I have watched over 10+ instructionals. Completely changed my game. Started when I got my blue belt. Back then I was being smashed by every other blue belt and even some 3-4 stripe whites. WIthin 3 months in my blue belt, after watching these instructionals, I was consistently tapping out all blue belts (some who had 1-1.5 yrs of belt) and consistently tapping out 20-30% of purples and only being submitted like 10% of the time. But again, I watched over 10 high quality instructionals (Danaher/Ryan etc.), going back to specific parts of the videos, taking notes, trying to focus on one technique for each lesson, reflecting on my rounds after class etc. Bottom line is instructionals are only as good as you make them. Just watching them won't make any difference. What I like about them is that when you buy them you have them forever. It's like being able to have John Danaher teach you half-guard on demand for the rest of your life.
Training sessions with people who come with questions are always 10,000 times better than training with people who have no questions- both for the student and the coach.
Good point Ramsey. I challenge myself to bring questions to class. It helps the teacher teach. The teacher being a better teacher, I get better learning.
I did private lessons at my bjj club 4 times. I'm a bit slow when it comes to physical movements. Coordination is poor for me and kinesthetic awareness is bad. But my mind is sharp for concept. So I did 1 lesson to get my head around basic positions. Then 1 lesson for basic attacks. 1 lesson for basic sweeps. Then one lesson for self defense applications. The classes were highly focused and I prepared a list of questions for the instructor. The instructor was my employee for one hour and I learned quite a lot. I defined everything about the class. I spent 35 minutes asking questions, with pencil and paper and quick sketches. Then 25 minutes going over them again on the mats so I understood the concepts. I then went home and reviewed with my home made foam training dummy. I practiced what I learned in open mats over the following months. I also did one private class with another student in a 2 on 1. It was a total waste of time and money. The structure was just like a regular class, but I have never been convinced that specific techniques are the best way to learn bjj as a beginner. Since then, a friend who is a black belt told me that forgetting most of what I know (2.5 years off the mats due to injury) was probably good for my bjj. Haha From him, I have learned: get on top. Stay on top. When on bottom, get on your side. See space, take advantage. No space? Create space. Also, grips. Find grips. 2 on 1. And grips never last long (no gi), so only expect your grip to last 1 second. Hence, make a grip with the intent to do something useful with it. And the techniques for getting subs will come naturally. 2 months of that and I am way, way more effective. I am still white belt, so that's the context. It might be very different for higher belts and might be very different for people who are naturally more gifted in physical terms, but are less skilled with the fine details.
as a Purple belt. I learned more in private lessons than in class. I will recommend that as a blue or purple belt, you SHOULD get a private lesson so that they can tweak your game.
@@FlowLai you and Charles completely missed the point, if you can't afford something you simply don't buy it. Money is not part of the discussion here.
To reiterate what Chewy said, roll with different people in your gym. Take stock of your weak points. Are you getting stuck on the bottom of tight side control? Are people catching the same submission on you over and over? Are you having problems maintaining guard or maybe having problems passing open guard from a standing position? Pick two things that you're having problems with, then go to your coach for a private lesson focusing on those things. You'll find that other topics and techniques grow out of those things you went in to work on, and you'll have a productive private lesson. Rinse and repeat.
Counter-point: as students, we don't know what we don't know. I started doing privates with my professor, once a month, about a year ago. At first I think we struggled to find our rhythm because I was a white belt and didn't know anything. I came up with some topics for us to get started but we quickly derailed because he saw things I needed to work on that I didn't even know existed. To this day, I give him three-ish topics for each private. We usually start on number one and then start working on the gaps he's seeing that have almost nothing to do with what I thought we needed to talk about. I honestly think I get the most value when he's reacting to what he sees in my rolling, whether it's live or on film, than when he tries to stick to my agenda.
You're right, and I'm not disputing your point, just adding to it. We don't know what we don't know, but if you're far enough in to be doing private lessons, you know basic things like you need to escape bad positions, and transition via sweeps, etc. You'll know when you're rolling with people if you're hitting a wall. As I said above, maybe people are using a particular sweep on you a lot, and it's giving you trouble, or you just can't escape tight side control or mount with hooks. During rolling, you should be able to recognize the things you need to work on, and go into your private lesson to work on those things. Then, as you and I have both said, other topics and techniques will grow out of those initial topics. Sometimes it's just a case of having the wrong mindset.
I think you're actually doing what was described in the video. If your problem is that you don't know anything, that's actually a great place to start. The issue is that a lot of people aren't great coaches, so they're probably going to do what chewy said: show you a couple of moves, and hope they're useful. As a result, a better question to ask, would be "how do I determine what I need to get better at?" Sounds dumb, but especially when starting out, it can be overwhelming to narrow the focus. But the point is that you end up narrowing the focus and homing in on one specific aspect that you're trying to improve at. Without doing that, it can be really difficult to see any results, which makes it difficult to know what your problems actually are. So if you ask your coach how to focus on improvment, he'll probably ask you what you like doing, or where you are having the biggest problem. If you can't answer either of those questions, then you probably shouldn't even bother doing a private, and instead go to normal class, focus on a couple of rolls, and then reflecting on the question again. Once you can come up with an answer, then its fair to sign up for a private.
As a customer, I'd like for the coach to provide insight as you mention. As a coach, I am not a mind reader and don't even know the person's game or frustrations. It is up to both people to bridge that gap - as the customer, it isn't unreasonable to have specific requests, nor to ask the instructor to notice gaps they can help you improve - but gotta define the purpose of the lesson. Even drilling, I often correct my partner's posture - not with words so much as casually threatening them when they leave their elbows or don't maintain good posture without interrupting the drill.
