Freestyling BJJ?

[nxixcxk]

Hi. I took 10 classes of beginner BJJ in Boulder, CO and had to quit b/c of transportational reasons. I've moved to Denver, and the Denver academy is way out of my way, so I cannot attend classes.

I'm wondering: Is there a way to learn and become proficient at BJJ techniques w/o enrolling in a class?

I have a younger brother who would like to learn and we were thinking on ordering some instructional videos on BJJ, but I'm not sure how well this would work. (We would buy a mat and then practice on each other)

Is it plausible to become a great BJJist w/o having a teacher there to give you tips; and, are there any DVDs/Videos that progress from beginner to advanced? (I'd be nice to hear if anyone has learned BJJ through a method like this one)

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.

Nick.

[BadgerFu57]

I don't think it would be plausible to be a competition level BJJer without an academy and instructor, but you could still learn and become better with video training.

[mixwell]

I think you could learn from it but it would be better to have an instructor there to make sure you are executing moves the right way.. Obviously its better to be in a class but i would think you could learn a lot from videos too.. I dont know if you would become a great stylist but who knows.. also in a class you can roll with different opponents and get a feel for different body types. Each person I roll with in my class seems to have their own style when I roll with them so you have to adapt and execute different moves..

Hope this helps.

[Blue Wave Gym]

lol

back when i did mma there was a guy who was adecent grapplerbut could'nt go to class very often so he'd practice on an mass dummy using bjj videos and his submissions and positon were ok.I find it pretty hard to learn submission from videos/dvds and for me it's impossible to learn from magazines or books unless the photo graphy is great, my dad worked at a job with jeff doyle and he had like a giant book of submissions filled with actual snapshots of how to do them, kinda like a photo album of submissions I wonder if it was home made or store bought

[nxixcxk]

Hm, thanks for the replies, a lot to consider there.

The mass dummy idea isn't bad lol and it would give me something to kind of practice my techniques on. I"m sure I could just practice with my brother and in a few years, after having a lot of the techniques down, try to see if there are other people in my area who owuld be interested in wrestling and sparring and what not.