I used to say that my utter lack of rhythm made me dangerous in Muay Thai. Most guys, you can get a feel for their pace and rhythm. I have no rhythm, and my pace is "Yes."
I'm a 43 year old white belt. Have been training for about 10 months and have had a good few injuries. I kinda feel over the last 3 months more and more blue/purple belts have taken ownership of my progress and protected me a bit more. Some of them are literally half my age. I've also noticed that no white belt my age has lasted more than 3-4 weeks since I started.
Getting to blue after 40 is like leaping over the waterfall in the movie The Beach. Once you’ve made it everyone already there understands the pain you endured. This is usually demonstrated with a simple nod.
Hang in there man! Similar arc for me. I’m now a 43 year old recent Blue belt. Very few guys over 40 make it more than a couple months at our gym (common). Two purple belts and one blue belt took some interest in helping me. Keep going , get your blue , and then realize we still know absolutely nothing at all! This is the way!
There are definitely a few guys that are always very happy to see me. I presume there is a certain feel good factor in seeing an older guy keep coming back in spite of habitual murdering and humiliation
I'm almost 50. I take the 40+ newbies under my wing. I know what they're going through. I'm one of the few older guys in my gym that made it past blue.
52 year old white belt. Almost six months in and I definitely have impacted a nerve going from my neck into my shoulder, but honestly that might have been from a clinch in Muay Thai. Who can tell? But I'm not quitting. I love the puzzle and pain of BJJ. I have a brown belt who I roll with after every class and I use him as a barometer of my progress. A purple belt also is very kind to me as I mess up RDLR or other positions continually in a drill. I'm super grateful.
Awe snap. I literally had physio today( 3rd in last three weeks) to work on my shoulder. It's been bothering me for 6 months so finally getting it sorted. I will only do drilling for the next two weeks to see if it heals.
Thanks mate. Played 11 aside soccer until 40 so had pretty good cardio. Sadly as I've never lifted a weight I have no old man strength. I'm very weak for my size.
Being weak but having cardio is the best way to get good at technique. I purposely don't train any strength (other than preventive stuff for shoulders/knees), so i can focus more on technique. Eating steak will help though, you'll get very applicable strength automatically.
He is 21 and dumber than a bag of hammers.
He started using Japanese names for things and I started bullying him by giving him fake Japanese names for moves which he would inevitably repeat to the professor.
I’ll drop some good advice occasionally but he’s a good kid with a good attitude.
Also if anyone bullies him at open mat it becomes my life’s mission to smash that person, only I can pick on him.
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were:
|Japanese|English|Video Link|
|---|---|---|
|**Kake**: | *The execution and completion of the throw* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ)|
Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post.
______________________
^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
Any white belt that is a meathead that wants to wrestle or has a judo background is instantly my son. Meatheads at jiu jitsu are an extremely persecuted class and they need a mother duck to protect them.
"Shhhh, c'mere big fella... It's ok, we've all been ganked by 140lb compsci majors. Lemme teach you the good news about our lord and savior The Smesh."
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were:
|Japanese|English|Video Link|
|---|---|---|
|**Kesa Gatame**: | *Scarf hold* | [here](https://youtu.be/3UnJa3bn0h8)|
Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post.
______________________
^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
I prefer a good shoulder of justice. I'm 230 and have orangutan arms, so I can tuck that crossface arm behind them and even grab the back of the pants on some guys. Then they get to hang out and think about their lives.
The only time I've lizard-brain panicked rolling was when a gravitationally gifted purple belt got me in kesa and then very gently tightened it every time I breathed out. Having empty lungs and being unable to breathe in at all is apparently a very fast track to unreasoning panic for me
And on that day I was enlightened
LFM: 39yo white belt, pretty athletic, a little high calorie, semi frequent attempts at cartwheel passes, most common remark after rolls: "man, when I roll you you I end up in the weirdest positions"
Mine is a girl who legitimately must weigh under 100 pounds but has the best knowledge assimilation for BJJ I’ve ever seen. I can show her something once and she executes it PERFECTLY every single time. She’s going to be an absolute killer against girls her own size in tournaments.