Love to roll with the squad, but in cases when I'm nursing an injury, instructional videos like yours Chewy always help keep the ideas fresh in my head so I don't return too rusty. Mental reps are always better than no reps.
In some studies on sports psychology very well visualized mental reps have actually been proven to be more effective than physical ones. Although the specific one im thinking of was with free throw shots. I believe there is some carry over.
I took private lessons once a week for 6months as a blue belt and it gave me a sharp incline in my BJJ skills and the development of my game. Would highly recommend but not as a white belt since learning the basics can come in a class format over time.
My method for getting the most out of instructionals: 1. Watch the whole thing first on 1.5x speed to understand what's in it. 2. Watch it and take notes in the form of written notes and making flow charts 3. Start drilling the skills needed to make the positions/techniques work. 4. Add resistance and positional sparring. Repeat that for long time as you start to take it live. One DVD I might dedicate 2 or 3 months to and keep revisiting it for a month at a time in the future.
I do the same, I pick something to work on based on weaknesses or desired specialization in my game and make step-by-step notes into a word doc or PPTs of the Danaher DVDs. I then do 1-3mo blocks of trying to elevate that portion of my game.
I don't know if I was arrogant or naive that I thought I could watch an instructional without taking notes and successfully apply in class what I had learned. Fortunately, I learned the error of my ways! Regardless of the quality of my notes, I feel like the act of having to slow down the video and pick up on specific details in a step-by-step manner helps me retain the information better.
Fully agree. White Belt here that recently invested in a few private lessons. I had no clue what to ask and when my Coach asked me what I wanted, I just said I figured he knew already. So he said let's roll a little and he'll find stuff. He certainly did and it was a good session, but next time I came to him with specifics and that session was even better. I also got videos specifically for my basics and fundamentals and they're perfect. Not super flashy and doesn't require much athleticism but it's actually perfect because I'm still having difficulties remembering these when I get in a pinch.
Chewy is right. When I roll I typically get to the mount but I kept getting caught in lock down. I studied the instructional section on maintaining the mount and getting out of the lock down. It helped me tremendously and I’m getting way more submissions.
Most people don't stay for the later class at my gym, so it ends being basically a private for the 3 ish of us 😅. Not sure why more people don't stay for the extra focus and lessons
Word. My instructor is really gracious with his time and lets students stay and roll after class and sticks around to roll or help out with questions. It's super helpful for any questions outside the scope of the daily lesson.
I go to the 6 am class and there’s usually only a handful of guys there. It’s very nice getting that extra attention that you don’t get in a larger class
ThOse are the best classes. I paid $20 mat fee the other day & it was one another person.. $20 for 2nd degree black belt, I’ll take it every time 😀🤙🏽😅!!
Just started BJJ at age 40 and I wanted more private lessons. I simply show up for the morning classes and there’s no more than 8 people that shows up and still 4 professors. Also, the advanced classes only have about 12 people or so from what I’ve seen. Simply put, once I get to where I can show up to more than the fundamental classes, I’ll have both morning classes and advanced classes where I pretty much get a much closer and in depth training regimen. No need to buy private lessons when I’m basically already getting them. All I need now is a few rolling buddies that can meet up at a local gym to roll on the mats outside the academy.
If you don’t know what to study, you aren’t training. I study whatever was a problem in training. Each training I find that one to 10 things that didn’t work for me or I didn’t know. I study those things and find answers. Next training I do them and get better, but find 1-10 things that didn’t work or I didn’t know. So I keep going! And it never ends.
We have a black belt at my gym that would show me little things here and there because he sees my game as similar to his. I ended up getting privates from him and Iv learned so much in just 2 hours of privates. 100% worth the money in my case.
Great discussion! And you have some pretty cool artwork behind you Chewy!! I live in Vegas but couldn't attend this year's ADCC 2022. I trust you enjoyed yourself!!! I'll begin rolling again after taking some time off due to many things. Be cool,, thanks for your uploads.. OSS!
This is something I never really considered. I have gone to a limited number of classes. It seems like I do a couple classes, and then get called out of work for a few weeks. Come home, take a couple classes, and get called out of town for a few weeks. It's pretty frustrating to me, and probably to the local gym. I thought about getting lessons thinking it would "maximize" the time I could actually spend on BJJ. But I had (have) the mindset mentioned above--I didn't know what I wanted out of the lessons other than fixing how bad I was at doing takedowns. :)
100%. Chewy knows best - I did privates only first 10 months after restarting at 49 and it was a combination of following his suggestions regarding what to work on, trouble shooting problems I found rolling with my instructor, and cool moves I found on RUclips - he always had a great tweak to make it work or work better…I’ve picked up a lot from instructionals as well by Stephan Kesting, Danaher, Travis Steven, etc. Really enjoying an old Roy Dean one now for purple belts.
Great advice i always ask my private salsa students what do u wanna work on;) I wanna serve them… its the moment where they can work on their specific weakness
I remember explaining this way. If you’re trouble shooting yourself then keep at it keep experimenting. If you’re working on something and you don’t know why you’re messing up or you have something you want help on then privates help. If you want to learn something new completely then maybe an instructional is a good starting point then you need to play with it.
