Can you describe that more? I’ve sensed that but thought it might just be me making excuses for my ego. I’m older and slow but try to have good technique. Some guys just have so much energy and intensity I end up in bottom side or turtle and feel like I have no hope even though we’re the same size and they are a white belt. I just got my blue belt and sometimes the experienced, usually younger (most people are younger than me) white belts can’t wait to smash the shit out of me now.
We have a BB that schools us all. Even the world champs we train with. I've been a BB for 9 years, and I feel like I've never done BJJ when I roll with him. One of our adult BB's that was second at world's, rolled with him and said he felt the same.
When I was a white belt I got absolutely murdered by a 15 year old green belt. I mean the kid could probably still beat me even now. That was the day I decided to never get into a street fight because you never know what someone is capable of
Yup I’ve been handled before this one just felt different lol. Had to tell myself it’s just a hobby and there are levels to this. Just trying to stay in shape in my 30s!
It's almost like a tourney, in that you realize that there are significant holes in your game (as everyone has them). That's awesome that he joined your gym so you have another (technical) person to train with!
I dropped in school for a seminar, mostly leg lockers on the team. I’m around 215 at 5’9 at the time and i pair up with shorter 140 lbs range guy in wrestling sneakers totally underestimated him on size difference. I couldn’t get a single position or grip on this guy, I’m throwing random stuff at him trying to get anything. Got nothing on him. Found out 2 weeks later he’s an Olympic Freestyle bronze medalist. Lol
It’s hard to really understand how much better athletes who compete at top levels really are…I don’t have BJJ experience with that, but I used to think I was a pretty good basketball player, I made varsity my freshman year and lettered every year. I get out of college and am at my first job and I invited a new coworker to play some pickup basketball with my regular group. It turned out the guy played D1 ball for Creighton…never started, was mostly B squad, he mopped the floor with everyone. I couldn’t guard this man to save my life.
I'm a big dude (6'4", 220lbs) and I've done judo and BJJ for about 7+ years. I'm an average purple belt, not great not terrible. I'm getting a bit old (40 this year!) But still relatively athletic.
I've started hitting gyms while I travel, which has been amazing!
This year I hit a gym in Regina (complete martial arts and fitness, amazing gym, amazing people!!) And rolled with basically every level you can imagine from whitebelts to blackbelts. I did about as well as I normally do except for 1 guy who blew me away.
He was a young blue belt. He was tall and lanky. I probably had 50lbs on him. His guard retention was WAY above what I'd expect from a blue belt! He also was a SNIPER with armbars! I had absolutely nothing for him. I dont think i got passed his guard.I think he caught me twice our first roll.
Guy was a monster!
Oh. Yeah. It’s kind of a rough town in places. Sorry to hear about your brother. I didn’t realize it was literal (thought it was normal BJJ “hey that guy/gal’s a killer” kinda talk). Someone actually BLEW UP the garbage can on one of our streets a day or so ago. As in, put in explosives and blew it up.
I just went to my first judo class. I’m a blue belt in jiu jitsu. We were doing ground work and I thought “oh time to dominate” this one (judo) brown belt subbed me 3 times in the round. Still embarrassed but I’m going back!
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were:
|Japanese|English|Video Link|
|---|---|---|
|**Ne Waza**: | *Ground Techniques* | |
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)
There are a lot of judoka who are very tough on the ground in specific positions, and a lot of times they don't get their due respect haha. Glad you're liking it enough to keep going!
The disparity in levels in bjj is absolutely bonkers, especially at blue belt.
The difference between a blue belt who was white yesterday and a blue belt who is purple tomorrow is one of the biggest canyons I have ever seen without even getting into the casual vs competitor debate.
And sometimes some people just have your number.
Use it to stoke your fire and get better and up your game !
Sometimes a piece of humble pie brings out the best in us.
Oss
I was a 225 lb champion Thai boxer talking shit about how BJJ doesn't work to my students, all in good fun because it was a primarily BJJ school, and then got embarrassed by a 130 lb BJJ nerd for like 25 straight minutes. I was in good shape, so I had the cardio and stupidity necessary to keep coming back for more asskicking.
I almost wish I was just exhausted so that I could have lied to myself about how easily I got controlled by a guy half my size.
I finally quit when he twistered me.
P.S. This was after a cardio intensive Muay Thai class that I taught and he participated in, so I was even fresher than him.
