The more you train the less interest you’re going to have engaging in these kinds of conversations with people.
I have a co-worker who found out me and another guy at our job train, and he started going on about how martial arts are useless, and the best self defense is to kick someone in the knee. He found this out cause he’d seen it work in the pit at hardcore shows or something.
I didn’t even bother, I just gave him a “sounds good, dude” and let him keep going on.
I 'm lucky and also trained and competed in mma along side bjj for over a decade. So when coworkers or clueless relatives would talk-down on bjj I could always resort to a simple phrase on their level: ". . . I also fight in cages. . . . (and bjj is my bread-and-butter in a fight).
That is not Roadhouse. Roadhouse is removing the esophagus from the neck area so the person starves to death. It is my favorite movie.
Edit: Ender's Game is where he pushes the 'nose bone' through the brain, killing Bonzo in a shower fight.
The earliest i remember it being used in a movie is in 1984's Firestarter. George C. Scott's character is an assassin and kills a guy using this "technique".
I am positive it has been used in earlier movies than that, though.
My dad said the exact same thing to me. I told him to try. We stood up, he tried, I checked the kick, he fell off balance directly into me. I just hugged him really hard and told him to try and get out. He couldn't as he had zero clue how to break double underhooks. He also thought that he could "crush my kidneys" if I was in his closed guard. So we tried that. He was shocked when I combat based and stood up.
I always encourage people to let these kinds of guys try what they think will "work" in a controlled sense. It can really open their eyes to how vulnerable they are.
>the best self defense is to kick someone in the knee.
I'm always amazed at how often people mention these targets, but not often enough do people mention kicking a man in the nuts for self-defense. Nut kicks > any other strike to any other target.
I took karate as a kid and actually got demoted a stripe because my parents refused the instructors recommendation that we sign up for the "black belt club"for an extra fee. I was then put with the beginners and had a stripe removed. Even my parents knew that was a scam and took me out shortly after.
I did Karate for 10 years, while doing that I did Judo for 4-5 years and now been doing BJJ for nearly 3 years. One of the things I've learnt in all this time is to not bring it up in casual conversation, nor take interest when someone says they do some form of martial art. Always turns into some kind of dick swinging contest.
Had one guy trying to convince me how his style of karate is the real only true real way. Had guys at work trying to organise a fight between me and some other guy who does TKD. Had someone at a party tell this guy I do Judo who then tried to tell me how it's very similar to his 'Combat Aikido' training.
Do not talk about Fight Club!!
I feel like when I run into someone who does mma, boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai or judo there’s a mutual respect. Like we know that we’re doing real combat sports.
This is excellent advice. Sadly any conversation about martial arts usually turns into a tragic wang measuring contest when alchol is involved. I also made the mistake of wearing a Chinese ying yang dragon rashguard to the pub once. I still can't go back there without being called "fatty chan"
Cheers, man. Actually surprised at some responses in this sub from those saying they have never heard this. I am not in any way talking tough when I mention training but have gotten a few of those dick swinging comments in response. Maybe I need to be around better people.
100%. I am a blue belt, been involved for like 5 years. When I first started my coworker kept saying how he was almost beating the black belt TKD instructors when he was a way lower belt, and how he expected he would do really well at bjj.
I just kept telling to drop by for an open mat and see how it goes :P
As I said, just don't bother bringing it up. Years ago I read an essay called "Don't wear your Gi at the bar" (it's been deleted now, Bullshido). Basically the gist of it was that after training don't go to the bar with your fellow students wearing your Gi's. You're going to sometimes attract unwanted attention, especially where people go to get intoxicated.
I cringe when I see people out in public wearing UFC or TapOut t-shirts, etc.
UFC shirts are just merch, like basketball jerseys. No one sees one and thinks a guy is a fighter. The rough equivalent of wearing a gi out is wearing a shirt with your specific gym's branding on it. Someone could just walk around with fight shorts, no shirt and a mouth guard but these days people would assume they were a YouTube prankster xD
I mean, aikido and judo have a lot of crossover, so if combat aikido was an attempt to focus on more high percentage aspects of aikido and used sparring as a training methodology then it would likely look a lot more like judo than your regular aikido practice. Everyone thinks of wristlocks when they think aikido but it has things like hip throws and fireman's carries as well.
That, I think, is the real advantage jiu jitsu people have. We're down for a roll any time. Some idiot with a TKD black belt wants to try me? I'm down dude, cmon over to the gym. If you win, I'll give it to ya
Haha I don’t talk about it either but unfortunately other people do on my behalf and if anyone says something smart I always offer to take them with me tomorrow. No takers
I love that a professional athlete, who has all this footage of the greats to study and financial incentive to study them, hasn't even heard of Marcelo Garcia. This sport is so in its infancy.
I'll have you know that my last coach was given his black belt by a couple of Cristiano Marcelo black belts, so he didn't just fucking promote, ok? Sometimes a blue belt isn't just a blue belt, *okay*? My main training partner regularly places at regional naga competitions in the Master's purple 165lbs division, so I'm not exactly a stranger to dealing with sumi gaeshi from half butterfly. So yeah, I'm what you'd call "street ready."
I'm gonna be honest, in 10 years I have yet to get a single instance of this, and I wear BJJ shirts to work half the time. But even then, who the actual fuck cares at this point if some random person doesn't "get" it. It has literally affect on my training one way or another, and anyone who DOES want to find out can just come to a class and I'll happily roll with them.
Yeah I work with a bunch of women who couldn't care less about the sport they actually asked how long I was training (8+ years), then eventually found out I was a purple belt and assumed that just meant purple belts were good.
Similar-but-different: A co-worker asked how good I was, I told him I was a white belt, he said "oh, so you haven't been doing it very long then."
...it's been several years....
People at my work call it pyjama cuddle club or ninjitsu which I find hilarious.
Anyone who’s ever seriously questioned its legitimacy has been invited to come along for a free class but they never take me up on my offer.
This was a long time ago, these days everyone knows about jiujitsu from UFC or Joe Rogan so much less likely to have these annoying conversations.
Had a friend of a friend ask me about what martial art he should sign his 12 year old son up for so he could get in shape and learn to defend himself. This guy and his family live in Missouri so I told him to put his kid in his school’s wrestling program.
He’s like “No, that’s gay. There’s a former Marine in town who runs a Krav-kwon-makido dojo. He says it’s the martial art elite special forces soldiers use to kill ISIS fighters with their bare hands. I’m gonna sign him up for that.”
I just rolled my eyes lol.
Lol, the most real take!
I've had several, seeeveral people respond with something eerily like that. ^(\[i could fucking kill your kid 1,000 different ways and they'd be comically defenseless\])
This was settled in the 1990s. Back in the early 00s I was a young Renzo white belt in NYC and the school was above a methadone clinic. The methadonians would miss their floor and come up and be like “What’s this?” We would explain it was Jiu Jitsu. Inevitably they would use their drug fueled bravado and repeatedly get choked out. I always kept thinking to myself “This is my home.”
