Seminars, and Why You Should Go

Question: Name another sport where you can have legitimate access to its top practitioners with relative ease and have it remain not financially stupid?

That was a lot, I know, but let's think about that for just a moment. One of my favorite things about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is the accessibility to its top practitioners. If you want to train with Andre Galvao, you can--all you need to do is walk into his gym, Atos, is San Diego and sign the hold harmless agreement and that's that. How about Marcelo Garcia, Renzo Gracie, or Garry Tonon? The same principal applies--as long as they're not out across the country competing or giving a seminar, but you know what I'm saying here. But to that point, the sport's biggest names often travel around the world giving seminars. If you happen to not be able to fly across the country to drop in to a gym to train with a BJJ Hero of yours, chances are that sooner or later they may come close to you.

'What's a seminar," you ask? Well, a BJJ seminar is when a top level practitioner travels to a gym to give lessons and teach techniques for a few hours. Traditionally, you'll pay a fee to attend (that is how these big-name-guys make money) and that fee can be relatively inexpensive and go up depending on how big of a name the person giving the seminar is. I've seen seminars for as low as $20.00 USD and have heard rumors of what Rickson Gracie has charged--but to be fair, I've heard Rickson's fee was worth every single penny.

Photo Credit: Kron Gracie Academy Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/krongraciejiujitsu/

So dig if you will a picture: you're a into BJJ and someone (of some significance) from our sport is going to be close enough to you--or maybe even AT your school--to give a seminar. You should go. Why? Well because it's fun. Even they go over techniques that you're familiar with, it's fun to hear it explained to you from another perspective. Everyone has their own take on BJJ (another one of my favorite things about this sport), so it's cool to hear something your familiar with mapped out in detail to you from someone with a new point of view. 

Recently I got to attend a seminar by Kurt Osiander. Kurt got a powerful shout out in the last WBS--so if you haven't checked that out yet, please do--but Kurt is a BJJ Hero and Black Belt under Ralph Gracie in San Francisco. I live in Pittsburgh, PA (on the other side of the country, for those geographically challenged), so my opportunities to train with Kurt are "limited," to put in one way. I've been a fan of his for sometime (again, see previous WBS), so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take his seminar at Edinboro University. Edinboro has a storied wrestling program. Anyone in the grappling world could rattle-off names of the mat savages that went there, so it was truly a cool experience to be able to be in that wrestling room for the seminar.  The Edinboro University BJJ Club , headed up by Dr. Korey Kilburn, hosted and organized the whole thing. (On a related note, if you're near the area, be on the lookout, they/Korey get a lot of great seminars coming through.)

Dr. Korey Kilburn and myself inside the famous EU Wrestling room

So, more to the point: Kurt's seminar was fantastic. He came as advertised, and then some. Being a fan of his Move of the Week YouTube series, I was vaguely familiar with his teaching style, but I was truly impressed by his love of the sport and desire for everyone at the seminar to pick up on what it was he was teaching and come away with more knowledge. Which, is exactly what a seminar should be. 

It was fun to make the two hour drive with my training partners, spend four hours on the mat learning new BJJ from someone so cool, and then get to hang out with them all afterwards. So what does that mean to you as a lower ranking (or maybe higher rank) BJJ practitioner who has never been to a seminar? It means that you should take advantage of seminars when they come around.

A seminar is more than just paying someone for their knowledge, there's a lot more to it than that. It could be a bonding experience between you and your training partners. It's a fun road trip. It's a destination in life--to maybe check off an item on your Bucket List to get to train with someone. It's supporting the community, both financially and otherwise, in a very cool way--and you get to learn some cool shit! How do you learn about seminars? Well start by looking up your favorite BJJ player's websites and social media. Most of them usually post where/when they're going to be somewhere, and how much. Also, get friendly with the other local gyms in your area. They may have people coming through and post about it on their sites. (But the political B.S. aside, we're all family). 

Kurt and myself, telling terrorists where to go

WBS Crew taking in carbs after 4 hours on the mat

WBS Crew Road trippin & Trafficjamin

That should be enough to get you started. But if you do go, or have gone to a seminar, get in touch with us on any/all forms of our social media WBS on Instagram-- come Follow! , WBS on Facebook-- Please come LIKE!, and of course WBS on Twitter--also, please come Follow!

Send us pictures, stories, and whatever else you have about your seminar experiences. We'll RT, Share, and whatever else to get your fun story out there to help inspire others to get out there and do the same. 

Coming soon: An announcement for a new sponsor... it's cool.

This week's WBS brought to you by:

VVV Fight Co.
Always coming out with top quality grappling products for the fashionable BJJ player, for both ON and OFF the mats.

