Honestly if you've not really got the fine art of sweeps and passing down, does it really benefit you to learn advanced material and setups from a black belt?
Are you better off holding onto your cash until later in your training?
andre is correct! I have been to bad seminars and good ones so it depends on the instructor. I highly recommend Mike Jen's seminars if you ever have the opportunity as he conveys the material extremely well and you will retain a lot.
Thanks for compliment, Neckcranku, but I don't teach seminars anymore. :)
In general, seminars are a waste of money and I am even speaking from someone who once taught them. A vast majority of people don't practice what they learned. Most people just want the experience of training with certain instructors (especially if they are a "superstar") and often are hoping for the "magic pill" that doesn't exist.
Unfortunately, my experience with sems havent been good.But the ones i attended were what i'll call a mixed bag, i THINK i would get much more from them if they were on a certain subject...like pin escapes, gaurd passing, mount...etc.
More and more i think if you really hammer the concepts of the position, or the subjects, with just a few tech for each subject really explaining it not from just a mechanical aspect, but as how the mechanics and concepts go together, then i would get it much better.
I also think it depends on the instructor.
I used to attend seminars put on by John Will as his assistant for years. The way John taught was such that he would teach what people needed and even if I thought I knew something I could always pick up a detail that I'd previously missed.
I was fortunate enough to go to a couple of Michael Jen seminars and enjoyed them immensely. Do I now perform all of the techniques the way that Mike showed them? No, but I picked up a few things that I could immediately put into my game that I am very happy with. Some of the other things taught I thought were fantastic but didn't quite fit into my game at that time. However, that doesn't mean I've forgotten them, or that they won't become part of my game later on.
The above two guys are examples of people knowing how to do a seminar correctly i.e.
1) Aim your seminar at the level of the people attending
2) Have a theme
3) Have a plan
Surely everyone should do those three things right? Unfortunately not. I've been to seminars and heard from friends who have gone to other seminars of "superstars" that were extremely disappointing. Scratching your head for two minutes and then shrugging your shoulders and asking what people want to learn is not professional but seems to be common among some instructors.
I think if you're going to attend a seminar, do some research first and find out if the person is considered a great (not good, but great) instructor. If the answer is yes then I think the seminar will probably be worth it. If not, you're taking a gamble.
One last thing to consider is what do you want to get out of the seminar? For myself, depending on the cost, I'm happy to walk away from a seminar having learned one thing I can immediately put into my game. To me it's worth the cost. However I don't believe it would be worth the cost learning 50 attacks from mount if my problem is that I'm always stuck underneath it.
I used to go to every seminar that was going, now I can take it or leave it. I prefer to spend my money on a private and get what I want from it. Seminars can be good, but often they show flashy moves because the lower belts wanna see this...stuff you would never use in a competition or a hard spar....impresses the newbies.
You will always learn a few things in a seminar, but for the same money why not spend a full hours working on your own game?
To me it depends on what your expectations are. My expectations are to pay $60 and get 1 move that I will actually use later and to get to roll with people I haven't rolled with before. Maybe pick up 2 other moves that will come in handy too but that's a bonus. With the exception of one seminar, my expectations have always been met.
I have never anticipated leaving a seminar and having a dozen new moves that will make me invincible.
I too have been to a broad range of seminars, from VERY good to VERY bad.
I like seminars and benefit a lot from them, but it's because I take a LOT of notes and then go home and practice the material. Heck, I'm STILL tweaking stuff from seminars that I went to YEARS ago.
I try to go through my notes once a year and find some things that I've forgotten about, so that I can go and develop them.
Without my notes, though, I'd have benefitted MUCH less from seminars.
You can also get different experiences with rolling with new people and new motivation and stuff like that from seminars... besides the actual technical content...
There may be some people who actually practice and use what they learned in a seminar, but those people are in a very small minority. Just because a few people post here on the forum that they do it, doesn't mean that a vast majority of people do. If we were to just go by the posts here on the forum , then we should think that everyone that does BJJ is a bad ass competitor, has a 500 lbs. bench press, and is hung like a horse.
Most people tend to be impressed simply with cool looking techniques that they have never seen before. I have been to seminars where other people have posted reviews that the techniques were "sick" and how they can't wait to pull that stuff off in class. I can tell you that I haven't see a single person pull off some of those "sick" techniques.
In addition, when it comes to techniques that "fit into your game", I find that most people tend to base that off of how easy it is for them to pick up on the technique when their first practice it and also how little they have to practice it order to pull it off in action. Most people aren't willing to take 6 months to practice a technique or position that they aren't good at right away and rather just say, "It doesn't fit into my game".
Everyone, including myself, really needs to get out of the mentality of "it will be worth the price if I can get one good technique out of it." Such low expectations is what allows some instructors to continue giving crappy seminars. This is the same mentality that allows people to charge $100 for a horrible run tournament and still have people come. Imagine going into a restautant and ordering a 7 course meal, paying a lot of money, and saying, "I'll be happy if I get one good dish out of this 7 course meal."
On a related sidenote, people on the forum seem to love to rush to the latest superstar in order to get the latest secret tricks. Years ago, there was a well known competitor who had a seminar in Los Angeles. They guy was well known, but had not won anything big at that time. Only 3 or 4 people showed up. The guy was pissed off that so few people showed up that he cancelled the seminar on the spot and sent those few people home. One of those people actually travelled a very far distance to train with this competitor and he was sent home with nothing. A few years later, the guy wins a competition and beats some other big name competitor. Suddenly tons people want to attend his seminars and when he came to LA again, many people showed up. It's funny how barely anyone showed up when he wasn't at the top, but once he got to the top again, everyone was rushing to him.
Bolo is, as usual, right on the money. When I was bringing Roger over before last years ADCC, not many bothered to come. When I bring him over a couple months ago, everyone came crawling out of the woodwork looking for privates etc.
As far as learning A technique, there is so much info on dvd now I can't believe there is to much being shown thats not on a dvd or tape, and with the dvd or tapes you don't have to worry about forgetting a part of the mechanics. So i would say going to a sem just to learn 1 or 2 techs isnt sound finanically.
Go to pick the instructors brain, see how he thinks about move A or B, what is his setup reasoning, how does he view his opponents base and balance in order to attack it.
Last instruction i attended not one technique that was taught i hadn't seen before, but it was ok because we talked about them using concepts, principles, and how they applied.
And when he asked if there was any questions, i asked How do YOU think jiu jitsu?
For me seminars are a good way to socialize and meet the man, not the fighter. I want to know something about, let's say, Marcelo Garcia behind all the imagery about himself. Maybe I'll get a chance to roll with him, ask him some questions (a lot of times not related to JJ), see how he is like a social person.
I like to go to Royce's seminars because he's such a friendly, amusing person. After years I'll always remember how he ate 2 pizzas at the party after the seminar and not the bear hug escape he showed... And also how I made a very innocent-eastern Europe-newbie in JJ face asking him to roll with him (being a white belt). He told me: "You never askuh a black belte to roll in Brasioo. He wee kick your aess"... and he rolled with me. Cause I was from Eastern Europe and a newbie in JJ (but with a 2 years "experience" on JJ forums that he didn't know about) :)
If you go to seminars to socialize and meet the instructor, I think you are in a small minority. Most people pay and go to seminar because they want to learn something useful.
As consumers you need to have higher standards in regards to what you expect from those people you are paying for instruction. Low expectations and passivity is what allows instructors to either hold back information, teach garbage, or come unprepared. Trust me when I say that I have wasted a lot of time and money over my 15 years in BJJ because of my low expectation and passivity in the past.