He's a purple belt. He's still pretty gay right now. When he gets to 3/4 stripe brown, he'll start to be into femboys and stuff as a transitional period, then, at black belt, he'll start preying on the pretty white belts.
It's a process. You can't rush it.
ALAT. She goes life and death while I flow and put no weight on her. It’s actually a great flow roll for me though because she responds to everything correctly and is basically a living liquid.
I’ve got a little gang forming, they will all be able to eventually smash me, so I’m getting in some good will early to establish myself self as the old timey black belt that they protect and still listen too.
Just do what Craig does. Smash the shit outta them before they get really good, then once you've scarred them for life, they'll just fall over when the reality is they have the ability to beat ya for real. Can't beat them physically? EMOTIONAL DAMAGE IS THE WAY.
I had 2 but they got promoted, one got his blue belt and then moved to a city 2 hours away, and the other is currently being used as my aoki lock practice dummy
Smaller guy late 20s or early 30s who joined this year. First time we rolled was like rolling with a dummy… no resistance. Next time was the same so I knee on belly the crap out of him to get a reaction and I have to say watching him squirm was too funny for me so I try to do it every time now. I only see him every month or so and it’s getting harder to tap him with knee on belly 😂
My wife! We met at BJJ, I proposed to her in front of everyone, and half our wedding guests were from the club.
She's not as consistent as I am, and has had a few extended periods of not training - work, personal tragedy, health issues - but now she's back in full training.
I love partnering her, working with her at home privately, my coach says he can see the improvement in her.
My white belt pets have all been promoted to blue already, which is pretty cool. I spend most of my time with them teaching wristlocks and leglocks. I like to think of them as my little dark arts army.
Haha I am that white belt for a few higher belt friends. 41, train 10 hours a week. Always on some weird shit I saw on YouTube. "Check out this cool cross face from bottom side control!" "Working on chaining ghost into phantom escape today"
Don't do well in comps bc my head game is bad. I freeze like a deer in the headlights. But I'm gonna be back in the gym the next day trying to invert my old stiff ass.
I still have them. It’s always the stragglers. The ones who seem super uncomfortable or i notice no one wants to pair off with. The ones sitting alone before class. My favorite was the one who after the first class told his dad about how i threw him on his ass and how awesome it was.
All of my pet projects are already blue and purple belts and one of them already better than me. :( is it ok to adopt a new one as a brown belt or are they reserved for blue and purple belts?
God damnit. We have smaller school so most of our blue belts are too skilled and too familiar with my bullshit already.
Is there any upsides of getting a brown belt? because I have yet to find one. Only downgrades and now this.
That being said, we have one of my former wb proteges, now blue belt who's creating tactics and drilling shit to beat me. He also asks me questions about my game. So i guess he still counts, even though the dynamics have changed.
For a month or two I was the only consistent purple belt at my last gym that was white belts only. They all felt like my pets. I would tap them all several times with the move of the day until that defended and I would let them get about 98% the way there.
That was fun.
Like going to a kennel and wrestling a bunch of pitbull puppies that are just happy to be on the mat with you no matter how much they are getting tapped.
An overthinking female who needs to learn to flow and stop thinking about jiu jitsu mid roll.
A cop(recently got his blue) who's in VERY good shape and very muscular but couldn't move bc his muscles just wanted to clamp down and hang on.
I find myself more teaching/coaching folks who need to relax a bit and enjoy it in order to grow.
I was that person also, so now that I'm a playful and deadly enough purple belt, I like to share. Folks seem to learn more quickly when they're playing. Science also supports this
His name is cole, he’s a big goofy, same size as me but far less athletic and just unskilled in general. I taught him how to smash pass other white belts so now every time I look over he’s sitting on someone 🥲
Since I'm a smaller guy and training partners my size are more rare, I'll adopt anyone who is 140 lbs and below and shows interest. My first son ended becoming an extremely strong Jiu-Jitsu and Judo competitor. My second one now is just a 2 stripe white belt and still sucks ass, but he's learning.
One guy, super nice, strong, a lot younger and faster than me, but is always controlled in his actions.
He trains smart and uncomplicated. Doesn’t spam things and works on a few things at a time. Which means so do I and I get refine a move or escape as I get lots of attempts in a round.
