Originally Posted by
anerlich
Secrecy in any endeavour of this nature is ultimately self-defeating.
The usual analogy is cryptography. The best encyption methods are not those which are kept secret. The best are those which are published openly for anyone to try and crack. If the method is still uncracked after three, or five, years, after being bashed by enverone in the encryption and hacker communities, then you can have a high level of confidence in it.
Can you rely on a method that's never been scrutinised by experts or been subjected to sustained pressure? Would you use a climbing rope of secret materials that had never been load tested and no one had ever climbed with before?
BJJ is a martial art where secrecy is impossible, because of public competition. The best guys have to bring their A game and everything they've got. If they don't use the best and most effective techniques in their arsenal, they are going to lose. And even the technique that is unstoppable and cleans everyone else up at one time does not stay that way, because people scrutinise it, come up with counters, etc. Then the original guy works out counters to the counters or better ways of doing the technique that make the counters impossible, so that everything evolves and improves.
The element of surprise is great, but doesn't last for very long.
The "secret" techniques of the w@nker you've been paying money to for a decade never get tested because they are never shown and never tried against a resisting opponent. They haven't been tested or developed under pressure. He probably isn't that good at them himself because he never or hardly ever gets the opportunity to try them out agi\ainst resistance.
Go somewhere else.
There is a case for a teaching progression and not getting the student to work on exotic or advanced techniques until the fundamental are mastered. But that ain't what we're talking about.