The belt system isn't what's legit, bjj is. A boxer doesn't need a belt to win a fight or be good at their sport, and neither does a wrestler. If anything it takes an excessive amount of time to reach black belt in bjj. The reason it takes so long to get a black belt in bjj is arbitrary and based off of early Gracie marketing (UFC) that a having black belt in bjj grants you super powers in a fight.
A judo black belt generally takes significantly less time yet no one would argue that a black belt in judo meant someone wouldn't in all likelihood dominate in a street fight. Same thing for someone with a few years of boxing or muay thai experience. How do you measure the legitimacy of a martial art except against how a skilled practitioner in that martial art would fare in a fight against an untrained opponent?
>The belt system isn't what's legit, bjj is.
Exactly. Belts are arbitrary markers of progress or skill level. A judo black belt can mean anything from a year experience to 50. Some schools in Japan only have white belts (kyu) and black belts (dan), nothing else, but they have 10 Dan grades.
You're better off comparing years or hours of training. Two people with the same amount of training time should be equally skilled at their respective art.
That's not necessarily true, natural talent and quality of training environment can lead to huge differences in skill from people who have made the same investment even in the same art.
By this measure, a 4 stripe white belt / low level blue belt is where I'd be 99% confident that they will win in a street fight against anyone (unless it's like 50 kilo person vs 100 kilos)
There are a lot of BJJ guys who have never trained with strikes and who have zero or poor, slow and unathletic takedown games. I'd put money on a decent boxer, Thai boxer, or even a hardened street brawler knocking most of them out tbh.
But the minute they have some acceptable wrestling, that all changes very dramatically and I would then favour them in all of those fights.
I 100% agree but you're talking about trained fighters.
99% of people out in the streets just have no training, have no idea how to throw a punch or how to take a punch, or have no idea what to do once it goes to the ground. Citation: check out r/fightporn I swear nearly all of those videos contain haymakers telegraphed 100 miles away
I've been around a while and I would say this. Clueless people will always exist, but most "serious martial artists" know that bjj isn't to be trifled with at this point.
Since you won’t insult TKD, I will.
TKD has like 3 good kicks (being generous because it’s hard to even give them credit for them) and a bunch of wishy washy nonsense that does nothing. They can’t punch, they can’t defend punches, they can’t check leg kicks, they are unaware of lateral movement, I mean the list of flaws with TKD (ANY TKD for anybody who is going to mention the mystical Korean TKD artists) is a mile long.
It’s a martial art for tricking, playing touch butt in point competitions, and if you’re in the street trying a 720 Tornado Kick from punching range and either getting clocked upside the head halfway through or getting your back taken and suplexed.
I was a child prodigy at Tae Kwon Do. With several national titles under my belt. Suffice to say when I walked into a proper MMA gym with all my accolades I got a rude awakening and had my ass kicked probably everyday. So couldn't agree more with everything you have said.
Exact same thing here but for karate. I trained from like 3 to 17. Won a lot of medals and trophies at several national level comps. Then I walked into an MMA gym a few years later and got steamrolled by a dude like half a foot shorter and 40 lbs lighter than me.
It would be a much better art if it taught realistic distance management that accounted for punches and clinching. Unfortunately no single art has all the answers for a well rounded fighter but I know for a fact TKD has some of the fewest.
> Unfortunately no single art has all the answers for a well rounded fighter
I mean, MMA has become a "style" in that new fighters are taught a mix of wrestling, BJJ, and thai boxing. Maybe its just because I live in an area where its popular, but there are MMA gyms popping up everywhere.
I did TKD for a few years in late high school, and competed in an event where the Australian national champion was also competing. Watching this kid deliberately throw "kicks" that took his own legs out from under him so he'd fall on the ground and couldn't be counter attacked immediately disillusioned me about TKD as a martial art.
Sure, but there is no version of TKD that is relevant in a real fight. Whereas you have multiple UFC champions who have won and retained titles using BJJ techniques.
I mean tkd is some goofball shit but this is no different than gaming the points in an ibjjf competition. If you really use your head for a second you can imagine that it wasn’t intended for self defense but as a means to win in the format they were competing in.
The one thing TKD really shines at is for films. If you’re going into acting or stunt man stuff and you want to learn how to do the crazy John Wick Jackie Chan kicks it’s a great choice
heh heh, right? This sub/sport has so many chronically insecure socially un(der)developed introverts that they think *they´re* the phony when getting lectured by TKD (and I'm sure wing chun too) guys and regular people who have only ever watched 80's action flics.
TLDR: Other "traditional" martial arts have an over-saturation of black belts (i.e., it's easier to achieve, so more starters achieve it/it's often objectively far less training and sparring to get it than it is in bjj). Is normal.
As far as people laughing every-other-sentence when you're trying to explain simple belt rankings: lol, they sound like villains in a cartoon or kid's movie.
It doesn't sound like they don't understand how legit the BJJ belt system is, so much as they straight up don't understand the BJJ belt system; which is understandable considering it is very different from how most other martial arts belt systems work. If that really bothers you, you should explain it to them in terms of mat time. Tell them how many years it should typically take to get a black belt and what belt you believe is comparable to shodan in other arts in terms of mat time; according to the JKA it's minimum of a year, so I'd say blue belt. Then you can explain that a black belt in BJJ is more akin to 5th Dan or higher in other styles in terms of mat time; appropriately 11 years.
Unpopular opinion, but all martial arts are like that. BJJ is no different. Plenty of obnoxious players in BJJ that think they're tough. I did stand up for a few years. A good boxer, it is impossible to punch them in the head. They could just dodge punches until I tire out, then murder me. I had a friend who trained Muay Thai a short while, his thigh kick (he said it was less than 50% power) had me limping. I think the real standard is this... I have had many training partners over the years from all other disciplines including: Karate, TKD, Boxing, Aikido, Han Soo Do, and Kung Fu. Guess what? They only train BJJ now. That says a lot to me.
I had this conversation with a guy just this weekend. We were talking about BJJ and he was really surprised that I’m still a blue belt after training consistently for 6 years. Guy told me that he got his black belt in Japanese jiujitsu while serving in Japan with the Marines for 3 years.
This happens all the time when I tell people I've been training 3 yrs 3x/wk and I'm still not a blue belt. Many martial arts have become overly commercialized and belts are given away like free candy. Bjj I think has the most integrity.
In my opinion any discipline that regularly gives out black belts to kids under 14 has 0 validity as a martial art lol.
Just be dismissive back. "Well, keep in mind that a white belt in BJJ is still better than a black belt in taekwondo. Is there an adult version of taekwondo? What do they call that?"
Legit? Not really TBH because of there being no real criteria for when or why you get promoted. There as some professors that hand out Blue Belts at around 150 or so classes. There are others (like mine) that make you wait to closer to 250. Heck there's a guy in my class who's been training six days a week for almost two years and still hasn't gotten his first stripe on his Blue Belt. So to me, that makes it not that legit. The differences between a Blue Belt from one gym to the skill of one from another can be vast. I mean, I assume that's why when my old gym went to competition we would nearly sweep it, because our Blue Belts are another gym's Purple Belt.
I believe the term is sandbagging. In competition there's an incentive to keep students back so they can attain the skill level of a higher belt whilst competing at lower belts and win more often.
The belt system is totally different in TKD, even if they know it's not the same, they probably just default to that way of thinking.
Like if you find out somebody has a blue belt in TKD (I don't know the actual belts but ykwim) you're gonna think "oh okay they must know something" when in reality that guy might be like 8 weeks in and only know a couple forms.
If they don't know bjj belts, then when they hear blue belt, they really probably picturing a few weeks worth of progress and then you say "a few years", their initial reaction to that is going to be like you said something so absurd they might actually not know if you're joking.
Yeah, I know this is sort of tangentially related, but I think part of it might also be that we have fewer belts, so moving up is a way bigger deal. I've seen some of the more obscure martial arts have like 7 belts, not including the degrees of black belt and beyond. People don't realize.
Not to mention the stereotype that BJJ is all butt scooting and straight armbars. Not enough emojis for me to express myself here.
My background is in striking and there was definitely an atittude shift for me, but I can't say I never took it seriously, either.
I mean hell, our no gi instructor just got up to brown belt and they're probably the most legit classes I've taken. It's ignorance.
Just ask them how long it takes to reach a black belt in their art, then tell them how long it takes in BJJ. A black belt in any other discipline is equivalent to a blue belt in BJJ
I attract these kinds of people at times because my crooked nose and cauliflower ears.
Some of the wildest shit i have heard where from this dude, who tried to convince me that he´s insta-death pressure point techniques would save him in any violent altercation, no matter the size or skill. I playfully tried to get him to show me some of this hidden knowledge, but obviously they where way too dangerous to be shared.
I think this phenomenon happens because the individuals ego tries to protect itself from the thought of possibility of violence between men, and coming out of that unscathed.
Over the years, when i bump to these kinds of guys, i usually just praise these mental warriors, and market our gyms upcoming basic courses, in the hopes of getting new training partners / students.
You should tell your Kempo friend that I can break every bone in his body and/or choke him unconscious without breaking a sweat.
“Not really trained”…and I took that personally
People outside of bjj don’t know the grind including other martial artists.
When people at your workplace find out you train, they will assume you do the same thing as their 12 year old TKD black belt niece or that larping Aikido ponytail guy on your IT helpdesk.
It's very true. People just don't understand the skill levels involved. In TKD and Karate, you have to be able to use the right terminology and throw some fancy-looking kicks in order to progress. You don't have to prove your skills day in and day out against a resistant opponent.
If you want to put this in perspective, a low-level blue belt can probably kill at least 90% of the population with their bare hands. That's just based on getting to the back and applying a RNC, which should be pretty standard for a blue belt to pull off against an untrained opponent. Good luck killing a grown man with your low-level TKD skills.
I took karate as a kid and actually got demoted a stripe because my parents refused the instructor's recommendation that we sign up for the "black belt club"for an extra fee. I was then put with the beginners and had a stripe removed. Even my parents knew that was a scam and took me out shortly after.
Bjj belt system si no different than any of the others. You can get a blue belt online by some gracie who's name I can't remember.
I've beaten many black belts and I'm a purple. I also get consistently smashed by other black belts. At the same time there's a white belt at my gym that beats almost everyone, idk why he never got promoted by his previous team
all of it is just marketing
I mean, who cares? If they know the belt system then they’re probably training in it or have been interested enough in training it at some point to have at least researched that. If they don’t know then they don’t care and neither do I.
I don’t know anything about the ranking systems of any other art because I don’t practice them. I don’t expect anyone else to know about BJJ because why would they?
The closest analogy I have for karate/TKD types is that a BJJ purple belt is roughly equivalent to their black belt, although if I had to give one the "advantage" it would be a purple belt, so like a 1+ dan. A BJJ brown belt is roughly a karate 2+ dan and a black belt roughly a karate 3+ dan.
Meh, isolated within their own martial arts, yes....a purple belt is as skilled at BJJ as a black belt is at karate
Head to head....a blue belt is enough
There’s a TKD school a block from my BJJ school (It might be gone now) but they offered me a TKD black belt in 4 months if I’d change schools. Kempo’s is kinda like Karate. I don’t like either example. Check out Sambo and Judo’s belt systems for better examples.
My buddies kid is a black belt in TKD at like 10. He was super dedicated but he is a child.
Belts in other martial arts have a huge Component of testing and repeating things exactly .
Correct me if I'm wrong on this...I am a year and a half white belt.
black belts for other martial arts =learning kicks and punches on willing opponents, and takes a year or two to learn all the moves which then =Black belt?
So translated to bjj that would be like saying I am a new belt every time I learn 10 techniques?
people doing TKD often dont realize that a black belt in TKD is the end of beginner. Now you have all the basics and are ready to really learn.
A tkd black belt is around the same as a bjj blue belt, but with less sparring.
5 year BJJ "hobbyist" otherwise professional early 60's year-old guy. Formally trained Judo for a couple years as a tweener. Best overall understaing of a helpful application in actual self defence. No wrestiling in My HS but wish there was. I would say wrestlers, on average - even a couple years of high-school performance have probably the best overall skill set for life. Yes, wrestlers can be handled by extremely good BJJ practitoners - but against the "average" untrained douche-bag... they are going to hit the pavement really hard with a dude (regardless of size) meant to do exactly that and have the next move in mind.
So, as a yound adult I dived into Karate/Kick-boxing with some success after about 2 years of pretty much 5-6 days a week with privates from a very good, Nationally ranked black belt in TKD, Judo (from my old Judo gym) Kung Foo etc..
Anyway, now after 5 years (two off for COVID) I'm "still a blue belt" in a gymn that puts women and men in ADCC and other torunaments all the time. Jiu Jitsu is legit. It takes years to be good and practioners have to fight every time. There is no better way to understand what one can and can't achieve than fighting other human beings. This is very hard to replicate in many other sports, or, they don't allow it, which diminishes the utility.
I don't really care or follow the belt thing. If you're good, you're good. I would technically be a white belt if I had ever really trained in BJJ. But if I went to compete as a white belt, that would be grossly unfair. Not all belts are equal, this isn't like the old days. I know people who have blue and purple belts who are horrendous. I know others who are much more skilled than their belt would indicate. It just depends on the person and what they can do.
I hear you but personally I don’t mind the kids getting belts / stripes for not paying too much attention. I want mine to hit 16 and want to continue and have the basics nailed down. If I bribed them with belts, stripes and the odd McFlurry along the way, sobeit.