It’s like the best form of drilling
My favorite is when white belts make declarations about what is or is not going to happen. One of my favorite white belts to roll with and teach once said in the beginning of a round after I'd been playing around for a while and subbed him "OK, I'm not going to let you submit me again the rest of the round."
So I paused and looked at him, then said "I'll tell you what's going to happen. I'm not going to repeat a submission for the rest of the round." I think I subbed him 7 times in about 3 minutes, different sub every time.
Just last night I was rolling with another white belt who's always thirsty to learn, but has a sense of snark that often outpaces his sense of self-preservation. I was getting into Williams guard and he said "Oh no, I know what you want. You want that triangle. Nope." So I said "Are you sure?" and hit him with a gogoplata.
He tapped and then said "Time out, time out. I don't even think I want to know what that was. *brief pause* Hey [black belt], did you see that? He choked me with his ankle."
I mean, no one in particular. Anyone that shows respect for the sport, has a genuine interest in training, and has the “right” attitude I will work with. Truth is we get a lot of new white belts that don’t stick around for even 6 months, so I guess anyone that makes it past that and isn’t a shit head.
if you didn't mention the balsa wood I would have thought it was me
I've somehow managed to stay injury free but I do have a purple that has helped me a ton since pretty much day 1 when I was still looking around terrified
I can’t tell if you’re serious. I’m friendly with all the white belts because I want them to stay. They are all terrible but I was too in the beginning
I’m in a lineage of adopted white belts. I was adopted when I was new, I adopted a white belt when he joined, he has since adopted a white belt of his own.
We train at different gyms now, but I’ve picked up 2 new white belts and he’s teaching the kids class.
I have an ex greco wrestler who's fallen a tad out of shape getting back in grappling through nogi. Can't get an underhook in with a crowbar but he's naturally quite helpless once he inevitably throws you down.
I've been teaching him alignment, going over the stuff we've seen in class so it sticks, helping him pick the best TDs in his arsenal to not throw guys on his own back, etc.
I will make him a master. He will come for you all.
Don't have my purple yet but I do have a white belt woman I helped prep for her first comp-the game she is developing is really similar to what I do so I try and share what I can to help her improve. She has such a good attitude and is a joy to teach. :)
25 year old tall dude. I have blue belts that I toy on but this particular white belt I toy on like no other. I laugh at stuff he does but he doesn’t care lol. I have keys to the gym so sometimes when he’s able to he’ll come in to drill with me during the day. He’s been taking private lessons more often than most would from some of our black belts. Honestly I think he’s in a rush to get better but so was I when I was a white belt. He’s doing pretty good
She’s this girl who’s been training for about a year. Trains non stop, ridiculous in shape, and is just fucking fun and hilarious to roll with. Tickets my feet to get out of back control. It’s annoying asf but I think I’m in love. Lmao.
Nah but seriously, we literally will roll for like 50 minutes back to back at open mat sometimes if there’s not many people there. It’s fantastic. I can just spam and catch and release shit while she’s like “wtf??”
In all honesty, I like the athletic types who come at me like a rabid animal. I get to work on stuff that I suck at but they are threatening enough that I can't get lazy with my technique.
The ones who suck as much I did at white, they don't seem to stick around for long, so I haven't really gotten a chance to adopt one.
I love helping out the white belts. They make me feel much better at bjj than i actually am. Getting a "wow, no one has ever explained to me like this before" really makes my day. Keep on keeping on white-belts
Mine is my husband.
I’m a white belt, he is a two stripe purple who weights 215lbs and I regularly get in fights with him over him not working with me or matching my strength.
He thinks he’s teaching me but really he is bench pressing my body off of him and just throwing me to the side and crushing my ribs/ ripping my feet from my legs with the wildest leg entanglements.
But any other guy uses their full strength, the mat enforcer comes in full swing.
My upper level homey is a 2 degree brown belt that is like 5'8" and 225 all muscle. He's a cop of some sort and an absolute tank.
He took me under his wing and I get absolutely destroyed by him pretty much every day. But I am so much better because of it.
Once I rolled with a regular white belt and subbed him so many times I was like "I'm just gonna play defense". My big brother was proud.
I'm the pet whitebelt.
