ready for the journey

[916familyman]

good day everyone. i'm seeking the professional and personal opinion of you bjj practioners and enthusiasts. i'll start with the facts, then i'll follow with some questions and finally with my choices. and hopefully some of you can give me some insight.

i'm approaching age 34, married, kids, a career, and a fat mortgage. i've been a fan of bjj since royce burst on the scene in 93. but back in 93 i was a broke 19 year old pfc in the marines and bjj schools were far and few. ralph's was the closest to my home at the time, and being it was ralph, i couldn't afford his rates. so i rolled with different guys from different bjj associations over the past 14 years. never really finding a true home base if you will. now that we have settled in an area we truly like, i feel i am ready (financially and mentally) to take that journey and attempt to reach my goal. and that is to be a bjj black belt by age 45.

now, in all honesty...is a bjj black belt in 11 years a realistic goal for an overweight, almost 34 year old, family man like myself? should i give myself a larger time frame? is a black belt in this beloved art attainable for the regular joe shmuck like myself? i may not have the youth and agility of yesteryear but the desire burns hotter than ever!

in my limited bjj experience i've noticed there are some stylistic differences in the jiujitsu itself. not saying some ways are better than others, just different. with that said, does a black belt or any other rank for that matter weigh greater in the eyes of the jiujitsu community if received from one intructor to the other? for example, would a royce gracie black belt weigh(respected) more or less than a carley gracie black belt or a pedro saur black belt? or does it really matter? does the quality of jiujitsu better or worsen from one instructor to the next? with those questions asked, below are the choices of instructors (that i know of) in my area (30 mile radius). in whom do i trust with my hard earned money and more than a decade of my life?

1. dave terry, a rickson gracie black belt. from what i understand no longer part of rickson's association for one reason or another, but still a black belt under RICKSON and fair prices.

2. cassio wernek, a competitor/instructor. from what i've read, he has won many titles in bjj. also, he is the coach of one the WEC champs, faber. he is also the most expensive of my choices. does more money, really mean better quality jiujitsu?

3. mario cerezo, a charles gracie black belt. do not know much about him, but he is a black belt and he is fairly inexpensive and does not offer morning classes. 411 anyone?

4. scott and brandon of groundworks jiujitsu, i believe purple and brown belts under rickson. from what i was told, they are the OFFICIAL RICKSON rep in the sac area. they seem to be a good group, but a bit pricey for non-black belt instruction. can they get me where i want to go?

[SamuraiGuy]

The amount of time it takes to get a blackbelt depends entirely on you and your financial situation/drive.

We'd all love to take 2, 2 hour privates a day like Cobrhina and get our blackbelt in 4 years and win the Mundials 2 years in a row but for most of us its not really realistic. And apparently not for you.

11 years you could definetly get one, its how long you train , how hard you train, etc... and trust me its a very long road... honestly, make yourself a goal of getting a blue belt, thats far more realistic, but its gonna take about 2 years of 3 times a week to get that, possibly even more. I know it doesnt seem as fancy as ablack, and nothing wrong with that as your ultimate goal, but start relatively small, and 2 years for one goal isnt necessarily small.

As far as the instructors you have to chose from, I cant give you any help there because I'm not familiar with them, what you should do though is try a class from each of them before you choose. You might find you like one and hate another one....


My advice is set the goal of getting a blue, when thats done, think about purple cause thats usually 3 more years after blue.

[WalnutCrusher]

I'm in the same boat

Hey man, I hear you, I'm in pretty near the same situation, but I can lend an opinion on the schools. Really, to a certain extent, it's just personal preference, and YOU are who's gonna make you good, but I have been to most of the schools on your list, and for my money, I'd say Brudda's is where I would train if I lived in Sac(I live about an hour and 25 minutes north). It would be great if Bruddas had a better building to train in, but there's no B.S. there, just people training HARD(I felt a barf coming or during part of some drills, and I was in decent shape at the time, and never had that in Jiu jitsu classes prior to that). I just had a really positive vibe from the place. Mario has trained with Rickson, and Charles Gracie(the guy who gave Mario his belt), trained with Rolls Gracie(many think he was the best ever-he died).
I liked the people at Cassio's place very much, everyone is super nice, but I felt less in an accelerated training environment, and more in a hierarchical socially oriented place. That's not to say that you wouldn't get "world class" instruction, I mean the guy was on Brazilian Top Team, and is awesome, but I think it may take you longer to get really great at competition level Jiu jitsu(maybe not longer to get "belts", though, but I don't know), but a great workout, and great friends are excellent. I didn't train there long enough to really say.
Have heard LOTS of bad things about David Terry. He's a nice guy, but a good friend used to train there(I never have), and said David was absent a lot. He's a fireman or something, and has to work weird hours sometimes, is what I heard.
I don't know about this for sure, but I would be weary of getting "trapped" by schools that want to milk you for money, while holding back the secret methods of how you advance in their system to keep you paying forever. I feel like if you work your ass off, and stay motivated to get physically in shape and really commit to Jiu jitsu, then you should advance at your own pace, not some chart of whether you'll have invested $2500 yet to get your blue belt or something. I feel that if someone is trying to make their livelihood from their Jiu jitsu school, then they could be more apt to try and "Milk" you. If belts are what you're after, pick an easy school, but if skill is what you want, it takes lots and lots of rolling with other skilled people, but not necessarily a black belt watching you all the time. Training with a few other motivated guys in a garage can be the best training ever. Also the worst, if you get injured by some jackass.
After having said all that, I would now say that the best thing is for you would be to just try the different places out, and go with what feels best to your own personality. There's also something to be said to a place that's close, so you could ride your bike and get in shape while going. Good luck to you, man, I hope you find a good place to train hard. You could get your black belt for sure, if you give a lot of smart work and dedication and don't give up. Give me an update if you find the school that's great for you, if you would. I would love to know about new places out there- the new Rickson guys look like they have some potential.

WC