As has been said, I’m sure the Gracie Academy caters predominantly to a specific type of clientele. You’ll find the same apparent skill deficit at any gym marketing itself to the white collar executive/rich soccer mom crowd. It’s more similar to the way celebrities train BJJ than guys who are hungry competitors.
And it’s not just BJJ. Lots of upscale cardio kickboxing and “white collar boxing” programs follow the same business model.
Rener comes off a used carsales man type
Yes but my point is how many good, pro kick boxers come out of a cardio kickboxing gym!?
Yup
Guys made it to the UFC from Tiger Schluman
I have a hankering that Al bundy was never that good at jiu jitsu.
People not from this area would probably be surprised that “Gracie University” and the Gracie Academy… DOESN’T have a great reputation, locally. --At least not for the last 25 years.
I’d wager that just about every BJJ school in southern california has experienced students from the Gracie Academy and been surprised that they didn’t know very much and had lower rolling skills, compared to similar ranks from others schools.
I bet they can tell you a shitload about Helio gracie though.
do they just do static drilling of basic white belt shit all day?
Thats my point, atleast Tigers have some legit guys going to a high level…Gracie Uni had 1.
I know there is no sparring until you get your Blue Belt.
Because of respect for the Gracie family most academies and instructors won’t say publicly what they think about the Gracie Academy and GU students.
Two if you count Lowel Anderson. Yes, that’s how old school I am.
Schulman has produced a lot of high quality students. He was a badass back in the day. Gracie university has embraced the helio model academy
This is ten percent luck
Twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure
Fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name
I only have two experiences with former Gracie academy students and they are actually good ones.
One came to barra Northridge as a purple(way before i got here) and is now a black belt under romulo and is surprisingly really really really good. Not sure how much of his skill he got from Torrance but he’s tough and highly skilled and won a bunch of stuff like pans in the lower belts.
The second is an extended family member who is reners current protoje. He conpetes at high rollers and other orgs, successfully. He’s also going into mma, and is one of tcitys main training partners. He’s a 21 maybe 22yo blue belt and if i didn’t have a solid 30lbs on him a well over a decade of more experience i don’t know long i could hold him off when we grapple. Just naturally athletic and picks things up fast.
I’m pretty sure he would be a stud at any gym he was at but he happened to end up with rener who took him in and under his wing
Like others have said I think their target audience is probably not that type that seeks to compete frequently or at high levels.
Additionally, when I’ve seen Gracie Jiu Jitsu practictioners compete many have solid fundamentals but get ‘gamed’ by more experienced competitors and scored on heavily and frequently, without necessarily being threatened or close to being submitted.
The material that they put out is high quality in terms of the detail, I’ll say that much.
As a former student at the gracie academy back in the early 2000s this was my experience. Early on at tournaments id give up lots of points and it took me time to realize my approach was all wrong. Even with basic stuff like warming up before my first match.
Funny enough i one time reported back after a tournament in which i subbed everyone and took 2 golds. The gracie bros didnt give a shit.
Once i left the gracie academy and trained elsewhere i started doing way better at tournaments. I dont think its because i learned new fancy moves. Just my mentality for tournaments changed and i understood the “gamesmanship” of it all better.
I think like the Valente Brothers they don’t care about tournaments, just not their focus
They care enough to run their mouths about them and disparage anyone who does them as not doing “real” jiu jitsu.