Steve Maxwell & Xande Training & Rolling

Steve Maxwell is a Saulo Ribeiro Affiliate in Philadelphia, PA. He runs Maxercise and is the guru of grappling fitness, strength and conditioning. Check out his YouTube page to see more of his videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/MaxwellStrengthCond

Holy Hell, Batman. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu on Cable!

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Goes Mainstream, Nation Wide Commercial via Cable TV:

Pardon me, I'm recovering from being stunned and in shock. Half of me is appalled, perhaps amazed while at the same time I am happy, yet slightly sick to my stomach. Basically, I am confused.

It's late where I am. It's about 1:15 A.M. and I'm up late shooting out emails and surfing the interwebs. In the background I put on the TV just so I don't have to listen to my dogs lick themselves. The TV is tuned in to Comedy Central. On at the moment is Dane Cook's stand up routine of "Vicious Circle". He's funny at times, but he's a joke thief in my book. Long story. I digress.

Anyway, on comes a commercial the likes which I have never seen. It is fast paced with a hoarse voiced commentator rattling off selling points. I look at the TV and I see old footage from the "Gracie In Action" (TM?... of course) videos on my TV while graphics of magazine covers about the Gracie family virtually stack up on screen. The announcer gruffly says, "The Gracie family has spent over 80 years developing the most effective system of self defense the World has ever known!" An arguable and debatable claim, but I support it for the most part. (To see the commercial for yourself, go to https://www.graciecombat.com/flare/next . The video should be playing at the top of your browser.)

Then, Rorion comes on my TV and says a thing or two about how he created the UFC to test GJJ (TM) against the World, and later Rener (the Shamwow guy of the Gracie family; the Gracie Juice Bag) sorry Rener, I had to say it!)) and Ryron are also on my TV talking about GJJ. Madness. Pure madness, I tell you. They list all of the military and U.S. Government agencies that use Gracie Combatives (TM). The announcer says that, "The Gracie Combatives (TM) Course is based on the 36 most effective techniques of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (TM)." It is then stated that the viewer of said DVDs will be able to quickly learn and master what's on the DVDs from within their own home. What it boils down to is they are trying to sell Gracie Combatives (TM) to the general public as a means of personal and family protection. Now I am a former Army Ranger, but I never learned Gracie Combatives (it came about after my enlistment). But while I was in the Army and stationed in Hawaii I was enrolled at Relson Gracie's academy.

Now that I am running my own academy in Iowa (under Saulo Ribeiro) I get current and former military coming through my doors that do know Gracie Combatives as taught to them while in Basic Training/Boot Camp or at their units. In my opinion these military Gracie Combatives (TM) taught people are seriously inadequate with grappling and self defense. The problem is not with the student or the material that was taught to them, the problem lies with the military and the government and how much time they allow their personnel to train in hand to hand combat and self defense. As my former Drill Sergeant said to us on the first day of hand to hand combat training... "We are going to teach you just enough to go down town on your pass and get your asses kicked!" Meaning, you think you're a badass now, but you're not.

But, I am not busting on those military members that do know Gracie Combatives (TM). These people do have a head start over the typical newbie joining the academy, but they do have some bad habits to break once they join the academy.

Onwards...

Throughout the commercial are choreographed scenes of simulated streetfights utilizing GJJ (TM) in a parking structure, in a sandy deserted lot, on a grassy lawn (no footage of a pony tailed Rickson fighting on the beach, though) ;P. Of course, there is the "infomercial" staple of having bonafide testamonials from once out of shape and weak people who have since become empowered and healthy due to Gracie Combatives (TM). Did they get this way from the DVDs? No. These are most likely testimonials from people training at the Gracie Academy, not in their homes using the DVDs exclusively.

The commercial directs you to their website www.graciecombat.com . They will let you preview all 13 of their DVDs for one month for only $9.95 (followed by 3 monthly payments of $39.95 (not stated in the commercial)), or you can buy all 13 DVDs upfront for only $119.85.

Back to my confusion and uneasy feeling. We knew this was bound to happen sooner or later. The Gracie family has edged more and more into the mainstream since the day they arrived in California back in the late '70's. We should be happy that Rorion went from being homeless, teaching out of a garage and then to creating the UFC and having a commercial on a national cable station 30 years later. It's the American Dream, right? Sure he has his critics about how he went about doing it (some of the critics might be his own family) but lets not get in to that now.

At first I was cynical of this commercial and it's sellings of "false promises" to the layman. It came across to me as a sort of "Girls Gone Wild" type of commercial, sans the steel drums in the background. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this GJJ (TM) commercial was good for all of BJJ in both small towns and big cities. Setting the how's and why's of Rorion's achievement of the American Dream aside, his commercial shows that GJJ and BJJ has potential to reach far and wide. This commercial would not have been made without some marketing research that showed that there might be a demand for such a product. If so, then somebody near you (that has seen the commercial) may purchase it and realize they need to join a BJJ academy or club to actually train what's on the DVDs. That's good for you, the academy owner or academy student. You get more bodies in your school to roll with, and the owner gets more tuition.

I guess I always knew BJJ would go mainstream sooner or later, as the CBJJ and the IBJJF has a goal to make BJJ an Olympic sport. As America gets more and more BJJ black belts starting their own academies, the competition for students will amp up in the coming years. Commercials such as this could determine all of our fates. Like it, love it or hate it, in the end this Gracie commercial is a good thing for BJJ in the long run.

~J

Discuss...

Cool Training Song

I was listening to Pandora Internet Radio while I was working today, and this cool song came on that I had never heard before. It was called "Way of Life" by Dead Prez. Paying attention to the lyrics I get the impression the song is about Jeet Kune Do or some other martial art. But, they mention grappling in there some where, so it works for me. It's a pretty cool song that you can find on the internet.

When I searched Youtube and Myspace I couldn't find an offical video. But, I did find a video that a high school wrestler made for his Media class, and... it's pretty cool! Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvCSdf_Phlc or below:



I'm always looking for cool songs to make new training CDs. If you have any suggestions for good songs to train to, feel free to leave them in the comments section of this post.

~J