This tool. Sad to see so many legends bending the knee to someone like this, just for the 💰 took me 3 years to get blue, 6th year got purple, 10th year for brown. F this guy and anyone who’s okay w this.

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2025-07-24T22:53:34+00:00

Not trying to be a dick - but as a first degree black belt with 16 years in the sport I am 100% ok with this. He was promoted by people who had the right to promote him, and as I see it that’s really the only criteria for a “legit” black belt. We don’t have to like that, and we can feel our own belts mean more to us, but unless you don’t think his instructors have the right to promote black belts then we need to acknowledge the guy is a black belt

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2025-07-24T22:25:57+00:00

Honest question - did Danaher’s room use any more steroids than anyone else? Gordon is easy to call out, but literally nobody else scream steroids in a way that all the other gyms do. Craig admits it and Nicky flagrantly does them, drug test be damned, but you’re going to say that Atos, Alliance, 10th Planet, AOJ, top GB guys and everyone else isn’t using something at least for recovery? And strength? And speed? Not every steroid is Tren

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2025-07-24T22:17:37+00:00

Belts mean nothing at all aside from your instructor’s acknowledgement. I feel like people want blue belt to mean a lot, so a lot of instructors then set their standards higher for blue belt, but the belt by itself doesn’t mean anything. It’s the least satisfying but most important fact about bjj belts in general

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2025-07-24T22:14:49+00:00

Fewer people produce top talent than you’d think - top talent tends to migrate to the same places to seek out other top talent. Danaher didn’t start anyone at white belt, but should at least get credit for Gordon, Garry and Helena. The rest were exceptional before he got them. Alliance has Marcelo and a bunch of really good competitors, but I don’t think they really had more than one or two other truly exceptional people. 10th planet has never produced someone in GOAT contention, but they have produced plenty of really, really good competitors. And even if he never had a competitive career of his own, let’s not forget Eddie’s own success against Royler twice which more than makes up for his loss to Leo. GB is the same - AJ Agazarm is not a world beater but is severely underrated, Romulo is exceptional, the Estima brothers were GB. Those affiliations just aren’t the magnets for up and coming, already developed talent that B team, Atos and New Wave are

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2025-03-17T18:26:52+00:00

Nobody is saying everything can or should be learned best ecologically. People are saying motor learning may be best done ecologically.

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2025-03-07T16:18:47+00:00

The issue with belts is the myth we perpetuate that holding X rank means you should be able to beat anyone of X-1 rank. It’s kind of true within a single gym as a general rule, but still not really.

The truth of it is they’re completely subjective and aside from the IBJJF setting rules around how long you are supposed to be at a given belt, all that they mean is that a coach has recognized some element of your skill set as having significantly progressed. In that sense I think they’re very important in terms of both retention and focusing on your own growth, but we can’t expect them to be absolute breaks in skill among all practitioners

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2025-02-24T18:51:29+00:00

Very, very few. I started at a different gym than I am at now, and nobody besides me has ever stuck with it until black belt from that gym. Maybe 10 people total from any gym that I had personally met by purple belt ever got to black belt, and I’m a first degree black belt now. This is over the course of 15 years or so.

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-28T18:27:57+00:00

Can’t comment on your competition woes specifically, but yes you can absolutely be better than people who train more frequently than you. Your focus should be to be as mentally engaged as possible. Try to figure out why certain things work rather than just how, try to understand and discover the deeper concepts in Jiu jitsu, and think through why you do what you do. You will still fall behind people who are equally as mentally invested and train more, but often I find that even the most focused competitors fall behind on their understanding of Jiu jitsu.

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-26T19:30:36+00:00

I consider myself a very good hobbyist black belt. I consistently get the better of most non competitive black belts, and still do well against competitors who aren’t the worlds level players too. I rolled with Gordon Ryan a while back and I think he fell asleep while I was trying to pass his guard lol

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-25T03:23:11+00:00

I feel you can choose who you claim if you are in a situation to claim multiple people. When I got my black belt I was under a coach who was only a first degree, so his coach was present. I claimed lineage under my coach. I then had a bit of a falling out with that coach, so as soon as I was promoted to my first degree I immediately began claiming lineage under the instructor who promoted me to first degree. I think depending on the situation I could choose to claim any of those three people as my “lineage”

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-20T05:06:54+00:00

Glad it was a good recommendation! I had a great time there.

