Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Discussions on improving your BJJ, navigating mat-politics and all aspects of the jiu jitsu lifestyle. Multiple weekly episodes for grapplers of any level. Hosted by JT and Joey - Australian jiu jitsu black belts, strength coaches, and creators of Bulletproof For BJJ App. Based out of Sydney, Australia
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
The Collapse Of B-Team
One of grapplings most sensational gyms in coming to an end. Let's not be sad that it's over, but happy that it ever happened. The DDS split continues to keep splitting with this time happening in a more serendipitous way. We look forward to what Craig gets up to as well as the rebrand of the 2nd best BJJ gym in the world...
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A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Essentially, at this point, the fight is over, so you pretty much flow with the goal. Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power? I'm ready. The collapse of B-Team All great things must come to an end, but who thought it would happen so soon? B-team was founded in 2021. It's 2025.
Speaker 1:And it makes you think, man, they've done so many things like so many athletes, so many great performances, so much great content, so much great content that, like the, the, the, the kind of safety cam, security cam yeah, they really made that an iconic look, didn't they? You know, and people started doing it. Cctv footage yeah, they really made that an iconic look, didn't they, you know? And people started doing it. Cctv footage and look, what can you say? It was a byproduct of a less than ideal situation at Danaher Death Squad and you know a form of rebellion oh, their genesis, yeah. And if you talk to folks within the kind of New Wave, previous DDS team, they'll say you know, they'll blame many factors, but a lot of good came out of the formation of B-Team. But sadly, craig is disassociating. So what was the deal? He dropped that video on YouTube Road to CJR the end of B-Team. Right, yeah, that was the announcement. And I think you know, in true Craig fashion he's like. You know he's playing it off like sorry boys went out for cigarettes and never came. Daddy never came home. You know, like he's playing it off like it's nothing. But you know, obviously these are his guys. But because of Craig's drive to be the promoter, to be the new Dana White of jujitsu, you know he's not there and you could say that the lack of leadership within the team has caused the problems they're in, not because there isn't great athletes there or there's not great training there. This is not a takedown.
Speaker 1:I've got many friends who train at B team Shout out I have never trained there. I intend to go there and train under the new formation, whatever that might be. You will never train at B team. Oh no, it won't be B team, it'll be whatever it is. That's right. I intend to Duck B team Well, successfully. Yes, no, I missed out. And you know Chris Wojcik, I'm friends with Chris. I made friends with him in Kazakhstan. He wrote don't cry that it's over, be happy that it happened. You know that's awful, he's a lovely guy.
Speaker 1:I mean look, I think to those who are, you know whatever, somewhat familiar with the sort of process of such organisms clubs, academies, businesses, businesses, friendships you could see, b team was like a comet, you know, it was like a fucking bit of a one, like a one in a thousand, kind of one in a million type thing was like super bright and spectacular, be like whoa, like it can't last. It can't last when you don't have a dedicated leader. That's like I'm here to run this team, yeah, you know, and you got, you got Craig Jones, that guy for a period, obviously with, with all of the other crew there, um, but it seemed from the outside that Craig was really kind of the father figure. I believe that Craig had the technical ability and the, the mind and the rears and all the rears for for those boys to be like, yeah, we follow that, yeah, right, and and and fair play, he definitely had all that. But there were a few things that have happened which have gradually broken down the solidity of the, of the structure, and you know, like there is plenty of discussion online about all the great guys who are not there now, like so Isaac Michelle was one of the earlier guys who was considered to be like a kind of founding member of sorts who left DDS. And you know, obviously there's a bit of conjecture about the fallout relevant to pay and gym ownership and all kinds of things. But it didn't work out, even though he was such a a bright talent and definitely, like, modeled himself on Craig and admired him and all of that.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, but as soon as I you know I've spoken to a few people as soon as you make any noises that you are not 1000% Craig Jones, like, oh, I might go train here, I might go to, then you can. So, yeah, a good friend who trains at New Wave, who was very close to Craig, got completely cut off Because he just said, look, I'm going to go do this, I just wanted to check in with you, bro, like I hope this isn't a problem, I just want to go there and train with John. And unfollowed, blocked, see you later. Never talk to you again. Type shit, right. And I was like, oh, there's like quite a division there. Never talk to you again. Type shit, right. And I was like, oh, there's like quite a division there. And look the.
