Flavor Of The Month

More and more I am seeing techniques that I would call "flavor of the month" being used in competitions. Typically it will be 1-2 top guys implementing a new or reinvented way of doing a technique, then all the white and blue belts in the world only care about that particular move because they see their hero using it.  I've seen the trends come and go, in my journey the first one I really saw was the rubber guard, then x-guard, then it was the arm drag, then it was deep half, and then the guillotine, next came the berimbolo, now it's the worm guard, etc etc... These techniques are a great addition to the basics, but what happens is people begin to focus solely on these techniques and lose a grasp of the basics.  What should be noted is that the guys performing these techniques and winning black belt world championships have ridiculously good basics.  Watch their matches, they have great posture, a good base, strong passing games, active guards, incredible defense, always attacking, etc...  While it can be these FOTM techniques that become the difference between a win and a loss, it's also their basics that prevent them from being in a position to lose. 

What I'm really trying to say is that it's important to work on all aspects of your BJJ game.  The most critical aspects are your weakest positions.  It pisses me off when a student who can't even shrimp properly asks me to teach the worm guard.  It's that old adage that you need to learn how to walk before you can run.  In a world of endless techniques, I believe it's typically better for your instructor to determine what techniques you should be learning and not what you might see at a tournament and on YouTube.  I don't want to discredit these FOTM techniques much because they need to be discussed on some level with students who compete, as they may run into it at a tournament, however the majority of classes should focus on fundamental techniques.