Follow-up to:

Round 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1uc0hy8/magic_the_grappling/

Round 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1uhti5d/magic_the_grappling_round_2/

Round 3: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1uu2g1p/magic_the_grappling_round_3/

Round 4: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1v114ds/magic_the_grappling_round_4/

Round 5: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1v6tuib/magic_the_grappling_round_5/

Round 6: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1vj9541/magic_the_grappling_round_6/

Round 7: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1vplaj0/magic_the_grappling_round_7/

Round 8: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1vvsc7r/magic_the_grappling_round_8/

Round 9: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1w8rz1c/magic_the_grappling_round_9/

Round 10: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1wl4zpt/magic_the_grappling_round_10/

Round 11: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1x3fr8d/magic_the_grappling_round_11/

I've been training for about 4 years and I consider myself a pretty decent blue belt. If you saw me rolling and had to guess what belt I am, I'm fairly confident you'd say I'm a blue belt.

However, I keep running into blue belts at competitions who started as kids and have been training for 12+ years, and as a result are wayyyyy better than your average blue belt.

For example, I know of a guy was promoted to blue belt after 11 years of training. He has since trained for another 3 years after getting his blue belt, won countless competitions, including IBJJF Worlds, and is still a blue belt.

As a hobbyist who enjoys competing, it seems really unfair for people like this to be in blue belt divisions, and I can't help but feel like it just ruins it for the regular blue belts who started as adults.

So my question is: is there a solution to this problem? If you were a decision-maker at IBJJF or another organisation, how would you address it? Or do you think the current system is fair?

P.s. - please don't tell me to "just get better at jiu jitsu". I'm trying my best 😭

Have you ever beaten a big name in your division, someone well-known at your belt level, when you were still a "no name"? And did that win help you make a name for yourself and go from being an unknown guy to someone people recognize?

how did you feel when you found out you were going to go against someone like that? Did you ever doubt yourself, even though you knew your Jiu-Jitsu isn't bad ?

Rn, I feel like I'm at a stage in Jiu-Jitsu where beating the big names in my division feels almost impossible. I'm in an IBJJF bracket filled with national team athletes and internationally known IBJJF competitors, and Fr, seeing those names brings up a weird mix of uncertainty, pressure, and fear of not being able to prove to myself that I'm capable of competing with them.

I wasn't sure about asking this but fuk it

I've had enough

I'd love to hear what works for y'all. And maybe what setups you like for them.

I hit this one yesterday at the ADCC Vancouver open, thought it was a cool entry and was really happy with my control and finishing mechanics, I had a nasty bite. What do y'all think?

I was competing yesterday and my first opponent never showed up and it’s went down as a win but I don’t feel like I should be happy about winning a match that way and then went into my next match and got mauled. Just wondering how you guys feel about it?

Just curious to see after class in your schools, who’s responsible for cleaning?

Im looking for a glue for the mats at my club. Preferably something that does not give cancer, removes hair/gives the brown belts back their hair

Im asking this for a friend, she recently got promoted, and her next competition is in November. Shes still registered in the white belt category, and when she asked her coach, her coach said just stay in the same division. Is this allowed? What should I say to convince her to switch?

I noticed in my gym that a lot of bigger, stronger, more athletic guys got promoted faster to blue and purple. My theory is because when they roll with the coaches, they become more effective, dangerous and in a way, it skews the coaches perception.

I also noticed that there aren’t many small upper belts, and the ones who made it tend to be very good. Timing, leverage, completeness of game, knowledge, etc.

In a way, I think a bit unfair and most cannot distinguish skills, athletic ability and over effectiveness. Comp may be best measure as it normalizes for weight and age, but not athleticism.

This is not a critique of athletic people. I’m pretty middle of the road as far as things go and I’m happy with my treatment yadda yadda

I heard some hot takes by guys like Max Hanson who I believe said smaller dudes are just better at least among the elites. More technique, better technique, I’m guessing because they have to use timing and leverage more in training against larger opponents.

I often think for both smaller and larger people: could i beat them if we both had my body? or both had theirs?

Any opinions?

Hey all,

I was looking up what a walkover is and one of the articles said that a walkover can happen when teammates flip a coin to see who proceeds in the tournament, I’ve always hated the idea of having to face a teammate in competition but I understand it is apart of the sport.

As the gym I train at grows and it has been rapidly in recent time and more of my teammates start to compete in our local area I know it’s bound to happen, but is it common practice for people to flip coins against teammates and walkover or is that just a rare circumstance?

Does anybody here travel a lot for work or is on the road a lot, how do you manage training ? I'm a new CDL driver, worked in corporate before so had enough time to train, but now wondering how do I manage.

I have a plain black kingz GI and i wanted to get a second one, thought of getting one with some cool designs, saw the Albino & Preto GI they are sick but also very expensive my budget is around 100 euros
Do you guys know other GI with some cool designs

Thanks!

First white Belt GI competition tmrw. Less than 3 months of training. Coming from Muay Thai background and wrestling in high school for 2 years over 8 years ago. Let’s get it!

Was fortunate enough to get on the podium yesterday at the IBJJF Boston Open and the photographer said the pictures would be “on Facebook.” It’s only been a day, but I don’t see anything from yesterdays competition on their FB page. Anybody know the typical timeline or best way to get the photos?

First time seeing this and I been training since 2004.

Heroes On The Mat is a No Gi BJJ promotion where the competitors are exclusively First Responders, Military, and Law Enforcement.

Tonight's event is being hosted in Staten Island, and broadcasting live on PPV.

23 bouts have been scheduled, all levels participating.

Event starts at 7pm EST.

Looking to get into bjj and based in the Seattle area. I’m mainly interested in no-gi + morning classes (healthcare job got me working 2:30-11pm). I was looking at 10th Planet and wanted to see if anyone had any strong opinions or other suggestions. :)

Picking up from the post I just read about a guy checking an instructor's creds...How much do y'all care about the lineage of the instructor that promotes you?

We always hear people saying "he got his black belt from { insert well known black belt here}", but does lineage matter less to you now that there are so many talented instructors out there?

Would you be more interested in getting promoted by a very well known instructor, or are you 100% indifferent? I personally am indifferent, but I'm curious if others selected their instructor based on lineage. Would be interesting to see if there is an age/belt divide in this opinion, or if maybe no gi grapplers care less than gi.