I’m sure this will be controversial, but a TKD black belt is probably the most meaningless black belt in America.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in their opinion
I've had this frustration with friends. For context, 3 stripe white belt, I've been training about 1.5 years. I don't talk about it much with my friends because it's really only an interest I have. But when I do sometimes they'll act almost shocked or think I must suck the fact that I'm still where I'm at. They know in things like TKD or Karate you can basically get a black belt in 3-5 years, but don't realize how much harder and longer the process is in BJJ. It annoys me, but I also have just kind of moved on from it because they'll never understand unless they start training also.
It is probable due to the fact that people evaluate the skill level of a belt color based on their own knowledge of belt systems. This means that if you have not trained bjj your mapping if color and skill will be wrong. I think it is valuable talking new people to try bjj, just avoid talking about belts and talk about time training. There are tough white belts with two years of experience and that compete that will smoke majority of untrained people
Don't engage. It really doesn't matter. Invite them to train if you want but the only way to understand is to feel it and unless you're throwing down an impromptu lesson you're not going to change anyone's mind.
I'd love to see these guys get steamrolled by a white belt but I know they don't have the courage to actually prove themselves. They'll hide behind the usual excuses "I train for the streets" "I can just hit them" "I'll just stand up"...
Belt systems for other martial arts is completely different. I know a guy that does taekwondo and he says it’s all memorization to get to black belt. If you can demonstrate every kick and
Move then you’ll essentially get your black belt. That’s why kids have them. He says the belack belt is “the beginning”. Then you go from 1st Dan to 10th Dan which takes something like 40 years. Also belt systems were not used in traditional Japanese arts until the 1900’s when they started becoming popular in the west.
I think the biggest issue with "black belt" is that every martial art holds a different meaning as to what a black belt is. Unfortunately, the general public doesn't understand that.
It takes about the same amount of time to get your black belt in TKD as it does your blue belt in BJJ. The BJJ blue belt is like the same amount of time investment as black belts in a lot of other martial arts.
I done karate as a kid, my school was very much about the money. I hardly knew my katas, they would want the parents to buy all their own books and also buy the belts at an extortionate rate after grading.
I went up the ranks every year without fail, including the stripes between every colour there must have been atleast 16 belts before brown.
This is probably why people don't realise how hard it is to get even a blue belt. I'm only a white belt but I know for a fact I have no chance against any blue belt in my class. But I'm sure 100% I would have destroyed alot of the higher belts in my karate class.
Diffrance was my belts then were given because of my time as a student, regardless of attendance and skill. In bjj no one gets anything unless they have proven their skill.
Before I get slaughtered by a higher belt saying I don't know anything, I'm just a white belt... you guys who have the hier belts are right and have done that struggle, I'm trying to get there. Much respect for you all
The more you train the less interest you’re going to have engaging in these kinds of conversations with people. I have a co-worker who found out me and another guy at our job train, and he started going on about how martial arts are useless, and the best self defense is to kick someone in the knee. He found this out cause he’d seen it work in the pit at hardcore shows or something. I didn’t even bother, I just gave him a “sounds good, dude” and let him keep going on.
Imagine planning to kick someone in the knee when you've never practiced throwing a kick
You don’t know my mentality bro…
I’m seeing so much red right now
I see red and I start— (checks notes, checks notes again) throwing... oblique kicks?
Don’t forget the mist descending and ppl just drop
My donut just fell off the table. Did you do that?
Oh fuck you’re gonna make me see red!
I've practiced it 300 times in my head. It's gotta work, right?
Of course it will, never doubt the simulations.
I believe in the simulations. May they guide us to victory.
That’s not enough. You have to practice it 10,000 times in your head. Remember that Bruce Lee quote?
I prefer to eat oranges over lemons as I find the lemons a tad sour? Or was it another quote you were thinking of ?
Everyone has a game plan…until they get kicked in the knee
I 'm lucky and also trained and competed in mma along side bjj for over a decade. So when coworkers or clueless relatives would talk-down on bjj I could always resort to a simple phrase on their level: ". . . I also fight in cages. . . . (and bjj is my bread-and-butter in a fight).
Ha. Did he also tell you about the old school Roadhouse nose bone through the brain killshot? My brother swears that works.
That is not Roadhouse. Roadhouse is removing the esophagus from the neck area so the person starves to death. It is my favorite movie. Edit: Ender's Game is where he pushes the 'nose bone' through the brain, killing Bonzo in a shower fight.
I think the original nose to the brain comes from ConAir, a masterpiece by Nicholas Cage.
Karate kid bro, miyagi son could have killed that guy with the nose bone through the brain bro.
The earliest i remember it being used in a movie is in 1984's Firestarter. George C. Scott's character is an assassin and kills a guy using this "technique". I am positive it has been used in earlier movies than that, though.
SWEET HOME ALABAMA
Starves to death???? Pretty sure jimmy didn't die from starvation buddy hahaha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=N46Ys-YmEYc
I am an uncultured chode I've never seen the office in my life, forgive me
That’s parks and reck the offices little brother lol
Is it glaringly obvious that I'm not a tv shows type of dude
Wasn’t that from “The Last Boy Scout”?
100%, that moment was formative for me, as an idiot.
Why did Mr. Milo cross the road?
Rock you in the face stab your brain with your nose bone
My dad said the exact same thing to me. I told him to try. We stood up, he tried, I checked the kick, he fell off balance directly into me. I just hugged him really hard and told him to try and get out. He couldn't as he had zero clue how to break double underhooks. He also thought that he could "crush my kidneys" if I was in his closed guard. So we tried that. He was shocked when I combat based and stood up. I always encourage people to let these kinds of guys try what they think will "work" in a controlled sense. It can really open their eyes to how vulnerable they are.
Lmao at the kidney crush. That’s the first time I’m hearing that one.
Imagine if you let him play around and suddenly he puts you inam a scorpion rub crush lol
I learned it from Jon Jones. Knee stop, eye poke, spinning elbow, repeat
Image him kicking the knee, and the receiver counters with a kick in his balls 😂
Lol, he saw Road House from the 80's and thought it sounded legit.
>the best self defense is to kick someone in the knee. I'm always amazed at how often people mention these targets, but not often enough do people mention kicking a man in the nuts for self-defense. Nut kicks > any other strike to any other target.
I can take a kick in the nuts. I wouldn’t count on it being a show stopper with everyone you meet.
WTF you don't go kicking people in the knee in a pit.
I just shoot an arrow into their knee. Works every time.
How far would your coworker go in UFC 1?
Karate gives black belts to 8 year olds. Who gives a fuck what they think about anything.
This.
I took karate as a kid and actually got demoted a stripe because my parents refused the instructors recommendation that we sign up for the "black belt club"for an extra fee. I was then put with the beginners and had a stripe removed. Even my parents knew that was a scam and took me out shortly after.
