ is not all that obscure in this country.

Chris89

Doug Cartel wrote: »

My point is that BJJ is not all that obscure in this country.

ok

Most of my friends only recognise the name and have no idea what it actually is, they think i fight MMA or it has something to do with Karate. I disagree with your point.

Barry.Oglesby

Doug Cartel wrote: »

My point is that BJJ is not all that obscure in this country.

That took almost 3 pages. If you'd said, "really? That's not my experience but then again, I'm not everybody" we might have saved some time.

Doug Cartel

Chris89 wrote: »

ok

Most of my friends only recognise the name and have no idea what it actually is, they think i fight MMA or it has something to do with Karate.

I'm not sure how much you expect somebody to know about something before they get involved in it. The kids have heard of it, they're vaguely interested. That's about as good as it gets in the world of martial arts.

Chris89

Doug Cartel wrote: »

I'm not sure how much you expect somebody to know about something before they get involved in it. The kids have heard of it, they're vaguely interested. That's about as good as it gets in the world of martial arts.

What are you talking about, who has heard of it? How do you know? I train BJJ twice of three times a day every day, my own mother hasnt a clue what it is. Only a handful of my mates know that it isnt the UFC.

Surely the only people that have any knowledge of anything are people that have had some exposure to it? I dont expect anyone to know anything about anything before they get involved it in, you seem to expect quite a lot though.

I dont understand what benefits you are reaping from this odd stance.

cowzerp

Doug Cartel wrote: »

My point is that BJJ is not all that obscure in this country.

People who watch UFC might know of BJJ but in reality they don't know what it is and most think it is MMA, UFC is quite popular among 20-30 somethings so many would know BJJ by name.

I've had lads come into my gym who where training in some Japanese Jiu Jitsu style clubs and thought they where doing BJJ and are confused when they see us on the ground all the time!

Judo is way bigger than BJJ in Ireland but i think with the rule changes this will change over time, Judo just aint that sexy anymore!!

Doug Cartel

Chris89 wrote: »

What are you talking about, who has heard of it? How do you know?

From spending hours and hours sat at a desk trying to get college age kids to sign up for martial arts classes. Lots of them had heard of BJJ and wanted to give it a go.

I train BJJ twice of three times a day every day, my own mother hasnt a clue what it is.

I bet your mum doesn't know who Tinchy Stryder is either.

Surely the only people that have any knowledge of anything are people that have had some exposure to it? I dont expect anyone to know anything about anything before they get involved it in, you seem to expect quite a lot though.

I dont understand what benefits you are reaping from this odd stance.

I don't expect them to know much at all really, you guys are the ones getting bent out of shape about them not knowing the difference between BJJ, UFC and karate. They'll find out once they start the class, and there does seem to be a lot who are interested in starting a class.

lukeyjudo

Doug Cartel wrote: »

My point is that BJJ is not all that obscure on boards.ie

Fixed your post

Doug Cartel

cowzerp wrote: »

Judo is way bigger than BJJ in Ireland but i think with the rule changes this will change over time, Judo just aint that sexy anymore!!

I don't know plenty of my judo sessions have been nearly ghost towns, any time I've gone to BJJ it's jammers. Could just be the club though.

Chris89

OK, you win... or lose, depending on how hard on yourself you decide to be.

Barry.Oglesby

Chris89 wrote: »

OK, you win... or lose, depending on how hard on yourself you decide to be.

we should toss a coin to decide.

Doug, you choose, heads or tails?

Doug Cartel

Heads?

Barry.Oglesby

Nice work. You win.

Damo W

Sid_Justice wrote: »

maybe it's as simple as that, if you walk in the circles of 18-25 college kids, they all know what 'BJJ' and 'MMA' and 'Groundfighting' are but if your mates are all in their late 30s with volksvagen estates and labradors they may not be so informed.

Ahhhh.... don't be so hard on the guys in their 'late 30's' :eek:... some of them used to have to get their buddies in the States to post (snail mail) VHS tapes (imagine that VHS;)) of the early UFC events to them (within days of it being broadcast there) in Ireland when it wasn't as easy to view/find them.... and possibly these guys would be reasonably informed.....

Some might even say better informed than the 'common TUF noob' out there....:D





No dog, but I drive a 7+1...:eek: