Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Discussions on improving your BJJ, navigating mat-politics and all aspects of the jiu jitsu lifestyle. Multiple weekly episodes for grapplers of any level. Hosted by JT and Joey - Australian jiu jitsu black belts, strength coaches, and creators of Bulletproof For BJJ App. Based out of Sydney, Australia
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
The Truth About What Skipping Warm Ups Does To Your BJJ…
Why is there a stereotype of purple belts always skipping the warm up and why is it completely true? Who is at fault here? Is it jiu jitsu traditional warm ups? Is it the purple belts for getting lazy? Or could it be the coaches not holding them accountable? Maybe it's all of these things. We are putting this episode out as a warning to the purple belts who skip warmups. You are only hurting your future self by doing so. Maybe your warmup is the same thing everyday and is outdated. But maybe you can help change that so you and your buddies aren't broken when you finally get your black belts.
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Speaker 1:Why purple belts skip warm-ups? Oh, we know it, we see you. We see you, purple belt, and if you're not a purple belt, you've seen other purple belts do it. Right, everyone knows it. This is just a lore of jiu-jitsu. It is baked into jiu-jitsu culture. Why? Why do they miss warm-ups?
Speaker 1:We're going to reveal today, we're going to unpack exactly why and how this happens. And then what does that mean for you as a purple belt? There's a very predictable formula here. It's stereotypical of you, purple belts, to skip warm-ups. But why is it such? This is worldwide. Japan, everyone knows it everywhere america, africa, you, just everywhere around the world. Purple belts, in the same way, blue belts go missing, purple belts have hidden their bodies in the, in the boot, and then they're coming in late to class. Yeah, how's this happen? So let's's unpack it.
Speaker 1:Bjj warmups suck. Let's be completely honest. If you've done one stock standard BJJ warmup, you've fucking done them all. Yeah, they're very boring. And let's say you're I ran a fucking sick warmup this week. But let me not sidetrack us. Go on, don't get interesting on me, joe, let's stay with the vibe. Yeah, they are generic as fuck.
Speaker 1:If you've done jujitsu five or six years, holy shit, you're sick of warmups by now. Yeah, like you know that that is not the thing that's making your jujitsu better. Yeah, and usually by the time you're a purple belt, you've got a good level of game. You know you can kind of yeah, you move around, kick a bit of ass. You know you're usually a bit of a nightmare for everyone. Right, you're handy. Yeah, you can kind of give a hard time to people that are, whatever, like a higher rank than you, or you know just, or you're better, you know, and you fuck up everyone beneath. It's like it's a fucking sick place to be. You're a threat, that's right. So you're like wow, and the coach sees that too, right? Yeah, coach is like oh well, fucking, jimmy over here kicks everyone's ass up. I don't really give a shit if he misses the warm-up. Well, that's the thing. Right, because let's talk about, like, not only the bjj. Warm-ups suck, right, so they're not.
Speaker 1:They're often repetitive and boring and not necessarily that effective, other than, okay, your body's warm or you're sweating a bit, right. The formula is always the same, and very regularly I see even purple belts coming in a little bit later on, depending on where you train like technique, like I don't even want to fuck it, I just want to roll, like just let me fucking bang. I'm just working leg scissors at the moment. Anyway, it's fucking cardi-basami, and so what's interesting about that is the coming in late thing. It also has a cascade of negative effects, but let's not go there just yet. They come in late. It's actually, in some ways, it seems efficient. I haven't wasted 20 minutes worth of energy doing this stuff. I move around enough to get warm and I'm fresh as a fucking daisy for rounds, right?
Speaker 1:So you look at that, you go. Is there something to that like, does this purple belt, have they cracked the code or have they gone through a long process to come to the conclusion which may be leading them down a dangerous path? I'm just you, you've. You would have seen it countless times, yeah, so so you think, like with that example, that they've they've been doing the generic warm-up for so long that they're just like it's kind of a waste of time. I get nothing from this. Yeah, and look, I play my own game and what's being worked on. It's just not that relevant to me. I don't need that. Yeah, I just want to come in and practice my shit. Yeah, yeah, you know they come in floating on a fucking cloud of weed smoke. Yeah, maybe they have a little like a little. Maybe by this time you've sort of got a routine of your own. Yeah, like yeah, no, I just foam roll this particular thing and then I'm pretty good to go. Yeah, that's right, I've just spent five hours doing yoga and that's fine, I just cruise in.
Speaker 1:You know it's different for everyone, but let's talk about why purple belts get away with this shit. How is it possible that coach is busting your ass when you're a white belt, right, but the purple belt just does whatever the fuck they want? Well, it's interesting. Is this purple belt privilege? It's interesting you mentioned that privilege because it really does continue down the line whereby coach doesn't. I mean this is.
Speaker 1:This is a part of what makes a jujitsu warmup bullshit is that there's no. The a part of what makes a jujitsu warmup bullshit is that there's no. The coach sets generally no kind of standard for how they want it performed and the setting of a standard is like I want to perform like this, but I also want every motherfucker here doing it Right. And if you're running a session, this is, this is how you run a good session. But coach is like, ah, do the arm swings, do the fucking jogging, do the shrimping? And they see, okay, yeah, the white belts got to do it because these cunts are new, they need to learn, yeah, right. And then blue belts are like they toe the line because they're blue belt. So it's like so they're like, yes, boss, like look at me, you know I'm doing really well. And then everyone else is like training, you know. So, yeah, they really coaches, let everyone from purple belt onwards off the hook.
Speaker 1:Now, the reason, like, speaking to that point of, I think, because you've done your time as a white belt, you've done your time as a blue belt, you've probably won a couple championships for the gym, you've taught the kids class, like you have put in, you've put flags on the wall, you know, you've contributed, you've helped build this academy, so I see where it comes in that you feel maybe a little bit entitled. Maybe this purple belt entitlement that, hey, I fucking, I was here before any of you motherfuckers. Like, not OG status, but yeah, I helped build it. So you know, cut me a bit of slack. I'm here as much as anyone. Yeah, like they're often.
Speaker 1:You're often very frequent with your training at Purple Belt. Jiu-jitsu is still good, yep, how can you fault me? Right, and I'll fuck you up. I'm a nightmare for any cunt, yeah, and so, okay, that seems like that makes sense. But here's where it goes fucking wrong, friends, you, you are setting yourself up for failure, and let me explain why.
Speaker 1:Getting away with it doesn't mean that's a good standard. Like, yeah, you can get away with it for a while, but lazy purple belts make broken brown belts. That's right. That time that you spend skipping warmups brings in some niggles, brings in a few little knocks and bumps. You're building the foundation To be a broken brown belt. You are following the path and you'll get that brown belt, but then, holy shit, you're in some trouble. Yeah, and we all know how many brown belts do. We know they're tough, but they're fucking banged up. Yeah, busted up hard black belts too. Yeah, of course, and I mean this is where it goes, right, if To a greater degree, and really it lowers the standard, and I want to talk about why we should not allow purple belts to not do warmups. They're going to be up in arms about this. The comment section is going to be blowing up right now. I fucking know it. But stay with me. This is why I have seen this in a couple of instances.
Speaker 1:So there was a pretty high level purple belt who'd won world one Brasileiro. This is like in Brazil. He came two minutes late to the lunchtime session of the Alliance. Fabio kicked him out so no, you're late. Kicked him out for the day no, you can't. Kicked him off the team that session no, no, no, like you can't train, you can't train. He's like no, I'm here, I'm here. He's like no, everyone else came 10 minutes early.
Speaker 1:These black belts, these world champions, no one's above being here on time. You're coming late, you don't get to train and you're denied the pleasure of it. It's not acceptable for you to be late. This is the standard. Now you might look at that and go. It's a bit fucking, you know. I mean, they call him the general for a reason, but it sets the tone for the rest of the room. Hey, you guys, like when the cartel hang the decapitated body off the bridge, you got to send a message. Everyone know hey, don't fuck around, don't fuck around. And and it really did let people know that like no one is above this standard it and so that's a great communication to the team. But also Bill Belichick, who's a famous coach of the Patriots. He was coach of Tom Brady. He was famous.
Speaker 1:There was quite a famous, I think, tight end one of their players not Tom Brady who came late to training and he was asked to leave. Like not by much, just came out of the locker room a bit late and he's like no man, everyone's on the field, we're waiting for you. This is professional, this is a job. Now he admitted that that hurt the training by not having that person on the on the team, but he's like but that's set the standard. You got it now. Obviously, bjj warm-ups could be better and they will be better, I believe, in time. But really you are hurting brown belt you in the future by not showing up to the warm-up now and that's the thing that hurts us. We don't want to see people get injured. We don't want to see people get fucked up. So I think purple belts doing warm-ups is crucial to make sure that they do end up being happy, healthy black belts, not fucking broken brown belts. That's where it goes.
