Michael Dargie Sports The Real Story
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31 January 2011
The Internet is funny and sometimes disturbing. Anonymity coupled with ill-formed opinion often try to rule the day, and maybe with a little less diligence it would.
As the owner of a jujitsu school I'm always trying to find new and interesting things for my students to experience which is what lead me to host a seminar this past weekend with two incredible people; Beijing Olympian Ari Taub teaching wrestling for MMA and Submissions101.com and 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Purple Shirt/Belt, Ari Bolden.
Students were excited and plans were firmed up, then the shit storm began.
"How could you align yourself with Ari Bolden?! He's a fraud and is going to seriously hurt someone", followed by a million links to Sherdog.com and a gazillion posts about what a rotten person he is, how bad his jujitsu is and how everyone would like to "...meet him on the mats and teach him a lesson." and "... even Eddie Bravo doesn't like him."
It was incredible. About half a dozen people were really heated up over this. Does Bolden light kittens on fire and throw them off bridges?! What did I get myself into?
The phone rings and it's Ari Taub - Beijing Olympic Wrestler and CEO of Hard Knocks Fighting Championship: "Dargie, what the hell is going on? What did this Bolden guy do to piss people off?"
Dumbfounded I say to Taub, "Uh, I have no idea, let me look into it." and out comes the Rolodex.
On the list of people to call was owner of Gracie Barra Calgary Josh Russell (1st Dan BJJ); owner of BJJ Fight Club Calgary Alex Roque (1st Dan BJJ); the President of the Alberta Jiu Jitsu Association Kevin Lintott (5th Dan 3J); Past President of Jiu Jitsu BC Society Steve Hiscoe (8th Dan 3J); Current President of Jiu Jitsu BC Society Randy Martin (6th Dan 3J); Professor Pedro Sauer Black Belt Keith Owen (1st Dan BJJ); and Founder of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Eddie Bravo (2nd Dan BJJ) — the idea was to call the top people in the know and really find out the truth.
If anyone would know if Bolden was a fraud or a menace to society it would be these guys.
(If you're reading this and you're not a martial artist it may be difficult to wrap your head around why this is important; but for those of us that spend hours on the mat day-in and day-out, year after year, misrepresenting yourself is something highly offensive)
Here's what I found out from my call-out:
The local BJJ instructors didn't have an opinion about him other than Bolden doesn't have a strong competitive record; but they also didn't call him a fraud, and didn't suggest he would harm people coming to the seminar. That made me feel a little better. I've recently learned that there are many people, particularly BJJ instructors, that aren't fond of the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Nogi System and that's fine — that's neither here nor there. 10th Planet is interesting to me and my students, and hey, that's the purpose of bringing in Bolden right?
Everyone of the the Presidents and past-Presidents of the BC and Alberta Jiu Jitsu associations without exception, all had complimentary things to say about his Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, his ability to teach and professionalism. So far so good. Not one kitten in danger.
I left a message for Keith Owen to call me back and candidly discuss Bolden's background and ability to teach and not hurt people. The phone rings not long after one of my classes and it's Keith, we had a terrific conversation and about Bolden he said, "Ari's a great guy and he's working really hard on his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu — he's currently a BJJ Blue Belt with four stripes. He's talented, works hard and has a great sense of humour. I'm certain your students aren't in danger and will get a lot out of your time with him."
The last person on my list was Eddie Bravo and from what I read apparently Eddie didn'tt like Bolden. Bolden was coming out to teach a 10th Planet Seminar, and Eddie is the founder of 10th Planet, so if Bolden is a fraud surely Eddie would tell me, right? Here's the conversation, "Ari is very much NOT on the outs with me ... Ari is a purple belt in 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu and knows the system well, I am confident that you and your students will benefit from his seminar."
Reference checks complete and kittens seemingly safe from the flaming abyss the seminars a go.
Saturday, January 29, 2011 Ari Taub and Ari Bolden Seminar at Goshin Martial Arts in Okotoks.
Ari Taub is a big dude standing at 6'7" and 265 LBS and he's got a lot of street cred from the Commonwealth Games; to the Beijing Olympic;s to the MMA Promotion he hosts called School of Hard Knocks. Taub's seminar started at 10AM Saturday morning and Bolden came along to watch and learn from the sidelines stating he didn't want to participate fearing he would be too burned out for the seminars he was teaching in the afternoon. Fair enough.
That plan went out the window as soon as Bolden got to the dojo and met Ari. The two hit it off immediately and Taub used and abused Bolden for the next three hours to show the participants the finer points of wrestling and using your body for MMA. Between teaching points and getting crushed repeatedly by Taub, Bolden was on the mats working out with fellow participants and soaking in as much technique and knowledge as possible.
Taub's seminar was fantastic and I will write about it later, but for today I want to illustrate the work ethic and abilities of Bolden that some people were calling into question.
After a solid and sweat-soaked three hours of being used by Taub and working out during the seminar, Bolden immediately taught an hour of Japanese Ju Jitsu to an eager mob of my Juniors (8 - 12) who were prepping for a tournament the next day.
No sooner had the kids cleared out when the dojo filled up with a capacity crowd of eager participants from MMA fighters, to Jiu Jitsu students and instructors, to an Olympic Wrestler.
For the next three hours Bolden took us through a series of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu techniques from the Lockdown Position (half guard), interspersed with several interesting locks from Japanese Jiu Jitsu. I had the privilege of being Bolden's Uke (assistant receiving the techniques) and I can tell you from first-hand experience he ain't no fraud. After a solid day of rolling, wrestling and teaching, Bolden is still on top of his game. He was able to clearly explain and demonstrate all of the subtle nuances we were all asking about regarding the 10th Planet System, as well as show us variations and flow-drills to enable us to retain what we were learning in our own way.
