Coming up through the ranks I could never afford to make seminars. It was all I could do to pay my monthly dues. I'm the earliest days I made exceptions because I was training under a blue belt. I was promoted to blue at a Royce Gracie seminar, and attended another by his brother Roller. Other than that never made a seminar.

I missed seminars at my school that I really wished I could have attended though... Sergio Penha, Terere, Eduardo Telles, Randy Couture, and Murrilo Bustemante all had seminars at my instructor school when I was coming up through the ranks, and I couldn't afford to attend. I certainly benefited second hand, though, from my more affluent training partners who did attend. ;)

I almost attended an Helio Gracie seminar once...

Would have been an honor to train under the legend before he passed on. My professor Greg received his black belt under Grand Master Francisco Mansor who is a jiu jitsu red belt (9th degree) that was awarded his instructor’s degree by the late Master Helio Gracie (one of only 6 men outside the Gracie family to receive the rank by Helio)

I used to go to a lot of seminars, but now I save my money for camps. Those are better: diverse range of instructors, loads of classes, awesome networking, plus I've made some lifelong friendships there, which hasn't (often) happened at a seminar.

Checking back through my blog, I've been to seminars with Rickson Gracie, Roger Gracie, Rilion Gracie, Rolles Gracie Jr, Carlson Gracie Jr, John Will, Dave Jacobs (RIP), Oli Geddes, Roy Dean, Vitor Estima, Michel Verhoeven, Nathan Leverton, Dan Strauss, Leoni Munslow, Yas Wilson, Vanessa English and Jamie Hughes. Best of those was probably Dave Jacobs (awesome human, great instructor, I still use a lot of stuff from that seminar), the worst was Rickson (overpriced and he clearly didn't give a crap, maybe I caught him on a bad day. I'm also still annoyed with him for then blowing off the magazine interview he'd committed to, so that didn't help, though I at least got a short clip I was able to use. ;) ).

I've also brought people to my club for seminars when I thought they were especially good, so that's been Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner, Ana Yagues, Charles Harriortt, Neil Owen, my old training partner Joanna Ziobronowicz, Gret Zoeller (she's awesome, so I also bring her to camps and travel to her seminars) and of course my instructor, Kev Capel.

Royler and David Adiv of course, Renzo, Royce, Rorion, Ralph, Cesar, Crosley Gracie, Sylvio Behring, Gene Dunn, Valente Bros, Eric MacMillan, Claude Patrick,
Ezra and Zach Lennon, Rodrigo Munduruca, Xande Ribeiro, Cameron Florczak and others that aren't well known.
Went to two of my own but they sucked and when I complained about myself I refused to give myself my money back on the grounds that I lacked aura. Lol

Been to plenty.

People pay quite little for training in Finland (mostly non-profit gyms here) so we don't have very expensive seminars either.

Back in the day they used to be really good (when I started 9 years ago), and were more like training camps: we would have good competing Brazilian black belts coming to Finland for a full week, and trainings would occur twice day. Our gym had mostly guys in to do this through our Brasa connection: Demian Maia, Felipe Costa, Comprido, Robert Drysdale. And never even the full week cost a 3-digit number. You got to know these guys way better after so many training sessions, as well as learned the techniques & teaching styles more properly. Other gyms had guys from whichever their affiliation was, like Alliance.

Back then we didn't have so many black belts in Finland. Now these kind of week-long "seminars" are rare, and visiting big names have them shorter and more expensive. I haven't gotten so much out of those. They are also not so popular here because people don't like paying much and we have another level of home-grown knowledge these days. :)

Best shorter seminars I've been to in recent years have been local guys/gals, who are typically very good competitors/instructors but not a big name internationally so the events are very affordable. They typically show just their A-game, which is the best kind of knowledge one can get.

Have to agree with Jun that I prefer the camps nowadays too. Getting to know people is often more rewarding than learning a new trick.

The big names that come to mind chronologically:

Several by Julio "Foca" Fernandes and Rodrigo Medeiros

White belt:

Vitor Shaolin
Leo Santos

Blue belt:

Bruno Fernandes

Purple belt:

Carlson Gracie Sr
De La Riva

Brown belt:

Marcelo Garcia
Cobrinha
Roger Gracie
Caio Terra

Black belt:

Caio Terra
Braulio Estima
Victor Estima
Carlson Gracie Jr
Lucas Lepri
Silvio Behring
Bernardo Faria
Franjinha



It's funny, while writing these down, I tried to remember a technique I had added to my game from each of them that I still use. I think only after my purple belt did I start to absorb something memorable from the seminars. Also, Estima brothers seminars are excellent. They really showed me some great details.