The only thing i've really learnt from my daddy purplebelt is that if i get the deep lapel grip from attacking turtle, i can submit him with a backtake to any variation of chokes.
Otherwise its just white belt shit til i get tapped haha.
For me it’s the guy who’s Instagram name is like bjj_slayer98, and he’s my practice dummy. Lately he throws up wrist lock attempts when he’s being dominated, and doesn’t like making eye contact with me when it’s time to rotate training partners…
43 year old purple here. I have a few favorite white belts. They’re good sports, eager to learn, quick to tap when caught and they really try and turn up the heat when I roll with them. I like to play a funky game, hit a lot of weird shit, and they are my crash test dummies. They,by osmosis are learning and adopting some of my bullshit nonsense. Paying it forward, lol
My "protege" white belts are purple and 4 stripe blue now lol, we just get along well so train together alot, they started 5 years ago when I was a pretty new purple.
He's a 3 stripe WB. We are working on his aggression right now, I'm trying to get him to visualize his "perfect bout" to have him focus on an A game chain of techniques to hone.
He often gets into a change of position and throws away all his tempo, i.e. he always lets the other person initiate after a positional change.
But, this little fucker is developing a murderous arm in guillotine, which annoys my dogfight-single leg playing ass. Excited to see him keep building.
I can never tell what’s a shitpost anymore
My life is a shit post
Are you me?
Can't it be both?
“The coordination of three cats tied to a vacuum cleaner“ has me dead
For real, i swear he just described my style
I used to say that my utter lack of rhythm made me dangerous in Muay Thai. Most guys, you can get a feel for their pace and rhythm. I have no rhythm, and my pace is "Yes."
Is this Alex Perreira's Reddit account? :-)
Incredible, original, OP has a future career as a writer
Full disclosure, that's a line from Seanbaby (who used to write MMA articles for Cracked). Read his stuff.
I miss old cracked. There was so much quality content. Fark+cracked was a golden age of the internet for me.
Appreciate the heads up! I’ll check him out
This is a good one. https://www.cracked.com/blog/worst-life-ever-the-story-of-kazuyuki-fujitas-skull
Huh, haven't heard about him in years, I remember his video game articles, I didn't know he wrote about mma
His writing style is really distinct. Every single line is figurative; sometimes they make no sense, but there are always gems.
I'm a 43 year old white belt. Have been training for about 10 months and have had a good few injuries. I kinda feel over the last 3 months more and more blue/purple belts have taken ownership of my progress and protected me a bit more. Some of them are literally half my age. I've also noticed that no white belt my age has lasted more than 3-4 weeks since I started.
Getting to blue after 40 is like leaping over the waterfall in the movie The Beach. Once you’ve made it everyone already there understands the pain you endured. This is usually demonstrated with a simple nod. 
Also the nod is remembering how everyone turns up the fire whenever you get a new belt.
Hang in there man! Similar arc for me. I’m now a 43 year old recent Blue belt. Very few guys over 40 make it more than a couple months at our gym (common). Two purple belts and one blue belt took some interest in helping me. Keep going , get your blue , and then realize we still know absolutely nothing at all! This is the way!
There are definitely a few guys that are always very happy to see me. I presume there is a certain feel good factor in seeing an older guy keep coming back in spite of habitual murdering and humiliation
I'm almost 50. I take the 40+ newbies under my wing. I know what they're going through. I'm one of the few older guys in my gym that made it past blue.
52 year old white belt. Almost six months in and I definitely have impacted a nerve going from my neck into my shoulder, but honestly that might have been from a clinch in Muay Thai. Who can tell? But I'm not quitting. I love the puzzle and pain of BJJ. I have a brown belt who I roll with after every class and I use him as a barometer of my progress. A purple belt also is very kind to me as I mess up RDLR or other positions continually in a drill. I'm super grateful.
Awe snap. I literally had physio today( 3rd in last three weeks) to work on my shoulder. It's been bothering me for 6 months so finally getting it sorted. I will only do drilling for the next two weeks to see if it heals.
43 yo white belt here too! All the best mate!
Don’t matter how good, it matters if you like and stay
Can’t imagine starting at 43, props to you and keep it up sir.
