Judo, Education, and Gracie JiuJitsu

I realize my ground game isn't anywhere near where it should be. But I live in Roswell, NM. The closest other judo club is an hour and a half away, roughly. The only class of theirs I can attend is on Saturday. Sometimes I like to have Saturdays.

So, I research. In that research we have the ever present JudoInfo.com, Judo.Forumotion.co.uk. Recently, however, I cruised the internet and found Gracie University. I perused and watched the samples. The samples are exquisitely done and neatly broken down. So I thought, why not? I ordered the complete "Gracie Combatives" DVD set ($120, which is about $24 less than buying the exact same things online as a collective and $164 cheaper than buying the videos online individually) as a curiousity. Curiousity Satisfied.

After reviewing just the first two DVD's (covering a mount escape, the "Americana," maintaining the mount, taking the back, rear naked choke, and the leg hook takedown), my evaluation is that these instructional videos are of exceptional quality. I personally believe that if the Gracie Academy/University produces the remainder of their "Master Cycle" in this same format, they will have revolutionized distance martial arts education with a great level of legitimacy.

Whenever I have looked for instructional videos for judo most of them are lacking. Usually these lack in detail, especially with subtleties, and frequently the demonstrator is lacking in understanding of the overall idea/philosophy of the technique. If, however, the demonstrator thoroughly understands all these aspects, like Mike Swain in his Complete Judo collection (which are really good in the broad scope!), they lack the ability to thoroughly elaborate the gross to fine intricacies of the techniques. This is not to say that they are poor videos, many, especially by the big names, are really good, once you've a good idea about what's going on. The Gracie Combatives DVD's, however, are designed for people with zero idea about grappling and take you from the level of complete incompetence to adequate comprehension of technique, philosophy, and application.

This sounds like I'm a Gracie fanboi, but, when you produce a product that is of such exceptional quality, its hard not to acknowledge those facts!

Now, what does all this have to do with my personal quest for judo? It'll help my ground game. It will possibly position me and Roswell Judo in a very unique niche where I may be able to bring in more money due to certification to teach this course, in a year or so. We shall see.

Are there negatives to the Gracie Combatives? Yes. If you do judo, their takedowns, from a judo perspective, suck. Personally I believe that the most important thing in a throw is high-quality technique leading to uke landing squarely on the back and not wanting to get up. The Gracie philosophy is different and they explain why. I agree that their explanation makes sense, even though I disagree with it.