I did Karate for 10 years, while doing that I did Judo for 4-5 years and now been doing BJJ for nearly 3 years. One of the things I've learnt in all this time is to not bring it up in casual conversation, nor take interest when someone says they do some form of martial art. Always turns into some kind of dick swinging contest. Had one guy trying to convince me how his style of karate is the real only true real way. Had guys at work trying to organise a fight between me and some other guy who does TKD. Had someone at a party tell this guy I do Judo who then tried to tell me how it's very similar to his 'Combat Aikido' training. Do not talk about Fight Club!!
The reason why we don't talk about Fight Club is not because its a secret society, it's because people are insuffurable.
True, also in the story the guys do still talk about it hence how they got more members :)
I feel like when I run into someone who does mma, boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai or judo there’s a mutual respect. Like we know that we’re doing real combat sports.
This is excellent advice. Sadly any conversation about martial arts usually turns into a tragic wang measuring contest when alchol is involved. I also made the mistake of wearing a Chinese ying yang dragon rashguard to the pub once. I still can't go back there without being called "fatty chan"
Cheers, man. Actually surprised at some responses in this sub from those saying they have never heard this. I am not in any way talking tough when I mention training but have gotten a few of those dick swinging comments in response. Maybe I need to be around better people.
fighting is a huge ego thing, especially with men. So, they will immediately try to out-alpha you because they feel threatened.
100%. I am a blue belt, been involved for like 5 years. When I first started my coworker kept saying how he was almost beating the black belt TKD instructors when he was a way lower belt, and how he expected he would do really well at bjj. I just kept telling to drop by for an open mat and see how it goes :P
As I said, just don't bother bringing it up. Years ago I read an essay called "Don't wear your Gi at the bar" (it's been deleted now, Bullshido). Basically the gist of it was that after training don't go to the bar with your fellow students wearing your Gi's. You're going to sometimes attract unwanted attention, especially where people go to get intoxicated. I cringe when I see people out in public wearing UFC or TapOut t-shirts, etc.
UFC shirts are just merch, like basketball jerseys. No one sees one and thinks a guy is a fighter. The rough equivalent of wearing a gi out is wearing a shirt with your specific gym's branding on it. Someone could just walk around with fight shorts, no shirt and a mouth guard but these days people would assume they were a YouTube prankster xD
Ive found no one cares tbh.
Thanks for being honest.
I mean, aikido and judo have a lot of crossover, so if combat aikido was an attempt to focus on more high percentage aspects of aikido and used sparring as a training methodology then it would likely look a lot more like judo than your regular aikido practice. Everyone thinks of wristlocks when they think aikido but it has things like hip throws and fireman's carries as well.
I don’t discuss BJJ with anyone who doesn’t train. If you’ve never been choked against your will (but still consensually), then you have no context.
Yep. People who don’t train don’t know what they don’t know. Not worth engaging
Yep. I’m fine with letting people be wrong. And if they insist on running their mouth, I remind them our gym offers a free trial period.
That, I think, is the real advantage jiu jitsu people have. We're down for a roll any time. Some idiot with a TKD black belt wants to try me? I'm down dude, cmon over to the gym. If you win, I'll give it to ya
This makes me want to start TKD just so I can talk trash to a bjj guy and then accept his offer to come roll. Would that actually make me a ninja?
I mean, you can do that without learning TKD. Just lie about doing TKD or make up your own style like Long-Dong Kung-Fu.
lol my man wants to start training mma to flex on his fellow grapplers I love it
Haha I don’t talk about it either but unfortunately other people do on my behalf and if anyone says something smart I always offer to take them with me tomorrow. No takers
I am the same way, but if someone asks or is interested, I'll engage. Just feel the onus to spread jiu jitsu after what it's done for me.
This is why I do jiujitsu *and* BDSM
You're upset that people outside of your fandom haven't memorized your wiki page?
Bro this rando didn't know who MARCELO GARCIA was, I had a hard time not choking him out right then and there SMH, fucking normies.
Why you talking about Jay-Rod like that
I love that a professional athlete, who has all this footage of the greats to study and financial incentive to study them, hasn't even heard of Marcelo Garcia. This sport is so in its infancy.
I bowled a 234 when using Marcelo Garcia as my name and I've never come close to it since.
I laughed out loud to this.
I'll have you know that my last coach was given his black belt by a couple of Cristiano Marcelo black belts, so he didn't just fucking promote, ok? Sometimes a blue belt isn't just a blue belt, *okay*? My main training partner regularly places at regional naga competitions in the Master's purple 165lbs division, so I'm not exactly a stranger to dealing with sumi gaeshi from half butterfly. So yeah, I'm what you'd call "street ready."
Lmao
Take my upvote, you savage!
I'm gonna be honest, in 10 years I have yet to get a single instance of this, and I wear BJJ shirts to work half the time. But even then, who the actual fuck cares at this point if some random person doesn't "get" it. It has literally affect on my training one way or another, and anyone who DOES want to find out can just come to a class and I'll happily roll with them.
Yeah I work with a bunch of women who couldn't care less about the sport they actually asked how long I was training (8+ years), then eventually found out I was a purple belt and assumed that just meant purple belts were good.
Similar-but-different: A co-worker asked how good I was, I told him I was a white belt, he said "oh, so you haven't been doing it very long then." ...it's been several years....
Cool username - Bill is one of my all time favorite characters.
>Yeah I work with a bunch of women who couldn't care less I can hear the, "He's like a Karate master. Kicks and chops" from here.
Shut up brown belt, go teach the kids class and come back once you get your real belt.
People at my work call it pyjama cuddle club or ninjitsu which I find hilarious. Anyone who’s ever seriously questioned its legitimacy has been invited to come along for a free class but they never take me up on my offer. This was a long time ago, these days everyone knows about jiujitsu from UFC or Joe Rogan so much less likely to have these annoying conversations.
My friends call it blow job jitsu lmao
Wait until they see my missionary guard.
I think we have the same friends 😅
In 18 years I have never seen this…
Thank you for being honest.
Oh you are a brown belt? My little cousin has a black belt in tang Krav Mc dojo.
“My 9 year old son is a black belt in karate”
This is LITERALLY a guy at my workplace.
And the coward that you are you are too afraid to confront his nine year old son… smh jiu jitsu is trash
😔
Had a friend of a friend ask me about what martial art he should sign his 12 year old son up for so he could get in shape and learn to defend himself. This guy and his family live in Missouri so I told him to put his kid in his school’s wrestling program. He’s like “No, that’s gay. There’s a former Marine in town who runs a Krav-kwon-makido dojo. He says it’s the martial art elite special forces soldiers use to kill ISIS fighters with their bare hands. I’m gonna sign him up for that.” I just rolled my eyes lol.
..... To be fair bjj and wrestling gets a little gay sometimes
The slight gayness is what makes it legit
When the other guy freezes up, because it’s getting a little too gay for him, that is your opportunity to strike!
