MMA is the real Jiu Jitsu anyway and we basically don’t see anything but solid fundamentals there, so all is in order imo 😄

should have a solid understanding of striking ,wrestling and takedowns. [...] Most people on this forum probably train all of this anyway

My heart breaks for Jiu Jitsu. Christian Graugart is absolutely correct, when he says they are playing within the rule set. Schools now primarily focus on that ruleset, to the detriment to the students. There are somethings that Martial Arts rule sets do to make their art weaker, and actual help get you beat up in a real fight. BJJ is now one of those arts. Teaching and actively rewarding the butt flop, not controlling the head in guard, etc, these are all ways to get your ass very kicked. I used to provide arguments to the trolls that would say BJJ is not street effective, however, now looking at the state of BJJ and how it is taught for the tournaments, I have become one of those people.

Fundamentals never disappear, they get 'rediscovered'. Whack on a new package, put out some marketing about it being a magic silver bullet, voila. I've seen it happen a few times and I've only been grappling for 20 years: I'm sure some of the 30 year plus veterans on here have seen many cycles. Not that this is a necessarily a bad thing. Repackaging can be really good, especially when it is somebody like Priit, for example. While I don't find it all that easy to pick up what he's trying to teach in a class (takes me multiple goes), he does a great job of building up systems taken from various sources. Eddie Bravo did a good job of that too, in terms of his half guard game at the start of the old Mastering the Rubber Guard book (the only part I still find useful).

Schools now primarily focus on that ruleset, to the detriment to the students.

These guys are just playing the game within the ruleset, can’t really blame them for that. MMA is the real Jiu Jitsu anyway and we basically don’t see anything but solid fundamentals there, so all is in order imo 😄

Our everyday BJJ classes have a self-defense emphasis, which means we include strikes, foul tactics, both gi and no-gi training, realistic weapons (gun, knife, and stick), and multiple attacker scenarios. It’s all sparring-based, so it’s essentially vale tudo with a street emphasis rather than the more traditional Gracie self-defense curriculum. When students want to compete in MMA or a grappling tournament, we’ll give them separate training sessions so they can modify their game for the sport. My professor, Burton Richardson, has coached fighters at the highest levels (e.g., UFC and Abu Dhabi), but he prefers to adapt his street game for the sport and not the other way around. [Let me be clear: I’m not denigrating those who use a different training methodology. This is just an explanation of how we do things in our organization. As the old saying goes, there are many paths up the same mountain.]