Speaker 1:The difficulty here is that we all know this, with great sporting teams, right, the teams that generally win are not necessarily the teams that have all of the all-stars. You can put an all-star team together, but if you've got a team that's uh, got really good leadership and they've played together a long time and there's like a really good cohesion, now this might be a butchered metaphor this tends to be the team that prevails, and there's many examples of this throughout history. A very famous one is when Canada beat Russia in the Olympics for ice hockey, and my Russian coach used to always fucking cry about this. He's like I can't believe they beat us. He was so upset because such pride to, because he played ice hockey and, uh, you know he wanted to play for russia and you know it was such pride for the russians to be the best ice hockey players. But these canadians had played together since they were kids, right, they weren't like an all-star team put together of all the great players. It was just like these guys rose up to the ranks and they were the best, like you know, from juniors all the way up till they were national team and they beat the Russians. I can't remember what year it was, but it was kind of famous because the Russians were favorite but the Canadians were a better team and, according to law, had better leadership. Now we can see it in many things.
Speaker 1:Now jujitsu is an individual sport and you can look at all the stars that trained at B-team. You're like, wow, how do you keep so many egos together in one room? But apparently everyone I talked to who's trained there said they had a great time, like Kaya Decon, moody, james Smith, kevin Jose, like all these guys who train there. They're like, yeah, I love B-team, like it's great training, it's hard training, but you know, like there's a really cool vibe and I think that this is the saddest thing about I guess the change is it's just it was probably a bit of a long time coming because Craig wasn't that involved, you know, and really Dima had stepped in as as a form of leadership, and that it kind of didn't end up working out.
Speaker 1:You know, right, yeah, yeah, dima stepped in. What before the first CJR, didn't he? Yeah, as the head coach, and that's that's really a by-product of Joseph Joseph Chen being there and Joseph being this amazing talent and being one of the original kind of uh, not one of the original founders, but he came up and was part of the B team bulls when they had their awesome, awesome run in Japan. Quintet, quintet and you know, just an amazing talent and I think you know whatever Craig went for lack of a better option. Well, dima's coaching, he's coaching Joseph. Joseph will be there. All right, dima can do it and I think first time round like that probably served its purpose. You know, but it's difficult when you've got so many talented people in there. They're not necessarily going to see eye to eye with a leader who maybe doesn't necessarily have the same technical proficiency as them. He might not be able to help them with their game.
Speaker 1:I know you'd love to be stronger. We all want to be a bit stronger. I know you'd love to be more flexible. I mean, when is being flexible and strong not an advantage, whether you see yourself as a powerhouse grappler that's just putting crush on fools, or you just want to have like a nice passive, chill sort of game. But have the confidence that your knees and your hips and your ankles and your elbows are protected and fortified. Strength training is the answer and we have the best programs for you to follow that are going to build you a strong, flexible body that can perform on the mats.
Speaker 1:You can start a two-week free trial today of the Bulletproof for BJJ app, and if you stick around and you want to become a part of the thing, you can even get coached directly by JT, myself and the rest of the coaching crew. To start your two-week free trial, all you got to do is go to the app Store, search Bulletproof for BJJ, download the app and get started, and if you do end up subscribing and you don't love it, we offer a 100% money-back guarantee. Go download it now, we'll see you on the inside. I mean, anyone that owns a gym or an academy understands the leadership of your business is everything, yeah. And the person that you put in front of your students and the person that is setting the tone of the culture they have to be respected and admired and they have to have a level of proficiency and all of that intent, understanding and shit, and it's yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I've seen heaps of gyms not just jujitsu ones, but gyms generally who have gotten to that point where the person that started it has gotten sick of running the gym all the time. They've taken a step back. They've put someone that's just not either not prepared for the job or that the community are not willing to accept, and the gym falls apart because everyone's like, ah, it's fucking not what it used to be. I loved it a couple of years ago when it was old. Mate, I'm going to go elsewhere, and sometimes that coach or that person like just to be fair, sometimes that person's great, it's just that they're not who I came here for, yeah, and so, yeah, it's different now.
Speaker 1:Look, no one can be Craig Jones, right, he's a one of one, and I'm not blaming Dima in any way. I'm not saying that. I believe that there was like a season where Dima being that coach was fine and the team went with it. But second time round, you know, I I think the challenge is that, yeah, dima really rose to prominence as a coach uh, off the back of Joseph and and and and, kind of coaching B team and being in that corner, and then maybe then his attention is a little bit spread and then he's doing seminars and he's doing other things and then the team isn't necessarily getting the attention.
