I went to a Mendes bros seminars a couple years ago and while it was cool having them there, the seminar was sub-par. The techniques were great but the level of detail wasn't there. They also taught in portugese and not english. They showed a set series of techniques. My friend went to another seminar of theirs a couple months later, across the other side of the country. They showed the exact same set of moves in the same sequence. Both gyms that they did the seminars at were not Atos affiliated gyms. A couple months ago, my friend attended ther seminar in Hawaii and told me for the price, it was a terrible seminar. Extremely basic techniques without crazy details, to the level of a fundamental class. For $150.
Then I've heard other people rave about their seminars. But the people that say the seminars were awesome, it seems they attended the brothers' seminar when it was held at an Atos affiliated gym.
Anyone else have this experience? I know they can be amazing teachers and are exactly that but do you guys think that when they go to non-Atos gyms for seminars, they hold back a lot and don't teach to their full ability, intentionally? And then when they end up at an Atos gym they don't hold back. This seems to be a common theme with them in my experience
Went to one once where both bros were supposed to be there, but only Gui was able to make it.
Showed some good stuff and definitely not beginner level material, and it wasn'tt even at an ATOS gym.
For a brazilian guy in his mid-twenties, though, Gui was pretty serious. All business. I've been to saulo, xande, royler, rolker and recently a Faria seminar, and he was by far the most serious one.
Went to one once where both bros were supposed to be there, but only Gui was able to make it.
Showed some good stuff and definitely not beginner level material, and it wasn'tt even at an ATOS gym.
For a brazilian guy in his mid-twenties, though, Gui was pretty serious. All business. I've been to saulo, xande, royler, rolker and recently a Faria seminar, and he was by far the most serious one.
Not a criticism, just an observation.
How was Faria's? That dude is the man.
Im shocked, online Gui is very detailed. Surprised it doesn't transfer over. Also you know what they say, most high level guys aren't the best instructors
Odd part of the story is that they gave it all in Portuguese. This was in the states? They talked in Portuguese to a majority of students, who were American?
Went to one once where both bros were supposed to be there, but only Gui was able to make it.
Showed some good stuff and definitely not beginner level material, and it wasn'tt even at an ATOS gym.
For a brazilian guy in his mid-twenties, though, Gui was pretty serious. All business. I've been to saulo, xande, royler, rolker and recently a Faria seminar, and he was by far the most serious one.
Not a criticism, just an observation.
How was Faria's? That dude is the man.
Im shocked, online Gui is very detailed. Surprised it doesn't transfer over. Also you know what they say, most high level guys aren't the best instructors
My buddy just did a couple Of Faria's classes at M.G's recently and said he was a great instructor, and that he was always smiling and happy looking.
Went to one once where both bros were supposed to be there, but only Gui was able to make it.
Showed some good stuff and definitely not beginner level material, and it wasn'tt even at an ATOS gym.
For a brazilian guy in his mid-twenties, though, Gui was pretty serious. All business. I've been to saulo, xande, royler, rolker and recently a Faria seminar, and he was by far the most serious one.
Not a criticism, just an observation.
How was Faria's? That dude is the man.
Im shocked, online Gui is very detailed. Surprised it doesn't transfer over. Also you know what they say, most high level guys aren't the best instructors
My buddy just did a couple Of Faria's classes at M.G's recently and said he was a great instructor, and that he was always smiling and happy looking.
Faria's seminar was well worth the money since pretty much everything he showed was stuff that i was really interested in learning due to my age/body type.
Great guy, very friendly and even rolled with some of the people in the seminar..myself included.
Mendes Bros seminars are great. Maybe this was when they were new and didn't speak English well. I had a private lesson with them when they didn't know a lot of English, and it went great, but it may have been easier to get their point accross in a private.
I've said it before on here's and caught shit but I do not like their style of teaching from the what I have seen on video. They give way too many details which I think is overwhelming. Also in the heat of battle you're not going to remember all 25 different details about what angle your knee should slice through. I feel that great teaching should be able to distill each move down to a couple very important instructions. Anything else gets lost.
I attended a Faria seminar and he couldn't have been nicer or more patient with everyone. This was right after winning double gold last year at Pans and Worlds so he showed all the sweeps, passes and submissions he used during that run. He rolled with every single person in the room and the coolest part was that he constantly stressed to the group to ask any question at any time, regardless of whether it was relevant to the subject matter he was covering or not. I would highly recommend attending one if you can.
checkuroil - I've said it before on here's and caught shit but I do not like their style of teaching from the what I have seen on video. They give way too many details which I think is overwhelming. Also in the heat of battle you're not going to remember all 25 different details about what angle your knee should slice through. I feel that great teaching should be able to distill each move down to a couple very important instructions. Anything else gets lost.
To be fair, the point is not to remember where your knee is supposed to be, but drill it with your knee in the right position so often that when you compete, it is in that position.
Went to one once where both bros were supposed to be there, but only Gui was able to make it.
Showed some good stuff and definitely not beginner level material, and it wasn'tt even at an ATOS gym.
For a brazilian guy in his mid-twenties, though, Gui was pretty serious. All business. I've been to saulo, xande, royler, rolker and recently a Faria seminar, and he was by far the most serious one.
Not a criticism, just an observation.
How was Faria's? That dude is the man.
