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
Capitalism Has Stolen The Soul From Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
If someone tells you to stop using/drilling a move because "it's a low percentage move", what do you do? Is tradition a thing of the past in BJJ? Sure, some of us only do nogi and like to get in and get out, but what about the culture that jiu jitsu was built on? A couple of BANGER questions on today's QNA one coming from good friend Samoan Strongman.
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A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready.
Speaker 3:Essentially, at this point the fight is over, so you pretty much flow with the goal. Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power?
Speaker 4:I'm ready. Go to bulletproofforbjjcom, hit the podcast tab and record a voicemail. You can ask us anything you want about the show, about jujitsu, about strength, about the jujitsu politics that you're encountering. We want to hear it and we see ourselves as your jujitsu big brothers, and so we're happy to give you the hard truths that maybe others won't tell you. First one coming in today from Rusty.
Speaker 3:Let's go you, first one coming in today from rusty, let's go. How's it going, guys? So, uh, white belt here. I've been doing jiu-jitsu for about uh, 18 months and I focus on the the no-gi side of things. I find it more interesting.
Speaker 3:So, anyway, today I went to open mat. I was wanting to practice a move. It was scissors sweep from guard, no-gay version. Anyway, I found a guy to practice with. When I told him the move, he said look, that's actually a low percentage move. And he was trying to show me shoulder crunch sweep instead from guard and from butterfly guard. And I said to him look, I don't necessarily disagree with you, but if it's okay, I'd just like to practice this move.
Speaker 3:And he started to get a bit condescending. He was sort of saying oh look, if you want to work on moves that don't work, then be my guest. And we did actually end up practicing it, but we only did a couple of reps and it was a bit kind of awkward by then. Um, so my question for you is um, should I ditch that move or should I ditch him? Because I'm just a white belt? So I realize that other people know a lot more than me. This guy's, I think, a blue belt somewhere you know he's been a blue belt for a couple of years. Should I try and take that kind of advice, or should he have helped me actually learn the move that I wanted to learn at the time? Thanks for your comments.
Speaker 4:Russ, you sound like a smart bloke and I think you know. I think you know Ditch the guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, don't get me wrong. You can get good advice anywhere, but you can also get pretty average advice everywhere as well. So taking it on the authority of a blue belt actually doesn't mean a whole lot. And low percentage scissor sweep is actually one of the highest percentage sweeps I, I believe, possible in terms of mechanics, even in no-gi. So low percentage is only relevant to the individual, like your proficiency in the technique. There are certain things that come up more, so certain positions you get exposed to more. Therefore, if you can do stuff from there, it's more likely to happen. But I would just say if you have said to from there, it's more likely to happen. But I would just say if you have said to someone I'm working on this, this is what I want to work on, and you're clear about that. Generally a good training partner will oblige, even if they don't think what you're doing makes any sense.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, if you ask the person hey, what do you think of my choice of technique here, Then sure Tell me you know, know what? I don't actually think it's great for these reasons, yeah, but, motherfucker, that you weren't asked that. You were like hey, can you be a body? Yeah, for me to work this thing, and it's like you could be working that for any multitude of reasons yeah so, yeah, it's pretty lame on their part.
Speaker 4:Um, fine for them to even share their take on it, but to be condescending when you're like no, I just want to stick with what my original plan was. Yeah, that's super lame. Hashtag blue belt mentality yeah, ditch that cunt. Limited, um, or hopefully they'll hear this and they'll be like shit. Yeah, maybe I was being a bit of a cock. I mean, the whole high percentage thing, like it's. Like, it's so subjective. Yes, there are techniques that we see more of at the upper level and you could say, well, you know, uh, inside heel hook from fucking, you know, ashigurami, like a super high percentage technique. But then you get someone that comes along that does one particular thing extremely well, and maybe not everyone else is doing it, but they do that to fucking everyone and they make it effective. That's also a high percentage too, if you're good at that For that game, yeah. So yeah, good on you, rusty, keep it up yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, good on you, rusty, follow your nose, mate. Sound like you know what's going on. Dehydration can cause a 30 to 40% drop in athletic performance. You know how you can beat dehydration With Sodi. Sodi is the sponsor of today's show. They're going to give you the best hydration supplement you've ever seen, you've ever tasted. I love it. Sodium, potassium, magnesium, all mixed together in a delicious bundle that you can mix in water so that when you do your jujitsu glug, glug, glug, glug you're powering up and you're performing the way you should. Go to sodicomau and use the code BULLETPROOF15. You get 15% off. Enhance your hydration, enhance your performance.
Speaker 4:Not sure who this guy is.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, welcome, welcome to another Samoan Strongman. Q&a for Bulletproof BJJ. Oh yeah, the oost with the boost Fam, I've got one for you. So back in the early 2000s, when I was training capoeira and I started delving into bjj like 2000, so that's like 25 years ago, far out, that's so old. Anyways, I, um, I remember this, that's um, you know, the lower bouts at end of class, lower bats typically would mop the floors, sweep the mats and mop the mats. Sure, and if you did your belt up on your gear, you'd always face away from the class and do your belt up, bow and all that. Typically, I've found as, coming back, they it's not really emphasized as much. I noticed, like in gyms and that, why is that? Are we sort of is that just a general thing where people just don't really think that it's necessary, or do I don't know? Like it's a weird one, but let me know your thoughts. As always, big love and appreciate you guys, bang bang.
