"so hes not pure water."
If by that you mean he's not a "pure" Gracie (like Daniel) you're wrong. His father is Rosley whose father is Carlos Sr. He's as "pure" as Renzo, Ryan, Ralph etc.
Macavelli- I don't train at Ralph's I used to train in the Bay Area but I'm in Sac now. There's a guy named Ricardo that teaches for Ralph in Antioch that mentioned it to one of his students. Does anyone know where Crosley is teaching at now?
WTF..!!Crosley's not teaching in dublin anymore..??!! No doubt somethin fishy is goin on there..
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The idea of Ralph having a problem with Crosley (or anyone else!) isn't implausible. Ralph is VERY strong willed and dominant. That is and has been a prescription for problems in a field with others' who have similar traits.
If it's false, it's false. But it's naive to say, "no way, not Ralph" without knowing anything about the situation.
I don't think Ricardo was bad mouthing Ralph. He was explaining to a student that had asked about Crosley after his Sakurai win. Ricardo responded that Ralph was displeased with Crosley and therefore wanted Crosley alienated. Markpal could it be that you are not in the loop?
Whatever the case must be, it must suck to be Ralph. He has a very bad reputation in the community for his character and the way he treats people.
"I trained at Ralph's SF academy for a few months, and I can verify that he could be a complete prick at times. He really wanted to assert his authority over some of his students at times, or so it seemed."
Can you be more specific? What did he specifically do that would be considered offensive?
i think kurt osiander was in his corner.isnt that like ralph's head instructor in sf when he is not there?and maybe crosley wanted to train seriously in mma and hangs out with rodrigo and team renzo.crosley was with rodrigo at bushido 4.
Ralphs is one of the best GI-BJJ schools in the US but with their reluctancy to incorperate striking,wrestling,no-gi they will always have fighters going outside their camp for training. Hopefully Ralph realizes that his fighters needs will always grow to more than his academy has to offer.
i heard crosley is not at dublin because he wants to train full time and travel. Also crispin needed a place to teach and crosley is making money now from fighting. Crosley has a little bit of finacial freedom and will have more if he keeps winning in pride.
"Ralph is old news, hes got the stare, but no scare."
Classic.
One can only go by Ralph's record within the community. And that record seems to show that he has had many personal and professional conflicts/disagreements with people. A lot of those people being within his circle of students.
I guess the only other question to ask is if all or most of his students were wrong and he was right?
Whatever happened between the two, hope both guys continue to experience success.
BTW, for all of what many here think are his personality flaws, I must say that Ralph is a fantastic instructor. Noone can deny this.
"Why is it so fucking hard to believe that it could possibly have been an amicable parting of ways?"
B/c it is hard to believe someone would want to sacrifice a steady and secure flow of income to travel and train. The reason being many instructors are able to do that while running their academies. Instructors generally work about 30 hours a week, if that.
And, yes, no one can deny that Ralph is an amazing instructor. No one will deny that. But from some accounts, he does not seem to teach all that much anymore. But, unlike other schools, Ralph has done something unique and special. He has a very competant staff running his academies. He has the luxury of being an absentee owner.
I don't think anyone questions the quality of Ralph's schools for gi training. It is just his character that comes to question often.
Does Macavelli = Mikyo????
Crosley is mad cool.
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Godzilla, didn't you train at Ralph's? What is your impression of him? Why do so many of his top guys leave him?
Does he even come to the SF school?I've never seen him there.Only Kurt,and he is awesome.
How did this turn into a ralph thread? The thing that alot of you need to understand is that ralphs is predominantly a jiu jitsu school. There are still people like me that enjoy practicing jiu jitsu and wanna achieve the rank of black. Not everyone wants to fight nhb. A lot of people come there because they wanna do mma and they do jiu jitsu for a while and then they leave to persue there mma goals. It is true that ralph has lost alot of his top students over the years ( bobby southworth, the penn brothers, bret, gabe, and im sure many others that im forgeting) All of those guys are now pro fighters doing what they love.
Ralph trains mostly with his top guys. If one of his instructors has a fight coming up then he is usually training with them. Without bringing ralphs character into discussion because that is more of a personal issue, i can say this. Ralph is very good at jiu jitsu. He is also a good fighter, who could hang with most anyone at his weight. He is also a great instructor, unfortunately he is spread very thin.
If you want to fight mma there are still some good fighters at ralphs, but a small percent.