Every BJJ competitor wants to reach the pinnacle of the sport and sit among the elite of his division. That’s why we all grind on the mats, in the weights room, we sacrifice time with family and friends, and invest a lot of finances. But does our success depend entirely on our efforts? In this article we are going to take a look on how important are academies and affiliations for BJJ competitors by analyzing what divides “big” teams from “small” teams and the pros and cons of both.
Let’s say a big team/affiliation is a team with a long history in the sport that has won a lot of trophies from major competitions and has been able to attract a lot of students and expand into a worldwide brand. Some examples of that kind of teams are Atos, Gracie Barra, Alliance and Zenith. Opposite of those are BJJ teams with not much of a history, not many trophies, not many members and often situated in small towns or suburbs of cities.
In this video, Nick ‘Chewy’ Albin got a question from a young White Belt about whether or not he should up and leave his BJJ academy, move away from his hometown to go train Jiu-jitsu with John Danaher or Andre Galvao or a similar big name team in order to be an elite level BJJ competitor.
