Just wanted to run a couple of things I was told last night past you guys:
I am best to buy my gi through the club. Being a Gracie Barra they buy them in direct (from LA apparently?!), at a cost to me of £90. These are apparently superior to cheaper ones I can get in the shops.
I should avoid cross training like the plague at this stage. Its quite a hard club for me to get to, so I was asking if I should do a couple of sessions a week there, then maybe a session or two of judo at a place that is easier to get to, but he said that at the club they personalise the training and that I might do more harm than good training elsewhere. Is this salesmanship or good advice? It sounded like good advice to me, but just thought I’d check.
[quote]Roundhead wrote:
Just wanted to run a couple of things I was told last night past you guys:
I am best to buy my gi through the club. Being a Gracie Barra they buy them in direct (from LA apparently?!), at a cost to me of £90. These are apparently superior to cheaper ones I can get in the shops.
[/quote]
It’s true that not all gi’s are created equal. Get one of the heavier duty ones and it’ll last you a lot longer. If these guys can get good heavy duty gi’s at a fair price, I say why not buy it through them?
[quote]
2) I should avoid cross training like the plague at this stage. Its quite a hard club for me to get to, so I was asking if I should do a couple of sessions a week there, then maybe a session or two of judo at a place that is easier to get to, but he said that at the club they personalise the training and that I might do more harm than good training elsewhere. Is this salesmanship or good advice? It sounded like good advice to me, but just thought I’d check.[/quote]
Well, it’s true that trying to learn too much at a time will slow the rate of learning. If these guys truly are top level coaches, then they probably know what they are talking about.
Unless you know that you are a very, very fast learner when it comes to physical skills, I’d probably take their advice, at least until you start to get a handle on your BJJ skills. Then, if you want to you can check out the Judo club for some cross training.
[quote]Roundhead wrote:
Just wanted to run a couple of things I was told last night past you guys:
I am best to buy my gi through the club. Being a Gracie Barra they buy them in direct (from LA apparently?!), at a cost to me of £90. These are apparently superior to cheaper ones I can get in the shops.[/quote]
You can get a decent gi for less than that by shopping around (though the GB ones are nice and that is not a bad price for one.)
Gi’s really do vary in quality and fit, there is no one ‘best’ gi, it will depend a lot on your body type and personal preference. The best bet is to try on a few of your clubmates gi’s and see what is comfy. Always buy big, they will shrink a lot. For my money, Sirius make good reasonbly priced gi’s and their customer service is top notch.
[quote]
2) I should avoid cross training like the plague at this stage. Its quite a hard club for me to get to, so I was asking if I should do a couple of sessions a week there, then maybe a session or two of judo at a place that is easier to get to, but he said that at the club they personalise the training and that I might do more harm than good training elsewhere. Is this salesmanship or good advice? It sounded like good advice to me, but just thought I’d check.[/quote]
When you start out, sticking with one instructor (or set of instructors) will make things a lot easier for you. Even the most basic things will be explained slightly differently anywhere that you go therefore you should stick to training just at one place for at least the first year or so. As you get better you will bring more and more of yourself into your game and will be able to sift through the advice from a range of people and pick out what works for you.
Use the other training sessions when you can’t get to the GB club to work on GPP conditioning and to practice the solo drills and movements that you learn at the club.
A couple of extra hrs per week of shrimping, break falling, bear crawling, standing up in base, etc will really help you at this stage.
It depends on what your goals are and when you want to achieve them. They will better prepare you for BJJ but in tournaments you start on your feet. I’ve trained with Rafael Lovato, Jr. for a while and we occasionally have someone come in for a Judo class and I know that Jr. has taken some Judo on his own. But you’ll only get better on the ground by training on the ground.
You should try to get to a point where they allow you to come in and roll during open mat as quickly as you can and then do that as often as you can. In a good school guys that are better then you will help you out as you’re rolling and that’s where you’ll make the most improvements!
Hey, just seen that you are in the UK, who are you training with?
If you get the chance to train with Braulio or Roger at any point, take it! Both of them are amazing as instructors and they are exemplorary examples of the Gracie Barra style and system of instruction.
Cheers for your advice everyone, I’ll stick to just the BJJ for now then.
[quote]Cockney Blue wrote:
Hey, just seen that you are in the UK, who are you training with?
If you get the chance to train with Braulio or Roger at any point, take it! Both of them are amazing as instructors and they are exemplorary examples of the Gracie Barra style and system of instruction.[/quote]
I am training at Gracie Barra Derby with Sensei Patrick Martin. I will get the opportunity twice a week to train with Victor Estima, which I will definitely be doing whenever I can.
I had a GB guy just join my school, he said they were adamant about him having a GB Gi only, ended up being one of the reasons he left (they wouldn’t let him train one day when he brought a different Gi in).
But I really like Koral Kimonos. I have 2 classic ones, very durable.
[quote]snipeout wrote:
Stick with their GI, most places like some bit of loyalty. Same for the training they like you to be loyal on that aspect too.[/quote]
True, although I’m sure they’d be fine with you going to another place to train a martial art they don’t teach.
The gi policy is stupid but if they insist you have no choice if you really want to train there. They are good gis but they are overpriced, like most gis are these days.
Not wanting you to do Judo is really just them worrying about losing you as a student. Many top BJJers from Brazil took Judo at the same time they did BJJ.
It is worth it since the quality of standup instruction in a Judo school, if it’s a good one, will be better than a BJJ school unless you are lucky enough to have a BJJ instructor who is also a skilled Judoka.
Honestly I just wouldn’t say anything its not like you’re training with a gym they face in competition. Thats the only time I could see them being like “uh no.”
I wouldn’t even bring it up.
If you’re COMPLETELY new to any combat sport in general though I’d say that this was great advice: