Thanks for the extremely informative, well-written and appropriate post. As a white belt in BJJ I find that my excitement, curiosity and thirst for knowledge far outweigh my capabilities. Just as with previous learning paths , flying for instance , this openness can be a double edged sword because it makes people like me very vulnerable to dogmatic or outdated practices since any instructor, or blue belt for that matter, looks like a "phenom" from my perspective.

For instance , in my area there are no "no-gi" jiu jitsu training centers. You can go to class without a Gi as a beginner, but will never progress through belts, and will learn Gi moves anyhow. In addition, the tactics we use are competition/point driven and "no slam" rules mean that as a smaller guy I can take risks in sparring etc which would not serve me well at all in a self defense situation against a bigger guy because he would do what any brawler with superior strength would when I go for a submission from guard: pick me up and slam me on my head and even if that did not knock me out or split my skull open, I would find myself at a loss as to how to react and therefore, I think, much of the psychological and even tactical advantage of being trained (not that I am, at this point) would go out the window.

Just two quick examples: -Anytime I've mounted someone or gotten side control (before I knew these terms of course) in a fight, they go nuts. They won't trap and buck but will wriggle around like a freshly landed bass. My training tells me to posture up in mount but if I do this against a bigger guy, I'll be on my back milliseconds after I get mount.

-Being told to "turtle" up rather than give away points for a successful pass into side control or, really, in any situation. Again, I'm an amateur but feel that this is a bad tactic, even within the context of Jiu Jitsu, because it seems like you are risking far more (your back) just to defend against a side mount. I think we have all seen MMA fights end as soon as someone does this, and in real life someone can hit you a couple times in the back of the head and you'll likely be out soon enough. Even if not and you can take that, I'm just not sure what this accomplishes, probably because of my ignorance.

Finally, we pay almost zero attention to strikes under the logic that proper Gi form will neutralize the deadliest hits but I have not seen this play out well in MMA. More often, I've seen guys pull guard and get punished by others who have similar Jiu Jitsu skills but superior striking skills or perhaps just different training and/or points of focus.

I don't know what it is and it may well just be my own ignorance but it seems like BJJ traditionalist are falling in the same trap which plagued so many martial arts until their flaws were brought to light in the early nineties. The irony of this would probably be comedic if I was so not so emotionally attached to the BJJ/MMA world as a fan and aspiring practitioner.

I'm not claiming to be right about any of this but some of what you wrote seems to support my observations. Of course, you speak from a position of authority and I am only speculating based on very limited experience but I'm afraid of the habits which I am picking up that would be at best, useless, in an MMA or self defense situation, and at worst, counter-productive since I have positive associations with certain tactics in the gym and would assume that they are universally effective until I learn otherwise the hard way.

Anyhow thank you for giving us all some additional information about the evolution of martial arts. I didn't intend such a long reply but your post gave me a lot to think about. I hope some of the issues which you have brought up will be solved over time as relatively new tactics like rubber guard etc get tested and instructors/lineages start to embrace innovation rather than resist it.