Trust your boy, Jesse WBS, when I tell you that you won't be disappointed in your purchase. I'll personally guarantee it. And if you don't like what you buy, you can some bow & arrow choke me into darkness.


VVV Fight Co Twitter
VVV Fight Co Facebook
http://www.vvvfightco.com/
VVV Fight Co on the 'Gram

Q5 Sports Nutrition

If you don't know, you don't have to ask somebody because I'm here to tell you: Q5 Sports Nutrition is your place for supplements for the aspiring AND professional grapplers.

You can't just have the catch phrase of "Stay Alpha" if you're a weak company with weak products (that's SOOO Beta), so trust me and trust Q5 when we both tell you the products will, in fact, help you and make your performance better.


Q5 Labs on Twitter
Q5 on Facebook
http://q5sn.com/
Q5 Instagram

BJJ Promotions, and Lack Thereof

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu isn't unlike a lot of ventures in the aspect that no one sets out to do it to be average. Sure, the path to greatness is a tough road to hoe--and you're most likely years behind in rank and experience to the competitors your age. But that doesn't mean that your Jiu Jitsu Journey is irrelevant, or that you shouldn't pursue your aspirations to be great. When you're first starting out it feels like you're not improving, not learning, and just overall not getting better. It's hard to gauge yourself that way, but there are some tips and tricks that are out there to help. The most obvious way to tell how good you are--or how good anyone is--is their belt rank. 

As you know by now: everyone starts off as a White Belt. As illustrated above, you'll note the belt order (which is always correct), and the estimated time frames at that belt (which isn't always correct). Traditionally, the recipe stripes based on time served on the mats with a dash of noticeable improvement and, maybe, some extra effort awards for doing things for your school/BJJ community---such as higher ranks volunteering to referee tournaments, fill in to teach classes, etc. But regardless of all of that, your promotion is at the discretion of your instructor.  

That doesn't mean you can't do something about it, though. As a matter of fact, you should be doing something to encourage your promotion(s). By that I mean doing something more than just showing up to class. While I do understand that not everyone can be as committed to BJJ as the next guy, that shouldn't be an excuse to not try to improve and push yourself. You may want to consider training/drilling with higher ranked partners so that you're forcing yourself to train at a higher level. (ProTip: Clear it with that person before class & ask for help. It's impolite for a lower rank to impose those kinds of situations on a higher rank.) Another fun way to put yourself out there is to compete in tournaments. Generally speaking, your instructor would love to see you take the risk and demonstrate what you know all for the sake of the art that they (and you) love--and they're fun! 

My instructor Sonny Achille and me after my White to Blue promotion

As much as it sucks, you can even be doing all of that and still not be getting the promotion that you feel you deserve and that you're owed. Hang around long enough and you'll see it in your gym. There are guys out there who preform way beyond their rank and yet are stuck in this rut of not getting promoted. Let's be clear, there is no simple explanation for that. But I do think that it's obvious that there's a disconnect between you and the powers that be that can award you that next strip of medical tape for your stripe, or new belt. Under no circumstances should you directly ask your instructor for your promotion. *Read that last sentence out loud 5 times.* But there are ways to finding out what it is that you may need to do, or what they're looking for out of you to get you to that next level. Some helpful tips can be:

-Asking another instructor at your school, not the head, what you can do to get better

-Start attending more classes [Many schools have classes by difficulty level, turn up the heat]

-Pushing a little harder during class. Meaning no slacking on warm-ups, drills, and yes, going a little harder during rolls. 

-Compete in local, and maybe not-so-local, tournaments. Finishing high proves things to everyone. Even if you feel you're better than that rank, show 'em, prove it, seek & destroy. 

Just remember to always love and enjoy BJJ. Promotions are a big part of the game, but trying to figure out why you're not getting promoted can leave you like Clark Griswold when he get's the "Jelly of the Month Club" instead of his annual bonus (see above). So before that happens, look to yourself first--where are you slacking? Look to improve on it. Remember that your head instructor sees more of you than you do, so there's something they may want out of you before you get that next stripe or belt. Even if you disagree with their line of thinking, they've done this before, trust the process. There are ways to go about drawing the right kind  of attention to yourself when talking about promotions and the wrong kind. Like in all things, going about it the right way is the name of the game, but like BJJ, you need to find the right sweep, escape, transition, speed, pressure, pass, and/or technique to get what you need. 

"Once you understand the way broadly, you see it in all things."

-Miyamoto Musashi

Thank you to this week's sponsor!

VVV Fight Co.

Truly the best BJJ gear & street wear out there. Buying a gi is a risk, but I'm here to tell you to trust me and get one from these fine guys. Their tshirts, no gi shorts, and all their products are top of the line. I'll personally guarantee your satisfaction. 

http://www.vvvfightco.com/

https://twitter.com/VVVFightCo

VVV Facebook