Good advice Chewy. I think the hardest part of being a white belt is getting smashed and submitted a lot and resisting the urge to tell yourself you are terrible over and over again. My best advice and this applies to all skill building.. Show up and work hard. 🤙
I've been training 2 years now, all of that time in my friends spare bedroom, hes a 12 year blue belt lived in the woods like me for 8 of those years so there aren't any close gyms. Been lucky to almost have private lessons that entire time, we get other people time to time, im about to finally get my first instructionals like Gordon Ryan's pin escapes.
I agree to a level. I take privates from a guy who specializes in footlocks/healhooks/knee bars/leglocks. My top and bottom game are reasonably good. Still working on my take down game with judo/wrestling .
My sensei that does private lessons tells people how they should do main classes more first and save privates for fine tuning, in a sense Instead of spending the money on privates not knowing what needs adjusting, learn in class first
I think the hardest part of Jujitsu is trying to figure out what to work on. Like I don’t even have the vocabulary sometimes to figure out what I’m bad at.
I'm in my mid 50s and enrolled for a little over a year in a great academy. I started having issues with my knuckles (obviously from overgripping) and as a performing guitarist this isn't good, so dropped out of classes and am only doing privates. I'll do this untill I figure out how to grip and use my hands without compromising my first love of music. If i can figure it out, I'll go back to classes, if not, at least I'm still doing something in jiujitsu vs. giving it up.
It depends one what you want. If you’re a white belt trying to learn the fundamentals, it’ll probably speed up the process significantly. But it’s much for useful if you know exactly what you want. I took privates with a coral belt, and it has helped me significantly and I’m giving purple belts a hard roll (I’m a 1 stripe blue), but I went in knowing exactly what I wanted to learn.
Gordon and Danaher’s instructionals changed my mind. They’re around 10 hours, and rather than just showing they break down EVEN detail. 10 hours on the body lock pass alone has made it a pass I’d never used to passing people I’ve never passed multiple times in a class. Most instructionals are super athletes who got the technique on the first try, and they don’t know to mention the mistakes that are common. Danaher can teach a room and the most unathletic person who’s a slow learner will get it. Great athletes don’t always make great teachers, Gordon absolutely is but Danaher has a gift of articulating how and why each tiny movement is important to make a technique work.
I’ll be starting private lessons as a beginner. I was abused and assaulted I believe private lessons are useful for that as well to get use to the physical contact and defeat the fears of being in those positions. I’ll be working with the head instructors wife that’s a black belt too so it’s not so intimidating then work with the head instructor to help towards so not intimidated to work with the men. So when finally do a class it’s not so scary and intimidating getting close and working with others that you just met.
I do privates with my coach a good bit. If it’s something I am wanting to work on we will go over that. A lot of times he watches me roll during class or open mat. He will address the issues he saw me having. That’s how I normally take privates. Addressing the areas he saw me having issues. Getting ready for competitions it’s more going over chaining submissions and positions. Like setting Kimora trap then transitioning to north south choke back Kimora then head and arm. Basically chaining everything together so I’m constantly attacking but getting really good at setting traps for transitions. I normally do 2 privates a week
Instructional videos help activate your mirror neurons and keep you in the mindset of how to move. Watching technique and watching others grapple is SO underrated. I remember sitting out a few rounds during open mat one day, watching a friend hit the guillotine over and over again. I kept thinking “I never get that one”. Then when we rolled in class later, I got it on the guy I was rolling with, without really thinking about it! Crazy how the mind works. One on ones I use to drill stuff into muscle memory. Choose a few problem areas, rep out the technique until I could do it in my sleep, and lock it in the muscle memory. I need to do a lot more of these. The nice thing is too, if you’re not looking to pick up any new skills but just fine tune existing ones - you don’t necessarily have to pay for this. Just make friends with somebody and set some time aside to come in and drill it during open mat. Not sure what to work? Go to competition! You’ll know EXACTLY what you need to work on after ya get your cheeks clapped by someone better than you. (Like I did last weekend.) Humbling, but it’ll either inspire you to quit or to cut the 💩 and start working on those blind spots you’ve been slacking on.
If you have a problem with something specific like finishing after taking someone’s back, no matter how many videos you watch, I’d say it’s time to reach out for privates. Usually though, talking through things with your classmates will almost always get you over the hump.
I like to focus on what I dislike the most. If a position or situation is something I dread, it's because I don't have confidence in my skills in order to comfortably deal with it. I remember letting everyone start with holding me in side control for several months. Now, it's not such of a big deal with most everyone. The upper belts, well, yeah it's still not fun.
This video came at the perfect time. I’m blind, no head, no arms or legs and a shopoholic. As a boomer I knew those instructionals were overpriced and against my politics. I saw through my professors scam and bought (stole) all my belts at once and never went back to class again. Who’s laughing now! Qanon is a black belt
Two stripe blue speaking. Absolutely love privates! I think it's wise to learn in class, get some time under your belt... once you begin to understand your basic game and find patterns you like... privates are the best. I like spider and lasso... My professor has literally programmed his personal game in me because he plays... spider and lasso! My point is as soon as things begin to click, do a private. If you find that your money and time were well spent, keep at it. For me, it's been well worth being able to sweep black belts all the way to white belts. I'm repeatedly reinforcing my game and we get together and tweak it based on my experiences in class. 1,000% believe in the value once you start to, "get it" in bjj.
