I grappled with a few different ideas for this week’s concept piece (pun not originally intended). I will likely revisit some, but after another amazing seminar this last weekend, I found myself thinking about the impact of seminars on training. There are a lot of seminars out there. With monthly school fees and equipment costs already adding up, students may question how important (or efficient) dropping additional dollars on seminars truly is.
First, let me state, seminars can create huge, leaping gains in a student’s skill development. We will dig into why shortly. Second, let me confirm that all seminars are not equal, and selection is dependent on your personal goals in Jiu-Jitsu. Even for those that the cost is not a concern itself, time certainly can be. It may even occasionally feel like there is a cost to our bodies. Especially if you are training pretty heavily already. What determines how and when to put the extra investment into a seminar? Is it beneficial only for intermediate and high level belts? Can you make the extra time commitment? Why spend an afternoon, or a day or two, with an occasional or one-time instructor, when it is your direct instructor who best understands your strengths, weaknesses, and path? What will you be able to learn in one or two days compared to daily and weekly training? I think those are all great questions–to figure out which seminars to not miss, and prioritize your next best options to add as electives, but not to question attending seminars at all.
I often see students who are in the early phases of their Jiu-Jitsu studies skip out on “costly” seminars that will be “over their heads”. Very early on when a student might be evaluating what level of commitment they are going to put into BJJ, or if BJJ is even for them, this makes sense. Perhaps with the only exception being if the seminar is being offered by the head of the organization, association, or lineage. The reason I would recommend considering the seminar format this early is if it offers exposure to the very essence of the lineage you are evaluating being a part of. Outside of this specific association-based opportunity, I would say that so early in your journey, focus on regular and consistent training first, and find out if BJJ is for you.
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Once past the feeling out stages and finding that Jiu-Jitsu is absolutely something you will be committing to for some time (whether it is as a hobby for the next couple to few years, or an expected lifetime journey), I think this changes considerably. My first rule remains – do not trade regular, solid practice for sporadic events. This must be in addition to regular training. What does change is that I feel attending some seminars becomes essential to the journey. Not all seminars, but certainly specific ones. All-day or weekend intensives can provide exhilarating bursts in growth and help to avoid or break out of frustrating training plateaus. New partners and instructors can offer exciting new perspectives, especially in those times that the training grind can feel monotonous. So, how do we decide when and which to attend? Of course, this depends on a slew of variables from cost, to location, to external commitments. Setting those items aside for personal determination, let’s take a look at how our goals and journey will come into play.
…Since You Were Knee-High to a Grasshopper
In today’s BJJ communities, most students train under an affiliate school of the association’s head instructor. Sometimes this is because the top of the lineage isn’t even in the same country, let alone same city, state, or province. In some cases, beginning and mid-level students are learning from an instructor that may be underneath the location’s head instructor (brown, purple, or even a blue belt depending on the size of the school and location), or your head instructor may be a newer black belt establishing their own affiliate location. Only so many schools have multiple black belts to train under, or a regular head instructor that is a long-time black belt. By long-time, I’m talking about the Professors who have been black belts longer than the newest black belts have even been training. Unless you witness it among a variety of these long-time black belts, it is hard to comprehend how much knowledge is gained after 5, after 10, after 15 years of training at a black belt level. This is where true mastery begins. This is where seminars become especially important–exposure to multiple long-time black belts. Even if you are in the enviable position of being at the school led by the very head of the organization, or a school within the organization that has a long-time black belt at its helm, you don’t want to miss out on the rich network of knowledge out there.
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This is meant in no way to be a slight to the great blue, purple, brown, and newer black belts in the association. They are doing a great job and they are well on their path. As beginners and novices, we certainly learn tons from them, week in and week out. We often owe much of our day-to-day success to them. This article is more of a praise to the deep understanding, mastery and stylistic individuality that can be found in the black belts that are well into their second, and even third decade of Jiu-Jitsu, or the highest ranked Professors that are in their 40th year of training and beyond.
Professor Robson Moura often explains that as a student if you take just one position, one move, one important nuance away from a high-level seminar, then you have made it worth attending. Even early on in the journey, when that might be all you can take away from a weekend intensive, you are being exposed to high level moves and perspectives that may be a bit outside of your grasp. This is not a waste of time or energy. These will make better sense the next time you see them, or you may gain a more nuanced understanding of what your day-to-day instructors are showing. Later in your journey, you will be able to pinpoint exact lessons (be they philosophical, positional, strategic, or tactical) from these high-level seminars that created turning points in your growth.
You will learn that not only is the head instructor of your association the wealth of knowledge that everyone has been praising (rightfully so), but there are a whole group of instructors within the association that offer such knowledge. Even better, their offerings are not carbon-copies. They have their own specialties, their own styles, their own experiences. While this seems matter-of-fact, I still am regularly surprised how different some of the Jiu-Jitsu can be between black belts within the same association and lineage. Everyone adds their own style based on what has worked from them, where they picked up extra bits of knowledge and technique, years of honing go-to techniques, differences in body types and movement. Because of this, Jiu-Jitsu continues to evolve. High level seminars will have the added benefit of keeping you up-to-date with the cutting edge changes as they are happening at the top-level, and before they take the time to trickle down to lower levels. By the time that happens, evolution has already continued at the top-level. Seminars offer you a window into that level before it has moved on. Jiu-Jitsu truly has no end.
Eenie Meenie Miney Mo
If you are having trouble prioritizing potential seminars, I recommend the following general guidelines:
- Unless you have regular local instruction from your association’s leader, make your best effort to attend every seminar that is offered locally or within reasonable driving distance from the head of the association. There is a reason you are under their banner. One of my long-time, high-ranking black belt mentors from the Degerberg Academy says, “It’s a great honor that our tree has grown so tall and spread branches so wide, but we must not forget to water the roots, and make sure that they continue to run deep and hold this tree up.”
- If your association’s leader brings in one of his/her mentors or teachers, don’t miss it. Depending on the lineage, you may miss a visit that can only come around every couple years. Depending on the lineage, you may miss the last opportunity to gain any nugget of mastery directly from this (likely) very high-ranking instructor. Depending on the lineage, you may miss one of the last opportunities to have direct interaction from a legend of the art.
- If any of the long-time or high-ranking black belts within your association are visiting, try not to miss them. This is the best chance to see how widely varied and uniquely stylistic high-level BJJ can be–even within the same lineage. I’m telling you, it blows my mind even after experiencing it over and over.
- If a legend of the art or a current “big name” comes through and your instructors are highly encouraging you to go, listen to them. Even if not affiliated in any direct way to your association. Your instructors are recommending this outside perspective for a reason. Trust them.
- If any of the up-and-coming black belts or high-ranking brown belts from your association are doing something in a seminar format (usually at a bit of a lower cost and/or time commitment), go support them. They are building their personal brand as well as representing the association. Help them do that. Lineage is everything in martial arts and loyalty and support will provide you deeper access within your association. You will gain a network of mentors at a variety of levels. This is important to your development. Plus, one day you may be doing the same. What comes around, goes around.
- Following these, you start to have more of the “electives”. These might be seminars that take considerable planning (multi-day camps, flights, hotels, etc) and simply won’t be a viable option every year. These might be seminars that you would only consider if it doesn’t burdern your schedule and budget: seminars presented by personal favorites that are not part of your association; seminars that line up in other cities you may find yourself in for different reasons (work travel, vacation, etc); seminars surrounding a non-association specific event or competition; local seminars at other schools or gyms.
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