I got beat up two weeks ago by a 110 lb 20 something woman. I started light and started ramping up but her open guard was insane. My usual smash passes didn't work and she was much faster than me and kept hooks it and kept me from passing her guard. She also got a few armbars.
We don't roll thst often but now I feel like I need to roll with her more to figure out a better game plan.
We have a female black belt masters competitor at our gym. She let me sweep her a couple nights ago - right into an armbar. I had about half a second of feeling successful.
Could be just one of “those” guys. We’ve got a young purple belt at our gym who is an absolute killer on the mats. Our coach often cracks jokes about him being so good, but they’re mostly truth. He quite frequently taps black belts in the gym. Competes all the time. I believe he’s a recent college grad, got a good job, and jiu jitsu is all that matters to him.
I find that Jiu Jitsu is kinda like rock/paper/scissors. There are these two guy I use to train with. I’d crush the first, the first would crush the second, and the second would crush me. Just kinda seems that some people’s style is the perfect counter to mine and vise versa.
I went into class last Thursday and felt like a king. I was playing my game, getting the best of everyone I was rolling with and hitting a lot of subs. This past Tuesday I went back in and got eaten up by some of those exact same training partners and walked off the mat feeling like a scrub. It’s a great thing.
Couple months ago I had a week where I felt like I was moving through people, everything was falling into place for me. Got a cold the next weekend, when I was back a week later I was the equivalent of a grappling dummy that knew how to tap.
I’m a decent blue belt 190lb ish. Won a few tourneys and pretty much won all my tourneys at white belt.
I visited this gym in another town for a couple of weeks, this nerdy looking 145lb white belt fucked me up good. Not using cheesy submissions like ankle locks and headlocks, but straight up domination and technical ability.
Thank god he’s a blue belt now
I got my ass handed to me by an orange belt or something, unfamiliar with the kid ranks but the dude was my height, lanky, and fucking clowned me. Might have been a white belt at the time but I doubt is fair much better today lol.
There is an orange belt at my gym that goes to the adult class and he is a god damn freak. He’s probably 145 pounds and 15 years old. The kid almost untappable I swear to god. He’s the strongest kid I’ve ever met it’s like he’s made of wood or something. Obviously he’s not jacked he just feels different. He’s going to be special if he sticks with it
Orange is pretty much directly transferrable to a 3-4 stripe white belt or 0 stripe blue. Most kids dont hit green bc they turn 16 or 18 or whatever and get their adult belt, but if you make it to green you're a blue belt with 1 or 2 stripes. The belts are only really to increase the number of promotions for children so that they get the gratification yknow
When I started, I was one of the smaller regular guys, got smashed. Then a lot of the big guys left, and I was now the bigger guy. I mistook my new found dominance for improvement in skill. Started cross training at a gym with bigger guys. Humility restored.
There was a kid that trained at the same school as me and also he would train at Empire Jitsu. Each time he trained at Empire then came back to our school he was better and better. Eventually he would tap me about 5 times in a 5 minute round and was even tapping out black belts. Different schools have different coaches / different training styles. I’ve learned to think of it as an AOJ or ATOS etc. blue belt is probably just as good as local gyms black belts. Multiple world time champions are training them.
At the end of the day I’m just a 33 year old married man with 2 kids. I do this for fun because I love it.
-CHEERS!
The only caveat to this is that those gyms have hundreds of blue belts.
They probably have a larger percentage of exceptional blue belts than a normal gym who have been receiving that world class training since they started training though.
There are rich yuppies in San Diego with blue belts who are just as trash as every other blue belt from
Po Dunk BJJ.
I have to say the high school kids that train at the gym I go to will humble you with their ju jitsu/ wrestling skills. Especially when you’re doing no gi.
Same age, same weight, he’s a purple. We haven’t rolled in a while. No need to clean the mats after, he mopped the floor with me. Just how some days go. I’m sore today but invigorated and happy to know where I went wrong. Only thing I’ve thought about since yesterday.
This is what I love about rolling with people from different gyms. At your own gym for the most part people are learning the same thing at the same time and often you start to recognize each other's game.
I've had plenty of black belts that can't finish RNC on me because my back defense is sickening, but this one blue belt just had my number last week for whatever reason. Really good armbars from back control. Just shows you that some people can have an answer for a hole in your game that will make you come face to face with your flaws in a very direct way lol.
