Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - General Thread

Everyone i'm training with is fully vaccinated, so although 14-15 months ago I would have chosen not to train due to the pandemic, I feel at this point we're training in a safe environment.

There are five BJJ/MMA gyms within walking/cycling distance of my house and I know for a fact that ours is the only one that closed during the pandemic and weren't training on the sly.

Nabbed my blue belt last night boyos! A nice little surprise after the extended Covid layoff.

Chuffed!

Congrats man, long time coming no doubt.

Hi guys, Hope you don't mind me jumping in with a question. I started my 9 and 11 year old kids in our local BJJ club about 3 years ago, they have both progressed up one belt to Grey/White and love the sport. Because of Covid their first competition was cancelled and they were bitterly disappointed. Finally this week they got a chance to compete and the whole day turned into a disaster. Oldest guy was supposed to compete at 34kg but when we weighed him he was 34.3kg and they disqualified him, he was devastated and the guys running the comp were quite rude about it, I asked politely if they could bump him up to 40kg and I was told emphatically no and the guy turned his back and walked away, zero manners. 

Ok this was my fault for not watching his weight even though we putt him in at 34 kg 7 weeks ago, so we just accepted it as hard as it was

What really bothered me was the youngest son who made the weight was paired up with a Grey/Black belt who has had 12 previous competitive rolls and won 10 with 6 submissions, my sons the grey/white belt was very nervous for his first big competitive roll and it showed, the gulf in skill level was evident in the first 10 seconds and it only lasted 40 seconds ending in a swift armbar. Now I accept its a contact sport and I'm not complaining about him getting roughed up but surely this kind of miss matching shouldn't happen, my son was humiliated and in tears and its taking a lot from us as parents to try and convince him to not quit the sport altogether. Surely this is dangerous, my son is by all reports decent at his own level and I'm pretty sure he'd have held his own with another grey/white belt. 

My question is, is this normal practice at competitions or was it a case of greed that they had no one to match him with so instead of giving a refund they put him with a far more experienced kid two belts higher?

Many thanks.

Thanks for the detailed response @Iguarantee its very much appreciated. The weight issue I get, definitely a safety issue and I take full responsibility. however, if they are that concerned about safety how did they allow a complete novice for his first fight compete against a kid that has had a dozen competitive fight? Surely this is just as dangerous? I was part of the amateur boxing scene in Dublin for many years as a teenager and beyond and have close relatives who coach and there is no way in hell that a kid boxing for the first time in a tournament would be paired up with a kid who has had 12 fights, even 35 years ago when I competed it didn't happen.

How do you think I found out how many fights the kid had, it was easy, all there online. You're saying pairings are done by age, belt and weight and yet the other kid was two belts higher. I personally think it was a case of no kids signed up at his belt or skill level so rather than give a refund they found the closest match. A combination of laziness, not bothering to check if it was my kids first fight and the other kids 12th and greed, not wanting to give a refund. I totally get your point about people with the same belt colour yet different skill levels given that one can hold a certain belt for years. Using the boxing as an example again, the whole ethos behind coaching is to develop and encourage children to love and enjoy the sport and some go on to excel at it, now if we were to be lazy and greedy about it and just throw kids in with whomever for their first few fights children and parents would become disillusioned with the sport and many would give up altogether. There needs to be better regulation in kids BJJ, complete novices should never be paired up with kids who have had 12 fights and won 8, if the comp holders cant find a suitable match the kid should receive a full refund. The hypocrisy of disqualifying kids for weight in the name of safety and in the same breath allowing a complete novice fight like that.

If its the comp I am thinking of (and the timing is right), this isn't the first time bad mismatches have happened. In a previous comp, a white belt I train with who had no previous competition experience was paired with a guy who had been training MMA for about 5 years. Net result, my team mate got a spiral fracture in his arm after his opponent hit a very fast americana from scarf hold - he didn't have time to tap.

When I saw the footage, I knew this guy wasn't a white belt and a quick bit of digging confirmed my suspicions. I know the organisers are not responsible for sandbagging, but if they are running a competition and charging a decent entry fee, they need to be checking. The worst part was they had no insurance, my team mate was told to talk to his instructor and claim off his club and then when he pressed them, was told he signed a disclaimer - he had to get a load of pins in his arm and was out of work for months. I wouldn't go near their competitions.

Not sure what was going on with my typing there.

But what I was wondering was if the OP meant the kid one belt up was a yellow belt. Or if they meant grey belt vrs their kid with grey/white stripe.

Point being that grouping the different grey belts is normal and not really different ranks.

From experience, there is much in BJJ that isn't intuitive or natural to a beginner. Hip movement is a good example. It's a combination of following instruction from people more advanced than you and also just repeating the movement until you figure out what works and what doesn't work. It can of course be taught with granular detail, spending an hour purely going over the mechanics of a specific position is entirely possible, if not overkill for a beginner.