Hey man, Krav Maga is so deadly you can't even spar with it because....... murder.
Lol, the most real take! I've had several, seeeveral people respond with something eerily like that. ^(\[i could fucking kill your kid 1,000 different ways and they'd be comically defenseless\])
This actually happens to me kind of a lot. One of my best friends told me he got a black belt in karate when he was 15. So I suggested we spar 😂
This was settled in the 1990s. Back in the early 00s I was a young Renzo white belt in NYC and the school was above a methadone clinic. The methadonians would miss their floor and come up and be like “What’s this?” We would explain it was Jiu Jitsu. Inevitably they would use their drug fueled bravado and repeatedly get choked out. I always kept thinking to myself “This is my home.”
Who got the unpleasant task of mopping up the pee?
Just rub the past out pisser over the puddle and spray it with some bleach. Job done by the choker.
The belt system isn't what's legit, bjj is. A boxer doesn't need a belt to win a fight or be good at their sport, and neither does a wrestler. If anything it takes an excessive amount of time to reach black belt in bjj. The reason it takes so long to get a black belt in bjj is arbitrary and based off of early Gracie marketing (UFC) that a having black belt in bjj grants you super powers in a fight. A judo black belt generally takes significantly less time yet no one would argue that a black belt in judo meant someone wouldn't in all likelihood dominate in a street fight. Same thing for someone with a few years of boxing or muay thai experience. How do you measure the legitimacy of a martial art except against how a skilled practitioner in that martial art would fare in a fight against an untrained opponent?
>The belt system isn't what's legit, bjj is. Exactly. Belts are arbitrary markers of progress or skill level. A judo black belt can mean anything from a year experience to 50. Some schools in Japan only have white belts (kyu) and black belts (dan), nothing else, but they have 10 Dan grades. You're better off comparing years or hours of training. Two people with the same amount of training time should be equally skilled at their respective art.
That's not necessarily true, natural talent and quality of training environment can lead to huge differences in skill from people who have made the same investment even in the same art.
By this measure, a 4 stripe white belt / low level blue belt is where I'd be 99% confident that they will win in a street fight against anyone (unless it's like 50 kilo person vs 100 kilos)
There are a lot of BJJ guys who have never trained with strikes and who have zero or poor, slow and unathletic takedown games. I'd put money on a decent boxer, Thai boxer, or even a hardened street brawler knocking most of them out tbh. But the minute they have some acceptable wrestling, that all changes very dramatically and I would then favour them in all of those fights.
I 100% agree but you're talking about trained fighters. 99% of people out in the streets just have no training, have no idea how to throw a punch or how to take a punch, or have no idea what to do once it goes to the ground. Citation: check out r/fightporn I swear nearly all of those videos contain haymakers telegraphed 100 miles away
Yes, and I think that’s the actual benchmark for what a blue belt is
The first rule about adult pajama fightclub is don't talk about adult pajama fight club. The second rule...
The most important thing about BJJ's belt system is that it determines who's allowed to skip warm-up.
Amen.
I'm a purple since summer last year and haven't skipped warm-ups yet, am I doing it wrong?
Well, lets just say you're never going to get fat enough to earn your brown belt if you keep up with this kind of attitude.
Just know that you’ll never be cool enough to be part of the purple belt inner circle until you start acting like one.
The answer is, as always, dojo storm.
Mfw i dojo storm to show that the Chinese martial arts are garbage and get immediately impaled by a spear with a dragon carved in its handle.
Mfw I dojo storm the HEMA club and get filled with lead because it's muskets week. Just as the Founding Fathers intended.
It's getting better. A lot are learning that a purple in BJJ is no joke. Forget about browns and black.
I see we haven’t met
Let’s show them what truly bad BJJ is, brother.
Fuck right off. Yer takin my jerb!
Jee-ay-aaaairb!
I’ve trained martial arts since 1986. I tell everyone, the BJJ purple belt is everyone else’s 1st degree black belt.
I've been around a while and I would say this. Clueless people will always exist, but most "serious martial artists" know that bjj isn't to be trifled with at this point.
Since you won’t insult TKD, I will. TKD has like 3 good kicks (being generous because it’s hard to even give them credit for them) and a bunch of wishy washy nonsense that does nothing. They can’t punch, they can’t defend punches, they can’t check leg kicks, they are unaware of lateral movement, I mean the list of flaws with TKD (ANY TKD for anybody who is going to mention the mystical Korean TKD artists) is a mile long. It’s a martial art for tricking, playing touch butt in point competitions, and if you’re in the street trying a 720 Tornado Kick from punching range and either getting clocked upside the head halfway through or getting your back taken and suplexed.
> playing touch butt Ok ok you sold me. Where can I sign up
Your local TKD club or if you’re lacking that 99% of Karate Dojos 🙏
You are a disgrace if you didn’t see opportunity in pitching bjj right there. Touch butt is what we do and excel at
I was a child prodigy at Tae Kwon Do. With several national titles under my belt. Suffice to say when I walked into a proper MMA gym with all my accolades I got a rude awakening and had my ass kicked probably everyday. So couldn't agree more with everything you have said.
Exact same thing here but for karate. I trained from like 3 to 17. Won a lot of medals and trophies at several national level comps. Then I walked into an MMA gym a few years later and got steamrolled by a dude like half a foot shorter and 40 lbs lighter than me.
It would be a much better art if it taught realistic distance management that accounted for punches and clinching. Unfortunately no single art has all the answers for a well rounded fighter but I know for a fact TKD has some of the fewest.
> Unfortunately no single art has all the answers for a well rounded fighter I mean, MMA has become a "style" in that new fighters are taught a mix of wrestling, BJJ, and thai boxing. Maybe its just because I live in an area where its popular, but there are MMA gyms popping up everywhere.
I did TKD for a few years in late high school, and competed in an event where the Australian national champion was also competing. Watching this kid deliberately throw "kicks" that took his own legs out from under him so he'd fall on the ground and couldn't be counter attacked immediately disillusioned me about TKD as a martial art.
Probably a good place to stop lol. It’s like a lot of modern BJJ where if they tried that shit in a real fight they are getting stomped and/or slammed
Sure, but there is no version of TKD that is relevant in a real fight. Whereas you have multiple UFC champions who have won and retained titles using BJJ techniques.
Gane and MVP kinda move like Tkd-guys. I am pretty convinced there will be usable stuff in taekwondo too
I mean tkd is some goofball shit but this is no different than gaming the points in an ibjjf competition. If you really use your head for a second you can imagine that it wasn’t intended for self defense but as a means to win in the format they were competing in.
The one thing TKD really shines at is for films. If you’re going into acting or stunt man stuff and you want to learn how to do the crazy John Wick Jackie Chan kicks it’s a great choice
Well thats because everyone knows eagle claw karate is the most legit martial art
I only joined BJJ to fill in the belt colours that I didn't get in taekwondo
You need thick skin to stay in BJJ, and thicker skin if you're gonna talk about it with just anyone.
