Greg Souders is the coach at the forefront of the drive behind ecological training methods in BJJ, and he recently shared some of his criticism of instructionals. The market for BJJ instructionals is absolutely huge, and most of the sport’s most popular competitors and coaches make a large proportion of their money from the sale of them. In fact, for many it ends up becoming their primary source of income that dwarfs their competition prize money. Although it might seem strange for someone in the sport to criticise them, the way they function is somewhat at odds with the way that Souders operates.
He’s actually been approached about creating them himself, but has so far refused:
“I’ve been trying to tell people; that’s why I don’t sell anything. That’s why I don’t have any DVDs. That’s why, when BJJ Fanatics approached me multiple times, I said no. The thing is, you’re asking for a plug-and-play method that I know won’t work. I’m sorry, but I’m a principled guy. This stuff is hard to learn.”
Although Greg Souders doesn’t sell any BJJ instructionals himself, he still tries to share his knowledge in a slightly different fashion:
“What I try to do instead is give away a free framework to change your perception of what’s happening. If we look at what’s going on when we entangle somebody, or when we grab a waist or shoulders, this gives everyone access to understanding. If we all have access to a foundational framework that allows us to see what’s actually going on, we can start understanding it through our own lens and use that understanding to create practice interventions that help our students acquire what we now know.”
He then went on to use one of the most popular instructional creators in the world as an example to illustrate his issues with them:
“I use Gordon Ryan as an example. He knows this, no matter what he tells you, because he does it. If I put my hand under your elbow and tell you to walk your fingers up, and I pair a 145-pound guy with you, do you think walking his fingers up is going to stop you from pinning your elbows to your side? No, it won’t. What if we’re talking about someone whose arms are like noodles because they’ve spent their whole life on a computer, never using their arms for anything but clicking a mouse? They’re not moving your arms either. So, one detail might be groundbreaking for one person but literally useless for another. What do we need to do, universally? We need to move elbows. We don’t start with specifics; we start with the general.”
While most of the instructional market is made up of elite competitors, most of the best coaches in the world also have a wealth of material out there. Greg Souders went on to use a man that many might name as the best there is as an example of the BJJ instructionals that he’s watched to form this opinion:
“One of the most interesting things I’ve found about (John) Danaher, because I’ve watched his material, is that he essentially gives you the entire eight hours of content in the first 5 to 20 minutes of his introductory speech. Everything else is just demonstrating different ways to do the four core principles he outlines in the beginning… So, it’s eight hours of method built on 5 to 20 minutes of principle. If we train ourselves to focus on those principles, we don’t have to spend eight hours on the variations, as they become almost redundant. He’s essentially repeating the same core ideas over and over, just with slight variations.”
That led to a pretty tongue-in-cheek summary of the problems that Souders sees with instructionals:
“Think about this craziness: you watch an eight-hour DVD about leg locks to learn that your feet either go outside, inside, or mixed. You place your partner’s leg on one side of your centerline or the other. Then, you use your rotation, their rotation, or both to gain heel exposure. I just saved you $400.”
The full interview with Greg Souders where he shares his thoughts on BJJ instructionals was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of The Grappler’s Perspective:
