Episode 329: Have you ever had a Private Lesson with your coach?
Are they the secret sauce to boosting your skills, or just another checkbox for moving up the ranks? JT & Joey discuss the potential growth that comes from one-on-one sessions but also the ethical questions that arise when gyms link them to belt progression. With countless online platforms has this form of training lost some of it's appeal as more people learn BJJ on their laptop and phone.
From it's original roots in early Brazil exclusively focused on 1 to 1 learning to the evolution of large franchise schools, we'll journey through personal tales and the strategic nuances that private training can bring—think stock trading, but with more arm bars and less risk of financial ruin.
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Episode 329: Have you ever had a Private Lesson with your coach?
Are they the secret sauce to boosting your skills, or just another checkbox for moving up the ranks? JT & Joey discuss the potential growth that comes from one-on-one sessions but also the ethical questions that arise when gyms link them to belt progression. With countless online platforms has this form of training lost some of it's appeal as more people learn BJJ on their laptop and phone.
From it's original roots in early Brazil exclusively focused on 1 to 1 learning to the evolution of large franchise schools, we'll journey through personal tales and the strategic nuances that private training can bring—think stock trading, but with more arm bars and less risk of financial ruin.
Get Stronger & More Flexible for BJJ with the Bulletproof For BJJ App- Start your 7 Day FREE Trial: https://bulletproofforbjj.com/register
Stay Hydrated with Sodii the tastiest electrolytes in the Game! Get 15% OFF: BULLETPROOF15 https://sodii.com.au/bulletproof
Parry Athletic - Best training gear in the game... Get 20% OFF Discount Code: BULLETPROOF20 https://parryathletics.com/collections/new-arrivals
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Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. Thank you, thank all of you, for all of you who have gotten on board, you have liked, you have subscribed, you've given us a five-star rating and we love you for that, and so we usually do the ask. But now is the time to give the praise, the thanks and the appreciation for all of you taking the time to make the effort to help us out. So thanks. The reviews and subscribers are growing. However, however, fam shit, what we haven't hit. A thousand five star likes, right, it's gone. My earphones are up. Yeah, I'm coming down now. Baby, he's moving down in the earphones. Oh shit's intense today. I'll wait, I have control over the intensity you do. But yeah, we started with like a few hundred. Yeah, it's gone up like 250. That's mad, which is great, so good. And roughly how many people listen to an episode every month? Tens of thousands, right? Yeah, like 30, 50,000? Over 50,000 people, all right. So I'm going to say that probably let's be liberal and say half of you think we're dickheads and you just listen to the show because you want to hear it crash and burn. Fair enough, I don't expect you to give us a five-star review. However, there's 20-odd thousand. No, we're not. Let's say that it's been a fucking I don't know. Let's say there's 5,000 people that are like I don't want you guys to crash and burn, I'd like you to stick around. I'm going to leave you a five-star review. Please go and do that now. Yes, it goes so far for us. It's huge Legends. Thank you, all right.
Speaker 1:So BJJ private lessons. This is a big part of jujitsu culture. Coaches offer them like head coaches, as well as their kind of senior students offer them, and they are definitely a good way to man. Every motherfucker offers them these days. Everybody can get it and I've got no problem with that. Hey man, I spent three days training over at this joint. I'm going to give you some and you know, whatever You've got some information, share it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure, there's definitely opportunity for people to learn and opportunity for people to make money, but then also there's a bit of a greasy side to it. I had heard of two specific gyms one an international gym, one a local gym, where you had to do a certain number of privates to grade. If you don't get your 15 privates in, you're not going up a belt. Wow, that's kind of extortionate. You know, that's like you're paying for the like. If it's $100 for a private and you've got to do 15 of them, that's $1,500 for you to grade.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, yeah Okay. So I mean, look immediately to me. I'm like ooh, sounds extortionary, it sounds sketchy. But here's the. The flip side of that is that you're saying to people usually you're saying you got to come to classes in order to get graded. That's usually considered fine, like go shop to classes, but you're still making people pay for classes. So that extortionary mechanism is arguably still in place.
Speaker 1:No, it's just not as. It's just not as inflated, no, but okay, let's say you, okay, I, I hear what you're saying there. Right, but it is complicit in service that you pay your 50 a week to be part of this thing. That's what you do. Yeah, it's up to you how much you engage in it, because one person might pay 50 bucks a week and go once a week. Another person pays 50 bucks a week and they're there 12 times a week, true, so you're going to know that the person who's putting in big volume gets better, faster. It doesn't mean long-term, they're the best because they might flame out, right, but it's equal opportunity. But when you say oh, no, no, no, I don't care how many times you've come to class, you have to pay this money to pass this bar, that's a little bit different. I agree, I agree, but hear me out because this is not a I'm not being anti-private lesson here. Yeah, I've learned a lot from you.
Speaker 1:I've got another pushback on that. Please, what if and I'm looking at this from a fitness perspective like and I'm looking at this from a fitness perspective, like from a gym perspective, right, so maybe a bit more global in that way, say, you run like a smaller gym, boutique gym, and for you it's and you're the coach right, and it's paramount that you get structured, one-to-one time with students to discuss their game strategizing. You know sports psychology, right. Let's say you need, because you're like're like man, class gives a lot of stuff. I'm going to teach you the techniques, but for us to really get in on you, we need one-to-one time. Could a coach be like? Well, that to me is considered essential and in that way, privates and group, it's the combination of the two. I'm going to say like, not a private a week, right, but if you were like, look man, I want to do two privates with you while you're like every six months or every year, yeah, I don't think it's… Is that extortionary or could that be considered appropriate?
Speaker 1:No, but there's plenty of coaches that do that anyway. They don't charge for it. Yeah, they're the ones whose gyms normally close because they. No, no, that's not necessarily true. No, I get, I understand the room for it, right, because it's like the personal training of yeah, yeah, and I have built my career on personal training, right, that's, that's how I have been able to be successful is working with one-on-one relationships with people to help them get better at fitness instead of having them just wander around not knowing what the fuck to do.
Speaker 1:So I believe having someone work with you personally and guide you is really important, and if you're at a big gym, maybe the only way you can get attention from your coach in that specific way is through private lessons. Throw that fucking money, hey over here. Hey, coach, meet me here. Man, and the coach comes over, starts doing a lap dance what's your name? Again, two stripes right, that's right. Pretty much.
Speaker 1:No, I don't, because the the interesting thing for me has been I've been really lucky that I've paid. I've saved up a bunch of money, paid extra money to have more time with specific coaches, and it meant that I had better relationships with them because they knew my game so they could in class, tell me I don't do that, what do you? Don't change that because they just knew, yeah, I had paid and you've invested more, and so they usually invest more, and this is law of reciprocity. Joe, the energetic nature of money there you go. This is a thing right, and so like I. The energetic nature of money there you go. This is a thing right, and so, like I said, I don't want anyone to think that I am we're using this discussion to demonize. We're not.
Speaker 1:I feel like I've made leaps and bounds through getting private lessons. So, for example, someone like a famous person might be staying in your area for a while and they do a seminar, but you don't necessarily get everything you want from a seminar. There may be an opportunity to do a private lesson Now it might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing that the person who is the best at Spider Guard or the person who is the best at the Torreando Pass or whatever, you actually get to spend an hour with them them giving you all the fucking details that took them 10 years to learn and now you have that in your fucking pocket and you, you know it, and that could be really valuable, especially if you intend to coach and teach. You can be like I learned this from the person who invented this, or I learned I learned the delaheva guard from Delaheva the person themselves, you know. Yeah, so I think there's huge value in investing in private lessons, like I have benefited from it and I have also been able to help students when they've done private lessons with me.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, yeah, I think. Yeah, it's a two way thing there. They're investing more in you because you're like paying a premium rate to learn the thing. And then the other side is that you invest more in your training because you've paid more for this thing. You like really bring the focus and attention. You're not fucking around in that 60, 90-minute private. You're like I paid a lot for this, you value it, you care about it, and that's a really cool thing, cause then you start to value the information and you value your game and when you show up to training over the next weeks following that, you'd like value each opportunity to embody what you learned. Yes, like it. Really it does have many benefits. The of course there's always room for people Anytime there's an exchange of money or whatever, there's an opportunity for people to abuse that thing, right? But yeah, generally I think amazing. Yeah, and look, if you, I think the great thing about jiu-jitsu now is it has been democratized.
Speaker 1:There's people everywhere who are good at all different kinds of games, so you don't necessarily have to go to Brazil or you don't have to travel to the specific gym of that master practitioner, say, you could train with their best student who has a school in hawaii or somewhere in germany or something, and you're like wow, I learned great game somewhere else. Yeah, you could do something online potentially. Yeah, there is a lot more of that, like I've seen. Uh, atomic dojo our friend, jeremy Paul Skinner he's doing online coaching and breakdowns Nice, also, that's another like coaching. It's a coaching platform. Yeah, a coaching platform online. That's his thing where people are getting coaching, some pretty high-level competitors getting some input from him, because he's a very analytical dude. Yeah, you know, even if we look at B team, have a. They have their some tutorials on sub meta. Yeah, not only do they have their their content on there, they have breakdowns. So it will have Nikki Ryan breaking down his role with Ethan. Or here's me competing at this competition. Here's what I do here, and so it's it's more advanced learning. This competition, here's what I do here, and so it's it's more advanced learning.
Speaker 1:But I think what can be really good now is having somebody like a just it doesn't have to be someone from your gym giving you a like, yeah, digital private where you send them your comp footage and they tell you what you did wrong and what you need to fix. And oh, bro, see what you did there. You got swept. That was a mistake. Don't do that again. See when you got armbarred. Yeah, don't do that. Yeah, don't do that, cut that out. You're like fuck. Yes, thank you, coach, here is all my money. Yeah, here's 200. The repayments will continue for the next 36 months. Interest rates yeah, there's no guarantee on what kind of service you're going to get with any online business, bro.
Speaker 1:No, but that said, I I think there's just there's a lot of ways you can do it, because tell me how many, how many privates you've done like and like. How often did you do them? Pretty countless. Yeah, right, every major coach who I have trained under I've had private lessons with. Yeah, the only person who's hard to get a private lesson off is Lachlan Giles. Really, he's so. He's like no man, I'll just show you in class. It's fine. What? No, I want to give you money and I want you to show me the thing. He's like no, no, no, it's fine. No, don't. He's just really. No, cut it out. No, it's fine. I'll just ask me in class. He doesn't want to do private lessons. He's like I'll do the class. I'm happy to spend extra time in class because I'll solve your problem there, but once class is over, I'm I need to go have a nap. I mean, I got kids. I think it's just he knows what he likes and what he doesn't like. Yeah, sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think what you come to learn over time is that, especially if you've got tens and hundreds and potentially thousands of people over the year asking you for a private lesson, you've only got so much time right, oh yeah. So really you want to get a room full of really astute people who pick up whatever the fuck you're putting down, and you know it doesn't have to be a huge mat but like, say, 10 or 20 people are quick learners. You show the thing, they look, they ask questions, they do it. You know what I mean. Like that's the kind of learner he's going for. And I know Lockie teaches big seminars and he teaches to broader classes but in terms of his input he prefers.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I also think in some ways jujitsu doesn't necessarily lend itself to one-to-one being the most effective format. Often, like, I think like two or three to one can be really nice, yeah, but sometimes you can give someone some information like I'm struggling with this. You're like cool, here's what I want you to do. And it's not a case of let's practice reps of that today it's like now go away and work with that information and then let's you know, let's check back in. So I mean there's a gap here and this is this is actually something I want to bring up in this, but speaking to that point of when I was in brazil, it was always two to one and that is how it all started, apparently.
Speaker 1:So I was listening to robert trysdale talk about like the original format wasn't classes. The master would come and would teach you with a plus one Right, would show the technique on the plus one or the position, and then get you to do it on the plus one and they would adjust you Right, you know? And there wasn't. It was only taught through private training. There wasn't group classes. That came later in the piece, so early in the piece, so early in the jiu-jitsu journey, it was built on private. At least the Gracies built their teaching on private sessions, one to two, and that's how they taught private lessons at Alliance as well, which I found really interesting because it also gives a degree of mentorship to the plus one. They learn how to, whatever's going on there, and then ultimately, over time, that becomes a trade they can turn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know this, this idea of, um, you know, jiu-jitsu personal training, yes, but I think it is good for the individual who's trying to learn to have another body there so that the coach can step back and see where you're making mistakes. Yeah, I'd be like, no, no, no, hang on, do it again, but pull your elbow in. Or, when you're here, push the hip here. Oh, okay, now repetitions. Now, the way it's done is different gym to gym, instructor to instructor. That's what I'd say.
Speaker 1:I would say I've done, yeah, probably 1,000 private lessons in my jiu-jitsu career. Wow, in my jujitsu career. Wow, yeah. And did you do those back at white belt or did that come later? I did 20 when I was white belt and I probably did my most amount of private lessons at blue and purple. Wow, yeah, I paid you 20 at white belt. Yeah, for what? Uh, to get good at jujitsu, yeah, but you know what I'm getting at as in, like, they're like, yeah, to get better. Just keep certain things I didn't understand certain things Right, so it's like reviewing stuff that you were working on in class. No, no, the way it was. So I did those with Peter DeBean. Shout out, salute to the legend.
Speaker 1:He had a very specific way of teaching. And he would go let's go to the position, show me what you're trying to do to me here. And he would go no, stop doing that, do this. Okay, try that. But then there was always a degree of think he was trying to teach me in a kind of in a, in a layman's way, how to think about the problem, like he didn't really have the uh, you know, pete's possibly not the most articulate bloke, he's very, you know, he's trying to get it. So you get it. Yeah, like that. So yeah, you know, and he, but he's incredibly intelligent, but he just he wasn't like a jujitsu intellectual, even though he had really complex, higher level understanding of jujitsu.
Speaker 1:Yeah, higher level understanding of jiu-jitsu, yeah, and one of the things he said to me which really fucking stuck with me, which highlighted how complex jiu-jitsu is, he said it's like trading stocks, whereas you place different bets and your bets are energy related. So you might be going for a pass, let's say, and you're putting a lot of money or energy there, but then suddenly the person reorganizes their grips and your stock's crashing. You don't want to keep putting energy there because it's not going to work. Yeah, you've got to have a look at what stock is now improving. Oh, I might be able to do this other pass, right, well, I might be able to do this other submission, so I'm going to put.
Speaker 1:But he's like but if you don't pay attention, if you can't juggle four or five things in your head at once and you can only think about one thing, and all you're thinking is apply more energy, just buy, buy, buy, you're gonna fucking crash and burn. Right, he's like you've got to be able to do this mental juggle of oh, they put their foot there, that's changed things. I need to do this. And he was really talking about being adaptive and paying, having awareness, right, and I was like, whoa shit, I never even thought about jujitsu in that way. You know, every time I've done these kind of lessons, the, the, the sage advice has been like a bomb drop, what the fuck? Like mind blown. So then I was like, right, I now understand jujitsu is really fucking complicated, but I still don't get it, you know. So that was a lot. See you next week for the next lesson. Yeah, that's right. See you, we need emotional content. Hit me in the head.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, man, there was a lot of me not understanding, a lot of my private lessons were me not getting it. Like I did five private lessons with Fabio Gurgel, 500 bucks a pop, fuck yeah. But this was right at the point in time where he didn't he didn't want to do private lessons anymore and then I think he made him like a grand and then you just couldn't, he just there wasn't an option priced out, yeah. But I was just super lucky that I actually got to do private lessons with fabio and 500, real, real, no, no, 500 like Legit.
Speaker 1:You want to hang out with that guy? It's expensive. I know a guy, a friend, runs a big gym, been PTing forever and his PT sessions are 400, I think he said well, my PT, if you want to do an hour with me, it's either 400 or it's free. So he's like I still give you know, coach the odd person for free, but basically when I'm not particularly interested, you're going to pay me 400. Yeah, I've, which is the price that you need to get motivated. It's very fair enough, yeah, and someone wants it enough. In a lot of ways it's the same for me with pt, like I'm kind of priced out, like I used to do it, but now it's like cost per hour. I'd rather reach help more people, right, like it just doesn't make sense, unless it's a seminar, really. But the the thing with Fabio, like when I think back on shit I've said like for some of you, you know, you I mean I forget what I said five minutes ago. But when it's embarrassing, you fucking remember. Right, I'm talking to Fabio Gagell. It's like talking Buddhism with Buddha.
Speaker 1:I had him in my close guard. He's like what's your best game? I said close guard. You know, I'm very new blue belt, it's like 2010,. I think 2011.
Speaker 1:And he was like okay, what do you do when they open your guard? And I was like they don't, what are you talking about? He's like no, no, what happens when the person opens your guard? And I'm like, no, once I get close guards over bodies hit the floor. You know it's like. You know I see red, it's game over.
Speaker 1:No, he was like okay, put me in your close guard. And he just stood up and just fucking like jaws of life, just opened my legs. I have pretty strong legs. I was like God damn. And he's like right, I've opened your guard, what do you do now? I was like oh, I've opened your guard, what do you do. Now I was like, oh, I do a bit of half guard. He's like no, all right, stop, sorry, let's talk about this. And he says to someone in Portuguese how do you say fucking idiot in English, filho da puta? Yeah, no, but he was really patient with me, right, because he could see I didn't have a clue, but I was super willing to learn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he said look, there's a big difference between someone opening your guard and you electively opening your guard and then doing the next thing. It's like you don't want to be the second mover, you don't want to have them open your guard and then you're reacting. You want to initiate, opening the guard and then be doing the next thing to the sweep or whatever else. And that's when I started to learn more about De La Riva and reverse De La Riva and all this stuff and I was like great, cool.
Speaker 1:And then, once we started to do that, he started to explain more of the philosophy of Jiu-Jitsu as well. So there was probably 40 minutes which was Jiu-Jitsu and 20 minutes which was like the lessons of Jiu-Jitsu and why that's important and why what you need to understand. I was like fuck, it was a bit. It got a bit spiritual. I was like, wow, wow, this is. It felt very important coming out of, like him saying those words was like wow, you don't need 500 bucks for those words. I value them, I value them highly. Please, any words he burps, try. Just. He's like try not to use so much strength, got it? Oh no, he never said that. No, he's not that guy.
Speaker 1:I actually saw bernardo maria. You see that post. He wasn't talking about fabio, but one of his previous original coach. Yeah, which I. I like that the quote. His coach said to him because he used a lot of strength. But he said do you get tired? And he's like, no, I don't. He said, great, keep using strength. I love that video actually, because he says I use too much strength. And, yeah, he said, no, do you get tired? No, okay, and he's just like because bernardo is renowned for being one of the hardest roles of all time, yeah, he fights to the death. That's his intensity, he's got that.
Speaker 1:But you know, I did a lot of private lessons with daniel terriban and he he said some game-changing shit to me which blew my mind. Yeah, like one of those things I learned in a private lesson was, he said, passing is just guarding from on top. A guard pass that's cool is a sweep from the top, right. I was like what he's like? Because he thinks about jujitsu in a 3d kind of way. So he's thinking about organizing grips and, yeah, how you do that. And his guard is phenomenal and he and I was really good at guard when I first started training with him. I was okay at guard. He helped me take my level up and I was really good at guard when I first started training with him was okay at guard, he helped me take my level up and I was trying to play on top and I sucked and he's like no man, it's just, it's a sweep, but you're, you're on top and I was like what? So the more I thought about this, it just really landed.
Speaker 1:Even though that sounds not very profound, well, you can take something from it or you can be like that's silly, that sounds. Yeah, I get the point. Yeah, so I mean that that was another huge like kind of breakthrough for me when I was thinking about guard passing. Yeah, right on, yeah, it's stuff like that, like it was just every time I would pay for a private lesson, I was like you're saying more invested, yeah, and so it felt like the lesson was more significant. So, thousands of privates over the years I would say a thousand, wow, that's incredible. So that would that would equate to having spent enough of, like, a house deposit yeah, probably, I've put it drops about 80 grand on private lessons. Wow, too much, too much, my friends too much.
