If you  are currently in the search for your future BJJ school in Naples, FL. Here are some things to consider and ask yourself:

1-) Do you want to train in a professional learning  environment  (clean, follows a curriculum, all classes thought with  a lesson plan, etc…)?

A lot of schools differ in this aspect. Why?Simply because is harder to run a clean academy dedicated to its student and learning than an unorganized one.

2-) Do you want to learn from a school that has produced results?

This is important weather you want to compete or not in the art one day.  A good Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy will have high standards and one of those should be to produce high quality practitioners and competitors  that are achieving results at the highest level of the sport. It is good if the teacher has achieved results as a competitor at the highest level, but not as important as what he is doing for the students. Even if you are not going to compete in BJJ belonging to a school that competes guarantees you, that you are not learning outdated techniques and wasting your time.  Competition is not for everyone, but every school will have people that want to compete and these people should be developed, encouraged, and supported if nothing else for the sake of having a benchmark for the rest of the school if the teaching methods and techniques are effective and working. Otherwise a school can easily fall out of touch within four walls while the rest of the BJJ world leaves them behind. Of course developing competitors takes also time and sacrifice and unfortunately a  lot of BJJ schools are run as  hobbies for a group of people to hand together while not paying attention to the new beginner who is clueless and needs structured lessons and guidance.

3-) Do you embrace high standards?

Because of the above, and because it is easier to give a martial arts belt to a student than is stuck than rather have a honest conversation with the student, a lot of schools little by little have lower the standards of what a BJJ Blue, Purple, Brown , Black Belt represents.

Here a couple of common scenarios:

a-) Main teacher gets old and out of shape and now his younger students give him a harder time, but because no one in the school competes he only uses himself as the benchmark for promotions.  Unable to see the situation from the outside and realize that he has lost his touch, its easier to believe that his students have now passed the threshold to the next belt. Therefore a promotion occurs. This is why is important for a BJJ school to have some competitors…its a good keep me honest policy for teacher and for the other students that don’t want to compete. There are many things that should be consider when promoting students, but one of it should be competency and ability to defend themselves properly.

b-) One of the students in case a-) above makes it to black belt in BJJ. Unfortunately for the BJJ community this is the water down process. It has happened in every martial arts in the United States. Why? Because having a black belt may now give some people the idea that they can run a martial arts school and make money.  Not that making money is bad, it is important for a school to have funds to be able to grow, sponsor, buy equipment, and so forth but not at the sake of ethics, and standards.  Nevertheless now this black belt  will promote his students with even a worst benchmark  and the downward spiral of the quality of BJJ being taught goes down the tube. AT one point one could make the argument that the school is not longer teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and that’s why some people like to use the term “real Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu” to differentiate themselves from other schools that believe that what they teach is the same as a qualified school producing results.

c-) A school is teaching some form of grappling based on a certification they either go online or from the Gracie’s. One of the beautiful things about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is that what makes you qualified to teach is easy to spot by a real practitioner we the see you practicing the art.  One cannot hide true skill or lack of skill when training with an opponent, you may be able to trick beginners but eventually the truth comes out. The Gracies started BJJ and we give them all the thanks and credit for this great accomplishment, nevertheless  their certifications online, and ability of people to get belts online are hurting the same art they started. It has come full circle. Do not fall under the spell of the famous Gracie name or a Gracie certification. Gracie affiliated schools are just businesses for some of the Gracies to make money and so are the certifications.