Yesterday an article on BJJEE revealed that BJJ instructor Roy Harris now offers to grade and promote students that he has never seen in person all the way to BJJ brown belt 2nd stripe by email and video.  Payment are made by Paypal for each stripe and belt colour change.

The BJJ community reacted on the internet was mostly criticism. Roy Harris saw the comments and decide to answer them directly on this Facebook page which shared BJJEE’s article.

Roy Harris is an accomplished American martial artist, known in the Brazilian jiu jitsu world for being a black belt under Joe Moreira and is often (wrongly) mentioned as a part of the “BJJ Dirty Dozen“, the first group of 12 non Brazilian men to have been distinguished with the rank of black belt in this grappling style. Roy Harris is also known as one of the first instructors to publicly publish a formal testing criteria for jiu jitsu, formalizing his promotion tests from white belt to black belt.

For full biography, go to BJJ Heroes.

Here is what he said, answering questions:

“For those of you who disagree with what I am going to do in the future (because I haven’t done it yet), I challenge you to a professional and courteous debate on this topic right here and right now. As long as the debate remains civil, I’m willing to talk with anyone on this topic. I know I won’t change some of your minds, but that’s ok. Some of you are stuck in tradition (the very thing the Brazilians criticized others for doing when they first brought their art to the USA) and some of you just don’t know.

Also, before you begin your argument, please be prepared to bring a lot more to the table than just “I think”. I want to know specifically why you think this is not a good thing for those students who don’t have access to an instructor or academy.

I’ve been teaching martial arts since 1987 and have championed a bunch of ideas that the BJJ community said didn’t work or thought were stupid, idiotic or unrealistic. Here are a few of those topics I wrote about back in the 1990’s:

1. Leg locks
2. Wrist locks
3. The Kimura finish
4. The Americana finish
5. Takedowns from the knees
6. BJJ over 40
7. A structured training curriculum
8. A structured belt ranking system
9. A progressive training method

I can’t tell you how much grief I took for championing these ideas!

There’s a long history of things I wrote about and argued for that so many American BJJ practitioners argued against because their instructors had taught them differently. Then, once their instructors had learned and developed a certain level of proficiency with the above mentioned topics – and then started teaching these things – only then did they become more mainstream. And only then did students consider them “valid.”

So, are you up for the challenge? I am!

Bring it…

Answering a comment:

Kevin,

Thanks again for writing!

Since you haven’t answered my question, I am going to answer yours. You asked:

1. How does one develop timing, proper angles, effective escapes etc while training online?

My answer would be: Simple, they get it the same way they get it an academy – with good instruction!

Now, I know some will say, “But you can’t teach those things through video?” My response would be, “Says who?”

Below is a glimpse of one of my Level One Instructor Courses:

– Learn how to teach a deaf student without using words.
– Learn how to teach a blind student though touch only.
– Learn how to teach and evaluate a student by looking away from them when they are performing a technique.
– Learn how to teach timing and awareness through words alone.

I shared all of that with you to let you know that a student can develop timing, proper angles, effective escapes etc while training online. What makes this possible is the kind of instructor who presents the course and the quality of information presented.

Answering a comment:

2. Would you be confident in their ability to utilize their technique against a student who regularly trains and rolls at an academy?

My answer would be an emphatic YES! As a matter of fact, I would put my money on the student who trains with me privately online. Why? Because of the training methods I have my students employ!

Good training to you!

Let me begin the debate by asking this question:

“How does an instructor evaluate whether or not a student is ready for his or her next promotion?”

If you say, ‘It’s by rolling with the student’, I would say, “You are incorrect because the roll with the student is ceremonial and has very little to do with evaluating the student!”

So, how does an instructor evaluate whether or not the student is ready for their next promotion?

So, your instructor VISUALLY observes how a student moves and performs their techniques, timing and tactics against other students of varying levels, correct?

Answering a comment:

William, your answer make an important statement. It says, “An instructor CAN and DOES evaluate a students progress by observing them visually.” So, whether an instructor is physically present or not has nothing to do with evaluating a student’s progress.

I understand that people say, “It can’t be done.” However, I whole heartedly disagree with this statement. Here is a more correct statement for these people to say:

“I say it can’t be done because I don’t personally know how to do it.”

When the contents of my course are eventually revealed, the progression and evaluation will be obvious.

I have thought long and hard about what I am doing. I understand that many people will disagree with me. But you know what? That’s OK. It’s OK because people disagreed with me on leg locks, wrist locks, the kimura, the americana, takedowns from the knees, BJJ over 40, a structured training curriculum and belt ranking system and so many other ideas. But now that these ideas are mainstream, everyone has forgotten about the arguments. So, I am more than willing to put my good name and reputation on the line once again.

Now, you also asked, “Serious question…in your heart if it was you getting your brown belt like this would you be just as equally proud of your achievement as you were when you did it the old school way?” Here is your answer:

I understand what you are saying, but I need to interject something here:

For many years, I drove two to two and a half hours to train with my instructors because there wasn’t any training like this in San Diego. I put over 200,000 miles of my vehicles and spent over $20,000. I did it the old school way because that was my only option. If there was another option like a good online training program, I would have done it this way. Why? Because it doesn’t really matter what other people think or say. What matters is the skills I develop and possess!

So, if there was a good online training program back in the day, I would have taken it!

Make sense?”