Roger Gracie doesn’t share the concern that trends like heel hooks are pulling the sport away from its fundamentals.

In a recent podcast conversation, the 10-time IBJJF World Champion explained why he believes the basics always come back around, no matter how far the competitive meta drifts in the meantime.

I don’t think fundamentals are getting left behind.
I think eventually people will always go back. They will see how important fundamental is.

He described trends as naturally cyclical:

Trends, techniques, they always go in cycles. If they see someone doing something that is working, catching people, then everyone starts doing that move.
Eventually that move will stop working because now everybody knows how to defend.

Leg locks, in his view, are the clearest recent example:

Everyone now needs to learn heel hooks because that’s how you’re going to catch everybody.
It’s a technique that almost no one has been using and then it starts working like crazy.

Before it used to work a lot. Now not so much, because everyone knows how to defend.
So now they’re looking for the next big thing.

He pointed to the same cycle playing out with the berimbolo and the 50/50 guard:

There was a time that the berimbolo is the move you have to learn. You sweep and take everybody’s back.
Now everybody learned how to defend it…

50/50. Like a few years ago that was all you were seeing. Every single match is that bloody 50/50.
Now you know now you don’t see much because you know they [can] defend.

So it’s back to the normal Jiu-Jitsu until something comes in.

For Gracie, the real risk isn’t trends themselves but the gaps they create when competitors overcommit to one aspect of their game:

When people try to be good at just one thing and ignore everything else, yeah, you are good in that, but that does not mean you’re good in Jiu-Jitsu in general.
You will have a lot of gaps in your game.

If people take your back, now you’re being choked out by a purple belt or a blue belt.

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