@@microwavetechnician7493 That's not what he told me, and I believe the guy I was rolling with. No ego man, he was surprised. I intentionally made a "mistake" and knew he'd try and pass in that direction, quick hip switch and grabbed his ankle... boom he fell and I came up. He was massively proud of me and told the professor I caught him. Not a gift... and yes I have been gifted position many times lol. Same with the brown belt, purple, and down. I have a sneaky sweep... they all don't fall for it now, but was good while it lasted 🤣🤣🤣 Edit: He swept and smashed me for the remainder of the round. He also didn't fight the lasso itself, which he fights and denies now days 👍🏼
I have only taken 1 or 2 private lessons in 3 1/2 years of jiu jitsu and that was only for going over my blue belt curriculum and refining the technique that was expected of me...other then that i just do trial and error by rolling
Instructionals can be tricky business. It’s honestly pretty hard or near impossible to download every single technique you see in a given instructional and many require multiple play throughs to really absorb almost everything. Then the matter of drilling/practicing it so you can actually apply it is a whole other aspect of it
Note sure what I'm paying the coach or school for a membership ? Just do open mat and privates save £100 on mentorship. Or pay a membership and your coach shows you all the techniques . Basically BJJ is for rich people that can spend 10k a year in extras.
I feel like a coach worth his salt should be able to, in the face of a student who doesn't know what to work on, assess their game and evaluate where their next best unit of time should be spent. If you're coming in as a new white belt that may be pretty hard to evaluate accurately.
Train with a purpose would be a better title for this video Mr. ChewJitsu. Both agree and disagree with your view JuJutsu is complex. In our journey we often get stuck in different situations. A private or an instructional dealing with whatever is causing us to get stuck can be the difference between being miserable and stuck or having fun and flowing. To each their own. Personally I'd take a private with Rickson if he was available. Whatever he would demonstrate would help my journey. We're but JuJutsu pilgrims. Some have gone farther. It isn't a bad idea to ask others for directions. Just make sure they know the Way.
I wasn't satisfied with my progress, wasn't going anywhere the first six months , started private lessons with a brown belt , in 3 months i could submit all the white belts in my gym.
The only video I ever purchased for martial arts was "Rex quando", which mainly taught me how to b**** slap someone if they're going to approach me with a lame sweep kick.
Nowhere. You can just open your Krav Maga school and start with it. There is no offical certified. Looking at most "self defense schools" you don't even need to know what you are doing.
Hi Chewjitsu funny you made a video and answered via email-I and am sure we appreciate the engagement. Your answer was helpful. One thing I will say is I’ve learned a good bit watching my kids’ classes. My thought process is if there’s instructionals that do approach learning the fundamentals in a systematic fashion-is it worth considering? Thanks again.
Hi Kenny, Fellow white belt with a wrestling background here! I've been training BJJ for 2 years, and through trial and error, here's what I've found to be helpful when it comes to learning outside of class: - Related to what Chewy said in this video about having a plan for your training, here's a video from Keenan Cornelius (Andre Galvao black belt, ADCC medalist) about the concept of "deliberate practice": ruclips.net/video/o6UEV2ZKAdA/видео.html - I don't have much flexibility with my schedule during the week, so I haven't given any thought to asking any of the coaches at my school about private lessons. So, I can only speak about my experience with instructionals: 1. In my opinion, RUclips is a mixed bag when it comes to BJJ techniques. As a white belt, I feel like it's best used to try to learn more about something you were already shown in class and have some level of experience with. Even then, it's probably best to stick to a couple of RUclips channels that you really like. At our level, I'd be hesitant to try and learn something from RUclips that's totally new to you and then use it in class. 2. I will readily admit I've probably bought an inappropriate number of instructionals considering I'm still fairly new to BJJ, haha. I'm not going to promote one instructionals site over another here on Chewy's channel. However, I will say that RUclips can be useful to preview what someone's teaching style and their style of BJJ is like, and then buying an instructional if you're a fan of what you saw. My recommendation would be to start off with buying an instructional on something like guard passing, escapes, or one that covers a specific position you find yourself in a lot and feel comfortable in (e.g., half guard, mount, closed guard, etc.) Resist the urge to buy one that only covers submissions!
I have watched over 10+ instructionals. Completely changed my game. Started when I got my blue belt. Back then I was being smashed by every other blue belt and even some 3-4 stripe whites. WIthin 3 months in my blue belt, after watching these instructionals, I was consistently tapping out all blue belts (some who had 1-1.5 yrs of belt) and consistently tapping out 20-30% of purples and only being submitted like 10% of the time. But again, I watched over 10 high quality instructionals (Danaher/Ryan etc.), going back to specific parts of the videos, taking notes, trying to focus on one technique for each lesson, reflecting on my rounds after class etc.
Bottom line is instructionals are only as good as you make them. Just watching them won't make any difference. What I like about them is that when you buy them you have them forever. It's like being able to have John Danaher teach you half-guard on demand for the rest of your life.
Training sessions with people who come with questions are always 10,000 times better than training with people who have no questions- both for the student and the coach.
Good point Ramsey. I challenge myself to bring questions to class. It helps the teacher teach. The teacher being a better teacher, I get better learning.
I did private lessons at my bjj club 4 times.
I'm a bit slow when it comes to physical movements. Coordination is poor for me and kinesthetic awareness is bad.
But my mind is sharp for concept.
So I did 1 lesson to get my head around basic positions. Then 1 lesson for basic attacks. 1 lesson for basic sweeps. Then one lesson for self defense applications.
The classes were highly focused and I prepared a list of questions for the instructor. The instructor was my employee for one hour and I learned quite a lot. I defined everything about the class. I spent 35 minutes asking questions, with pencil and paper and quick sketches. Then 25 minutes going over them again on the mats so I understood the concepts. I then went home and reviewed with my home made foam training dummy. I practiced what I learned in open mats over the following months.