When the seminar was over Bolden rolled with a couple of the participants lightly, something they all enjoyed and took stuff away from, but probably the most memorable for me was watching the wicked gleam in Taub's eye as he asked for some mat time with Bolden too. These two guys rolled HARD for about 25 minutes straight and not once did Bolden back down or give up despite being relentlessly tested and ground down by an Olympic Wrestler with about 6" and 70 LBS on him.
The next day over breakfast, prior to another 90 minute workout and him helping with our Youth Tournament, I couldn't help but notice Bolden's new souvenir ... a starter cauliflower ear courtesy of Taub.
That morning myself and a couple of my students were shown another series from Rubber Guard. We went solid for about an hour and fifteen minutes and learned a ton (again, credit to Bolden for knowing the answers and backing it up with physical examples). Then Bolden had the wicked gleam and invited me to roll.
** AUTHOR's NOTE ** I REALLY (I do mean REALLY) want to make some excuses like, "I'm new to the nogi thing" or, "I only just started learning 10th Planet", but that's just what they would be, excuses.:)
The reality is that Bolden schooled me on the mat and made me work harder than I've ever had to work and in doing so inspired both my students and myself to learn more 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu.
For the record, I'm not suggesting I'm a highly skilled competitor at all, quite the contrary as I haven't competed for a long time; but I'm a 3rd degree Japanese Ju Jitsu black belt from a style that has a solid ground component, a judo player and I usually don't have to work hard to get my way against even those larger than me (except for Taub of course). I guess what I'm saying is that it's not like I haven't rolled before and Bolden got lucky. He's just good and knows the system.
He made me work (VERY) hard and I'll tell you what, he was always two to three steps ahead of me and turned my game inside out — making me feel like I brought a checker board to a chess match. It was excellent and I'm incredibly appreciative of the opportunity to learn and will train my nogi chess game for the next time we meet.
I should mention that a testament to Ari's outlook and humour, when we first met this Friday night at the Hard Knocks Fighting Championship he immediately asked me if I had any kittens.
For the guys who said all those bad things about Bolden, you really shouldn't. We all learned a ton. He's solid, an excellent teacher, has no quit, is a truly decent guy with some solid chops and 10th Planet is legit.
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Thank you for the comments — this gets close to the heart of what I was trying to get across: it was a 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Seminar put on by a person recommended directly by Eddie Bravo.
Ari taught the 10PJJ syllabus well and answered questions we all had (MMA to Gi to JJJ to respected Wrestler Guys).
This was NOT a BJJ Seminar. Not at all.
Anyway, for all the other comments; thank you for the courtesy, recommendations , links, thought and time you took to reply.
I've got mad respect for both BJJ and it's nogi hybrid 10th Planet — anything that improves our game is good. We keep what works, and leave what doesn't.
I guess it's fine if he goes around marketing himself as a JJJ expert who cross-trains, introducing some BJJ and 10th Planet JJ techniques to other JJJ practitioners.
But it's important to understand that by BJJ standards he is not a high-level grappler and is certainly not qualified to teach BJJ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eusZGjMaW5g
Compare with competition footage:
NOGI:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkcdGGJcGcg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4eB7sYggSE&feature=channel
GI:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF6jwOg6jV8&feature=channel
Everything tells you that this guy is clueless when it comes to takedowns, BJJ, JJJ, Judo or Wrestling. Grip fighting, posture, decision making, everything. The double leg takedown from the DVD promo is the most horrible thing I have ever seen. He has absolutely no business of teaching anything grappling orientated.
I hope this post helps you realize you'd be better off learning from a legitmate BJJ black belt.
All the best.
4.) Legit Black Belts were called for references. That wasn't good enough. Next time he should get an Ouija board and ask Helio or Carlos what they think.
5.) If you're "smashing" the blue belts at your school then your instructor needs to rethink what a blue belt should be. Blue belt can be anywhere from 1 year to 5 years of training. If you can "smash" someone with 5 serious years of training you must be the Hulk. Or your school just sucks.
6.)World Class competitors doesn't mean world class instructors. I've met Black Belts in numerous styles that were amazing at what they did, but couldn't teach worth a damn.
Train more, talk less.
1.)Nobody said you have to be a black belt to teach, or head a seminar. I've learned things from Browns, Black, Purple, Blue, and White belts. The day you stop learning is the day you fail as a martial artist.
2.)Read the article before you post a comment. I understand that it's hard for some people to read before posting, I know, it's a long 5 minute read. The author didn't claim to run a BJJ school and bring in a blue belt for a seminar. It's very clear that the author said he's a JJJ & Judo practitioner that brought in a Purple shirt in 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu.
http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/mma.cfm?go=forum.posts&forum=11&thread=1755024&page=2
Objectively, why anyone in the Calgary area would bring in a Vancouver blue belt to teach a grappling seminar is beyond me. With Josh Russel, Brian Bird, Sheila Bird, etc. all local to the area who are all WORLD CLASS competitors and legit blackbelts.
If your mind was blown by Ari Bolden, you should try rolling with the real deal sometime and really get some bang for your buck. The fact that he is charging blackbelt prices for his seminars is disgusting.
I'm all for making a buck, but teaching seminars as a blue belt in 2011 is ridiculous.
My 2ct.
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