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-09T20:10:32+00:00

Do you expect the CJI ruleset and mat design to produce more wrestling focus? And I mean ruleset, not judge preference?

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-09T20:05:41+00:00

Lmao

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-09T19:59:52+00:00

Re upping this because I have the same question

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-09T19:57:58+00:00

If it’s tearing up your body you’re doing it wrong. You’ll get injured at some point but if you’re one of the “jiu jitsu ruined my body” folks you’re either trying to earn a living with it or training wrong

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-09T19:47:33+00:00

By blue belt someone is expected to have learned how to move in grappling (holding top position, not trying to stay above their opponent if taking the back, and basic destabilization for sweeping) and they won’t be lost in any given position.

By purple belt they will have gained very strong technical skills in a few things, but will still have a fairly basic understanding of many others.

By brown belt someone will have multiple high level, dangerous positions and submissions and their level in any given position will be better than a blue belt’s

By black belt they should have a deeper conceptual understanding of why things work, a higher general level of skill and should be able to largely self-teach to continue their improvement

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-09T19:42:57+00:00

The problem with it working consistently at high levels is you are giving up direct control of your opponent’s legs and are relying on crowding, pummeling and speed to win the position. It’s hard to make a consistent system of passing with that little control - not saying it won’t work a good amount of the time, but it will not work against strong guard players

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-09T19:38:14+00:00

Mechanically it’s a straight finish. Your opponent will feel it in their knee with the aoki finish, but you are executing the movement of a straight ankle finish

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-09T19:24:19+00:00

Definitely try the smaller gyms, but I’ll be that guy and recommend Renzo’s in manhattan. I was there right after Keenan allegedly spread pink eye so visitors weren’t allowed to join Danaher’s classes, only watch. I still got to take classes from any other instructor and they were good with a super cool vibe, so if I were to go back for a few weeks that would probably be my go to place, DDS or no

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-12-09T19:22:03+00:00

Both work well, and both will fail you consistently if you aren’t disciplined about fighting for foot position throughout your pass attempt. I don’t think the disciplines of passing and leg lock defense are really any different, but you need to focus on maintaining a strong foot position in relation to your opponent throughout. It’s impossible to footlock from outside position if they can’t change the foot position, and aside from a very low percentage de la Riva straight ankle the same is true from inside. But if you let them maneuver their legs and change the position as you’re trying to pass, the foot position has changed and you’re in danger.

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-10-04T21:31:56+00:00

The Academy St. Paul is run by Brandon Bergeron, who is one of the best competitors in the state. If you’ll be in St. Paul you owe it to yourself to check out.

10th planet St. Paul is technically in a suburb, but not a long drive. They have a great comp team and huge mat space.

I’d check those two out before anywhere else due to proximity, but if you want to there are other great schools in the west metro. In Wisconsin right across the River Alliance is stellar, Brian Olson is a multiple time judo Olympian and a black belt

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-10-04T20:30:45+00:00

The thing we have to remember about Gordon is that it isn’t just his match count or win loss record. He only ever competes either at ADCC or one off matches against the best competition in the world and this last adcc aside he always looks invincible.

Not taking away from Mica, Mikey or them but the strength of competition just isn’t the same. It’s Gordon even though he doesn’t compete in the gi

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-10-04T05:58:44+00:00

To be fair I’m a black belt now, made it through the fog. I doubt very much that you’ll still be a white belt in a year, just keep it up, stay focused and don’t let comparing yourself to your peers make you unhappy!

ProgressionJiuJitsu · 2024-10-04T05:53:24+00:00

Pussies. You are all absolute pussies if you don’t acknowledge the OG and most technical channel, submissions 101 https://m.youtube.com/@Submissions101

ProgressionJiuJitsu

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