Yeah, that's my main marker for a good seminar, and why I only bother with them rarely now. Only a tiny proportion of all the seminars I've been to have actually given me something I have been able to not only remember, but add to my game.

Probably have done 4+ seminars with my coach's coach Tinguinha.

We brought out Cole Franson (Tinguinha black belt)

When at Masters Worlds 2019 I went to Otavio Sousa seminar. I like that his game is similar to mine.

Davi Ramos was in town for a UFC event and we got him to come to our gym on the spur of the moment.

Buchecha
Leandro lo
Murilo bustamante
Bruno fernandes
Fabio holanda
Pedro duarte

I started putting these up on my profile now that the function was added. Another cool feature to bundle your BJJ memories in one place!

Got up to 71 seminars/camps so far. (Camps with a few dozen classes count as 1 entry.) Honestly don’t know if that’s a lot or not. I’ve been training for a while.

Next will try to find pics for as many as I can... :)

The golden age of seminars was pre-Youtube. You could sell a seminar based on knowledge-only. Now seminars don't mostly work as a "learn new technical things" thing anymore. You need to have also something about YOU that offers value - being a extraordinary competitor or teacher etc... Another possibilities is that the whole EXPERIENCE (e.g. meeting and getting to train with new people) offers some extra value - case in point - GT Camps.

They work better if they either introduce some concept of mnemonic device or teach how to learn and / or train.

In regards techniques they CAN introduce that is either completely new (very rare) or new to that person and then they will dig into YouTube afterwards anyway...

Royce Gracie (I see him twice a year for the last 15), Matt Serra (Twice), Nate Diaz (3 times), Jacare Souza, Roger Gracie, Nathiely De Jesus, Matt Arroyo, Ricardo Rezende.... Those are some of the most memorable and recent. I know that there are dozens more I've forgotten over these 22 years, some with big names that I'm sure I'll remember later, and also with some great regional guys that offered a LOT of great information, that even though they aren't "World Famous BJJ guys", I still learned a TON of great stuff from them, I will always give them credit and praise (hell some of them taught better seminars than some named guys IMO)

I second that.

Not surprising to anybody I guess, but often the current competing champions are not the best teachers, and settle for showing something quite generic or random.

And typically people who run their own academies/teams, even no-name modest ones, are really good.

I've done seminars with:

Henry Akins
Rafael Lovato Jr.
Rafael Lovato Sr.
Josh Hinger
Dave Rosenmarkle (he's on Beltchecker as well)
Kurt Osiander
Chris Hauter
Dallas Niles
Demian Maia
Cristiano Ribeiro
Carlos Archilla

I've had a lot of fun learning from a lot of different people, and it's cool to me to see different ways to do different stuff and add it to the memory banks...

Carlson Gracie Jr.
That's it so far. LOL

1. Royce Gracie
2. Rodrigo Gracie
3. Rolker Gracie
4. Rob Kahn
5. Rodrigo Artilheiro
6. Amaury Bitetti 2X
7. Ricardo Liborio
8. Ricardo Cavalcanti
9. Marcelo Alonso

First one was Alex Monsalves, back in my Alliance days. I hosted him for 11 days while he was in our city. Great guy! A bit macho, like most guys of his era. He taught me a great pasta recipe. Among other things.

The second seminar ever was Demian Maia. That made a huge impact. Like all the other ones of his that I attended.

Another great one was Bernardo Faria. It was a huge honour. Such a nice guy.

Been to many Rafael Domings, Bruno Cuppari and Bruno Reale seminars. All great guys and friends.

Also Been to many seminars taught by Lauri and Elvira Karppinen. I feel lucky to have met them. Both have changed my life for the better.

Magnus Hanson blew my mind. Such a cool, grumpy non-wrestler with great wrestling. Hope to visit him in Sweden once this pandemic calms down.

Richie Martinez also blew my mind. Got to talk to the man a little bit too. Awesome human being. Caught me with flying omoplatas 5 times in a row just for fun, but still awesome.

Jyri Manninen has always had brilliant stuff to teach. Mostly nothing fancy (except for the ass hat guard), but always great concepts to study and try out.

Comprido taught some nice details on leg locks with the gi. And he whipped my ass at my brown belt gauntlet. Shared bread and lingonberry jam with him.

Roger Gracie taught great butterfly passing concepts. It wasn't a seminar, but it felt like a seminar. Learned so much within 40 minutes or so.

Martin Aedma a bunch of times. Always a pleasure.

