FWIW, the very first day I started training the technique I drilled was a DLR Arm Drag sweep where you reverse them behind you. I was forgotten to be shown a typical day one move. As I continued the class, there was almost never a different move for me (no beginner’s class just an all in one) so I learned X Guard, DLR, single leg x, deep half, etc. all in the first 6 months of training. I don’t think it’s as detrimental as it sounds. I am your typical non athletic guy in a bjj gym as well.
Easters -I cross train occasionally with a school that exposes beginners to advanced stuff like x guard and DLR right away and I have to say, their students get really good really fast. Tough as hell. Not saying it’s the right way to do it, just an interesting observation
Sure, there can be schools like this - or more accurately, there can be students like this.
Hell, I had a 19 year old training with me who trained twice a day and was a personal trainer the rest of his day. Highly coordinated, preferred visual learning, and within 3 months was tapping all my solid blue belts. It doesn't mean the method is optimized for everyone, or even for him.
(Easters, I'm not picking on you, btw. You raised a good observation.)
It took me the better part of a decade to realize that my students were drastically more successful the more I limited their training. They don't know what to focus on, and until later, it shouldn't be up to them. My job as the instructor is to deliver the right instruction at the right time - and that means we start with developmental priorities and go from there.
There's a lot of survivorship bias in BJJ - I'm as guilty as anyone, but i try to be self-aware. We do so much with the rational "ehhh, it worked well for me (or for these other students) so I'll make everyone do it." What about the 90% of your newbies that didn't stay? WHat if you could expand your teaching approach to serve more of the population that comes to you? If you retained every new student for an additional year, how much would that benefit each of them? What about two years?
There's so much that could be changed - for the better - about the way we present this amazing training to our audience. Teaching them secondary, flashy material before they have fundamentals down is hardly the road to widespread success.
mata_leaos -shen -Just my opinion, but I don't think "chasing" whatever is hot the moment is necessarily the best way. to go --especially for colored belts.--I know OP is not a colored belt. This isn't really aimed at him.
But, BJJ is very fadish. It's like a big school of fish that change direction in unison and everyone is always persuing the same quarry at the same time. People are trying to get an "advantage" over opponents by adopting the exact same tactics as one another.
This is in fact WHY BJJ is so faddish; soon as everyone is trying to do the same stuff, it loses it's magic. So the crowd moves onto the next thing.
Sure, you DO need to learn how to prevent, shut down and/or counter certain things, but playing exactly like everyone else doesn't do much more than keep you firmly in the middle of the pack.
Spending years working on strategies and tactics that work for YOU specificlly is more beneficial than trying to adopt a new guy's game every 6 months.
Ironically, that's exactly what the real BJJ "innovators" do. They're working on their own games and being true to what works for them. A guy spends years working on developing his unique game, puts it on DVD and the entire BJJ consumer crowd all thinks in unison, " Cool, I'm gonna do this now!"
Long term you would probably be better off copying the innovator's work ethic & methodology to improve, rather than his specific game.
I could not agree more with this but I also would add that specifically re: the saddle/cross ashi position and the inside heel hook. I don’t think it’s a fad and I think it’s a position that has changed no gi grappling forever. It’s fairly easy to get into from so many positions (standing, top, bottom) and the inside heel hook itself is so powerful that I don’t see it going away anytime soon in any practice room or competition that allows it.
I say this as guy that was all about armbars and a chokes until maybe 2 years ago. The saddle position is here to stay I think.
Is the Cross Ashi IBJJF legal?
Fast Pitch -mata_leaos -shen -Just my opinion, but I don't think "chasing" whatever is hot the moment is necessarily the best way. to go --especially for colored belts.--I know OP is not a colored belt. This isn't really aimed at him.
But, BJJ is very fadish. It's like a big school of fish that change direction in unison and everyone is always persuing the same quarry at the same time. People are trying to get an "advantage" over opponents by adopting the exact same tactics as one another.
This is in fact WHY BJJ is so faddish; soon as everyone is trying to do the same stuff, it loses it's magic. So the crowd moves onto the next thing.
Sure, you DO need to learn how to prevent, shut down and/or counter certain things, but playing exactly like everyone else doesn't do much more than keep you firmly in the middle of the pack.
Spending years working on strategies and tactics that work for YOU specificlly is more beneficial than trying to adopt a new guy's game every 6 months.
Ironically, that's exactly what the real BJJ "innovators" do. They're working on their own games and being true to what works for them. A guy spends years working on developing his unique game, puts it on DVD and the entire BJJ consumer crowd all thinks in unison, " Cool, I'm gonna do this now!"
Long term you would probably be better off copying the innovator's work ethic & methodology to improve, rather than his specific game.