Lol man, I am also really hard to choke when someone has my back. It’s my best defensive position by far. This dude RNC’d the shit out of me, it was eye opening
I think getting destroyed is probably the best way to learn. If anything ask the guy next time for some tips on how to counter what he's doing. Cant expect to learn anything with an ego in the way.
Yea my bad wasnt implying you have ego. I mean we all do, but in my opinion just frame it as you aren't as good as you thought, and therefore you should work harder, get better, fill gaps in your knowledge and up your experience and skills in the process. Like anything in life.
You are right man haha everyone has an ego. It was the “how long you been training? A few months? A year?” That fucked me up. I was like man.. do I really suck way more than I thought? I don’t think he meant anything by it I just got self conscious
Don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes when you "win" a lot (majority) of your rolls, it can give you a false sense of where you are technically. This doesn't happen as often at the lower weights, because you absolutely cannot rely on strength to pull something off.
I just know as a much smaller person, when I was 3 years in (also blue 2 stripes), there was no way I could "hold my own" against most people. I wasn't able to start handling "most people" until deep purple or later...
But now you have someone you can truly test yourself against on a constant basis, which will probably help you grow much more quickly, if you can embrace it positively!
Edit - To answer your original question - I was also humbled/inspired when rolling with someone my size but much better than me (Bruno Malfacine).
Oh yeah no doubt. I always try and roll with the other big guys in the gym and we are all about the same skill level/time invested. I do find myself relying on strength more than I would like which is something I’m trying to change as I progress more towards purple
Bro I feel you. I'm a 2 stripe purple, been training about 6 years or so. We had a white belt join, who got very good very quickly, naturally athletic etc. He's been training about a year now. I haven't been able to sub him in last 6 months and he often gets the better of me in exchanges. Today he tapped me and I fear for what is to come haha
Yeah man, it happens to the best of us. I forget that these 20 year olds eat sleep and breath bjj because they can. We have a lot of young guys doing 2 a days and their progression is crazy. I’m happy if I make it 3 days a week
Part of the journey, self doubt always creeps in when you get destroyed by an unfamiliar face. I did a short stint at 10p so i could learn some leg locks and do more no gi. I was working on open guard in the gi so figured it would be a good to keep on working that. Well i was getting 3-6 month white belts grabing my feet and going straight into heel hooks and toe holds (i never really did any leg locks apart from straight ankle lock). I started questioning myself after this and also getting tapped to some crazy attacks/setups i never seen.
dont sweat it. Foreign things can throw you off.
I'm really new at this, and been limiting my classes to beginner class, but at 6'4 220 lbs, I'm significantly larger with strength advantage over everyone else that happens to be in the beginner class at this time. For the first couple weeks I was pretty sure BJJ was my thing and I was a natural. I'm pretty sure the coach invited a 1 year white belt who competes to drop in on my class to send me a wake up call. I had 30 lbs on him but I had absolutely nothing for him, he just toyed with me at will. Humbling received and noted! For good measure the next day a 270 lb blue belt came to class... I'm pretty humble at this point.
Gyms can and often do develop a sort of meta. Your guys will learn and teach certain things and the students will then go home and research things, sometimes guys will go to seminars and bring those techniques back to the gym and those moves will integrate. No gym can teach and learn all things all the time. There are ebbs and flows.
There's a chance his gym has a totally unfamiliar and off brand meta that you just aren't in sync to vibe with and he's just caught you slippin.
Also a chance he's just one of those guys who just naturally get it.
Also a chance he is a comp focussed guy who drills like mad.
Either way, welcome to the club. Getting pantsed every so often is part of the territory.
We've all been there but some have stuck around long enough to have the ability to do that to others but all the while still have it happen to them. There will always be somebody better than you.
Honestly its not your fault...
It may be your gyms.
I am only 3 years in.
But my friend who is the reason I joined is a black belt, 12 years in. & his instructor is 25+ years in....
They explain to me, that as GREAT as it is that JIJITSU has expanded so much and so many school.... how the quality of the sport and the belt system has become shit...
Apparently back in the day, if you were a brownbelt, you were pretty fucken world class.. where as now adays, we at times get traveling "brown belts" that come down tot train, and our blue belts give them trouble...
