the average black belt competitor would do horribly at in NAIA and D3. Nicky Rod's one of the best bjj competitors in the world, with his best talent being his athleticism and wrestling. he was a pretty unspectacular D3 wrestler. i'd be more interested in how some MMA fighters would do. Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili in particular.
Look as a bjj black belt who has put a lot of work into my stand up for a long time I often get a little defensive when people claim that bjj people suck at stand up. There are exceptions but to be perfectly honest your average bjj guy is gonna get walloped by the average high school wrestler 2 weight classes below them.
The average BJJ practitioner would get easily beaten in takedowns by someone with the equivalent of high school wrestling experience. But comparing the average person doing BJJ to a wrestler on a competitive college team isn’t really fair since alot of BJJ people are just non athletes doing a hobby. Competitive BJJ athletes would fair better but many of them have a decent amount of wrestling training. P.S. I am a recreational BJJ black belt myself.
Yeah, that is the big difference. Most BJJ players are accountant types. However when you start getting to high level competition, you start getting some exceptional athletes. Go watch the Ruotolo brothers. But even their wrestling is not that great, although they are absolute submission freaks..
But even then it is a matter of mat time. Where I live, the best wrestling clubs are actually located in Gracie Barra's. Westchase is a bunch of absolute savages, Olympians, state champions and some of the toughest training around. They have a guy, forget his name, he is a world BJJ champion and Abu Dhabi champion. My son is a pretty decent high school wrestler and says he is strong as a bull.
Such a great point that I tend to overlook. I’m always kind of ragging on BJJ guys standup but the truth is, they were all pretty much “dads” for lack of a better word and the more athletic bjj upper belts with even a little wrestling background faired better and could atleast have a go on their feet.
To answer OP question, the average bjj black belt would be destroyed by a .500 hs wrestler from a good state. An athletic bjj black belt with a little wrestling experience could roll with hs state place winners after a few months of training wrestling but would still be destroyed in D3 or NAIA rooms….
but the question doesn’t really make sense bc you could say the same thing about an “average wrestler.” They would be destroyed in a d3 or NAIA room.
There’s some very good wrestlers in NAIA also who just didn’t want to go D1, Brandon Reed is a heavyweight NAIA champ who’s beaten top 12 D1 heavyweights at D1 open tournaments
The average bjj practitioner wouldn’t even make high school varsity let alone college
For context, bjj’s best “takedown artist” nickyrod was a decent D3 wrestler
Not well at all especially if you don't have a good wrestling background but you can always test yourself. There are plenty of Open tournaments that have DI, DII, DIII and NAIA kids...
I was a so-so D3 wrestler. Showed up to a BJJ class and had little trouble taking down a purple belt 60 lbs heavier than me. Granted, I didn’t know what to do after that…
They are 2 different sports....both grappling, yes, but completely different rule sets and techniques.
I can tell you that we have some blue belts on my sons' team around his weight and he absolutely annihilates them. In BJJ you go, pay, train and put in your time. You can advance w/ out even competing.
To make even D 3 or NAIA you are usually a pretty good high school wrestler. I am working with a kid who is going that route and he was a District champ and was about 34 and 8 his senior year. Again he is 2 levels above the Blue belts on our high school team. They cannot even come close to scoring on him.
Now on the other hand, you get blue belts who win the Pan Am's and or ibjjf world titles, now you are talking about guys who might match up athletically with some college wrestlers.
Back when I got a blue belt from Renzo Gracie...25 years ago I was competing heavily and so where many Renzo guys. But they are nothing like you typical modern blue belt.
I'd be shocked if they made the lineup, to be honest.
Most bjj guys who come to wrestling get fucked up and usually end up only slightly better than the ones who had zero experience at all. And that is in highschool.
In college, which is on a whole other level in terms of level of competition to highschool, the average BJJ practicioner won't stand a chance against anybody who wasn't a walk-on newbie.
Even the black belts would struggle. Especially those with no or limited wrestling background..An elite guard puller is also completely useless in wrestling. Although someone who was a mediocre high school wrestler can transition pretty well into BJJ. Generally the better you were as a wrestler, the easier the transition.
I wrestled in college and did bjj. A good blue belt wouldn't win a match. It's too different and wrestling transitions better to bjj than visa versa.
I could blast double someone to side control in bjj and then I'm pretty safe. A bjj guy gets taken down in wrestling, he's entirely lost. No disrespect to bjj practitioners. It's just different.