Christina Barlaan. Not completely sure about the seminar part, I think it was only for women. And I was jealous I couldn't attend. But I did get to train with her and a tough student of hers. They were getting ready for Euros or something. Her attitude was awesome. We talked more about life and video games than jiu-jitsu. :D

Have had some great finnish black belts like Raimo Posti and Terho Virrankoski teach a bunch of stuff and gotten some good rolls with both. Always a pleasure to get beat by old school guys.

Aleksi Ruuskanen impressed me with his teaching style. Shared some thoughts and ideas with him too. A very smart competitor and coach. Tero Pyylampi taught some slick entries to honey hole during the same seminar. I think it was a Hilti camp.

I've assisted some local black belts like Tomi Kaarela and Aleksi Lohi at their seminar trips. Both taught some stuff that they knew really well. Solid stuff.

Almost forgot about Patches Childers! He always sneaks up on you with some weird submission. He actually taught a bunch of seminars on that topic. Awesome guy.

Been to too many seminars to remember all of them. Maybe I could, but that would take a long time and I need to go to sleep right now. :D

I see what you did there :D

Rener Gracie Seminar at Yokota base (Pricey, but I still use several aspects of his Triangle system)

Augusto Mendez in Tokyo, got to translate for him, great time! still use his modified lasso sweep (foot on the chest, not under the armpit to prevent it being caught, great details about driving your weight straight into the ground)

Igor Tanabe - up and coming young killer on the Japanese scene : he got me hooked on lapel stuff!

Takahito "Airforce" Yoshioka : passing system similar to Gordon's floating pass, and he's awesome with inversions and fancy bolo spinning stuff

Yuji "Okalock" Okamoto; famous in Japan for his special takes on the Komlock

Visited MG in NYC, Marcelo arrived when I left...still a good time (got a shiner from a fellow blue belt at the time, overly enthusiastic knee to the face while trying not to get passed)

Visited RGA in NYC, no Renzo or Danaher or DDS... still fun

Visited Bernardo Faria's gym in Boston, got to roll with both him and Aaron, fantastic vibe over there, super nice to visitors.

Ooo, there is an option to put up seminars on profiles? Excellent, I'll go fill that in. :D

And yeah, I think Jorgen is right: the value an instructor has to bring to seminars now is quite different to pre-YouTube and pre the explosion of instructional content. Just having technical knowledge is no longer enough.

we don't get a lot of seminars here in NZ due to our geographical isolation, and I've never been convinced they're a great value for money in terms of improvement. Sure, they're fun and its cool to meet and get a photo with a famous practitioner, maybe even a chance to roll. But its like watching an instructional that you can only watch once before it deletes itself. Maybe I just have a bad memory.

It's pretty neat meeting folks, for me, I feel like I've gotten my money's worth if I take 1 key detail or 1 technique away from it that I can use. Sometimes Professors will let you record the talking or demos, or at least you do it after. I bring notebooks and take notes, but yeah, the analogy of an instructional that deletes itself is very apt :)

I always ask if the instructor is ok with me filming it on my phone (which I would never upload anywhere without the instructors permission, just filming it because I definitely won't remember otherwise). That makes a HUGE difference. I do the same for private lessons.

Fortunately, almost all the instructors at BJJ Globetrotters Camps are fine with you filming, plus most of the classes get professional filmed and then uploaded to Globetrotters in Action (though not all, hence I still normally film on my phone too).

I haven’t been to a ton of different seminars, but the ones I have, I’ve really enjoyed.

Robson Moura
Israel Gomes
Anderson Silva

Sad to say. Most big name seminars are glorified photo-ops.

My rule of thumb is this, tho.

If I get ONE interesting detail out of the experience, it's worth it.

When you pay to attend the seminar, you're actually supporting the host (who often does this at a loss, especially for big names). Keep that in mind. I agree that it won't necessarily change your game and be "worth" it, but you are actually supporting your jiu jitsu community. That said, even if you get one technique that you absorb into your game, it is worth it from a purely selfish technical perspective. I'm the annoying guy that asks too many questions at seminars lol. And more often than not, it's payed off.

What I've always done is as soon as the seminar is done, while people (especially with a big named guy) are doing the picture/autograph line... I will go film myself doing the techniques with a partner, just so I can go back and reference it. At the end of the day, if you remember one technique that person taught, and implement it into your game, it's worth it. (There are certain moves myself, and some of the other guys will hit in training, that we'll call out the guys name who taught it in that same, shoot a jump shot and scream KOBE way.... Going for a certain takedown, and scream SERRA, or a jumping guard pass and scream JACARE.... Shit like that, keeping it fun, helps you remember the moves)