I also did one private class with another student in a 2 on 1. It was a total waste of time and money. The structure was just like a regular class, but I have never been convinced that specific techniques are the best way to learn bjj as a beginner.
Since then, a friend who is a black belt told me that forgetting most of what I know (2.5 years off the mats due to injury) was probably good for my bjj. Haha
From him, I have learned: get on top. Stay on top. When on bottom, get on your side. See space, take advantage. No space? Create space. Also, grips. Find grips. 2 on 1. And grips never last long (no gi), so only expect your grip to last 1 second. Hence, make a grip with the intent to do something useful with it.
And the techniques for getting subs will come naturally.
2 months of that and I am way, way more effective.
I am still white belt, so that's the context. It might be very different for higher belts and might be very different for people who are naturally more gifted in physical terms, but are less skilled with the fine details.
as a Purple belt. I learned more in private lessons than in class. I will recommend that as a blue or purple belt, you SHOULD get a private lesson so that they can tweak your game.
After already paying $200 a month...no thanks.
@@BarHarborMoOse calling someone a Karen for saving money lol
@@FlowLai nah for sucking at BJJ and being poor
@@FlowLai you and Charles completely missed the point, if you can't afford something you simply don't buy it. Money is not part of the discussion here.
@@wxdTSU2brt come down
To reiterate what Chewy said, roll with different people in your gym. Take stock of your weak points. Are you getting stuck on the bottom of tight side control? Are people catching the same submission on you over and over? Are you having problems maintaining guard or maybe having problems passing open guard from a standing position?
Pick two things that you're having problems with, then go to your coach for a private lesson focusing on those things. You'll find that other topics and techniques grow out of those things you went in to work on, and you'll have a productive private lesson. Rinse and repeat.
Counter-point: as students, we don't know what we don't know.
I started doing privates with my professor, once a month, about a year ago. At first I think we struggled to find our rhythm because I was a white belt and didn't know anything. I came up with some topics for us to get started but we quickly derailed because he saw things I needed to work on that I didn't even know existed. To this day, I give him three-ish topics for each private. We usually start on number one and then start working on the gaps he's seeing that have almost nothing to do with what I thought we needed to talk about. I honestly think I get the most value when he's reacting to what he sees in my rolling, whether it's live or on film, than when he tries to stick to my agenda.
Addendum: I have used Chewie's half guard videos and at 18 months in, half guard is my go to and it's gives much better players than myself trouble.
What were some of the things you didn't know existed?
You're right, and I'm not disputing your point, just adding to it. We don't know what we don't know, but if you're far enough in to be doing private lessons, you know basic things like you need to escape bad positions, and transition via sweeps, etc. You'll know when you're rolling with people if you're hitting a wall. As I said above, maybe people are using a particular sweep on you a lot, and it's giving you trouble, or you just can't escape tight side control or mount with hooks.
During rolling, you should be able to recognize the things you need to work on, and go into your private lesson to work on those things. Then, as you and I have both said, other topics and techniques will grow out of those initial topics. Sometimes it's just a case of having the wrong mindset.
I think you're actually doing what was described in the video. If your problem is that you don't know anything, that's actually a great place to start. The issue is that a lot of people aren't great coaches, so they're probably going to do what chewy said: show you a couple of moves, and hope they're useful. As a result, a better question to ask, would be "how do I determine what I need to get better at?" Sounds dumb, but especially when starting out, it can be overwhelming to narrow the focus.
But the point is that you end up narrowing the focus and homing in on one specific aspect that you're trying to improve at. Without doing that, it can be really difficult to see any results, which makes it difficult to know what your problems actually are. So if you ask your coach how to focus on improvment, he'll probably ask you what you like doing, or where you are having the biggest problem. If you can't answer either of those questions, then you probably shouldn't even bother doing a private, and instead go to normal class, focus on a couple of rolls, and then reflecting on the question again. Once you can come up with an answer, then its fair to sign up for a private.
As a customer, I'd like for the coach to provide insight as you mention. As a coach, I am not a mind reader and don't even know the person's game or frustrations. It is up to both people to bridge that gap - as the customer, it isn't unreasonable to have specific requests, nor to ask the instructor to notice gaps they can help you improve - but gotta define the purpose of the lesson. Even drilling, I often correct my partner's posture - not with words so much as casually threatening them when they leave their elbows or don't maintain good posture without interrupting the drill.
Love to roll with the squad, but in cases when I'm nursing an injury, instructional videos like yours Chewy always help keep the ideas fresh in my head so I don't return too rusty. Mental reps are always better than no reps.
In some studies on sports psychology very well visualized mental reps have actually been proven to be more effective than physical ones. Although the specific one im thinking of was with free throw shots. I believe there is some carry over.
I took private lessons once a week for 6months as a blue belt and it gave me a sharp incline in my BJJ skills and the development of my game. Would highly recommend but not as a white belt since learning the basics can come in a class format over time.
My experience is the same and great advice 🙏🏼
@GregLurik Official You may be a fast study. They would have been less valuable for my derpy white belt days...
My method for getting the most out of instructionals:
1. Watch the whole thing first on 1.5x speed to understand what's in it.
2. Watch it and take notes in the form of written notes and making flow charts
3. Start drilling the skills needed to make the positions/techniques work.
4. Add resistance and positional sparring.
Repeat that for long time as you start to take it live. One DVD I might dedicate 2 or 3 months to and keep revisiting it for a month at a time in the future.
I do the same, I pick something to work on based on weaknesses or desired specialization in my game and make step-by-step notes into a word doc or PPTs of the Danaher DVDs. I then do 1-3mo blocks of trying to elevate that portion of my game.
