What was it like to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu “back in the day”… Two, three decades ago?
Well, Dean Lister thinks that it was “tougher”. And you had to travel a lot:
Back then, it was „tougher“ in general.
Each time has its good and bad things… But, back then, you never knew who you were fighting.Another thing is that I had to drive all over the country in order to train with quality.
I know that, even today, there are some people who also travel to train. But, back then, you absolutely HAD to do so.
And yes, more things broke but there was also less complaining:
When I first started, people could do neck cranks. You could slam people.
More things broke than today. I am not saying this is good – as a matter of fact, it is not.There might have been a generally higher degree of respect between fighters and athletes.
People didn’t jump from team to team (sometimes they did, but that was rare); but because of this, most grapplers trained in one style only as well.One other thing was that back in my day, the youth didn’t complain as much as the young people do today.
Although, I am sure that my parent’s generation complained even less about it.
But Lister also believes that the sport is much better developed nowadays:
The sport is much more popular nowadays and more people are training.
I think that the athletes are better today because so many of them are a part of the sport.
Also, the techniques are much more developed now as well, and the sport is more organized.
Read our full interview with Dean Lister on the following link.
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