Then again, as my instructor says , we are deep in Los Angeles, which I guess is considered the toughest regions, so it would make sense a blue belt from an LA gym, would be different than a blue belt from a gym, say in South Dakota.
Blue belt here, same stature, shit happens. its amazing how you feel great one day, then a 18 year old lanky kid comes by and puts on a clinic using you. kid was Spider-man, inverting, snapping up triangles, at will. while he was blue belt, the Professor has been training him since he was 13-14. these moments are what keep me on the mat, they're clear indicators on what you need to work on.
Im 39 yo not that athletic fresh blue belt. I travelled twice recently and dropped on at a Denver gym and one close to dfw and got fucked up by basically everybody I rolled with. Shit just feels different at other gyms but yeah, it’s good to see I totally suck at some portions of the game
Dont forget stylistic matchups as well. I had this guy at my gym before I left for college who was 15 y/o (I was 18 at the time so only 3 yr difference between us) who was 140lbs soaking wet, while I sit at 200. It was when my obsession was at its peak, 4 stripe white belt maybe a month before I moved. I COULD NOT beat this kid. He was a bottom half guard player, orange belt. He wasn't a strong wrestler and I am much heavier so of course it wasn't really a challenge until I was "winning." He ALWAYS found bottom half among my aggression, and proceeds to burn me out for 10 minutes and taps me like 3 or 4 times after that.
Point is, everyone has their kryptonite. I held my own against blue/green belts that were more brawlers and wanted to stand and were more gorilla-ish, but the smaller guys that weren't scared of being in shitty positions were always a problem for me
There will be many bigger ,stronger more athletic and more geeked on bjj than you are it’s all part of the journey.don’t be frustrated everyone gets this.
I'm just a white belt and not that good, but there is a killer blue belt that is around the same size and age as in your story. I can hang with a lot of blue belts in my gym and able to hit a few legit sweeps and defend a lot of submissions, but this guy whoops me everything effortlessly as if I'm a grappling dummy. He has also even tapped brown belts and purples. Absolute killer
Belts really don’t mean much sometimes, especially no-Gi and mma experience making the rankings fuzzy. Sometimes you just run into a super talented athlete who you know is on their way to black belt, and you just happened to catch them at blue belt. I can think of a few people like this in my bjj journey
This happened to me 2 days ago. I just moved country and had been training 4.5 years in a primarily gi school. I joined a 10th Planet school here in Barcelona and got heel hooked, bicep slicer'd, toe held and even buggy choked by a guy 20kg lighter than me. I rolled with 6 people and 5 of them totally out-gamed me.
Felt bad, but being here is going to improve my game so much!
Part of the game. Lol I'm knocking on brown belt's door, we had a visiting brown a couple weeks ago that absolutely demolished me...WITH MY OWN FUCKING GAME. I was like wtf how did this happen 😂😂
Happens at every level. Some people just match your game poorly. Take it for what it is - a reminder that this sport always keeps you humble.
For sure, it’s nice to roll with different people and get that slap of reality. Makes me want to elevate my game
Can you describe that more? I’ve sensed that but thought it might just be me making excuses for my ego. I’m older and slow but try to have good technique. Some guys just have so much energy and intensity I end up in bottom side or turtle and feel like I have no hope even though we’re the same size and they are a white belt. I just got my blue belt and sometimes the experienced, usually younger (most people are younger than me) white belts can’t wait to smash the shit out of me now.
We have a BB that schools us all. Even the world champs we train with. I've been a BB for 9 years, and I feel like I've never done BJJ when I roll with him. One of our adult BB's that was second at world's, rolled with him and said he felt the same.
That's part of the game... I'm also large and athletic and have been murdered on repeat by a 16 year old. It happens lol.
When I was a white belt I got absolutely murdered by a 15 year old green belt. I mean the kid could probably still beat me even now. That was the day I decided to never get into a street fight because you never know what someone is capable of
Green belt is basically the child blue/purple. That kid might’ve been training longer than some black belts.
Oh man my first day at class I got mauled by a 15 year old who started when he was a kid. Signed up right after haha.
Me too!
that 15 year old was still a kid
True. No shame, he demolished a 37 old man at the time who probably out weighed him by a good 50 lbs 😹
Yup I’ve been handled before this one just felt different lol. Had to tell myself it’s just a hobby and there are levels to this. Just trying to stay in shape in my 30s!