I don't know if I was arrogant or naive that I thought I could watch an instructional without taking notes and successfully apply in class what I had learned. Fortunately, I learned the error of my ways! Regardless of the quality of my notes, I feel like the act of having to slow down the video and pick up on specific details in a step-by-step manner helps me retain the information better.
Fully agree. White Belt here that recently invested in a few private lessons. I had no clue what to ask and when my Coach asked me what I wanted, I just said I figured he knew already. So he said let's roll a little and he'll find stuff. He certainly did and it was a good session, but next time I came to him with specifics and that session was even better.
I also got videos specifically for my basics and fundamentals and they're perfect. Not super flashy and doesn't require much athleticism but it's actually perfect because I'm still having difficulties remembering these when I get in a pinch.
Checkout my channel for free bjj instructionals brother!
Chewy is right. When I roll I typically get to the mount but I kept getting caught in lock down. I studied the instructional section on maintaining the mount and getting out of the lock down. It helped me tremendously and I’m getting way more submissions.
Most people don't stay for the later class at my gym, so it ends being basically a private for the 3 ish of us 😅. Not sure why more people don't stay for the extra focus and lessons
Word. My instructor is really gracious with his time and lets students stay and roll after class and sticks around to roll or help out with questions. It's super helpful for any questions outside the scope of the daily lesson.
Maybe they have other stuff to do?
I go to the 6 am class and there’s usually only a handful of guys there. It’s very nice getting that extra attention that you don’t get in a larger class
ThOse are the best classes. I paid $20 mat fee the other day & it was one another person.. $20 for 2nd degree black belt, I’ll take it every time 😀🤙🏽😅!!
Just started BJJ at age 40 and I wanted more private lessons. I simply show up for the morning classes and there’s no more than 8 people that shows up and still 4 professors. Also, the advanced classes only have about 12 people or so from what I’ve seen. Simply put, once I get to where I can show up to more than the fundamental classes, I’ll have both morning classes and advanced classes where I pretty much get a much closer and in depth training regimen. No need to buy private lessons when I’m basically already getting them. All I need now is a few rolling buddies that can meet up at a local gym to roll on the mats outside the academy.
If you don’t know what to study, you aren’t training.
I study whatever was a problem in training.
Each training I find that one to 10 things that didn’t work for me or I didn’t know.
I study those things and find answers.
Next training I do them and get better, but find 1-10 things that didn’t work or I didn’t know.
So I keep going! And it never ends.
We have a black belt at my gym that would show me little things here and there because he sees my game as similar to his. I ended up getting privates from him and Iv learned so much in just 2 hours of privates. 100% worth the money in my case.
I’m exactly a year in to my bjj journey, and am finally about to try privates for the first time. Thanks for the video!
Did you like their privates?
As usual… LOVE the content. Great meeting your Jocko’s camp!!!
Great discussion! And you have some pretty cool artwork behind you Chewy!! I live in Vegas but couldn't attend this year's ADCC 2022. I trust you enjoyed yourself!!! I'll begin rolling again after taking some time off due to many things. Be cool,, thanks for your uploads.. OSS!
This is something I never really considered. I have gone to a limited number of classes. It seems like I do a couple classes, and then get called out of work for a few weeks. Come home, take a couple classes, and get called out of town for a few weeks. It's pretty frustrating to me, and probably to the local gym. I thought about getting lessons thinking it would "maximize" the time I could actually spend on BJJ. But I had (have) the mindset mentioned above--I didn't know what I wanted out of the lessons other than fixing how bad I was at doing takedowns. :)
100%. Chewy knows best - I did privates only first 10 months after restarting at 49 and it was a combination of following his suggestions regarding what to work on, trouble shooting problems I found rolling with my instructor, and cool moves I found on RUclips - he always had a great tweak to make it work or work better…I’ve picked up a lot from instructionals as well by Stephan Kesting, Danaher, Travis Steven, etc. Really enjoying an old Roy Dean one now for purple belts.
Great advice i always ask my private salsa students what do u wanna work on;) I wanna serve them… its the moment where they can work on their specific weakness
I remember explaining this way.
If you’re trouble shooting yourself then keep at it keep experimenting.
If you’re working on something and you don’t know why you’re messing up or you have something you want help on then privates help.
If you want to learn something new completely then maybe an instructional is a good starting point then you need to play with it.
Thank you for articulating this so well. I always feel a little smarter walking away from one of your videos.
This video could not have come at a better time!
Don't lie Chewie, you had to look that word up just like the rest of us lol
Good advice Chewy. I think the hardest part of being a white belt is getting smashed and submitted a lot and resisting the urge to tell yourself you are terrible over and over again. My best advice and this applies to all skill building.. Show up and work hard. 🤙
I've been training 2 years now, all of that time in my friends spare bedroom, hes a 12 year blue belt lived in the woods like me for 8 of those years so there aren't any close gyms. Been lucky to almost have private lessons that entire time, we get other people time to time, im about to finally get my first instructionals like Gordon Ryan's pin escapes.
I agree to a level.
I take privates from a guy who specializes in footlocks/healhooks/knee bars/leglocks.
My top and bottom game are reasonably good.
Still working on my take down game with judo/wrestling .
My sensei that does private lessons tells people how they should do main classes more first and save privates for fine tuning, in a sense
Instead of spending the money on privates not knowing what needs adjusting, learn in class first
I very much appreciate your opinion, thank you for sharing and continuing to post. OSS!
