Things BJJ'ers don't like about BJJ

wow, thats horrible, cheers for the knowledge bombs!

 

Nah man, you mean 'not good enough for TKD, so did rasslin.'

 

Nah man you mean can't punch so did TKD

 

This isn't unique to the sport of BJJ, but it does annoy me when white belts go to comps and attempt to encourage/instruct their team mates competing in the purple/brown/black etc.. division. Some examples:

(Black Belt match: The opponent jumps guard on the white belt's BB team mate)

White Belt: "You need to pass the guard! Work the pass! He has you in guard, you need to pass the guard!!!!"

or

(Purple Belt match: The opponent of the white belts team mate is deep in to locking up a triangle on said team mate)

White Belt: Triangle!! TRI-ANG-LE!!! He's trying to tap you out!! You gotta escape the triangle!!!!! TRIANGLE!!!!


These are 2 of the many pentrating technical insights I've heard over-enthusiastic white belts shout to much much more experienced team mates. If you're such a person, do me a favour: Just... don't. Chances are you're inane "coaching" will get caught on video one of these days and loaded up on Youtube. Then the whole world gets to hear you sounding like a rube.

 

Heaven forbid team mates show enthusiasm for fellow mates.. Would you rather them just sit there quietly, not moving, like gargoyles set upon a church? If the person competing actually has the ability to listen and comprehend what they are saying, then he/she is not paying enough attention to the person they are fighting.

Is this the type of attitude these whitebelts have to deal with at normal training? Just because they are low belts, they should never give their opinions on things?

It is this attitude, this hatred of whitebelts that pushed me away from a straight bjj school. I see this on Sherdork all the time.. Thread after thread, from higher belts, talking about lower belts. Heck, one thread, was weather or not it was appropriate to smash them in training. The eventual consensus was, that you have a right to train to, and rolling with low belts does little for the advanced belt, so smash away..

I asked this to my friend, who is a multi golden glove winner in boxing.. He said, he knows his coach said something during the rounds, but he never could actually hear it or understand it, as he was so focused on his match..

 

Yeah, coaching plays a huge role in competition - have you competed in BJJ? White belts should cheer their teammates on, but should not drown out more competent voices.

 

Philosoraptor, I am of the opinion that if you can hear your team mates, regardless of what style you are competing in, you are not paying enough attention. On this matter I defer to my boxer friend, as I have not competed in a long while..

 

Yeah, you're wrong. I've never competed in striking, but trust me, having a coach point things out to you can only help. Maybe in grappling you just have more time to set things up and feel things out, the advantage is huge. Having some rando white belt scream "TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE," does not.

 

Well, I have never competed in grappling, the closest was sparring in my school. I knew my coach was speaking, but to this day I cant tell you what he said. Must be that the pace of grappling is different.. Though I wonder if Judo competitors have that same issue, with loud white belts. I mean, their comps seem to be much faster and explosive.

I guess, I do agree with you mostly. My issue is, this kind of attitude can lead to white belt hate, and that is something I don't understand. Just like those threads on Sherdog, talking about how it is acceptable to just smash them full power full speed, any time you roll with them..

I was a white in that position, I learned nothing, accept to fear anyone with color on their belts. I literally gained no ounce of skill or technical ability from rolling with color belts and their smash the white belt attitude.

 

Everyone should love white belts. White belts are beneficial to any level practitioner for several reasons: 1) keeps you honest. White belts aren't going to have any skills or patterns from your gym, you will be grappling with a person who is naive to your tricks, similar to a self defense scenario. 2) you can practice your weakest, most vulnerable techniques, stuff that a more advanced practitioner will be able to shut down before you've had a chance to figure out your flaws. 3) they show you how far you've come! I remember this time my coach paired me up with this big son of a gun, just huge, and I was thinking "Man, there's no way I can hang with a guy who's in this good shape" but hang I did! White belt hate shouldn't be a thing, but if you're watching an advanced match there's a ton of stuff going on underneath the surface, and white belts generally will only see the superficial openings.

 

I'll rephrase: Support is fine, inane nonsense from someone who doesn't really know what they are talking about isn't helpful in the slightest. My comp experience is that you sometimes can get lulls during a BJJ match (BJJ gi comps can't be very slow sometimes), and it's quite normal to hear your coach trying to help you. What doesn't help is someone who's been going to class for 4 months yelling out random nonsense.

Not hating on white belts, but at the same time a little BJJ can go right to someone's head. The enthusiasm is great. Not having the humility to know when to shut up is less than helpful to all concerned.

 

In competition coaches aren't supposed to coach during the action, only during the mattes. Of course, coaches ignore this rule, but the only useful feedback you'll get is things like 'get your head up!', 'move him', or 'circles' or 'get your grip'.

From white belts (beginners in general) the only things I want to hear are 'Come on!', "He's tired" and "Be first". Anything else and they're probably wrong.

 

That was terrible music and makes me sad.

 

Speaking of bad coaching - I ran a table at a local mid size tournament yesterday. This white belt is down 6-0 half way through the match. He rallies 6-5 with 30 seconds to go. he's in top side mount and whoever the heck is coaching - not a young guy - could have been his coach or his dad - yells "YOU NEED A FINISH! YOU NEED A FINISH!" and I'm thinking to myself "eeeeer no buddy, he just needs to improve his position". With 5 seconds to go, the kid goes knee-on-belly and holds for 3 seconds. The last 3 seconds of the match. Ref gives it to him and he wins 7-6. Good thing the kid didn't listen to the bad coaching trying to fish for a finish he probably wouldn't have pulled off.

 

2 Things that annoy me more then they should.

1) People who come to class and lie about previous experience, just tell the dam truth, its not like we won't work it out after 30 seconds of rolling.

2) new people who try to injure others in rolling, I.e. grabbing fingers and trying to break them, and attempting to slam people. Generally people roll with newbies and let them work something, but the minute someone tries to damage you, they just get shut down, and either stalled out (if your nice) or crushed for the rest of the round (if your not nice, or there's a big size difference)