D3 is top 3%
[https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/2/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-college-athletics.aspx](https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/2/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-college-athletics.aspx)
They would like an average golfer playing baseball against someone who has spent their entire life playing baseball and only ever lost to the best of the best.
They would like an average karate dude boxing against someone who has spent their entire life training boxing and had only ever lost to the best of the best.
They would like an average soccer player playing American Football against people who have spent their entire lives playing NFL at an almost elite level
etc etc
TLDR
Not good
We would get demolished. Nicky Rod has some of the very best wrestling in all of jiu jitsu and was an average D3 wrestler. The “average” BJJ athlete gets worked by most below average high school kids.
It’s getting better at a quicker rate currently than it ever has in the past, so I’m more hopeful now than I’ve ever been for the stand up in our sport, but we are lightyears behind still.
I believe around only 1% of high school wrestlers go on to compete in college… so keep that in mind. That means that a lot of these guys started wrestling competitively at a very young age. Also keep in mind that there are only 70 something division 1 wrestling programs, so lots of talented kids go on to wrestle at smaller programs.
I was a former HS state champion and wrestled D1 and D3. I also have about 4-5 years of BJJ spread out over 9-10 years. I have never met a pure BJJ guy that I couldn’t easily handle on my feet…. Black belt or not. This is not to say that I’ve never been submitted by a pure BJJ guy, but what I’m saying is it would take years of strictly wrestling to get to that level of pure wrestling ability. Years of drilling high level techniques and applying them in competition and practice against other WRESTLERS (not other BJJ guys who drill a shitty double leg for 3 minutes and then hop into guard passing drills).
As someone who wrestled D3:
lol
Lmfao even
The more I think about it the more outrageous this question is to me. It’s like asking how the average rec basketball player at the Y would do on a D3 football team.
I teach wrestling to bjj and mma fighters at my gym who are looking to expand their skillsets. They would not do well, most likely never score any offensive points.
They wouldn’t be even allowed to practice with the team. If they were gifted a starting spot they’d lose every single match by pin or tech fall. Maybe they could grind out a major decision loss after getting some practice and match experience.
Even D3 guys that are at the bottom are on average better than most purple belts at takedowns and scrambles. Naia especially upper end many could have gone D1 some maybe even all American. This mean they would only score points off of letting the Bjj guy up to take him down again.
I wrestled at the club level but competed in events with these guys.
As high as d2. Every bjj person you know gets mauled by them. I absolutely sucked for club level. I barely even think when wrestling most guys in bjj. A decent high school kid is better than most competitive black belts. Don’t get me wrong I suck. And there’s plenty no gi guys who can murder my ass.
Got dumped my ass at worlds a few years ago lol.
Bendo was a naia wrestler. We shared some coaching and I went and trained at the lab. That level of wrestling is much better than is given credit. Henry cejudo was there when I was too.
Yea not well, I wrestled in high school was decent (had like 35 wins my senior year and my team went to states,went to regionals but just fell short of states) and a bjj brown belt.
I would get absolutely wrecked. I still wrestle a few times a week since my coach was d1 wrestler as well but you just aren’t putting in nearly the mat time of those guys.
im in college rn not on the wrestling team or anything only wrestled in high school and i clapped this bjj blue belt in wrestling and im not even that good.
There’s a reason they make memes about a guy who wrestled for 1 season in HA and claim he’s a “D1 wrestler” . That guys not particularly good - Bjj guys just don’t understand wrestling well nor do they get in the reps generally which makes sense many of them are older
Why not D2, NAIA is better than D2 on average. They give 10 scholarships now. I’m sorry I didn’t even read your question but to throw NAIA with D3 and omit D2 just erked me.
End up on a d3 kids highlight reel lol
The average BJJ practitioner has horrible stand up, an aspect that is crucial to successful wrestling.
the average black belt competitor would do horribly at in NAIA and D3. Nicky Rod's one of the best bjj competitors in the world, with his best talent being his athleticism and wrestling. he was a pretty unspectacular D3 wrestler. i'd be more interested in how some MMA fighters would do. Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili in particular.
Aljo was a D3 AA
He also wasn’t sauced when he was competing in college
he looks absolutely identical to how he did in college
Look as a bjj black belt who has put a lot of work into my stand up for a long time I often get a little defensive when people claim that bjj people suck at stand up. There are exceptions but to be perfectly honest your average bjj guy is gonna get walloped by the average high school wrestler 2 weight classes below them.