Speaker 1:It's so hard when you've got so many high level guys as wrestlers, leg lockers, guard players, like so many skills, how can you stand in front of that group of people and have enough skill to hold their respect, but also be stable enough to be the adult in the room and kind of marshal everybody, especially when everybody kind of wants to do their own thing. And I think that's the biggest challenge that every athlete coming out of that room is different, but you've got to somehow bring them in unison for good training and the lack of leadership is what ultimately has led to this demise, and maybe it was to be expected, like maybe that's just that's where it goes, yeah, yeah, I do think that the kind of writing was on the wall. Know, arguably, though, arguably, where it goes from here is, and obviously the name it's going to rebrand and stuff, but arguably it goes to like a second chapter, yes, that of that organization into something that is more stable and more sustainable. Yeah, because assuming what's the word on the street, nikki rod and nikki ryan, yeah, nikki rod, nikki ryan are going to, are going to be at the helm, right, and they will be developing more like junior athletes and bringing in a bit more of a structure for beginners. And you know, because initially that was really they didn't have a white belt program. You weren't allowed to train at B-team if you're a white belt, yeah, and they brought it in, and so, yeah, I think it's because it has to function as a business now. Yeah, and so therefore they both seem like pretty serious guys. They are, you know, probably pretty set on like whatever, just living the nine to five life and making the business and settling in and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure I don't think Nicky Ryan's knees are going to hold out for much longer on the Well, you much longer on the well. You know he. You know he's. He's constantly doing rehab, he's working on it, and you know everybody who I've spoken to. Is he constantly doing it or is he constantly supposed to be doing? No, no, no, he's doing it. He's bad with his rehab. No, like he. I think it's a challenge for anybody who's been seriously injured, especially if you've had as many surgeries as he has, you know to. He's pretty much never not doing rehab in the last five years. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's tough, um, but you know, with enough zins anything is possible. But you're going to get on some of these fucking nicotine. You tried it. You want some nicotine poisoning the fuck. No, I don't want mouth cancer. Get the fuck out of here. Like that's what it gives you. If you're doing zins, you think, oh, I'm not going to get lung cancer, you're going to get cancer of the tongue, the mouth, the gum, your teeth will be falling out. Don't do it, folks. Don't do it. Just drink a ton of coffee. I'm going to do it. I bet you fucking will. I'm doing it. Get on your TRT, get on your zins. Why not big joey's stepping in? Don't worry about it, bro. I got you wouldn't qualify. You actually have to be strong to take that golden ticket, so it might take some weight lifting, bro. Um, look, I think in.
Speaker 1:In summary, the reason why it's really sad for me is I have admired from afar and thought to myself man, be great to go there, to feel what that's like. And, like you said before, there's there's moments in time of like whether it's a shooting comment of like that room being such a great room when they did have isaac, they did have joseph, they had robert deagle, they had jay rod, they had fucking high sum reader, they had fucking this. I Sanders, bobby Sandu, shout out who's a big fan of Dima. Um, you know, like it is one of those things that it's a moment in time and and like anything great in life, like it it's kind of beautiful because at some point it will come to an end, but I feel that you know, it's maybe a bit premature and so I am excited to see what comes next. But it it kind of hurts your heart a little bit to think it's only been four and a bit years and it's done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know how long is something good meant to last? You know, yeah, and, and look about a dynasty. You think about great teams. You think it could be, could be 10 years if it's managed right. Sure, yeah, if you've got that leadership in there.
Speaker 1:But look at, say, krelenstein, bjj Damien, yeah, yeah, these guys are all like they all seem super well accomplished and I'm not sure what their plans are, but I'm hoping they go on to run gyms or do some shit.
Speaker 1:I think it's at a critical point where the kids grow up and they move out of home. I believe BJJ Damien has his own gym. Could be wrong in saying that. I think that most major guys coming up want to go and start their own thing eventually, once they see oh, I can only take my athletic career so far, I can only make so much money doing this. Well, I want to still do Jiu Jitsu, I've got to raise a family of my own and then people move back to their hometown or they move to a different city and they run their own gym and that's where you see this constellation of stars spread out across the Jiu Jitsu universe. Oh wow, Look at that. Like a Milky Way. Paint that picture Bam. Yeah, there it is, folks. It's just a moment in time and we've got to appreciate it while we got it. Thank you.