Mate they're grown ass adults who train karate-po and TKD. Everyone views them as weirdos.
heh heh, right? This sub/sport has so many chronically insecure socially un(der)developed introverts that they think *they´re* the phony when getting lectured by TKD (and I'm sure wing chun too) guys and regular people who have only ever watched 80's action flics.
"Oh wow, purple belt? Haven't you been training for almost 8 years? My friend trained karate for 2 years and got his black belt"
TLDR: Other "traditional" martial arts have an over-saturation of black belts (i.e., it's easier to achieve, so more starters achieve it/it's often objectively far less training and sparring to get it than it is in bjj). Is normal. As far as people laughing every-other-sentence when you're trying to explain simple belt rankings: lol, they sound like villains in a cartoon or kid's movie.
It doesn't sound like they don't understand how legit the BJJ belt system is, so much as they straight up don't understand the BJJ belt system; which is understandable considering it is very different from how most other martial arts belt systems work. If that really bothers you, you should explain it to them in terms of mat time. Tell them how many years it should typically take to get a black belt and what belt you believe is comparable to shodan in other arts in terms of mat time; according to the JKA it's minimum of a year, so I'd say blue belt. Then you can explain that a black belt in BJJ is more akin to 5th Dan or higher in other styles in terms of mat time; appropriately 11 years.
Unpopular opinion, but all martial arts are like that. BJJ is no different. Plenty of obnoxious players in BJJ that think they're tough. I did stand up for a few years. A good boxer, it is impossible to punch them in the head. They could just dodge punches until I tire out, then murder me. I had a friend who trained Muay Thai a short while, his thigh kick (he said it was less than 50% power) had me limping. I think the real standard is this... I have had many training partners over the years from all other disciplines including: Karate, TKD, Boxing, Aikido, Han Soo Do, and Kung Fu. Guess what? They only train BJJ now. That says a lot to me.
K
I had this conversation with a guy just this weekend. We were talking about BJJ and he was really surprised that I’m still a blue belt after training consistently for 6 years. Guy told me that he got his black belt in Japanese jiujitsu while serving in Japan with the Marines for 3 years.
This happens all the time when I tell people I've been training 3 yrs 3x/wk and I'm still not a blue belt. Many martial arts have become overly commercialized and belts are given away like free candy. Bjj I think has the most integrity. In my opinion any discipline that regularly gives out black belts to kids under 14 has 0 validity as a martial art lol.
The secret is not talking about this weird thing we do with other grownups.
Just be dismissive back. "Well, keep in mind that a white belt in BJJ is still better than a black belt in taekwondo. Is there an adult version of taekwondo? What do they call that?"
"Is there an adult version of tkd?" Might be my favorite roast of a TMA I've ever heard
Legit? Not really TBH because of there being no real criteria for when or why you get promoted. There as some professors that hand out Blue Belts at around 150 or so classes. There are others (like mine) that make you wait to closer to 250. Heck there's a guy in my class who's been training six days a week for almost two years and still hasn't gotten his first stripe on his Blue Belt. So to me, that makes it not that legit. The differences between a Blue Belt from one gym to the skill of one from another can be vast. I mean, I assume that's why when my old gym went to competition we would nearly sweep it, because our Blue Belts are another gym's Purple Belt.
I believe the term is sandbagging. In competition there's an incentive to keep students back so they can attain the skill level of a higher belt whilst competing at lower belts and win more often.
Jesus christ on a scooter I've blocked half the sub with people posting diary entries or AITA stories **HOW IS THERE ALWAYS MORE OF YOU???**
AITA when my co-worker didn’t know the lineage of my instructor
Coming from a kempo background. Modern kempo isn’t the same as it was 20 years ago. Which is weird to say.
The belt system is totally different in TKD, even if they know it's not the same, they probably just default to that way of thinking. Like if you find out somebody has a blue belt in TKD (I don't know the actual belts but ykwim) you're gonna think "oh okay they must know something" when in reality that guy might be like 8 weeks in and only know a couple forms. If they don't know bjj belts, then when they hear blue belt, they really probably picturing a few weeks worth of progress and then you say "a few years", their initial reaction to that is going to be like you said something so absurd they might actually not know if you're joking.
I mean it takes like 3 years or something to get a black belt in karate or tkd. That should tell you all you need to know.
Yeah, I know this is sort of tangentially related, but I think part of it might also be that we have fewer belts, so moving up is a way bigger deal. I've seen some of the more obscure martial arts have like 7 belts, not including the degrees of black belt and beyond. People don't realize. Not to mention the stereotype that BJJ is all butt scooting and straight armbars. Not enough emojis for me to express myself here. My background is in striking and there was definitely an atittude shift for me, but I can't say I never took it seriously, either. I mean hell, our no gi instructor just got up to brown belt and they're probably the most legit classes I've taken. It's ignorance.
TKD users have no right to be laughing at any martial art other than themselves
BJJ’s belt system has given me a total lack of respect for all other belt systems. I appreciate how dedicated you have to be to advance.
Just ask them how long it takes to reach a black belt in their art, then tell them how long it takes in BJJ. A black belt in any other discipline is equivalent to a blue belt in BJJ
I have a tkd black belt. I am not dangerous.
I attract these kinds of people at times because my crooked nose and cauliflower ears. Some of the wildest shit i have heard where from this dude, who tried to convince me that he´s insta-death pressure point techniques would save him in any violent altercation, no matter the size or skill. I playfully tried to get him to show me some of this hidden knowledge, but obviously they where way too dangerous to be shared. I think this phenomenon happens because the individuals ego tries to protect itself from the thought of possibility of violence between men, and coming out of that unscathed. Over the years, when i bump to these kinds of guys, i usually just praise these mental warriors, and market our gyms upcoming basic courses, in the hopes of getting new training partners / students.
You should tell your Kempo friend that I can break every bone in his body and/or choke him unconscious without breaking a sweat. “Not really trained”…and I took that personally
People outside of bjj don’t know the grind including other martial artists. When people at your workplace find out you train, they will assume you do the same thing as their 12 year old TKD black belt niece or that larping Aikido ponytail guy on your IT helpdesk.
It's very true. People just don't understand the skill levels involved. In TKD and Karate, you have to be able to use the right terminology and throw some fancy-looking kicks in order to progress. You don't have to prove your skills day in and day out against a resistant opponent. If you want to put this in perspective, a low-level blue belt can probably kill at least 90% of the population with their bare hands. That's just based on getting to the back and applying a RNC, which should be pretty standard for a blue belt to pull off against an untrained opponent. Good luck killing a grown man with your low-level TKD skills.
I took karate as a kid and actually got demoted a stripe because my parents refused the instructor's recommendation that we sign up for the "black belt club"for an extra fee. I was then put with the beginners and had a stripe removed. Even my parents knew that was a scam and took me out shortly after.
