Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
This is the official podcast of the Bulletproof For BJJ movement. Hosted by JT & Joey. Each episode the founders break down problems that Jiu-jitsu people experience, giving guidance and tips to improve your training for BJJ. With the goal of helping every body on the Brazilian jiu-jitsu path reduce their chance of injury, improve their strength and mobility to become more resilient.
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Blackbelt in 4 years, Teaching Sportsmanship & Building a Strong Butt.
Do your kids compete in BJJ? What do you do when your child react badly to a lose in competition?
How can you help coach a young child through a loss without allowing them being a bad sport? This is a delicate balance to keep kids motivated to stay on the mats but also help them accept losing is part of getting better and ultimately winning. Do you struggle to get your glutes fired up for the big lifts? The boys break down some specific ways you can get your ass fired up for big strong lifts.
Should a blackbelt take 10 years or more to attain or is this just gatekeeping? Surely a very skilled athlete who picks up the skills quicker could be considered an expert in less than 4-5 years? A big question with a very tricky set of answers to create a concrete definition of what makes a blackbelt?
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A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready.
Speaker 1:Essentially, at this point, the fight is over.
Speaker 3:So you pretty much flow with the goal.
Speaker 1:Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power.
Speaker 4:I'm ready.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast Q&A for BJJ. You have some questions, we have some answers. If you would like to ask us a question and have an answer on the show, go to bulletproofforbjjcom. Click on the podcast tab, scroll down, leave us a voicemail, let us know who you are, where you're from, and we'll play it on the show. First, cab off the rank. Ladies and gentlemen, do you suffer from sore and swollen knuckles after a hard class of jiu-jitsu? I have the answer for you the finger team, custom designed by our friend the Grip Physio. Now these wraps are specific for your fingers. Wrap them around, work them through and reduce the swelling so you can recover faster and be back on the mats in no time. You can get 20% off when you use the code BULLETPROOF20 at checkout. Go to thegripphysiocom.
Speaker 2:What's up, fam, it's Ang aka, someone strong man you already know. So, gentlemen, I have one for you. So my eight-year-old son Siosi, been training for about two and a half years at a pro fitness MMA in Frankston, victoria, represent, and he's done a few comps and recently he had Victorian Jiu Jitsu Championships not long ago. But before that there was a tournament he did and he had a best of three against one of his teammates and he lost two of them convincingly and was not happy, cracked the sads. He wouldn't take a photo with his teammate on the podium. The coach come over, talk to him. He just shut down, just like body language was like not not having it.
Speaker 2:So I let him have, like, you know, I gave him some time to chill out. You know he come back. He still really wasn't talking to anyone, it was just me. Um, so you know we're in the car, you know, you know just chatting to him, see how he's feeling and that, and you know, eventually come around. But I guess my question for you guys is, as a coach, how would you tackle that situation? And have you guys ever had any students that have competed that have just sort of shut off like that? Because obviously it's not something that I endorse and not something that I really want to put up with that sort of I guess bad sportsmanship.
Speaker 5:Cut off there, but we get the question. Yeah, no, I feel you, andrew. Look Osu Samoan strongman, you legend yeah.
Speaker 1:Big supporter.
Speaker 1:And I think the thing is this like actually there was a great interview that was done with Dan Gainball, who's considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time and he coached the Iowa Hawkeyes, and one of his his protege was Tom Brands. Tom Brands was like coach USA, he was an Olympic champion, all that stuff but he was a fucking psychopath and he would lose his mind If he would lose, because he very rarely lost and if he lost he would. He would destroy things. You know just, and people like what's wrong with this guy? And he said his biggest mistake in coaching tom brands was he never taught him to lose. He's like I only taught him to win and that's why he was a winner. But that made him a volcanic mess of a human when he lost because he didn't know how to process it.
Speaker 1:And I think, like obviously you know you want your boy to stay interested and strong in the game, that it is a difficult lesson to teach, but you know you can teach him that it is okay to lose if you are able to learn from that and that will enable you to get better. Like, what can you learn from this? It's not just oh, I don't like that kid now. No, I'm not interested in Jiu Jitsu, Like it is a hard lesson to teach, but being able to accept losing to enable you to get better is really the key thing there.
