Dreams Not Fame Podcast
Dreams Not Fame Podcast
EP 405: Mat Hopping: Friend or Foe?
🥋 Ready to level up your Jiu-Jitsu? This episode dives into the hot topic of cross-training 🧳 in BJJ! Will Bullock shares 🔥 insights on why stepping outside your home gym could take your game to the next level.
🎙️ We kick off with exciting NGA news: Meet Sa (Pentagon MMA) and Alex (Standard Jiu-Jitsu)—the first-ever female commentators for the July 26th women’s trio and KoP event 🙌 A big move in expanding the NGA team!
🧠 I break down the benefits of cross-training—exploring new styles, finding fresh training partners, and sharpening your comp prep 💪 I also dig into real concerns like mat fees 💸, loyalty 🤝, and keeping your game under wraps 🕵️♂️
My take? "Keep your home gym ❤️, but don’t be afraid to venture out and grow."
Whether you're chasing medals or just love to roll, this episode is packed with insights to help you navigate the world of Jiu-Jitsu cross-training 🌐
🎧 Tune in & roll smarter!
Peace, Love, and Byeeeeeeee - Hype
Jordan open from the night to the win.
Speaker 2:party all night getting lit to the sun, doing shit for fun, hey what's up, dreamers, this is the dreams, not fame podcast, with your boy will bullock, going to everything about the jiu-jitsu community and just different conversations we're having with this short convo we're having with you today I'm happy to be back.
Speaker 2:It is a beautiful Thursday, a hot, hot ass Thursday, but nevertheless we are here. I got some updates about NGA, some special things and some collaborations with that. I also have we want to discuss about the topic I mentioned in my last podcast about cross training and my feelings about that, and then see where the randomness take us on this convo. But back to NGA. I'm happy to announce that we have two new commentary analysts on the commentary duh for NGA. I have my homegirl, syeda from Pentagon MMA and the coach of Pentagon MMA, one of the coaches and we also have Alex from Standard Jiu-Jjitsu, who is also a coach out there and also has her own imprint as well. I think it's odin or I'm pretty sure it's that I gotta double check that. I'm running off like four hours of sleep, so I apologize if I get anything wrong in this short, short convo, but I added both of them into the commentary. I'm happy to announce as well that they will be mainly the commentators on the women's trio that's coming up for NGA on July 26.
Speaker 2:It is actually a dream of mine to actually have female commentators on here. I'm not as deep as I am in jiu-jitsu. I really don't really watch jiu-jitsu that much. Unless it's the move or something like that. I don't really um. Or when a fight becomes free on youtube or anything like that. Or a body, um part body borrow one of my friends uh logins for to see uh flow grappling or whatever. I don't really watch jiu-jitsu, so I haven't really seen any female commentators out there. So if there are any female commentators out there that are already doing this and you hear this, I do apologize. I am not familiar with your game.
Speaker 2:Uh, I just wanted something better for the community and overall the community and bringing other people in and have that experience and grow their roots and see where this takes them as well. Maybe they have the dream of commentary, like I do. Maybe they just want to do this for fun. Spend a saturday, get some food, watch some jujitsu for free. What else can you ask for, right? Um? Along with that, both alex and saeeda will be doing uh podcasting um episodes during the fight week of july 26th.
Speaker 2:Uh, with uh strong af and fighters with coffee. Great friends of the podcast. Uh, a scene who I mentioned here previously in my podcast is a friend and and my trainer and runs at nova barbell and runs the strong af, michael, who is also a uh nova barbell um affiliate. And uh, out of pentagon, not pentagon out of battlefield. Uh, mma, which is the affiliation of my school, and through the big brother affiliations as well uh, great friend, great person.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm happy to have them actually help me out and spread out the media for what we have. And also, asim is a sponsor of NGA as well, so let me not forget about that and give him his applause for that as well. But that's oh one more thing, guys, for my KOP and for my women's trios and for any super fights that we are doing for NGA, you should be receiving an email shortly for additional information, for commentary. Please fill that out. Please make sure that is all solid before you get to the venue on the 26th.
Speaker 2:I want my guys to have all the information in hand. We don't have to ask for anything. I've been in there when I'm doing roll call with you guys and I'm asking y'all questions and y'all really just zoned out. Listening to your music, which I completely, a hundred percent, understand, is one of those things, whereas like this is the last thing I want to do in my mind is to give this guy some answers that really don't mean. No, I don't really care, I just want to whoop this guy's butt down about to just get into stuff like that.
Speaker 1:I completely understand that which is why we want everything up front.
