Ian,
And I was saying "I don't think you're criticizing judo and bjj", in case this wasn't clear.
I missread your post, sorry for that.
As you know, Ju-jutsu is a rather loose term which applies to different disciplines. The subject is so huge that it should deserve an exhaustive study. May be it has already been done, I do not know.
I do not have much experience in pure BJJ. I did two seminars, one with some instructors from the Carvalho team based in Sweden, and the second one with Carlson Gracie Junior here in Germany while he was touring around Europe. On top of that, on wednesdays, a guy gives a "BJJ orientated lesson" at the the Police central dojo where I train. The first seminar was good but it did not get me interested in the art, the second one was exceptional both in quality and teachning methodology. After this seminar, I realized the depth of BJJ and the amount of work which has been necessary to bring it where it is today. My ground work comes primarily from judo and sambo and it is now crystal clear that BJJ has gone throught a different evolution and that the general level of the people practicing BJJ is indeed very high and BJJ is perhaps one of the very last art where the color of the belt is still relevant.
So, I have no particular problem with this quote of yours:
There's simply no way that the mount in your first video is better than Roger's mount.
There's no way that old school leg locks are better than Eddie Cummings' or Gary Tonon's leg locks.
There's no way that the guard passing back then was better than Rafa's or Leandro's passing.
And who had better chokes than Marcelo in the 1900s..
I think that there is a 99,9% probability that you are right, but this is the result of the evolution and the development of the ne-waza brought to Brazil by some Japanese judokas which then led to the creation of BJJ. We could exactly say the same but in the opposite way. Are the contemporary BJJ people´s throwing ability better than some of the old schools which were specialized in that area? Probably not and there is nothing wrong since their focus is more on ground techniques than throwing techniques. Kano chose to emphasize the throws to the detriment of the ground work because he did not like it. As a result, judo players are very skilled at throwing, less at ground fighting especially because in judo, once the opponent is pinned down, "all" you have to do is to keep the position for 25 seconds to get the victory which is not the case in BJJ. Exactly like executing a beautiful throw in BJJ will not give you the victory.
Some people do now cross train and Carlson Gracie Junior told me that he was a judo black belt also and that it does/did help him a lot to gain an advantageous position in his fights. There is nothing wrong with that and this might well be the next evolution for both arts/sports.
Back to the classical schools now. I have always been critical (sometimes overly) in a constructive way though because I like them very much and I have always been sure that there were some great stuff in them. Granted, some of the demonstrations would leave anybody puzzled because some moves and ways of executing techniques or defending from some attacks are, especially in our eyes, rather bizzare not to say crazy. This is one of the worst aspect of these arts. There is no pedagogy as you first enter of of these schools. You are just told to do as you are instructed and that´s it.
As I started, years ago, I would only learn three techniques from september to january and when I tried to observe what more experiences students were doing (which was much more appealing by the way) I just got scolded for not concentrating on my own work. So, it was very tough both mentally (always repeating ad nauseam the same techniques) and physically (the locks are very painful and there were a lot of atemi). One of the principle was to cripple. So, once your arm was stretched, the partner would block your elbow by pinning it down with his hand and knee and then lift your arm from the wrist while putting a lot of pressure on your elbow. This is a powerful lock and there are plenty of them for every part ofn the body.
The training took off after a while as one gradually gets more experience and skills. Then, one starts to get useful insights and guidance from people with more experience and skills. IMO, what really matters is how one consider what he is learning, what he wants to do with it. Some people just practice the form, others want to make them alive and want them to grow. In Japan, I have met a lot of different practioners. There are people with encyclopedic knowledge and surgical precision but with little to no fighting abilities, I have seen people with 30 or more years of training with no skills at all, I have seen people with very good overall skills and fighting abilities, usually very open minded and willing to share, and there are extraordinary people who transcend techniques and make them alive. I do not want to bother you with personal experiences but I remember one person in particular. At that time, he was 68 years old, that would make 66 or 67 by european standards but this is just a detail, he was hardly taller than 150 cm and not heavier than 60 kg. He had very small hands, like those of a young teenager but he was fantastic. The first he threw me in a flash like nothing I was shocked. He was bouncing on the mat like a ball and was incredibly fast. He had this uncanny skill of always finding the opening and breaking your balance, he would also apply locks very easily in a smooth, unforced way. Honnestly, seeing an older man moving that way and being in such a shape with such skills is just beautiful to watch.
It is true that the classical schools might not survive even in the near future and the policy of secrecy, the refusal to adapt to modern time, the rather close minded mentality are to blame.
For some reasons, the leaders of the classical schools are not able or not willing to make some adjustments even if it means the death of the school. It seems that no one wants to take the responsability to get the doors wide opened and to stop being overly conservsative. For historical reasons, a lot of these schools stopped evolving after the Meiji restoration and judo nearly killed them all.
Paradoxically, judo in its early days had a beautiful open doors policy. Guest teachers were invited at the kodokan and some techniques (not only fighting techniques by the way) were borrowed and then incorporated into the curriculum. This is not the case anymore, and judo has also become conservative and stopped evolving. As a result, judo is now losing practionners and has turned largely into a sport. What a waste when you think of it.
There is no reason for these schools not to evolve, some people are really trying to with mixed results but they have all my respect for that.
In conclusion, I believe that a martial art is meant to be practiced throughout life starting as early and stopping as late as possible. In the mean time, there are plenty of opportunities to experience, think, refine and evolve. All aspects are important: competition, preservation, techniques, body skills, adaptation and so on but there must a balance and a time for everything and more than often a whole life span is not enough.
See where there is no shape, hear where there is no sound.
Väck ej björnen som sover.