Speaker 1:So if you can teach him, it's not even sportsmanship. Look, I've fucking cracked the sass when I lose now and I don't think I'm a bad sportsman, but it just means I'm an uncool human to be around. So if I get in that mode, I got to go away and think about it and it takes me a little while to process. You know, and I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with it Some of the greatest, greatest winners of all time are the worst losers. Michael Jordan, worst loser ever, also greatest winner of all time. So it's one of those things that it is a good quality to have someone be competitive, but you do need to teach him the value in losing.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's a great response. I've never coached, you know, jiu-jitsu to any great extent. I've never had students, let alone kids, in that way, so I couldn't speak from experience. But yeah, I think JT hit the nail on the head, like I mean, he's eight years old, I'm guessing he hasn't had the experience of competing for a long time, and if he's naturally pretty good at it, then probably his first time losing, right. So, yeah, all you can do is like treat it as a learning experience, talk to him in a way that encourages him to to stay in that zone.
Speaker 5:You almost want to make sure that he does have some losses, right, like you don't want to like, and in that way maybe it's finding ways to get him in a class where the kids are bigger or something where he's getting a bit exposed like, oh, I'm actually not winning all the time. Um, I think you'll get there. I think think fucking Ange knows what's up. It's a tricky one, right. We want our kids to be. We want them to be like good model kids that we're proud of, that other people see and are proud of from the beginning. So those things like take a photo with the kid that you lost with, or look your coach in the eyes. We want them to do that, but they often don't and it's like fuck, you can't.
Speaker 1:You got to just cop that and be like oh okay, sorry, you know he's not feeling himself today kind of thing. Yeah, and that's okay. Like learning, learning to learning that, yes, even if you don't feel like it, shake your opponent's hand and all this thing that's. That's part of the process. And you know he's not fully formed. Obviously he's got you as his dad, so I'm confident he's going to be just fine.
Speaker 5:Big up, salmon, strong man, yep. Next one coming in, luke Cohen. Two parter.
Speaker 1:Do you find you get thirsty at training? I do. I do all the time. I'm a sweaty human and I need to hydrate. Now the biggest problem is, by the time you're thirsty, it's a little bit late. You need to hydrate and that's why we got Sodi. Sodi is sponsoring the show. We've got all the colors of the rainbow, great flavors here. We've got salty citrus, salty pineapple, salty berry and my favorite, salty grapefruit, and they will be releasing two new mystery flavors soon. So why do we need this? It's going to prevent our muscle cramps, it's going to help our energy delivery and it's also going to mean you're less tired, which is an advantage when you're training. If you want to maximize your jujitsu and feel good when you're rolling, you need to get SOTY, and when you purchase, enter the code BULLETPROOF20 at checkout for 20% off.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah thirsty boy.
Speaker 4:Yo, my man's, JT Joseph Worthington. What's up? My name's Luke and I'm calling back with an update. Last we spoke I was a white belt, four stripes, with a lot of back pain. I've now graduated to that fascia azul, got that blue belt and I'm excited because I'm on the mend as far as the back pain goes.
Speaker 4:So I took the Bulletproof Boys advice, went to the physio, or first went to the x-ray, and the doctor said, yeah, you're totally fine, no bulging discs. So we got to take you to the physio and they said dude, in testing, your lateral side raises are super weak. I can push your left leg down with just my hand because you have no glute strength whatsoever. And, as a matter of fact, in certain exercises where your glute should be activating first, your hamstring and your quad is activating first. So I wanted to shift all my exercises to now focusing on the glutes. They also said hey, your hamstrings have no mobility whatsoever and so they're contributing to a constant tug on your lower back. So we got to open that up as well.
Speaker 4:Flash forward I got introduced to yoga. It's been the most improvement that I've seen in my back just doing yoga consistently, and it's exciting because I hope to have enough hamstring flexibility to basically bring my leg over someone's face in bottom side control and just arm bar them from there. That's the goal, great goal, but besides that I do still.
Speaker 5:Second pot.
Speaker 4:I still want to develop great strength with the big compound movements such as the deadlift and the squat, and so my question, my reason for calling in, is what tips, tricks, visualizations does JT, does Joseph Worthington have for firing up the glutes, the quads and the hamstrings to take the load off the lumbar spine when performing these movements? By the way, the dojo storm is still on its way, jt, you best be ready with that guard brother. Anyway, thanks so much guys for the content, as always still following this religiously and yeah, let's get it. Thank you Awesome.
Speaker 5:What a fucking legend. Who says I'm?
Speaker 1:fucking playing guard bro. I will take you down bro. How dare you.
Speaker 5:Well, look, going straight for the stack, I'm going to chest that lower back. Yeah, let's see how that hamstring stretch is bro.