Speaker 2:So please, please, please, get that to us as much as possible. But now let's move that along and let's talk about my main topic I want to talk to you about today. So I want to talk to you about cross training and jujitsu. Now there's pros and cons to cross training and jujitsu, and the cons are not really for what it seems or what people are. But let me start with the pros first, and from someone that cross-trains a lot. One of the pros for cross-training is you get to experience jiu-jitsu in a different environment than what you're normally accustomed to, and everyone has a different style in jiu-jitsu. If you're a competitor or if you just love jiu-jitsu, or you're traveling whatever, traveling and seeing different jiu-jitsu, or you're traveling whatever, traveling and seeing different jiu-jitsu and actually operating in that space helps out so much for the growth of your own jiu-jitsu, for just like traveling itself and all the above whatever you think about that list because you grow your community. You also learn something new along the way and you also get a different look. And as a competitor and this is 1B, as a competitor, or it could be two you need that other look your gym or your affiliation gyms can give you that look as well. But if they know your game or the game is very similar to yours, you're not going to get the full look that you're looking for and as a competitor I know that firsthand. You need someone that is a basically a black belt ensemble and do leg locks on you all day long. Your gym might not have that. The affiliation schools next you might not have that, or might have someone close to it, or you can't find someone that has your same weight or has the same kind of style or what you think is going to happen if you're facing a wrestler or you're facing a judo person. So sometimes you have to venture out, in my opinion, to kind of get that grasp of trying to get a different body and see if something else works on someone else. You know, I don't believe that, that just staying within the affiliation in terms of like just training, I think it could be spread to different things, like I only do open mats, for when I go to another school's gym I don't do a class at that school's gym because I don't pay for classes there, open mat. I'm basically there just trying to get some work in and sometimes I might need a body to help me out. I got comps coming up. I tell people straight up I got comps coming up. I've been in gyms where people got comps coming up, want a different look. Hey, can you give me a look for them? Sure, man, I got you no problem, because y'all scratch my back, I scratch yours, and this is how that thing vibes and connects right Another.
Speaker 2:And I think the third thing is you. Honestly, you build. I can go on and on about how you build yourself with this. I think the third thing in itself is you, your perspective changes wholeheartedly changes in terms of everything I said above. The community that you bring in from a different school, different philosophies, different ways they kind of attack the same objective helps out so much so your perspective changes. That's number three. Number two, as a competitor, you get different looks. And, as number one, you build out your community itself by traveling to different schools, if you can.
Speaker 2:That's, personally, my top three reasons for cross training. Now, the negativities for cross training I wholeheartedly don't believe in whatsoever. However, I do have to talk about this to be fair and give perspective on the other side. This to be fair and give perspective on the other side. Um, and some of them might be a little bit negative. Um, not just experiencing from my own stuff or anything like that, I just from the word across the water cooler from my opinion. So my number one thing is I don't like with cross training, I don't like mat fees, I don't like mat fees.
Speaker 2:I don't like math fees whatsoever. Only place I pay for for jiu-jitsu is home base. I don't play for jiu-jitsu, to just train and I have to pay a math fee. I hate math fees. I don't understand math fees. At the same time, I don't own a gym and gym owners are different. They're black belts. They have different rules, different mindset. Whatever the case may be, I don't understand math fees whatsoever.
Speaker 2:I personally believe in that if someone's trying to test your gym, if they're traveling, hey, they might say you're traveling to Memphis and maybe your job is moving out to Memphis and you're trying to gym and I'm paying a one-time fee for this, but I might be just testing your gym out because I'm moving here. I'm trying to be a potential client but also a student under you. I think that kind of gives you a backhanded way of trying to invite you into the community a bit, in my opinion, because you're already paying for everything else. You're already paying for IBJJF, you're already paying for all these other tournaments. I don't think adding another charge to jiu-jitsu. You're already paying for gi's, and don't get me started on gi prices. That's going to be another episode. We're going to talk about gi and gi prices and no gi prices, because after COVID y'all been on some sick shit.
Speaker 2:But anyway, it's one of those things where I just can't. I can't stand math fees. I think that's number one. Number two and the schools I go to don't have math fees. Um.
Speaker 2:Number two, uh, and this one's a little bit sensitive is that the loyalty aspect of training at someone else's gym. If people know your heart and people know who you are and people know who, what you represent, everything like that, I don't think anyone would be able to judge you on loyalty. If you're just trying to train at a gym or something like that. It's not very prevalent with the people that I know around me. It's not really prevalent with um any schools around here, for as much I know.