Speaker 4:Oh, Samon Strongman. Always a pleasure to hear from you, bro. Thank you so.
Speaker 1:I think it's two things, joe, and two things for our man, staunch Chocolate.
Speaker 1:Essentially, jiu-jitsu has moved away from its traditional roots. So these ideas of kind of building up, like being an apprentice and being the first year and beginners clean the mats Even the judo gym I used to train at, even the black belts would clean the mats to honor the gym, kind of like this is our service to the space, like monks cleaning the temple. Jiu-jitsu has moved away from its traditional roots. Like tying the belt, like facing away that's what we had to do when we did Taekwondo. That was a much more traditional thing, that you didn't want to be disheveled in front of the master. So you know, tie your belt looking away, and then present yourself. But also it's the move for BJJ towards sport and commercial gyms where people are paying more fees now they don't want to clean the mats, you like, it's painful, I pay my gym service for that and also it's a sport. So people, I think, think of themselves more as customers of a sports team or commercial gym more than members of a martial arts community.
Speaker 4:yeah, this is my take it's a business as opposed to a club. Yes, and I remember my um, my original gym, the dojo. Our coach there really tried to run it like a club, which I can appreciate the sentiment, but we were all paying a fee every fortnight or whatever. So it conflicts with that. But we had that thing right. Everyone would clean the mats and certain things would be expected and I kind of came up thinking that that was sort of the cool thing. And then I remember training with adam and he's like I'm not gonna ask you to clean the mats. You pay a membership fee. Right, you pay a membership fee to learn jujitsu. It's my job to teach you jujitsu and then keep the facility clean I clean the mats because it's my business and I was
Speaker 4:like, well, that actually makes a lot of sense too, yes, and so I think that, um, there's probably a bit of a grace period in the early 2000s there where it was this, this gray area between, like a traditional martial arts like dojo, and a business, yeah, some kind of gray area, and we tried to hold onto it. Right, this is where the whole Criancho thing and all that Loyalty, yeah, but at the end of the day, capitalism reigns supreme. It does. The business is what prevails. And let's be honest, like, this is the way our society works, right, it's not. You're not passing down a skill set from, you know, master to apprentice and so forth in that traditional way, but so, yeah, so I think that maybe I'm detecting there that for our staunch chocolate brother, something's been a bit lost in that, because he was like fuck, I wanted to come back to that traditionalism.
Speaker 1:There are certain pros and qualities that come from that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there is something lovely about that, and I think that is, for a lot of us, maybe what attracted us to jiu-jitsu, particularly for those of us that have been doing it for more than 10 years. Right, sure, that is slowly falling away as just like, hey, come and train hard and be the best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and look, I think there's pros and cons to both. Having been raised in a traditional martial art and being very proper about bowing and all this stuff. It was good discipline for me as a kid to learn how to function in a hierarchical structure and be respectful and shut the fuck up, otherwise you get caned type stuff also. I can see that this is hard to. It's a hard standard to hold folks to in modern day life if they are paying 50 a week and they got to get in and get out. And it's got nothing to do with whether you're a white belt or a black belt. It is a business now. Yeah, and it is. It is a business now and it is. It is a sport now. And those traditional elements have been replaced with convenience and service, which is a completely different take. And but still, has value.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, I just on that. I think that like a gym could, totally, could totally still operate in that middle ground, like if, if a gym's like say, here at our gym, right, sure, the members built the garden. Yeah, and every, at the change of every season, the garden is renewed and the members do it, yeah. Now you can make the argument. Well, the Members pay a membership fee. Why are you getting them to build? Surely that should cover the cost of no, the building of the garden is part of the culture and part of the community here.
Speaker 4:Participating in it, so you could make that case for any of those things right. In that traditional form of jujitsu, I think it's just about an academy going hey, we're going to do this because we believe that this is important for the cohesion of the group, and so this is how we run our gym, and I think that a lot of people would be like that's fucking sick. I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the garden thing is volunteer, like you don't make anyone do it, no, the goodwill created by the culture of the gym means people want to come and do that. Yeah, and if you're shaping the culture of a gym, yeah, you can guide that. Yeah, the goodwill is kind of nurtured by the vibe and the interactions in the gym, so I think it doesn't have to be as exclusive and as clean and cut as not traditional or modern. There could definitely be a nice hybrid spot. But could you say, joe, that capitalism has stolen the soul of BJJ? Fuck brother.
Speaker 4:Deep questions, that's a hashtag right there, and yes, I believe that it has. Thank you of BJJ. Fuck brother, deep questions. That's a hashtag right there and yes, I believe that it has. Thank you for the questions this week. Fam, get us leave us a voicemail. Go on, do it. We know you've got something burning on your mind that you want to ask. Go to bulletproofforbjjcom, hit the podcast tab. Record us a voicemail and we'll play on the next one. Us a voicemail and we'll play on the next one. Appreciate you, guys.