Im shocked, online Gui is very detailed. Surprised it doesn't transfer over. Also you know what they say, most high level guys aren't the best instructors
My buddy just did a couple Of Faria's classes at M.G's recently and said he was a great instructor, and that he was always smiling and happy looking.
Faria's seminar was well worth the money since pretty much everything he showed was stuff that i was really interested in learning due to my age/body type.
Great guy, very friendly and even rolled with some of the people in the seminar..myself included.
I had a great time at the Faria seminar I went to - same here, I felt like his game complimented what I already do heavily, so it was extra good, but even if you aren't into how he plays you'll get a good amount of technical detail without it being overwhelming.
Since it was so aligned to how I play I saved up some money to do a few privates with him, and he was one of the most friendly, welcoming people I've met in bjj. I really, really encourage people to go to his seminars and buy his stuff just because he was so nice.
I don't know him well enough to say if thats who he actually is as a person, because I've been surprised before by how people act in one capacity vs. another, but it really felt like he was genuinely a good guy.
Nah Bernardo is genuinely a nice and happy person period. Hell the only guy at the same level as him that I have met is Marcelo when it comes to that, he really just enjoys life.
checkuroil - I've said it before on here's and caught shit but I do not like their style of teaching from the what I have seen on video. They give way too many details which I think is overwhelming. Also in the heat of battle you're not going to remember all 25 different details about what angle your knee should slice through. I feel that great teaching should be able to distill each move down to a couple very important instructions. Anything else gets lost.
To be fair, the point is not to remember where your knee is supposed to be, but drill it with your knee in the right position so often that when you compete, it is in that position.
Coming from an old school background and now training in the new school ways I see the perspective of both.
CUO's approach was similar to JJ's style - you learn the core concepts of a technique and you figure out how to apply it in many ways so in that respect there aren't as many names and a lot of times when people ask what you just did you don't know because it wasn't a specific set up. It was more that you caused a reaction that made them give you something and you attacked that weakness. Eventually, after sometime it becomes "your setup" to a specific attack or sweep however you never stop probing for a weakness in balance or isolating a body part. It's a flow that masters of BJJ have.
From Muffinho's view, the details you get from the newer style of BJJ, they have a system that's mapped out and over time you learn the whole system. A big part of the newer style is drilling the heck out of a technique. Coming in an hour before class and drilling 2 or 3 positions with someone is not uncommon in new school places and it gives you the muscle memory you wouldn't otherwise get. So the details on how you should turn the knee and/or place it will eventually come naturally after a period of time from drilling and attempting it in class.
Back to the topic at hand - I've heard from various people that they took a seminar from the Mendes Bro's and it was the same as the one they gave a week before at a different academy.The same person also told me that when people started to ask specific questions on the grips they forgot how to speak english and glossed over the question. Take that for whatever it's worth. Granted, as others have already mentioned, it would be because this was a while go so maybe things have changed.
Seems like people rarely have good things to say about them as people. Makes me wonder if they're shitty people or people just wanna hate on them? From the videos and interviews that are up they do come across a little bit snobby but that's about it.
and then on the flip side there's guys like marcelo and cobrinha that nobody ever says bad things about. Nothing but good things about those fellas.
A buddy of mine got a lot out of a Gui Mendes seminar a few years ago. It sounded like he didn't show too many techniques, then got the class to drill the techniques over and over.
The techniques that Gui showed were ones my buddy was interested in at that time, so I'm sure he got more out of the seminar then others. My buddy also likes drilling a few techniques over and over, rather than learning 20 techniques that don't chain together.
Went to one once where both bros were supposed to be there, but only Gui was able to make it.
Showed some good stuff and definitely not beginner level material, and it wasn'tt even at an ATOS gym.
For a brazilian guy in his mid-twenties, though, Gui was pretty serious. All business. I've been to saulo, xande, royler, rolker and recently a Faria seminar, and he was by far the most serious one.
Not a criticism, just an observation.
Maybe because he's from São Paulo?
People from Rio tend to be more friendly and funny?
Rafa is very friendly, Gui is more withdrawn from my experience. I like Gui's seriousness.
My experience was pretty different from OP and some of the prior reports. I attended a seminar at an unaffiliated gym a few years back and they were great. For a start both brothers showed up, on time, and spoke english. They didn't waste everyones time on some showboat technique that will never come off in live training and yet they taught things I hadn't quite seen as a newer purple belt. The techniques were solid and they were explained with plenty of detail. I personally asked several questions like "do you prefer this grip or that grip here", "if I have the flexibility to put my foot here is there a reason I should still hip away at this part of the technique" etc... and they were very cool about answering my questions.
My only notable negative observation is when it came time to roll they were a little amped up for the level of the crowd. Can't remember which brother started things off but the first person they picked to play with was a newer blue belt and they started him on his feet. Slapped hands and immediately went to their fake guard pull ankle pick setup. Went on like that for all rounds. A lot of lower level locals who really just wanted their minute to bathe in the star power ended up getting thrown on their heads. In fairness I am told they were at that gym previously and the students may have been a bit rough themselves so they may have come in with a need to make a point.
Anyway all in all I came away happy with what I learned and with a positive opinion of them as people. Yes Gui might not be that warm and fuzzy but whatever... they carried themselves like professionals.
