Instructor or Forum Buddies: Who Teaches You?

Let me tell you a story about Grappler X that decides to join a grappling gym after looking at a few MMA fights and a few episodes of TUF. After doing some research and finding the best school in the area (which is where every newbie wants to train), he makes his decision and joins the team.


After a few lessons, Grappler X isn’t too satisfied with his progression rate and decides that he needs something else to make him better. He’s tired of getting submitted in class and isn’t doing all the fancy moves that he’s seen on cable, DVDs, and in the magazines.


As Grappler X is getting dressed in the locker room one day after class, he hears some guys talking about a cool website where he can go and download all the cool grappling DVDs and a forum where guys get together to discuss grappling techniques. Grappler X decides to check out the sites and he’s completely blown away at what he finds. Finally, the entire encyclopedia of grappling from A-Z is at his disposal and access to grapplers around the world to give him the best advice on how to progress.


Months go by and Grappler X STILL isn’t happy with his progress. He’s knows more techniques than his classmates, but isn’t quite as good as they are. He has a better understanding of advanced techniques than they do, but doesn’t really know how or when to apply them. Since his skills aren’t developing and he doesn’t know what the problem is or how to fix it, he places blame on the obvious target…the instructor and team. If it wasn’t for them, he would be better than he is. So, he decides that the answer is to change schools (from the recommendation of his grappling expert buddies on the forum) where they’ll be more receptive to “his way of learning” techniques. Unfortunately, the cycle repeats itself and Grappler X runs into the same problem, only this time, he loses interest and quits grappling.


This story happens far too often and at every belt level when a grappler reaches that “fork in the road” to decide who’s going to teach them: the instructor they see in person each week or faceless grappling forum experts that dispense training advice, routines and instructional DVD recommendations, mostly while rarely training as much as they advise themselves.


With the abundance of grappling material these days, it’s very easy to fall into self-deception and believe that we can coach ourselves into top-notch grapplers. And the more advanced you are as a grappler, the easier it is to fall into the self-deception trap. And though there may be some exceptional athletes capable of doing it, they are the exceptions, not the rule. It’s the wise grappler that realizes that it’s better to follow a guide that has successfully completed the journey instead of listening to someone who “has an idea” of what should happen along the way.


The bottom line is this: if you want to be the best grappler you can be, listen to the instructors and coaches that know you on the mat (observing your strengths and weaknesses) and avoid the faceless, unproven “experts” dispensing their mat wisdom from the safety of their keyboards and DVD recommendations.