I think the hardest part of Jujitsu is trying to figure out what to work on. Like I don’t even have the vocabulary sometimes to figure out what I’m bad at.
I watch instructionals to strengthen my overview of a technique, like rehearse what i learn and cross reference it to validate
I'm in my mid 50s and enrolled for a little over a year in a great academy. I started having issues with my knuckles (obviously from overgripping) and as a performing guitarist this isn't good, so dropped out of classes and am only doing privates. I'll do this untill I figure out how to grip and use my hands without compromising my first love of music. If i can figure it out, I'll go back to classes, if not, at least I'm still doing something in jiujitsu vs. giving it up.
It depends one what you want. If you’re a white belt trying to learn the fundamentals, it’ll probably speed up the process significantly. But it’s much for useful if you know exactly what you want. I took privates with a coral belt, and it has helped me significantly and I’m giving purple belts a hard roll (I’m a 1 stripe blue), but I went in knowing exactly what I wanted to learn.
I just had my first private lesson. I needed help guard passing. He helped me set small goals and and steps to pass
Gordon and Danaher’s instructionals changed my mind. They’re around 10 hours, and rather than just showing they break down EVEN detail. 10 hours on the body lock pass alone has made it a pass I’d never used to passing people I’ve never passed multiple times in a class. Most instructionals are super athletes who got the technique on the first try, and they don’t know to mention the mistakes that are common. Danaher can teach a room and the most unathletic person who’s a slow learner will get it. Great athletes don’t always make great teachers, Gordon absolutely is but Danaher has a gift of articulating how and why each tiny movement is important to make a technique work.
That's good too, but it can get quite boring for me to watch hours of tutorials
I’ll be starting private lessons as a beginner. I was abused and assaulted I believe private lessons are useful for that as well to get use to the physical contact and defeat the fears of being in those positions. I’ll be working with the head instructors wife that’s a black belt too so it’s not so intimidating then work with the head instructor to help towards so not intimidated to work with the men. So when finally do a class it’s not so scary and intimidating getting close and working with others that you just met.
As a purple belt, private lessons have helped me make big steps at struggle points in my game
I do privates with my coach a good bit. If it’s something I am wanting to work on we will go over that. A lot of times he watches me roll during class or open mat. He will address the issues he saw me having.
That’s how I normally take privates. Addressing the areas he saw me having issues. Getting ready for competitions it’s more going over chaining submissions and positions. Like setting Kimora trap then transitioning to north south choke back Kimora then head and arm. Basically chaining everything together so I’m constantly attacking but getting really good at setting traps for transitions.
I normally do 2 privates a week
"I'll try to give you an idea to Chew on". I mean, I respect the hustle
Instructional videos help activate your mirror neurons and keep you in the mindset of how to move. Watching technique and watching others grapple is SO underrated. I remember sitting out a few rounds during open mat one day, watching a friend hit the guillotine over and over again. I kept thinking “I never get that one”. Then when we rolled in class later, I got it on the guy I was rolling with, without really thinking about it! Crazy how the mind works.
One on ones I use to drill stuff into muscle memory. Choose a few problem areas, rep out the technique until I could do it in my sleep, and lock it in the muscle memory. I need to do a lot more of these. The nice thing is too, if you’re not looking to pick up any new skills but just fine tune existing ones - you don’t necessarily have to pay for this. Just make friends with somebody and set some time aside to come in and drill it during open mat.
Not sure what to work? Go to competition! You’ll know EXACTLY what you need to work on after ya get your cheeks clapped by someone better than you. (Like I did last weekend.) Humbling, but it’ll either inspire you to quit or to cut the 💩 and start working on those blind spots you’ve been slacking on.
If you have a problem with something specific like finishing after taking someone’s back, no matter how many videos you watch, I’d say it’s time to reach out for privates. Usually though, talking through things with your classmates will almost always get you over the hump.
I like to focus on what I dislike the most. If a position or situation is something I dread, it's because I don't have confidence in my skills in order to comfortably deal with it. I remember letting everyone start with holding me in side control for several months. Now, it's not such of a big deal with most everyone. The upper belts, well, yeah it's still not fun.
Offer to help out with the kids class if you can...its amazing the amount of detail you'll pick up
This video came at the perfect time. I’m blind, no head, no arms or legs and a shopoholic. As a boomer I knew those instructionals were overpriced and against my politics. I saw through my professors scam and bought (stole) all my belts at once and never went back to class again. Who’s laughing now! Qanon is a black belt
Two stripe blue speaking. Absolutely love privates! I think it's wise to learn in class, get some time under your belt... once you begin to understand your basic game and find patterns you like... privates are the best.
I like spider and lasso... My professor has literally programmed his personal game in me because he plays... spider and lasso!
My point is as soon as things begin to click, do a private. If you find that your money and time were well spent, keep at it.
For me, it's been well worth being able to sweep black belts all the way to white belts. I'm repeatedly reinforcing my game and we get together and tweak it based on my experiences in class.
1,000% believe in the value once you start to, "get it" in bjj.
Bro no offense but those black belts let you sweep them.
