BJJ Fanatics Gift Guide: Old School BJJ

With only a handful of days left in the holiday gift giving season, the crushing pressure of those remaining few gifts you've been looking for weighs heavy on your mind.  If you're looking for a great gift for the jiu jiteiro in your life, or even better for yourself, look no further than the BJJ Fanatics Holiday Gift Giving Guide.  In this installment, we take a look at some great instructional resources from a few of the legends of BJJ and grappling.

"Old School" can have a number of meanings, some good and some bad.  What does it mean when you talk about "Old School" BJJ and refer to an athlete or instructor as old school?  Even as a relatively young martial art, BJJ has undergone some rapid-fire changes and developments in the last few decades.  We must always be reminded that prior to the late 1980's there was almost no Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in America.  And it wasn't until 1993 when Royce Gracie first broke into the American martial arts conscious that the world truly changed.

"Old School" as an adjective is typically reserved for those techniques that have remained relatively consistent and more importantly, effective throughout the history of the art.  There is something about the human mind and human nature that consistently work to make things ever more complex.  On the good side, this allows for amazing creativity and individuality to develop, but in another sense, we can sometimes miss the obvious, the simplicity or efficiency inherent in BJJ.  Old school instructors and practitioners remind us that the fundamentals are the fundamentals because they work and often times, they give us a new way to look at a move that perhaps we passed on, thinking it wouldn't work for us.

Let's take a look at some of the great "Old School" BJJ instructionals available right  now from BJJ Fanatics that will allow you to gain the insight of literally decades on the mats in a matter of minutes.

 Chris Haueter is one of the true pioneers of American grappling.  As one of the "Dirty Dozen" who were the first 12 American BJJ black belts, he brings decades of grappling knowledge and an amazing instructional style to his teaching.  Check out this video directly from his "Old School Efficient BJJ" series.

If you're ready to take a look at the world of BJJ through the eyes of this legend and see things you may have never seen before, check out Chris Haueter's "Old School Efficient BJJ" available in DVD and On Demand formats from BJJ Fanatics!

Legendary black belt under Pedro Sauer, Luis Heredia is another great option that you will want to check out to fill those holes in your game or develop a more "Pure Jiu Jitsu" as his instructional is so aptly named.

Check out this video where Luis Heredia teaches the cross collar choke which is typically one of the first techniques new practitioners are exposed to.  The beauty of the old school instructors is they all have a way of revealing new details or nuances that students have never seen.

 This 4 DVD or On Demand set is an absolute must if you want to purify your jiu jitsu and become more efficient and old school.  At the end of the day, jiu jitsu is about working smarter, not harder and you will learn that from "Chief Limao's" amazing instructional available here!

 Murilo Bustamante is another old school BJJ and Vale Tudo fighter and coach who needs very little introduction.  With over 40 years of fighting and grappling experience, he can bring an amazing dose of "old school" to anyone's game.

In his 2 volume "Old School Crushing Pressure and Submissions" you will learn just that.  To watch Murilo roll with athletes half his age or less and watch them nearly tap simply from the pressure game that he brings is amazing.  If you're ready to bring the pain to your training partners and opponents in 2018, this is the set you must have and you can get it here!

Jiu Jitsu is an amazing sport and martial art that is constantly evolving and changing as new athletes bring new ideas to the game.  But there will also be some very fundamental truths that we can always go back to and lean on when it comes times.  These are the fundamental techniques and they continue to be espoused by the living legends of the sport.  These are the moves that will work no matter what and against any opponent and they should never be far from our personal arsenal.  Whatever school you currently subscribe to, you must not neglect and pay homage to the "old school" BJJ that will never let you down.