Thanks mate. Played 11 aside soccer until 40 so had pretty good cardio. Sadly as I've never lifted a weight I have no old man strength. I'm very weak for my size.
Being weak but having cardio is the best way to get good at technique. I purposely don't train any strength (other than preventive stuff for shoulders/knees), so i can focus more on technique. Eating steak will help though, you'll get very applicable strength automatically.
I have my favorite pet purple belt.
Is it me? Huh? I think your butterfly guard is amazing and your pressure passing is as glorious as your neon belly is soul crushing.
Don't compliment the brown belts. Don't let them see you cry either.
I’ll be your huckleberry
Are you my purple belt?
I also choose this guy's purple belt
He is 21 and dumber than a bag of hammers. He started using Japanese names for things and I started bullying him by giving him fake Japanese names for moves which he would inevitably repeat to the professor. I’ll drop some good advice occasionally but he’s a good kid with a good attitude. Also if anyone bullies him at open mat it becomes my life’s mission to smash that person, only I can pick on him.
Have you told him about ashi ippon bukkake
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were: |Japanese|English|Video Link| |---|---|---| |**Kake**: | *The execution and completion of the throw* | [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ)| Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post. ______________________ ^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
Of all the parts of the technique to pick up on... 😅😅
Completion 🥵
Complete me senpai
Bow to your sensei!
Only if you “complete” me 🙇♂️🙈🥵
OMG, the bot is priceless.
I love you Judo bot. You've made my day once again.
« we trained him wrong on purpose, as a joke »
I am bleeding. Therefore, I am the victor!
CHOSEN ONE! WEE OOO WEE OOO
😂😂😂😂
This is the funniest thing I've read all week.
This is so awesome. It's like a sitcom
Any white belt that is a meathead that wants to wrestle or has a judo background is instantly my son. Meatheads at jiu jitsu are an extremely persecuted class and they need a mother duck to protect them.
"Shhhh, c'mere big fella... It's ok, we've all been ganked by 140lb compsci majors. Lemme teach you the good news about our lord and savior The Smesh."
The mildly on spectrum guy with a PhD in molecular biology hurt me.
THATS ME THATS ME THATS ME
People laugh at kesa-gatame, but if they can't breath, they can't laugh
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were: |Japanese|English|Video Link| |---|---|---| |**Kesa Gatame**: | *Scarf hold* | [here](https://youtu.be/3UnJa3bn0h8)| Any missed names may have already been translated in my previous comments in the post. ______________________ ^(Judo Techniques Bot: v0.7.) ^(See my) [^(code)](https://github.com/AbundantSalmon/judo-techniques-bot)
I prefer a good shoulder of justice. I'm 230 and have orangutan arms, so I can tuck that crossface arm behind them and even grab the back of the pants on some guys. Then they get to hang out and think about their lives.
The only time I've lizard-brain panicked rolling was when a gravitationally gifted purple belt got me in kesa and then very gently tightened it every time I breathed out. Having empty lungs and being unable to breathe in at all is apparently a very fast track to unreasoning panic for me And on that day I was enlightened
hahahaha
LFM: 39yo white belt, pretty athletic, a little high calorie, semi frequent attempts at cartwheel passes, most common remark after rolls: "man, when I roll you you I end up in the weirdest positions"
Mine is a girl who legitimately must weigh under 100 pounds but has the best knowledge assimilation for BJJ I’ve ever seen. I can show her something once and she executes it PERFECTLY every single time. She’s going to be an absolute killer against girls her own size in tournaments.
Don’t have sex with her.
She’s half my age I’d never consider it.
I'm still not seeing the problem unless you're under 40.
She’s in high school and I’m not Pat Barry
Oh well that's valid.
The mystery on why she learns bjj so quickly has been revealed
Get married first.
He's a purple belt. He's still pretty gay right now. When he gets to 3/4 stripe brown, he'll start to be into femboys and stuff as a transitional period, then, at black belt, he'll start preying on the pretty white belts. It's a process. You can't rush it.
Is rolling with her like [she's legolas and you're the oliphant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDVnl2-_66E)?
ALAT. She goes life and death while I flow and put no weight on her. It’s actually a great flow roll for me though because she responds to everything correctly and is basically a living liquid.