The idiot feeling, as you've called it, still persists throughout the belts, though it happens less frequently as you get higher up the ladder. Every day is a school day.

Patience is quite important in learning BJJ, and isn't something I've seen discussed very much. If you've got new people who have previously done skill based sports then they may very well know what it takes to learn, but rank amateurs who never did a day of exercise in their lives have a steep slope to climb, as they not only need to learn BJJ but they also need to learn how to learn.

Regarding people who know quite a lot after a handful of classes, it's often the case that they know just a little bit more than the person with less experience. If I've done an arm bar 20 times and you've only done it once I have an advantage. A person who has a handful of classes, or even a few months of training might have a solid grasp on certain moves & positions but if their opponent uses a technique they don't know, or simply defends successfully then the beginner has hit the limit of their understanding of BJJ. The difference between someone with a few months experience and someone with a few years experience is that the more experienced person will try something, fail, and then try another move, if that fails they'll try another move (or even return to the first move). for example, you're in their closed guard (you're on top) and they go for a kimura, but you defend, then they may well go for a guillotine, if you defend that they may try the kimura, or try a sweep etc.

Don't worry about how much or how little people know, there'll always be someone better or worse than you. At times in the past I used to equate success with having high percentage of success with submissions (true to a certain extent; if you're submitting people then you're "winning"). The problem occurs when you meet someone who is better at defending a submission than you are at apply them; what's your plan B? You'd better have one!

Focus on enjoying BJJ and enjoying the training. Unlike a video game, we will never complete BJJ, we'll all be dead and gone before we've figured out all the moves, all the variations on positions etc.

You'll find the endurance can really be your best friend. It's a specific kind of endurance.

A guy started in our place last week. Semi-pro rugby player, absolute unit and everything is power and strength. Trying to keep the guy in place is a nightmare and, because he's new, I didn't want to be putting myself at risk of injury.

But I knew that there was only so far into a round he could go before he starts gassing (we do 6 min rounds in my place). it's true what they say, fatigue makes cowards of us all. 3 mins in or so and he couldn't muscle out of things any more and it was a more level playing field.

Now, what do I do when he gains that endurance and has some skill........ i'll cross that bridge when I come to it 😂

Yeah but I think this is just a case of getting back on the horse. Once you get some of your fitness back, those submissions and chains will come with much less effort as yo won't have to force them.

We currently have a situation whereby our coach (black belt) didn't see eye to eye with the guy running the gym (purple belt...... it's a weird situation), so he left. Our gym is an affiliate of a bigger gym (not the one you're thinking of) and this rift lead to our coach falling out with the leader of the parent gym, which strenghtened his resolve, leading him to open his own gym only a few KMs away from the old place. It's been an absolute mess. He left months ago, and since then we've been coached by the purple belt.

Our coach's new gym opens next week and I and most of the coloured belts are going with him, but in the preceeding months of limbo the old club has felt like pergutory. No coloured belts turning up, new white belts coming in every week...... it's been weird!

Looking forward to getting back with the old coach, the old group of lads and getting back to "normal".

For me, I don't do any specific supplemental exercise, I just try to fit exercise in where I can get it. If I need to go 5km to pick something up for example, I'll jump on the bike. I'd say swimming is ideal if you're looking to supplement but the correct answer is do another BJJ session if that's an option.

With regard to yoga, I've actually been meaning to start giving BJJ specific yoga a go for a while. Before lockdown I was doing a routine from a YouTube video 3-4 times a week and I really noticed a difference in my flexibility. In fact, others were even mentioning my improved flexibility. I really need to get back to it.

Also, yes I keep a notebook. Well, I actually keep a spreadsheet that I take notes on. It's very handy. Not only to take notes but to set goals.

For example, at the start of Jan I will figure out how many hours of BJJ I want to do over the next 3 months. I'll do the same for rounds sparred and I've started one now for "rounds with coloured belts". After each session, I fill in a box with how many hours I did, how many rounds I did and how many of them were with coloured belts.

I know it might sound silly, but you'd be surprised how many times I've almost missed training and thought "but I'm falling behind on the sheet, I have to go". Same with rounds. "I better go to this Open Mat, I need the rounds.". The coloured belt one is good too because it defeats that demon in my head who knows you're tired and says "go on, grab the new guy. That purple belt looking to make eye contact with you will give you a tough round. Forget that......"

On the sheet, I try take notes right after class when I can remember all the details. It's handy if you're doing the same technique in successive classes. Night one you might remember 80% of the details. On night two, you can keep your mind on the ones you missed and add them to you r notes the following day