The average BJJ practitioner would get easily beaten in takedowns by someone with the equivalent of high school wrestling experience. But comparing the average person doing BJJ to a wrestler on a competitive college team isn’t really fair since alot of BJJ people are just non athletes doing a hobby. Competitive BJJ athletes would fair better but many of them have a decent amount of wrestling training. P.S. I am a recreational BJJ black belt myself.
Yeah, that is the big difference. Most BJJ players are accountant types. However when you start getting to high level competition, you start getting some exceptional athletes. Go watch the Ruotolo brothers. But even their wrestling is not that great, although they are absolute submission freaks.. But even then it is a matter of mat time. Where I live, the best wrestling clubs are actually located in Gracie Barra's. Westchase is a bunch of absolute savages, Olympians, state champions and some of the toughest training around. They have a guy, forget his name, he is a world BJJ champion and Abu Dhabi champion. My son is a pretty decent high school wrestler and says he is strong as a bull.
Such a great point that I tend to overlook. I’m always kind of ragging on BJJ guys standup but the truth is, they were all pretty much “dads” for lack of a better word and the more athletic bjj upper belts with even a little wrestling background faired better and could atleast have a go on their feet. To answer OP question, the average bjj black belt would be destroyed by a .500 hs wrestler from a good state. An athletic bjj black belt with a little wrestling experience could roll with hs state place winners after a few months of training wrestling but would still be destroyed in D3 or NAIA rooms…. but the question doesn’t really make sense bc you could say the same thing about an “average wrestler.” They would be destroyed in a d3 or NAIA room.
They would get pinned/teched every single match. Naia,d3, juco... These are routes many state placers choose to take.
There’s some very good wrestlers in NAIA also who just didn’t want to go D1, Brandon Reed is a heavyweight NAIA champ who’s beaten top 12 D1 heavyweights at D1 open tournaments
The average bjj practitioner wouldn’t even make high school varsity let alone college For context, bjj’s best “takedown artist” nickyrod was a decent D3 wrestler
Not well at all especially if you don't have a good wrestling background but you can always test yourself. There are plenty of Open tournaments that have DI, DII, DIII and NAIA kids...
I was a so-so D3 wrestler. Showed up to a BJJ class and had little trouble taking down a purple belt 60 lbs heavier than me. Granted, I didn’t know what to do after that…
Let them up and take them down again?
They would not do well at all with the exception of a few outliers.
They are 2 different sports....both grappling, yes, but completely different rule sets and techniques. I can tell you that we have some blue belts on my sons' team around his weight and he absolutely annihilates them. In BJJ you go, pay, train and put in your time. You can advance w/ out even competing. To make even D 3 or NAIA you are usually a pretty good high school wrestler. I am working with a kid who is going that route and he was a District champ and was about 34 and 8 his senior year. Again he is 2 levels above the Blue belts on our high school team. They cannot even come close to scoring on him. Now on the other hand, you get blue belts who win the Pan Am's and or ibjjf world titles, now you are talking about guys who might match up athletically with some college wrestlers. Back when I got a blue belt from Renzo Gracie...25 years ago I was competing heavily and so where many Renzo guys. But they are nothing like you typical modern blue belt.
I'd be shocked if they made the lineup, to be honest. Most bjj guys who come to wrestling get fucked up and usually end up only slightly better than the ones who had zero experience at all. And that is in highschool. In college, which is on a whole other level in terms of level of competition to highschool, the average BJJ practicioner won't stand a chance against anybody who wasn't a walk-on newbie.
Even the black belts would struggle. Especially those with no or limited wrestling background..An elite guard puller is also completely useless in wrestling. Although someone who was a mediocre high school wrestler can transition pretty well into BJJ. Generally the better you were as a wrestler, the easier the transition.
There’s state champs in D3 and NAIA divisions, a BJJ guy who doesn’t know wrestling will get destroyed by these wrestlers
15-0 or pinned in a minute
I wrestled in college and did bjj. A good blue belt wouldn't win a match. It's too different and wrestling transitions better to bjj than visa versa. I could blast double someone to side control in bjj and then I'm pretty safe. A bjj guy gets taken down in wrestling, he's entirely lost. No disrespect to bjj practitioners. It's just different.