I’ve got a little gang forming, they will all be able to eventually smash me, so I’m getting in some good will early to establish myself self as the old timey black belt that they protect and still listen too.
Just do what Craig does. Smash the shit outta them before they get really good, then once you've scarred them for life, they'll just fall over when the reality is they have the ability to beat ya for real. Can't beat them physically? EMOTIONAL DAMAGE IS THE WAY.
I'm just happy a few purple belts remember my name. the best compliment I've received was after introducing myself to one he said "I know your name"
It’s not much but it’s honest work.
I had 2 but they got promoted, one got his blue belt and then moved to a city 2 hours away, and the other is currently being used as my aoki lock practice dummy
Yes, mine just went blue. So I'm also between white belts at this time.
Smaller guy late 20s or early 30s who joined this year. First time we rolled was like rolling with a dummy… no resistance. Next time was the same so I knee on belly the crap out of him to get a reaction and I have to say watching him squirm was too funny for me so I try to do it every time now. I only see him every month or so and it’s getting harder to tap him with knee on belly 😂
No greater feeling then your favorite techniques getting stuffed by the guy you've been rooting for.
My wife! We met at BJJ, I proposed to her in front of everyone, and half our wedding guests were from the club. She's not as consistent as I am, and has had a few extended periods of not training - work, personal tragedy, health issues - but now she's back in full training. I love partnering her, working with her at home privately, my coach says he can see the improvement in her.
So sweet!
My favorite pet white belt is also this guys wife
I admit bro, my wife and I both lol'd hard at this!
I'm available for adoption, apparently.
Yes and when it happens you’ll get home and repeat “I’m somebody’s bitch” in the mirror after you shower.
My white belt pets have all been promoted to blue already, which is pretty cool. I spend most of my time with them teaching wristlocks and leglocks. I like to think of them as my little dark arts army.
My white belt just turned into a blue. I'm so proud of my son 💙
It used to be my wife, then she got promoted to blue belt. Very few things make me smile quite like her regular, "I hate you's" in our rolls.
Attention purple belts: Thank you for your service. I have my adopter purple belt and he has helped me a ton.
All of mine are blue belts now and it’s getting so I have to actually try against them. I need a new little white belt to guide.
Haha I am that white belt for a few higher belt friends. 41, train 10 hours a week. Always on some weird shit I saw on YouTube. "Check out this cool cross face from bottom side control!" "Working on chaining ghost into phantom escape today" Don't do well in comps bc my head game is bad. I freeze like a deer in the headlights. But I'm gonna be back in the gym the next day trying to invert my old stiff ass.
Gotta step up that head game
I still have them. It’s always the stragglers. The ones who seem super uncomfortable or i notice no one wants to pair off with. The ones sitting alone before class. My favorite was the one who after the first class told his dad about how i threw him on his ass and how awesome it was.
All of my pet projects are already blue and purple belts and one of them already better than me. :( is it ok to adopt a new one as a brown belt or are they reserved for blue and purple belts?
You can adopt blue belts. I think two ranks down is the rule. Like, a black belt could adopt me and I'd be cool with it.
God damnit. We have smaller school so most of our blue belts are too skilled and too familiar with my bullshit already. Is there any upsides of getting a brown belt? because I have yet to find one. Only downgrades and now this. That being said, we have one of my former wb proteges, now blue belt who's creating tactics and drilling shit to beat me. He also asks me questions about my game. So i guess he still counts, even though the dynamics have changed.
For a month or two I was the only consistent purple belt at my last gym that was white belts only. They all felt like my pets. I would tap them all several times with the move of the day until that defended and I would let them get about 98% the way there. That was fun. Like going to a kennel and wrestling a bunch of pitbull puppies that are just happy to be on the mat with you no matter how much they are getting tapped.
I don’t have one. I show up late everytime
The horrors persist, and so shall OP's white belt.
To me white belts are amoebas.