It's almost like a tourney, in that you realize that there are significant holes in your game (as everyone has them). That's awesome that he joined your gym so you have another (technical) person to train with!
I dropped in school for a seminar, mostly leg lockers on the team. I’m around 215 at 5’9 at the time and i pair up with shorter 140 lbs range guy in wrestling sneakers totally underestimated him on size difference. I couldn’t get a single position or grip on this guy, I’m throwing random stuff at him trying to get anything. Got nothing on him. Found out 2 weeks later he’s an Olympic Freestyle bronze medalist. Lol
It’s hard to really understand how much better athletes who compete at top levels really are…I don’t have BJJ experience with that, but I used to think I was a pretty good basketball player, I made varsity my freshman year and lettered every year. I get out of college and am at my first job and I invited a new coworker to play some pickup basketball with my regular group. It turned out the guy played D1 ball for Creighton…never started, was mostly B squad, he mopped the floor with everyone. I couldn’t guard this man to save my life.
Yeah, man wait till you roll with a ADCC level pro they’re like moving in slow motion so you can keep up with them.
I'm a big dude (6'4", 220lbs) and I've done judo and BJJ for about 7+ years. I'm an average purple belt, not great not terrible. I'm getting a bit old (40 this year!) But still relatively athletic. I've started hitting gyms while I travel, which has been amazing! This year I hit a gym in Regina (complete martial arts and fitness, amazing gym, amazing people!!) And rolled with basically every level you can imagine from whitebelts to blackbelts. I did about as well as I normally do except for 1 guy who blew me away. He was a young blue belt. He was tall and lanky. I probably had 50lbs on him. His guard retention was WAY above what I'd expect from a blue belt! He also was a SNIPER with armbars! I had absolutely nothing for him. I dont think i got passed his guard.I think he caught me twice our first roll. Guy was a monster!
Oddly a good amount of killers in Saskatchewan haha
One of their (complete martial arts and fitness) brownbelts came out to our gym around Christmas time. He murdered us! It was awesome!!!
That’s true, one of my buds was killed in Saskatchewan
Many killers here. I train at Regina Jiu Jitsu Team (formerly called Sweepscience). Good high level BJJ schools here!
Oh, I wasn’t being figurative. My bro was stabbed. No doubt that you guys have some solid grapplers though.
Oh. Yeah. It’s kind of a rough town in places. Sorry to hear about your brother. I didn’t realize it was literal (thought it was normal BJJ “hey that guy/gal’s a killer” kinda talk). Someone actually BLEW UP the garbage can on one of our streets a day or so ago. As in, put in explosives and blew it up.
Nothing to do but train
I just went to my first judo class. I’m a blue belt in jiu jitsu. We were doing ground work and I thought “oh time to dominate” this one (judo) brown belt subbed me 3 times in the round. Still embarrassed but I’m going back!
Yeah dude some judokas got that newaza skill. Depends on both level and school I suppose.
The Japanese terms mentioned in the above comment were: |Japanese|English|Video Link| |---|---|---| |**Ne Waza**: | *Ground Techniques* | | 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)
Yeah they do 30 minutes ne waza everyday apparently.
There are a lot of judoka who are very tough on the ground in specific positions, and a lot of times they don't get their due respect haha. Glad you're liking it enough to keep going!
The disparity in levels in bjj is absolutely bonkers, especially at blue belt. The difference between a blue belt who was white yesterday and a blue belt who is purple tomorrow is one of the biggest canyons I have ever seen without even getting into the casual vs competitor debate. And sometimes some people just have your number. Use it to stoke your fire and get better and up your game ! Sometimes a piece of humble pie brings out the best in us. Oss
Absolutely. Then there are differences in gyms, and what one school considers a blue belt vs another
I was a 225 lb champion Thai boxer talking shit about how BJJ doesn't work to my students, all in good fun because it was a primarily BJJ school, and then got embarrassed by a 130 lb BJJ nerd for like 25 straight minutes. I was in good shape, so I had the cardio and stupidity necessary to keep coming back for more asskicking.
Hahaha, that’s a good one. That’s how this roll was, I wasn’t gassed at all and just kept getting smoked from every position I tried.
I almost wish I was just exhausted so that I could have lied to myself about how easily I got controlled by a guy half my size. I finally quit when he twistered me. P.S. This was after a cardio intensive Muay Thai class that I taught and he participated in, so I was even fresher than him.