I could not agree more with this but I also would add that specifically re: the saddle/cross ashi position and the inside heel hook. I don’t think it’s a fad and I think it’s a position that has changed no gi grappling forever. It’s fairly easy to get into from so many positions (standing, top, bottom) and the inside heel hook itself is so powerful that I don’t see it going away anytime soon in any practice room or competition that allows it.
I say this as guy that was all about armbars and a chokes until maybe 2 years ago. The saddle position is here to stay I think.
Is the Cross Ashi IBJJF legal?
Yes it is but on 2 conditions.
You cannot have an overhook/Achilles lock style grip on the trapped/close leg. You must have a scoop/underhook grip on the trapped leg. As soon as you go for an ankle lock/overhook type grip on the trapped leg it’s a DQ.
You are no longer allowed to do the leg lace/texas cloverleaf if you were a brown or black belt from cross ashi. They used to allow it until either 2017 or 2018. That is no longer the case. So the only submission you can do from the cross ashi are foot lock on the non-trapped/far leg. A friend of mine won two matches at worlds with a leg lace/cloverleaf in 2016 and this year he wasn’t aware of the rule change and got DQ’d.
So it’s far game to use the cross ashi as much as you want if you are controlling or attacking the far/non-trapped leg with any toe hold or Achilles style attack. You can also control the near/trapped leg with any underneath grip like a scoop grip but you just can’t wrap around the ankle over the top or attack the trapped foot in any way.
You can switch your hips to attack a kneebar but that’s the only lower body sub from cross ashi that you can do. It’s still useful for sweeping and passing but I would also be careful with refs.
mata_leaos -Fast Pitch -mata_leaos -shen -Just my opinion, but I don't think "chasing" whatever is hot the moment is necessarily the best way. to go --especially for colored belts.--I know OP is not a colored belt. This isn't really aimed at him.
But, BJJ is very fadish. It's like a big school of fish that change direction in unison and everyone is always persuing the same quarry at the same time. People are trying to get an "advantage" over opponents by adopting the exact same tactics as one another.
This is in fact WHY BJJ is so faddish; soon as everyone is trying to do the same stuff, it loses it's magic. So the crowd moves onto the next thing.
Sure, you DO need to learn how to prevent, shut down and/or counter certain things, but playing exactly like everyone else doesn't do much more than keep you firmly in the middle of the pack.
Spending years working on strategies and tactics that work for YOU specificlly is more beneficial than trying to adopt a new guy's game every 6 months.
Ironically, that's exactly what the real BJJ "innovators" do. They're working on their own games and being true to what works for them. A guy spends years working on developing his unique game, puts it on DVD and the entire BJJ consumer crowd all thinks in unison, " Cool, I'm gonna do this now!"
Long term you would probably be better off copying the innovator's work ethic & methodology to improve, rather than his specific game.
I could not agree more with this but I also would add that specifically re: the saddle/cross ashi position and the inside heel hook. I don’t think it’s a fad and I think it’s a position that has changed no gi grappling forever. It’s fairly easy to get into from so many positions (standing, top, bottom) and the inside heel hook itself is so powerful that I don’t see it going away anytime soon in any practice room or competition that allows it.
I say this as guy that was all about armbars and a chokes until maybe 2 years ago. The saddle position is here to stay I think.
Is the Cross Ashi IBJJF legal?
Yes it is but on 2 conditions.
You cannot have an overhook/Achilles lock style grip on the trapped/close leg. You must have a scoop/underhook grip on the trapped leg. As soon as you go for an ankle lock/overhook type grip on the trapped leg it’s a DQ.
You are no longer allowed to do the leg lace/texas cloverleaf if you were a brown or black belt from cross ashi. They used to allow it until either 2017 or 2018. That is no longer the case. So the only submission you can do from the cross ashi are foot lock on the non-trapped/far leg. A friend of mine won two matches at worlds with a leg lace/cloverleaf in 2016 and this year he wasn’t aware of the rule change and got DQ’d.
So it’s far game to use the cross ashi as much as you want if you are controlling or attacking the far/non-trapped leg with any toe hold or Achilles style attack. You can also control the near/trapped leg with any underneath grip like a scoop grip but you just can’t wrap around the ankle over the top or attack the trapped foot in any way.
You can switch your hips to attack a kneebar but that’s the only lower body sub from cross ashi that you can do. It’s still useful for sweeping and passing but I would also be careful with refs.
So from what I just read you can do an Achilles lock on the far (non-trapped) leg? Because after that you said kneebar is the only lower body sub from cross ashi you can do. I’m assuming you meant only kneebars to the trapped leg.
IBJJF rules are kinda lame IMO.