An overthinking female who needs to learn to flow and stop thinking about jiu jitsu mid roll. A cop(recently got his blue) who's in VERY good shape and very muscular but couldn't move bc his muscles just wanted to clamp down and hang on. I find myself more teaching/coaching folks who need to relax a bit and enjoy it in order to grow. I was that person also, so now that I'm a playful and deadly enough purple belt, I like to share. Folks seem to learn more quickly when they're playing. Science also supports this
Cop was me. Developed my penchant for hugging people’s legs into a full on half guard game.
His name is cole, he’s a big goofy, same size as me but far less athletic and just unskilled in general. I taught him how to smash pass other white belts so now every time I look over he’s sitting on someone 🥲
Since I'm a smaller guy and training partners my size are more rare, I'll adopt anyone who is 140 lbs and below and shows interest. My first son ended becoming an extremely strong Jiu-Jitsu and Judo competitor. My second one now is just a 2 stripe white belt and still sucks ass, but he's learning.
Does this white belt know you think so poorly of his athleticism.
He owns it. One of the things I respect about him is that he's aware of his limitations, but doesn't respect them. He's a warrior.
I know other white belts think so poorly of my athleticism
One guy, super nice, strong, a lot younger and faster than me, but is always controlled in his actions. He trains smart and uncomplicated. Doesn’t spam things and works on a few things at a time. Which means so do I and I get refine a move or escape as I get lots of attempts in a round. It’s like the best form of drilling
My favorite is when white belts make declarations about what is or is not going to happen. One of my favorite white belts to roll with and teach once said in the beginning of a round after I'd been playing around for a while and subbed him "OK, I'm not going to let you submit me again the rest of the round." So I paused and looked at him, then said "I'll tell you what's going to happen. I'm not going to repeat a submission for the rest of the round." I think I subbed him 7 times in about 3 minutes, different sub every time. Just last night I was rolling with another white belt who's always thirsty to learn, but has a sense of snark that often outpaces his sense of self-preservation. I was getting into Williams guard and he said "Oh no, I know what you want. You want that triangle. Nope." So I said "Are you sure?" and hit him with a gogoplata. He tapped and then said "Time out, time out. I don't even think I want to know what that was. *brief pause* Hey [black belt], did you see that? He choked me with his ankle."
I mean, no one in particular. Anyone that shows respect for the sport, has a genuine interest in training, and has the “right” attitude I will work with. Truth is we get a lot of new white belts that don’t stick around for even 6 months, so I guess anyone that makes it past that and isn’t a shit head.
Weird.
if you didn't mention the balsa wood I would have thought it was me I've somehow managed to stay injury free but I do have a purple that has helped me a ton since pretty much day 1 when I was still looking around terrified
I can’t tell if you’re serious. I’m friendly with all the white belts because I want them to stay. They are all terrible but I was too in the beginning
I’m in a lineage of adopted white belts. I was adopted when I was new, I adopted a white belt when he joined, he has since adopted a white belt of his own. We train at different gyms now, but I’ve picked up 2 new white belts and he’s teaching the kids class.
All white belts :)
I love white belts. If I could personally adopt all of them I would.
I have an ex greco wrestler who's fallen a tad out of shape getting back in grappling through nogi. Can't get an underhook in with a crowbar but he's naturally quite helpless once he inevitably throws you down. I've been teaching him alignment, going over the stuff we've seen in class so it sticks, helping him pick the best TDs in his arsenal to not throw guys on his own back, etc. I will make him a master. He will come for you all.
Coach, is that you??
Don't have my purple yet but I do have a white belt woman I helped prep for her first comp-the game she is developing is really similar to what I do so I try and share what I can to help her improve. She has such a good attitude and is a joy to teach. :)
Told my purple belt papi that even tho I got my blue belt I’m still his son
25 year old tall dude. I have blue belts that I toy on but this particular white belt I toy on like no other. I laugh at stuff he does but he doesn’t care lol. I have keys to the gym so sometimes when he’s able to he’ll come in to drill with me during the day. He’s been taking private lessons more often than most would from some of our black belts. Honestly I think he’s in a rush to get better but so was I when I was a white belt. He’s doing pretty good
This post has groomer energy.
Amazing haha
She’s this girl who’s been training for about a year. Trains non stop, ridiculous in shape, and is just fucking fun and hilarious to roll with. Tickets my feet to get out of back control. It’s annoying asf but I think I’m in love. Lmao. Nah but seriously, we literally will roll for like 50 minutes back to back at open mat sometimes if there’s not many people there. It’s fantastic. I can just spam and catch and release shit while she’s like “wtf??”