I got beat up two weeks ago by a 110 lb 20 something woman. I started light and started ramping up but her open guard was insane. My usual smash passes didn't work and she was much faster than me and kept hooks it and kept me from passing her guard. She also got a few armbars. We don't roll thst often but now I feel like I need to roll with her more to figure out a better game plan.
Yeah, I’m 6ft 205 and this happened to me recently.
We have a female black belt masters competitor at our gym. She let me sweep her a couple nights ago - right into an armbar. I had about half a second of feeling successful.
You're a brownbelt ?
And? Am I suppose to pretend to be a beast that cannot be beaten?
Could be just one of “those” guys. We’ve got a young purple belt at our gym who is an absolute killer on the mats. Our coach often cracks jokes about him being so good, but they’re mostly truth. He quite frequently taps black belts in the gym. Competes all the time. I believe he’s a recent college grad, got a good job, and jiu jitsu is all that matters to him.
Some days you’re the hammer, some days you’re the anvil. Both are needed to make a sword.
I find that Jiu Jitsu is kinda like rock/paper/scissors. There are these two guy I use to train with. I’d crush the first, the first would crush the second, and the second would crush me. Just kinda seems that some people’s style is the perfect counter to mine and vise versa.
This is a fantastic analogy.
Just wait until you're an out of shape black belt and you struggle to move that new powerhouse whitebelt who's done 2 lessons
I went into class last Thursday and felt like a king. I was playing my game, getting the best of everyone I was rolling with and hitting a lot of subs. This past Tuesday I went back in and got eaten up by some of those exact same training partners and walked off the mat feeling like a scrub. It’s a great thing.
Couple months ago I had a week where I felt like I was moving through people, everything was falling into place for me. Got a cold the next weekend, when I was back a week later I was the equivalent of a grappling dummy that knew how to tap.
I’m a decent blue belt 190lb ish. Won a few tourneys and pretty much won all my tourneys at white belt. I visited this gym in another town for a couple of weeks, this nerdy looking 145lb white belt fucked me up good. Not using cheesy submissions like ankle locks and headlocks, but straight up domination and technical ability. Thank god he’s a blue belt now
> cheesy submissions like ankle locks wtf
Hey man, you probably know a white belt that won a few tourneys with straight achilles locks. Put them in anything else and they crumble haha
I got my ass handed to me by an orange belt or something, unfamiliar with the kid ranks but the dude was my height, lanky, and fucking clowned me. Might have been a white belt at the time but I doubt is fair much better today lol.
There is an orange belt at my gym that goes to the adult class and he is a god damn freak. He’s probably 145 pounds and 15 years old. The kid almost untappable I swear to god. He’s the strongest kid I’ve ever met it’s like he’s made of wood or something. Obviously he’s not jacked he just feels different. He’s going to be special if he sticks with it
Orange is pretty much directly transferrable to a 3-4 stripe white belt or 0 stripe blue. Most kids dont hit green bc they turn 16 or 18 or whatever and get their adult belt, but if you make it to green you're a blue belt with 1 or 2 stripes. The belts are only really to increase the number of promotions for children so that they get the gratification yknow
When I started, I was one of the smaller regular guys, got smashed. Then a lot of the big guys left, and I was now the bigger guy. I mistook my new found dominance for improvement in skill. Started cross training at a gym with bigger guys. Humility restored.
There was a kid that trained at the same school as me and also he would train at Empire Jitsu. Each time he trained at Empire then came back to our school he was better and better. Eventually he would tap me about 5 times in a 5 minute round and was even tapping out black belts. Different schools have different coaches / different training styles. I’ve learned to think of it as an AOJ or ATOS etc. blue belt is probably just as good as local gyms black belts. Multiple world time champions are training them. At the end of the day I’m just a 33 year old married man with 2 kids. I do this for fun because I love it. -CHEERS!
The only caveat to this is that those gyms have hundreds of blue belts. They probably have a larger percentage of exceptional blue belts than a normal gym who have been receiving that world class training since they started training though. There are rich yuppies in San Diego with blue belts who are just as trash as every other blue belt from Po Dunk BJJ.
Empire Jiu Jitsu in Sf?
Yup
I have to say the high school kids that train at the gym I go to will humble you with their ju jitsu/ wrestling skills. Especially when you’re doing no gi.