Speaker 2:But I've seen and heard stories of people telling of things of that nature, just about the loyalty aspect, that you can't train this way because you are under this affiliation and stuff like that, and it doesn't make any sense to me. I think you're limiting your jujitsu. I think that if there's an actual beef, like actual, real talking steak getting cooked, a well done beef, I don't see a reason why you can't mess with the other side in terms of just trying to get better at one thing that everyone else is trying to do. It's not like we're gatekeeping. There's no gatekeeping in jujitsu. Everything is on youtube, everything's in the gym. Everyone does the thing the same way, or they do this move the same way, or I see a similar thing like that, or you have multiple moves after one move. It doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 2:Number two and this is kind of on to the number one thing is about losing a student due to cross training. And losing a student, which I never felt, because I am not a black belt. I am not talking from a perspective of a black belt. I'm talking from a perspective as a student. Losing a student could probably be devastating.
Speaker 2:Whatsoever I never felt that I've seen from the higher ups, from people I look up to seeing, have that and move along accordingly, whatever, um, I don't believe cross training is a is the one thing that makes them go over the edge. I think that is a multitude of things. It could be the student, it could be how the student is taught. It could be a multitude.
Speaker 2:From what I've gathered from people that talk to me, it's most of the time about how the curriculum is taught, most of the time about location. It's one of the two things and it's never really anything personal, nothing personal, it's curriculum, location and I understand the location part like I understand the curriculum part wholeheartedly, because going to a different gym you get taught things probably the same way, same um description of the move they might call something different and rarely is called something different unless you're doing legs. But it's one of the things that it just gradually. It's one of those things. And then location, 100% location. Because let me tell y'all, when I used to work in Herndon, I used to drive from Herndon to Woodbridge and then Woodbridge to Manassas. Because I lived in Manassas and the only reason why I had to go go Woodbridge, because that's where home base is. And when I had to go there I had to take 123 and for my people in northern Virginia you already know, taking 123 after five o'clock I'm setting myself up for hell.
Speaker 2:I'm just driving my way to hell, and that was most of my time doing that ride. Now, later on in life, I realized that there's a school out in herndon, I think the school's name's uh, six blades, don't know if it's around. The same time, I also found out that the affiliation gyms that I knew of um in the area, uh, dominion, vanguard and battlefield, and I think that's pretty much it for right now, um, we're about five, ten minutes where I lived, but I always just went to home base because at the time I was a white belt, blue belt, I didn't want to visit any other schools at the time and I was just making it harder for myself to keep up with that schedule. It'd be murder for me to get home. I think I'll be out from seven in the morning. I won't be home till 10 o'clock at night, um, and this is why I cherish working from home all the time, because I I used to have 12 of 13 hour days trying to do this stuff. Man, it's going crazy.
Speaker 2:So those, that's number two. And I think the third reason, uh, the thing for cross training. Uh, I really think that's only, um, if I can think of anything else. For the third one, um, potential to get hurt accidentally. Um, I think that might be caveat to um. Three, maybe no, I would say three is uh, uh, you might be potentially leaking information for future competitors, whatever Like. If you're cross-training, you're eventually going to run into a guy that has the same weight, same build, whatever competes as much as you, all that stuff, and y'all get to training and whatnot, and then y'all going to have some type of issue when it comes to comps. I think y'all can sort that out.
Speaker 2:Personally, and yourself, I don't think that if you go to another gym, they're going to understand your style and it's jujitsu. It's really I'm really underestimating the type of move and skill set. It's really six moves on repeat, if I'm really just being light, but it's not the correct amount, but it's really six moves on repeat. He might be doing better than you, whether or not and so forth, it don't matter. So the comp thing with it, I think that that can be sorted out between amongst people. Hell, I've had people who go to different schools that work with me with jujitsu and we are we're talking about comps well now, and they might be in my bracket. It don't bother me none, because I know they don't.
Speaker 2:Their journey is different. You're all our horses in this race. You just got to have blinders on and just win the motherfucker. You feel me? So again, like I said in the very beginning with this breakdown, I don't agree with any of the cons of cross training. I believe that we should be cross training as much as possible.
Speaker 2:Learn from, keep your home base, keep your home gym, keep your family and community, but you need to venture out and see what other Jiu-Jitsu is, especially if you've been in the lab for six weeks and all you've been doing against is the same people within your affiliation. You got to go and test the wires out on one school that you know and trust and you get some work in, and people know that you get to work in and you have that bond with them as well, and you got to learn how to bond with other people outside of that too, you know, but that's how. That's the convo for the week, man. That's the convo for the week, and I also want to leave you one more thing, man. I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Speaker 2:I'm going to see y'all next Thursday. We're going to talk about you know what we're going to talk about? Geek prices and no geek prices since COVID-2020, because I have a lot to say about that. That might be a 30-minute conversation and I might be going crazy because I'm talking to myself on that one, but that's what I got for you guys. I love you all. I hope you have a great rest of the week. Peace, love and bye. Jordan open Outro Music.
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