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Speaker 1:I mean, this is where there's a big issue in the jujitsu culture that we do talk about pretty regularly, whereby no one really treats their athletic kind of identity that seriously. No. So it's like we go to fucking war like on the mats, but, um, everything around that is pretty casual about it and so, yeah, so once you let people start slipping with it, they're gonna slip with it, and then they're gonna, and then it's always gonna be easier for them to just to fucking. You know, do do a few arm swings, fucking head side to side, and then jump into the fire. Yeah, and look, I actually think there could be a modified approach, right, because this is what Lachlan did. He would let everyone do their own warm up. He said that you have to be here half an hour early, otherwise you don't get to train. So it's expected so that when the class starts we're not doing the warmup as part of the class.
Speaker 1:Now, this was a more advanced class, right, this isn't every class at absolute in St Kilda. But what was great about that was, as long as you did what you needed to do to get you ready, that was fine. Like he wasn't going to. It wasn't like a criticism like, oh, we all have to do shoulder rolls or we all have to do shrimps Like everybody's individual body is different. But as long as you took the time to be prepared to do the class, that was the main thing. And I actually think there's a big unlock there that, yeah, if you're someone who's been doing jujitsu five or six years, you don't want to do fucking, fucking shoulder rolls. You're not doing solo drills, you probably just want to drill the shit you need to work on and, you know, do a bit of body movement and then, yeah, you are warm and that does suit you.
Speaker 1:And so I think if there was maybe more flexibility around the warmup. This might mean that more purple belts would warm up. Yeah, I think, well, we've really changed tongues. There's a little bit tongue-in-cheek at first, but now we're like, hey, man, purple belts aren't warming up, like, what are we going to do about that? Well, I think it's important I still want to keep it pretty tongue-in-cheek, right.
Speaker 1:But here's what I will say in defense of the generic jiu-jitsu warm-up. Sure, is that any, any team and a team is an organized unit, right, a cohesive fucking group Do it together. Do it together. If you play any team sport, you fucking warm up together. And so I think that the onus is on the coach to be creative with their warm-ups, sure, and I think that when we do this in the gym right, it's like we run classes here and every class you're like, yeah, you've got the workout you've got to do.
Speaker 1:But it's like, what am I doing in that 10 to 15 minute warm-up period? I want to make something engaging that's going to bring people together. It's going to get the body like, raise the core body temperature and prepare them for the work ahead. But you can do fucking anything, right, like there's a lot of, it's a lot of ways to do it. Yeah, and I, I I mean, of course I have an advantage because I'm gym guy trainer and then I teach jujitsu sometimes, so I can really make the warm-ups fun. But I really like that, yeah, and so I think for coaches it's like fucking like, get a bit excited around that and make the warm-ups fun and engaging.
Speaker 1:And I would say that you could do the bet, you could do both. Right, you're right, 10 minutes, we're doing this shit together. And then you guys got fucking five minutes to do your own thing, whatever you want drill some shit, fix your busted shoulder, you know, choose your own adventure. And then you want Drill some shit, fix your busted shoulder, you know, choose your own adventure. And then we come back together for technique. Yeah, hey, side, take on that classic warmup in Brazil when coaches away game of soccer, oh, no way. Oh, dude, like futsal game. That's mad, that's mad. Only problem is you've got like world championship level jujitsu folks going ham. Oh, ball sports are fucked. You've got like world championship level jiu-jitsu folks going ham. Oh, all sports, oh my god, like no boots, no shinies, like just it.
Speaker 1:As fun as it is, it can also be like injurious. Yeah, side tackling and oh yeah. But what was great about that was the fun element brought out excitement, yeah, and people were sweating and it seemed like you score goals, like big high fives and shit, why would you want to duck out? Yeah, right, it's mad. So I think there is value in in the idea of the game and where the team you know we did that with with rob whittaker, when we, when we said, when I do those sessions with him where we're like you know, the grappling sessions that were while he was competing in the UFC, yeah, often the warmup would be like a, what did we pay?
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, we played, we played soccer or then there'd be like kind of like a, like a dodgeball type shit, but it was. But I was always like fuck, this is loose, but super fun. Everyone's laughing and carrying on agility, yeah, and it was good because the nature of the sessions and I'm guessing it's the same in the sessions you were doing in Brazil they're serious, hard, full on sessions, so you have a little bit of levity at the start. It's like fucking. Yeah, it kind of preps you a little bit for the edge off the, the, the, the beatings head of you, yes, uh. Well, there it is. Well, you know, fuck a lot of love for the purple belts. Uh, do your fucking warm-ups and uh buck the trend. Yes, sir.