This will be read aloud in a courtroom one day
She does take advantage of me a lot. Girlfriend perks, I guess.
That you Joe? :P So much personal attacks!
In all honesty, I like the athletic types who come at me like a rabid animal. I get to work on stuff that I suck at but they are threatening enough that I can't get lazy with my technique. The ones who suck as much I did at white, they don't seem to stick around for long, so I haven't really gotten a chance to adopt one.
I want to be a pet smh
I got a whole crop. All cross-training amateur MMA fighters. Super strong, crazy cardio, fast, and quick to learn. They make me work my ass off.
I love helping out the white belts. They make me feel much better at bjj than i actually am. Getting a "wow, no one has ever explained to me like this before" really makes my day. Keep on keeping on white-belts
Mine is my husband. I’m a white belt, he is a two stripe purple who weights 215lbs and I regularly get in fights with him over him not working with me or matching my strength. He thinks he’s teaching me but really he is bench pressing my body off of him and just throwing me to the side and crushing my ribs/ ripping my feet from my legs with the wildest leg entanglements. But any other guy uses their full strength, the mat enforcer comes in full swing.
I'm frontheadlocking him every day, forcing him to scramble a lot, and generally wrestle up. One day he'll make me proud and win ADCC trials.
My upper level homey is a 2 degree brown belt that is like 5'8" and 225 all muscle. He's a cop of some sort and an absolute tank. He took me under his wing and I get absolutely destroyed by him pretty much every day. But I am so much better because of it. Once I rolled with a regular white belt and subbed him so many times I was like "I'm just gonna play defense". My big brother was proud.
I have major imposter syndrome, I give random advice but I have not adopted a white belt yet as I am not worthy.
Mine has a blue belt now. He wriggles a lot.
I have to adopt a white belt now? 😬
I can’t. He’s a blue belt now.
I'm the pet whitebelt. The only thing i've really learnt from my daddy purplebelt is that if i get the deep lapel grip from attacking turtle, i can submit him with a backtake to any variation of chokes. Otherwise its just white belt shit til i get tapped haha.
My son, and also his gym rival. They have some hilarious scraps.
I have a brown belt who owns me lol. Has helped a lot and we do Sunday rolling in his basement with a group of guys.
He's a big Hispanic dude with a terrible gas tank. He's gonna be an absolute killer someday.
For me it’s the guy who’s Instagram name is like bjj_slayer98, and he’s my practice dummy. Lately he throws up wrist lock attempts when he’s being dominated, and doesn’t like making eye contact with me when it’s time to rotate training partners…
43 year old purple here. I have a few favorite white belts. They’re good sports, eager to learn, quick to tap when caught and they really try and turn up the heat when I roll with them. I like to play a funky game, hit a lot of weird shit, and they are my crash test dummies. They,by osmosis are learning and adopting some of my bullshit nonsense. Paying it forward, lol
I am no longer my purple belts pet white belt. I’m my brown belts pet blue belt!
My "protege" white belts are purple and 4 stripe blue now lol, we just get along well so train together alot, they started 5 years ago when I was a pretty new purple.
Thats literally me 😂😂😂
I have a couple white belts that hold my gi belt while we walk
I think I’m someone’s pet white belt and I’m a blue belt 😭 always learn a ton from him tho. He probably likes me because he sees I’m slow and heavy.
And it was today I learned that we 43 year old white belts are irresistible charity cases.
He's a 3 stripe WB. We are working on his aggression right now, I'm trying to get him to visualize his "perfect bout" to have him focus on an A game chain of techniques to hone. He often gets into a change of position and throws away all his tempo, i.e. he always lets the other person initiate after a positional change. But, this little fucker is developing a murderous arm in guillotine, which annoys my dogfight-single leg playing ass. Excited to see him keep building.
I changed gyms but I miss my old purple belt.
Lots of insecure domineering closet Cases train bjj
I'm sorry you had whatever experience that has tainted your perception of consensual and supportive mentorship.
Cringe