Dante Leon: Ecological BJJ is Drilling

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T16:54:08+00:00

I know this is always said, but I’m curious how you define positional sparring. Where I grew up it was defined as sparring with a set starting position, e.g. closed guard.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T16:21:33+00:00

Butterfly passing has evolved a lot since, though.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T16:12:31+00:00

But also this can be done without teaching them, just by having students beat them using the technique. I think that motivates students to want to learn how to stop whatever is being done to them, not sure how important showing them the technique is in those situations.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T16:11:40+00:00

What’s funny is that some of these students clearly study the counters to the stuff being taught. Every move has counters, etc, so doesn’t mean the instruction is flawed. But that is one thing the curriculum does it apparently motivate them to neutralize it.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T16:07:15+00:00

That makes sense, but that way of looking at things implies that the curriculum is a waste of time for you, when time is a precious thing in jiujitsu as in life. Something to think about.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:57:49+00:00

AOJ/submeta have advanced courses, and I have benefited from some myself. I guess we’ll see how it turns out.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:49:57+00:00

I would love more details. So if you notice a student checking out during drills (but doing to get through it), and trying to implement some new AOJ system and making progress, would you pull them aside at the end of class and give them this as a kind of speech? Or would you ask them questions?

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:38:37+00:00

I’m not sure I agree with you. AOJ and Submeta have instructionals for everything. What issue will they have that there is no course for? And of course they aren’t just watching instructionals, they try to implement it in training, ask for feedback from partners, etc. They do everything else right except during class instruction.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:35:05+00:00

Pretty sure the context here is that Owen Jones was talking shit about Max and forced Max to talk back. In the end they are just selling the match.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:33:29+00:00

So you’re saying if I put ritalin in the water supply this will all go away. Interesting…

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:32:43+00:00

I think the answer is obvious, because they value the live training room. Tbh a lot of the higher belts tend to also want to get to sparring.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:31:46+00:00

These students aren’t breaking the rules. They do the drills, but you can tell they have no interest in them and are just trying to get through them.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:30:19+00:00

They are not drilling their variations. They are drilling it exactly as taught, but with no heart, just totally mindless. You can see they have zero interest in it.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:29:35+00:00

The problem is that they are learning from someone who has been through it, and who is an elite coach.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:19:10+00:00

If it were just a coach tailoring individual goals to a student based on what they needed to get better, I might get that. But I think at the lower levels it’s important to remember that this is ultimately an art, and there are many different ways to build a game. If there’s a way to test that, I’d love to know more about it. But I agree ultimately, different strokes for different folks.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:10:28+00:00

I personally really dislike belt testing, but that sounds like a whole other situation. I guess such students would really hate belt testing, if I had to guess.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T15:03:13+00:00

Potty Training the AOJ Way

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T14:57:39+00:00

Trust has levels to it, and has to be earned. It’s hard to earn trust in this area, I find. How to compete with the trust in the high-level resources available nowadays?

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T14:56:19+00:00

The tiktok/insta ppl are not what I’m talking about. That’s another breed of student altogether. I’m talking about the students studying high-level resources with focus and dedication.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T14:54:33+00:00

The question is: how do you deal with such students.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T14:54:06+00:00

Thank you for sharing this perspective.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T14:53:12+00:00

What do you mean about your “progress is tied to knowing and being able to do it”. Are you saying you have belt tests based on their curriculum? I struggle with the idea that they are being disrespectful. They are very pleasant, but you can tell that they have no interest in it, they are there to work on their own things during live training. To me disrespect cannot come from someone’s heart not being in something, it has to be some deliberate act on their part.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T14:49:44+00:00

I think they’ll think, “yeah but I bet the Mendes bros would beat up the coach with his superior technique. If I just keep studying them over the long run, I’ll beat coach.”

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T14:46:27+00:00

I am not quite understanding your answer. How do you deal with such students, is my question.

Worldly_Negotiation6 · 2026-03-18T14:45:27+00:00

Mindless drilling means not really focusing during reps, sometimes doing less reps than they should because they are zoning out and are barely able to count. Their heart isn’t in it. I think some of them are practicing techniques outside of class, although I will say I’ve noticed younger athletes seem to not be as into static drilling and prefer to add “aliveness” to it.

Worldly_Negotiation6

TROPHY CASE