Speaker 1:I have a specific tip for glutes, but maybe I'll let you go first because I'll finish it.
Speaker 5:All right, you go first because I'll finish it all right.
Speaker 5:Well, um, I guess, yeah, my, my thinking in response to your question, luke, is that you're doing a bunch of isolated work right now, which is super important because the physio has identified a weak muscle group or weak muscles, and so you're doing isolated exercise to attack those.
Speaker 5:That's great. You're going to want to keep that going for a while, but this period should be a short to medium term thing. Over the medium to long term, you want to be building those muscles through big compound movements like deadlifts, like fucking rdls, kettlebell swings, etc. So it's about making sure that you you do the stuff you need to now through this kind of rehab or acute phase, but then you you sort of bring in, reintroduce the compound stuff and then start to bias towards the compound stuff in the in the near future. Um, however, for activations and whatnot, a lot of those drills that you're probably doing, like leg raises and holds and stuff I would keep that shit going forever. A couple of sets as part of my warm-up routine just to make sure you are getting the glutes fired up, yeah definitely agree with that.
Speaker 1:My that my key visualization is a. You know like a. You know people talk about BDE. I'm more that MDE. I mean I've got the big energy. But you know what I mean. And look, if you're in a certain position, maybe it's a, you know an intimate position and you're trying to get that extra inch. I'm going to show you the glute activation. You just got to tuck those hips under baby. You just get that little bit of extra inch.
Speaker 1:It's graphic you got to tuck those hips under. You got to squeeze those glutes. If you can just visualize-. We're talking about delivering from the bottom position. I'm talking about delivering from the back. We're talking doggy baby. You got to just get that little bit of extra inch. You got to tuck those hips to squeeze those glutes and you'll get there. So just visualize MDE baby. That's what I'm all about. Wow, get that extra inch.
Speaker 5:Wow, there you go, look come roll.
Speaker 1:Come at me. Last one, marcus, ladies and gentlemen, if you want the best gear for BJJ, you need to go to parryathleticscom. These are our guys. They support the show. George, great guy, great creator, awesome colors, awesome styles and also the best fit. It feels great and that's the thing. It's not just that it looks good, it feels good. And the thing that, for me, I love the most is I can wear the stuff at jujitsu. But then also they've got that other side, the cool side, where you can wear it off the mats, and they are our exclusive partner in apparel. If you want to get Bulletproof gear, you've got to go to parryathleticscom and when you buy anything at checkout, enter Bulletproof 20 for 20 off oh yeah hey guys, I just want to get your opinion on what, how you define a black belt in brazilian jujitsu.
Speaker 3:um, because it just seems that a black belt is just relative to what the expert level of knowledge and skill is at the current time.
Speaker 3:And you know, it's like judo If you go to the skill knowledge level in the year 1890 compared to now, the throwing technique in judo and knowledge is much greater now than it was back then.
Speaker 3:But it just seems bizarre to me that when you look at the activity of jiu-jitsu, which is clearly just submission wrestling, whether in the gi or not the gi, that there's a requirement for 10 to 12 years to become an expert in knowledge and skill in every position and that just doesn't make sense. It's perfectly reasonable for a super serious athlete to become a black belt within two and a half to three to four years if they're really devoted. It seems like intentional gatekeeping to make the black belt seem like this mystical thing when in reality it just should represent an expert level of knowledge and skill relative to what it is at that current time in that sport. So I'm just want to get your thoughts on how you two, uh, define a black belt, and thank you for the podcast and uh, yeah, look forward to your answer marcus coming in hot with the big question.
Speaker 1:My guy, I got some. I got some pretty strong opinions about this, but I'll let you.
Speaker 5:I'll let you go first I love judge, he's like you go, and then I'm just gonna fucking riff on this shit. Um, all right. So I, yeah, I got, I got a couple thoughts about you fair question that you ask, and I think that it is. You're trying to apply a like, you're trying to find a scientific answer to something that is also somewhat artistic, and what I mean by that is that….
Speaker 1:Doesn't relate well to other people.
Speaker 5:Really fucking smart, but not particularly social.
Speaker 1:My son's- artistic, but he just can't look me in the eye.
Speaker 5:But what I mean by that is it's hard Like jiu-jitsu is continually evolving, but's hard like jujitsu is is continually evolving.