Speaker 1:I did one private once last year, but it was good, right, it was great. Yeah, yeah, it was good, right, it was great. Yeah, yeah, it was mad, yeah, yeah. And here we both sit, one of us with a hundred grand, but I did just buy a house. Motherfucker. Here's me crying over rental prices. Oh my God. Anyway, that's the game, folks.
Speaker 1:But let's talk about your journey, you the listener, because you might be early to the game and you don't necessarily know where you've gone wrong. And this is where I think feedback's important. We've talked about this before in terms of coaching. Yeah, when should you do a private? Let's answer that question. So I think you need to have a base level amount of training in the system. You know, like at least three months to accumulate mistakes.
Speaker 1:So let me say this I don't think you should be doing privates from day one because you haven't accumulated enough mistakes to have good questions. Your questions are dumb questions. Your questions are dumb questions. Your question is like how should I tie my belt? Or oh, I keep getting kicked in the leg and it hurts. What do I do about that? Eat it Like there's a lot of stuff that will get answered over time through just doing a normal class, but then there will be absolute gems of knowledge which you will miss if you don't get feedback past a certain point, and I believe it's like a three to six months. You need to have at least gotten gotten that under your belt. Yeah, I think I would generally agree.
Speaker 1:However, I'd offer an alternative view, which is your like you go into training and paying for your membership is an investment of time and money, right, and there's periods in any kind of engagement like that where, for some people, they'll be able to, they'll be able to look at and go, wow, that was a. Really I got very little returns over that period. So I'm thinking of say the kind and next. This could be so many different scenarios, but someone who's like maybe a little bit uh bit not particularly confident with the whole thing, jumps into a gym, is finding it a bit hard to get things going and maybe that person has like the first eight weeks, like a couple of months, where it's just like all a bit fucking chaotic and they're not retaining anything, and maybe they break through and then it's like better and you could say that process is great. Or, as an alternative, maybe you did a private in the very beginning and were like look, I'm really, I'm confident with this thing. I find the classes are super hectic, I feel a bit overloaded and the coach, if they're good, can be like great, let's just simmer it down to like a couple of key things, so that and so in that way, you're like awesome. I paid a little bit extra for that one session, but now I'm like building on that week by week. Yeah. So I think, like you know, you can totally you could totally use it in that way say, which is maybe less technical, more kind of like, maybe to build a base of like confidence, to show up and like bring your best to class, yeah, and and look, it could be at any stage. Really, yeah, you know, like you can, you can have those phases at blue, purple and brown.
Speaker 1:Dude, my first private was at black belt. There you go, and I was like and it was with coach paul smeebert shout out, coach paul and I was like, man, I just, I don't know, I just need to cover some shit. And he was like, yeah, cool, and we got together. And then he's like, what's your guard retention like? And turns out I was making some silly mistakes. And he's like, let's just work on that, cool. And I was like this is sick. Yeah, like is sick. And then immediately I was like working my guard retention and making the mistakes less and like, fuck, I got so much out of that one session.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's the thing. It's hard to quantify. Actually, you might get five or six things that then just fucking jump your jiu-jitsu up yeah, wow, how come I didn't do this sooner, or whatever. But for, like, for a white belt hearing that, I'm sure they're like they cannot fathom how a black belt could ever need help with their guard retention Maybe, but I, yeah, maybe, and that's the reality of it. I mean, I might say the same thing, but the reality is that shit just changes a lot and there's always going to be gaps emerging in what you do, and so, like, at any point, like you said, it can be of benefit to go and get someone to shine a spotlight on your game. I mean, for me, I usually like to pick a person who's really good at a thing and then pick their brain on the thing. Yeah, which you do.
Speaker 1:I feel like you have a very encyclopedic kind of approach to JITs, like you know what everyone does, you know this and you like to know. I'm very different in that way where I'm, because I just simply don't think I could absorb and recall. So I so I'm like, nah, fuck, I just want like two things that I can do. Right, yeah, but like, your style is very, like it's really impressive the way you have that recall. I don't know, maybe no, it is bro, it just occupies too much space in my mind. I mean, yeah, you obviously put time and effort into it, you know, but but no, it is like I can. I can ask you any question on the mats and you'll be like, well, here's how six world champions would approach that. Well, yeah, well it's.