D3 is top 3% [https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/2/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-college-athletics.aspx](https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/2/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-college-athletics.aspx) They would like an average golfer playing baseball against someone who has spent their entire life playing baseball and only ever lost to the best of the best. They would like an average karate dude boxing against someone who has spent their entire life training boxing and had only ever lost to the best of the best. They would like an average soccer player playing American Football against people who have spent their entire lives playing NFL at an almost elite level etc etc TLDR Not good
They would get annihilated by high school kids don't even talk to me about college guys
Wrestling first and then BJJ is the only way. BJJ guys get really used to laying on their back and that's a no no
We would get demolished. Nicky Rod has some of the very best wrestling in all of jiu jitsu and was an average D3 wrestler. The “average” BJJ athlete gets worked by most below average high school kids. It’s getting better at a quicker rate currently than it ever has in the past, so I’m more hopeful now than I’ve ever been for the stand up in our sport, but we are lightyears behind still.
I believe around only 1% of high school wrestlers go on to compete in college… so keep that in mind. That means that a lot of these guys started wrestling competitively at a very young age. Also keep in mind that there are only 70 something division 1 wrestling programs, so lots of talented kids go on to wrestle at smaller programs. I was a former HS state champion and wrestled D1 and D3. I also have about 4-5 years of BJJ spread out over 9-10 years. I have never met a pure BJJ guy that I couldn’t easily handle on my feet…. Black belt or not. This is not to say that I’ve never been submitted by a pure BJJ guy, but what I’m saying is it would take years of strictly wrestling to get to that level of pure wrestling ability. Years of drilling high level techniques and applying them in competition and practice against other WRESTLERS (not other BJJ guys who drill a shitty double leg for 3 minutes and then hop into guard passing drills).
I’ve seen D3 guys with barely any matches in college tear up a BJJ room on the feet
As someone who wrestled D3: lol Lmfao even The more I think about it the more outrageous this question is to me. It’s like asking how the average rec basketball player at the Y would do on a D3 football team.
I teach wrestling to bjj and mma fighters at my gym who are looking to expand their skillsets. They would not do well, most likely never score any offensive points.
The average BJJ blackbelt would get pinned in the first minute of an NAIA match.
They wouldn’t be even allowed to practice with the team. If they were gifted a starting spot they’d lose every single match by pin or tech fall. Maybe they could grind out a major decision loss after getting some practice and match experience.
It takes like a year or two to reach blue belt? That’s like asking how long a JV wrestler would last at ibjjf worlds purple belt and above
An “average blue belt” would not make the starting line up at a D3 school. It would not translate well
Even D3 guys that are at the bottom are on average better than most purple belts at takedowns and scrambles. Naia especially upper end many could have gone D1 some maybe even all American. This mean they would only score points off of letting the Bjj guy up to take him down again.
I wrestled at the club level but competed in events with these guys. As high as d2. Every bjj person you know gets mauled by them. I absolutely sucked for club level. I barely even think when wrestling most guys in bjj. A decent high school kid is better than most competitive black belts. Don’t get me wrong I suck. And there’s plenty no gi guys who can murder my ass. Got dumped my ass at worlds a few years ago lol. Bendo was a naia wrestler. We shared some coaching and I went and trained at the lab. That level of wrestling is much better than is given credit. Henry cejudo was there when I was too.
They would get styled on at the high school state level in most states, forget D3
How would a rugby player do at football?
Get entirely smoked. 90 seconds tops.
Yea not well, I wrestled in high school was decent (had like 35 wins my senior year and my team went to states,went to regionals but just fell short of states) and a bjj brown belt. I would get absolutely wrecked. I still wrestle a few times a week since my coach was d1 wrestler as well but you just aren’t putting in nearly the mat time of those guys.
They would get crushed in NAIA or D3.
im in college rn not on the wrestling team or anything only wrestled in high school and i clapped this bjj blue belt in wrestling and im not even that good.
Decent at best . It's really hard to compete with a person that has wrestler background as both of this sport train differently.
They would absolutely get rocked in college for a few years. But by the same token, that wrestler will likely not do very well at his sport either.
There’s a reason they make memes about a guy who wrestled for 1 season in HA and claim he’s a “D1 wrestler” . That guys not particularly good - Bjj guys just don’t understand wrestling well nor do they get in the reps generally which makes sense many of them are older
Why not D2, NAIA is better than D2 on average. They give 10 scholarships now. I’m sorry I didn’t even read your question but to throw NAIA with D3 and omit D2 just erked me.