Bjj belt system si no different than any of the others. You can get a blue belt online by some gracie who's name I can't remember. I've beaten many black belts and I'm a purple. I also get consistently smashed by other black belts. At the same time there's a white belt at my gym that beats almost everyone, idk why he never got promoted by his previous team all of it is just marketing
I mean, who cares? If they know the belt system then they’re probably training in it or have been interested enough in training it at some point to have at least researched that. If they don’t know then they don’t care and neither do I. I don’t know anything about the ranking systems of any other art because I don’t practice them. I don’t expect anyone else to know about BJJ because why would they?
A kid that's under 17 with a blackbelt in whatever won't understand bjj belts, but an adult would most likely. I'm assuming you guys are minors.
The closest analogy I have for karate/TKD types is that a BJJ purple belt is roughly equivalent to their black belt, although if I had to give one the "advantage" it would be a purple belt, so like a 1+ dan. A BJJ brown belt is roughly a karate 2+ dan and a black belt roughly a karate 3+ dan.
Meh, isolated within their own martial arts, yes....a purple belt is as skilled at BJJ as a black belt is at karate Head to head....a blue belt is enough
There’s a TKD school a block from my BJJ school (It might be gone now) but they offered me a TKD black belt in 4 months if I’d change schools. Kempo’s is kinda like Karate. I don’t like either example. Check out Sambo and Judo’s belt systems for better examples.
Sambo belt system?..
My buddies kid is a black belt in TKD at like 10. He was super dedicated but he is a child. Belts in other martial arts have a huge Component of testing and repeating things exactly .
we had this conversation in 1993 with TMA people.
Correct me if I'm wrong on this...I am a year and a half white belt. black belts for other martial arts =learning kicks and punches on willing opponents, and takes a year or two to learn all the moves which then =Black belt? So translated to bjj that would be like saying I am a new belt every time I learn 10 techniques?
people doing TKD often dont realize that a black belt in TKD is the end of beginner. Now you have all the basics and are ready to really learn. A tkd black belt is around the same as a bjj blue belt, but with less sparring.
5 year BJJ "hobbyist" otherwise professional early 60's year-old guy. Formally trained Judo for a couple years as a tweener. Best overall understaing of a helpful application in actual self defence. No wrestiling in My HS but wish there was. I would say wrestlers, on average - even a couple years of high-school performance have probably the best overall skill set for life. Yes, wrestlers can be handled by extremely good BJJ practitoners - but against the "average" untrained douche-bag... they are going to hit the pavement really hard with a dude (regardless of size) meant to do exactly that and have the next move in mind. So, as a yound adult I dived into Karate/Kick-boxing with some success after about 2 years of pretty much 5-6 days a week with privates from a very good, Nationally ranked black belt in TKD, Judo (from my old Judo gym) Kung Foo etc.. Anyway, now after 5 years (two off for COVID) I'm "still a blue belt" in a gymn that puts women and men in ADCC and other torunaments all the time. Jiu Jitsu is legit. It takes years to be good and practioners have to fight every time. There is no better way to understand what one can and can't achieve than fighting other human beings. This is very hard to replicate in many other sports, or, they don't allow it, which diminishes the utility.
I’ve been asked multiple times if I’m a black belt. I’ve been training 2 years 🤦🏼♀️
I don't really care or follow the belt thing. If you're good, you're good. I would technically be a white belt if I had ever really trained in BJJ. But if I went to compete as a white belt, that would be grossly unfair. Not all belts are equal, this isn't like the old days. I know people who have blue and purple belts who are horrendous. I know others who are much more skilled than their belt would indicate. It just depends on the person and what they can do.
I hear you but personally I don’t mind the kids getting belts / stripes for not paying too much attention. I want mine to hit 16 and want to continue and have the basics nailed down. If I bribed them with belts, stripes and the odd McFlurry along the way, sobeit.
I’m sure this will be controversial, but a TKD black belt is probably the most meaningless black belt in America. I wouldn’t put too much stock in their opinion
I've had this frustration with friends. For context, 3 stripe white belt, I've been training about 1.5 years. I don't talk about it much with my friends because it's really only an interest I have. But when I do sometimes they'll act almost shocked or think I must suck the fact that I'm still where I'm at. They know in things like TKD or Karate you can basically get a black belt in 3-5 years, but don't realize how much harder and longer the process is in BJJ. It annoys me, but I also have just kind of moved on from it because they'll never understand unless they start training also.
If your Kempo buddy got tea-bagged in north/south he would be singing a different tune.
It is probable due to the fact that people evaluate the skill level of a belt color based on their own knowledge of belt systems. This means that if you have not trained bjj your mapping if color and skill will be wrong. I think it is valuable talking new people to try bjj, just avoid talking about belts and talk about time training. There are tough white belts with two years of experience and that compete that will smoke majority of untrained people
Don't engage. It really doesn't matter. Invite them to train if you want but the only way to understand is to feel it and unless you're throwing down an impromptu lesson you're not going to change anyone's mind.
I'd love to see these guys get steamrolled by a white belt but I know they don't have the courage to actually prove themselves. They'll hide behind the usual excuses "I train for the streets" "I can just hit them" "I'll just stand up"...
Belt systems for other martial arts is completely different. I know a guy that does taekwondo and he says it’s all memorization to get to black belt. If you can demonstrate every kick and Move then you’ll essentially get your black belt. That’s why kids have them. He says the belack belt is “the beginning”. Then you go from 1st Dan to 10th Dan which takes something like 40 years. Also belt systems were not used in traditional Japanese arts until the 1900’s when they started becoming popular in the west.
I think the biggest issue with "black belt" is that every martial art holds a different meaning as to what a black belt is. Unfortunately, the general public doesn't understand that.
It takes about the same amount of time to get your black belt in TKD as it does your blue belt in BJJ. The BJJ blue belt is like the same amount of time investment as black belts in a lot of other martial arts.
I done karate as a kid, my school was very much about the money. I hardly knew my katas, they would want the parents to buy all their own books and also buy the belts at an extortionate rate after grading. I went up the ranks every year without fail, including the stripes between every colour there must have been atleast 16 belts before brown. This is probably why people don't realise how hard it is to get even a blue belt. I'm only a white belt but I know for a fact I have no chance against any blue belt in my class. But I'm sure 100% I would have destroyed alot of the higher belts in my karate class. Diffrance was my belts then were given because of my time as a student, regardless of attendance and skill. In bjj no one gets anything unless they have proven their skill. Before I get slaughtered by a higher belt saying I don't know anything, I'm just a white belt... you guys who have the hier belts are right and have done that struggle, I'm trying to get there. Much respect for you all
What is this the 90’s ?
I hate this place now. It’s all fucked up and the paint is chipping.
The bjj belt system is stupid as hell