Speaker 5:but even if it weren't, everything is continually evolving, and so, while you want to have as many checks and balances in place to go, these are what a black belt should be. This is what an expert level looks like, that those goalposts are going to shift around all the time. And so, like something that my coach, our friend adam, always said, was that, like, every person's black belt journey will be a little bit different, and it's different because you will go through different challenges in your jujitsu journey and you will be a different person at different times. And there is a point where the coach thinks that person's a black belt now, but that doesn't mean that that person is the same as that black belt is the same as that one, of course.
Speaker 5:Now for me personally and this might be my insecurity I don't think it means expert, because all I've learned at black belt is that you'd fucking know there's so much you don't know, you keep going and you're like, holy shit, this thing is so fucking overwhelming. So I think that it's you could say. Well, I think most people never truly become an expert at jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 5:And I don't know if it, I don't think the black belt needs to equal that.
Speaker 1:No, and I think from what you're saying you could frame it differently. A black belt in the gi does take you 10 years, like it's. To be a black belt in five years in the gi is kind of a joke, like even the Rotolos and you might look. I think your question is a loaded question because you're like ah, surely is gatekeeping here and couldn't an athlete and whatever, bro, like you, some athletes have.
Speaker 5:Yeah sure, some, some, the very very few, have a couple years bj, penn etc yeah.
Speaker 1:But you know, like at older times, when jiu-jitsu was not as hard but full, shout out to BJ Penn, the first non-Brazilian to be a world champion. But think this, think this the requirement to be a no-gi submission artist is different to being a gi world champion and I think we can get into this debate another time. But the amount of knowledge you have to learn to be a black belt in the gi is different not more, but different than to be a black belt in no gi, however you want to term it. Now I know you're really seeking definition here because you're like give me some fucking clarity. I want some fucking certainty. It's just not that easy.
Speaker 1:You can have somebody who is an amazing competitor, but they would be a terrible coach, right Like? It doesn't always translate. So if you're looking for someone to be the expert leader to teach you what you need to know, they might be an amazing communicator. You might actually be able to tap them in a role. It doesn't mean they don't know more jujitsu than you. So I think this is the thing we often conflate the ability for someone to perform athletically in competition, and it's at odds with someone's ability to teach and help others get better. It's not always the same thing. Now, if you can find an amazing competitor who's also a great teacher, that's really great, but that's not often the way. So what a black belt looks like in the gi, I believe, is different to what a professional or a black belt looks like in the no-gi. And speaking to Joe's point, black belt is not the top's a lot in a lot of ways the beginning for a lot of people. That's where they start to really develop their game yeah, it's a tricky one.
Speaker 5:Marcus is gonna be very dissatisfied with that because it's like, sorry man, it's. It is such a hard thing to give clarity on. Um, I think that another, another distinction that was given, which which makes sense, is that some people will be black belt competitors, some people will be black belt hobbyists, hobbyists and not the same thing, no, and so expectations of each are going to be different, and and it's just not fair to go. Well, this is, this is the only thing that it is, and so if you can't meet that, you will never be it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because also, you have to say that you can't stay the the black belt champion competitor forever, because you will lose your athleticism and then what, like it goes down over time, we will all. Eventually, time defeats all. So what can you then do? You see it, with many competitors, they open schools and then they pass on their knowledge, but it takes years and years.
Speaker 5:They start a podcast.
Speaker 1:Start a podcast Less athletic, less involved, more opinionated. The new podcast by JT and Joey? No, I think it's just one of those things, man, that you're looking for certainty in something that is very hard to define, and I believe that black belt is a high level, but it is different for everybody. So I don't know what belt you are, I don't know how long you've trained. I don't want to assume anything, but, having spent whatever 17 years doing this thing and talking to other people, what a black belt means and what it should represent is very individual.
Speaker 5:One thing I'll add to that is that I disagree with the argument of the gatekeeping thing for jiu-jitsu because, like encountering other martial arts, I've met teenagers who are black belts in like taekwondo or some form of karate and you're like you're a child, you're 14.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you are a child, you know. And in jiu-jitsu, while I don't know what every black belt like I don't know every black belt in jiu-jitsu, right but what I'm pretty confident in is that the majority of like, well-deserving black belts are tough, and it might just be that they're extremely good at defending themselves and you put all the pressure on them and they can just eat it right, and you, okay, that's a skill, like, that is a thing there. Or they might be an absolute fucking savage and just be all over you, but there is a quality there that only comes through time and exposure and durability and toughness, and so in that way, I think that I'm I'm actually personally very proud of of that protracted amount of time it takes to get to black belt, because I think it does uphold a standard. Even though we can't define the standard, I think it does uphold a standard. There is a standard, there is a standard. We hope you find it, thank you.