@@microwavetechnician7493 That's not what he told me, and I believe the guy I was rolling with. No ego man, he was surprised. I intentionally made a "mistake" and knew he'd try and pass in that direction, quick hip switch and grabbed his ankle... boom he fell and I came up. He was massively proud of me and told the professor I caught him. Not a gift... and yes I have been gifted position many times lol. Same with the brown belt, purple, and down. I have a sneaky sweep... they all don't fall for it now, but was good while it lasted 🤣🤣🤣
Edit: He swept and smashed me for the remainder of the round. He also didn't fight the lasso itself, which he fights and denies now days 👍🏼
Always good content chewy. Super cerebral. Much love! #Oss
I have only taken 1 or 2 private lessons in 3 1/2 years of jiu jitsu and that was only for going over my blue belt curriculum and refining the technique that was expected of me...other then that i just do trial and error by rolling
Instructionals can be tricky business. It’s honestly pretty hard or near impossible to download every single technique you see in a given instructional and many require multiple play throughs to really absorb almost everything. Then the matter of drilling/practicing it so you can actually apply it is a whole other aspect of it
It works for higher level practitioners. For lower level like me, a white belt, i can easily forget all the tutorials I've watched
Private no, but the instructional DVDs of John Danaher will definetely boost your ground game if you drill the techniques regularly enough.
Bjj hack: become friends with the higher belts and they’ll invite you to train outside of class. Basically privates but with more fun.
Note sure what I'm paying the coach or school for a membership ? Just do open mat and privates save £100 on mentorship. Or pay a membership and your coach shows you all the techniques . Basically BJJ is for rich people that can spend 10k a year in extras.
I feel like a coach worth his salt should be able to, in the face of a student who doesn't know what to work on, assess their game and evaluate where their next best unit of time should be spent. If you're coming in as a new white belt that may be pretty hard to evaluate accurately.
Plenty of free instructionals on RUclips.
Watch Chewii video
No need to get private as a beginner , just turn in and roll
and watch chewi
My last private, I want to work on half guard......then it turned into doing rolling back takes from some different areas.
Chewy, whats your competition credentials??
Would drilling be more useful at this level? Either solo or with someone else, at our gym we can arrange times with someone to practise drilling
Train with a purpose would be a better title for this video Mr. ChewJitsu. Both agree and disagree with your view
JuJutsu is complex. In our journey we often get stuck in different situations. A private or an instructional dealing with whatever is causing us to get stuck can be the difference between being miserable and stuck or having fun and flowing.
To each their own. Personally I'd take a private with Rickson if he was available. Whatever he would demonstrate would help my journey.
We're but JuJutsu pilgrims. Some have gone farther. It isn't a bad idea to ask others for directions. Just make sure they know the Way.
I wasn't satisfied with my progress, wasn't going anywhere the first six months , started private lessons with a brown belt , in 3 months i could submit all the white belts in my gym.
The only video I ever purchased for martial arts was "Rex quando", which mainly taught me how to b**** slap someone if they're going to approach me with a lame sweep kick.
Every time I paid for a private lesson, the coach goes over stuff I really did NOT want to do. So I stopped paying for lessons.
What’s a feedback loop?
Who the hell am I to question Gordon Ryan when he says Brazil is behind in BJJ because they are too poor to afford instructional DVDs?
hey chewie where can I go to get certified in self defense tactics so I can be an instructor?
Nowhere.
You can just open your Krav Maga school and start with it.
There is no offical certified.
Looking at most "self defense schools" you don't even need to know what you are doing.
Hi Chewjitsu funny you made a video and answered via email-I and am sure we appreciate the engagement. Your answer was helpful. One thing I will say is I’ve learned a good bit watching my kids’ classes. My thought process is if there’s instructionals that do approach learning the fundamentals in a systematic fashion-is it worth considering? Thanks again.
Hi Kenny,
Fellow white belt with a wrestling background here! I've been training BJJ for 2 years, and through trial and error, here's what I've found to be helpful when it comes to learning outside of class:
- Related to what Chewy said in this video about having a plan for your training, here's a video from Keenan Cornelius (Andre Galvao black belt, ADCC medalist) about the concept of "deliberate practice": ruclips.net/video/o6UEV2ZKAdA/видео.html
- I don't have much flexibility with my schedule during the week, so I haven't given any thought to asking any of the coaches at my school about private lessons. So, I can only speak about my experience with instructionals:
1. In my opinion, RUclips is a mixed bag when it comes to BJJ techniques. As a white belt, I feel like it's best used to try to learn more about something you were already shown in class and have some level of experience with. Even then, it's probably best to stick to a couple of RUclips channels that you really like. At our level, I'd be hesitant to try and learn something from RUclips that's totally new to you and then use it in class.
2. I will readily admit I've probably bought an inappropriate number of instructionals considering I'm still fairly new to BJJ, haha. I'm not going to promote one instructionals site over another here on Chewy's channel. However, I will say that RUclips can be useful to preview what someone's teaching style and their style of BJJ is like, and then buying an instructional if you're a fan of what you saw. My recommendation would be to start off with buying an instructional on something like guard passing, escapes, or one that covers a specific position you find yourself in a lot and feel comfortable in (e.g., half guard, mount, closed guard, etc.) Resist the urge to buy one that only covers submissions!
Morning Chewy! Great video thanks mate. Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Where were you before I bought a libraries worth of BJJ Fanatics instructionals.
Do I detect a schizm in the Brazillian huggy-jitsu community?
Why would anyone pay for instructionals when there is RUclips?
structure
That’s just silly, next you’ll be telling me not to let my wiener do my thinking!
Excellent advice.
Anyone got an invite for bjj trackers?
Being verbose is verboten in the comment section
It's not about the farmers!
Just get Gordon Ryan dvds. All these coaches base their classes and knowledge from gordon Ryan.
Privates are a waste of time. No replay value.
>buy instructionals
>load to dropbox
>share with the team
>???
>win ibjjf
Go to class and get smashed,, over time and hours on the mat you will get better!! ❤️🩹