Speaker 1:It's interesting to me because there are so many ways to skin a cat right, like nikki ryan does it like this, or fucking Dante does it like that, or whatever, and so I admire all these people. I think, fuck, how does that guy do that shit? That's magical. How does he do that? And then I watched the video 1000 times. I'm like, right, getting it, getting it, understand it, yep. And then if I actually get a chance to meet that person like dude, you remember in this match where you did xyz like yeah, what the fuck there? And they go, oh, I just do it like this. Oh, my god, right, because that's the the devil's in the detail, right, like yeah, oh man, I just push, I just kick him in the hip like what? I couldn't see it. Yeah, I just boot him in the boom and it pops out. It's like what the fuck? I never thought to do that, right. And so we admire these people, but they're human and these skills they have are skills you can learn as well, and that's how I think about it. If it bleeds, we can kill it.
Speaker 1:I always imagine that I'm good enough to beat everybody, which is not true. But then I always like to analyze someone's game. I mean, you act like you're good enough to beat everybody, because I fucking am joseph wor. Speak like you In my day. No, no, no. But I look at a person's game. I'm like fuck it, I want to understand it and I'm like how could I beat it or how could I absorb that? You know, usually, I don't know in video games the ultimate villain not always, but back in the day, the final boss is kind of yourself. You have to fight like the better version of you. It's like kind of glowing, pulsing, fucking, exerting laser beams out the eyes version of you. You're like fuck, this is going to be hard to beat. So ultimately you are trying to beat yourself.
Speaker 1:But when I think about all the people I have access to and we have access to, very lucky. We all like to specialize in something. Me, I'm actually a jujitsu generalist. I try to be as good as I can at as many different things as possible. So I will go and talk to jeremy skinner about a thing. Talk to lachlan about a thing. Talk to whoever. If they're really fucking good at something, hey man, can you teach that to me? And I don't try and pretend that I'm as good as them at the thing, but I try and make sure that my knowledge is okay. There Got 80% of that ish, not even just 60%. So at least I can, I can hang with them. Yeah, just just just get it in my brain.
Speaker 1:So, for anyone out there, if you've never had a private lesson, I think it's a really good thing to do, because I mean, maybe they don't have that at your gym they most gyms do but it will, I think, improve your relationship with your coach, because they will start to understand what you're doing, which will mean and this isn't just sheer bribery like I give you money now you pay attention to me. It's not that they can see you give a fuck about jujitsu, they can see you care about your own learning and therefore there will be a natural bias for them to be like yeah, this person is trying. Yeah, you know. Yeah, they're being exceptional about how they approach this thing. Yeah, because not everyone does that. No, that's right. Yeah, that's right. And you're building more of a personal connection and that that's worth value to a person. Yeah. And then the total counterpoint to this is there's plenty of people out there who get good at jiu-jitsu and no private lessons, right? Yeah, I mean, joey's a pretty good example. Plenty of people out there are landowners with successful careers and also do jiu-jitsu, and then there's just those homeless jiu-jitsu rats.
Speaker 1:You wouldn't say it's essential. I've done all the privates. Look how tattered my belt is. I will tell you anything about any technique. Let me in the house, the guy on the sidewalk with the cardboard, we'll roll for money. But yeah, no, it's whatever you want it to be right.
Speaker 1:But, like you know, I've seen in the gym, like with strength training and stuff, how a private session can just accelerate somebody's growth. It can just put them on a trajectory. That's like because, for all those reasons we mentioned right, the investment, the new information, how they're applying themselves to their future training and stuff so it can be such a good, such a worthwhile. I mean, I'm saying that as I did that one, I'm like I should have done these more. Yeah, me personally, I think, other than learning new stuff, it's the feedback Getting the feedback and having someone up close to look at what you're doing and paying for their attention. They are also more invested than just in a normal class. Yeah, they are really focused and they really want you to get better, so they're going to. They really want you to get better, so they're going to give you better quality feedback. So that's the argument for it.
Speaker 1:Folks, the private lesson. It should be for you. I think it's worth a try. Yeah, but if it is part of your belt grading system. Just, I don't know. Maybe have a think about it, step back, have a look. Something to consider Am I in a cult? Are we all? It's weird.