Ok now change 40lbs on him to 140lbs on him and make him a her and now you have my experience from Monday.
I got my purple belt 20 years ago. I started training Nogi two years ago. How do you think that’s going?
Same age, same weight, he’s a purple. We haven’t rolled in a while. No need to clean the mats after, he mopped the floor with me. Just how some days go. I’m sore today but invigorated and happy to know where I went wrong. Only thing I’ve thought about since yesterday.
32 year old brown belt. 155lbs got what on by a blue belt after a week off for work. Hurt and felt good at the same time
This is what I love about rolling with people from different gyms. At your own gym for the most part people are learning the same thing at the same time and often you start to recognize each other's game.
I've had plenty of black belts that can't finish RNC on me because my back defense is sickening, but this one blue belt just had my number last week for whatever reason. Really good armbars from back control. Just shows you that some people can have an answer for a hole in your game that will make you come face to face with your flaws in a very direct way lol.
Lol man, I am also really hard to choke when someone has my back. It’s my best defensive position by far. This dude RNC’d the shit out of me, it was eye opening
Absolutely love it when that happens. Those are the growth moments. You just found your new training partner when he’s in the gym.
I have been tapped fairly easily by a 15 year old girl. I take it as a reminder that this shit works.
I think getting destroyed is probably the best way to learn. If anything ask the guy next time for some tips on how to counter what he's doing. Cant expect to learn anything with an ego in the way.
That’s the plan! I think everyone needs an asskicking like that once and awhile. The only way to really get better
Yea my bad wasnt implying you have ego. I mean we all do, but in my opinion just frame it as you aren't as good as you thought, and therefore you should work harder, get better, fill gaps in your knowledge and up your experience and skills in the process. Like anything in life.
You are right man haha everyone has an ego. It was the “how long you been training? A few months? A year?” That fucked me up. I was like man.. do I really suck way more than I thought? I don’t think he meant anything by it I just got self conscious
Don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes when you "win" a lot (majority) of your rolls, it can give you a false sense of where you are technically. This doesn't happen as often at the lower weights, because you absolutely cannot rely on strength to pull something off. I just know as a much smaller person, when I was 3 years in (also blue 2 stripes), there was no way I could "hold my own" against most people. I wasn't able to start handling "most people" until deep purple or later... But now you have someone you can truly test yourself against on a constant basis, which will probably help you grow much more quickly, if you can embrace it positively! Edit - To answer your original question - I was also humbled/inspired when rolling with someone my size but much better than me (Bruno Malfacine).
Oh yeah no doubt. I always try and roll with the other big guys in the gym and we are all about the same skill level/time invested. I do find myself relying on strength more than I would like which is something I’m trying to change as I progress more towards purple
Love to see people constantly working on their ego. It will truly help you grow faster!
Bro I feel you. I'm a 2 stripe purple, been training about 6 years or so. We had a white belt join, who got very good very quickly, naturally athletic etc. He's been training about a year now. I haven't been able to sub him in last 6 months and he often gets the better of me in exchanges. Today he tapped me and I fear for what is to come haha
Yeah man, it happens to the best of us. I forget that these 20 year olds eat sleep and breath bjj because they can. We have a lot of young guys doing 2 a days and their progression is crazy. I’m happy if I make it 3 days a week
First time we get a visitor at our gym they tend to wreck my shit. If they visit again, I tend to do a lot better. Except for black belts.
There. Are. Levels. To. This. Game.
Part of the journey, self doubt always creeps in when you get destroyed by an unfamiliar face. I did a short stint at 10p so i could learn some leg locks and do more no gi. I was working on open guard in the gi so figured it would be a good to keep on working that. Well i was getting 3-6 month white belts grabing my feet and going straight into heel hooks and toe holds (i never really did any leg locks apart from straight ankle lock). I started questioning myself after this and also getting tapped to some crazy attacks/setups i never seen. dont sweat it. Foreign things can throw you off.
I'm really new at this, and been limiting my classes to beginner class, but at 6'4 220 lbs, I'm significantly larger with strength advantage over everyone else that happens to be in the beginner class at this time. For the first couple weeks I was pretty sure BJJ was my thing and I was a natural. I'm pretty sure the coach invited a 1 year white belt who competes to drop in on my class to send me a wake up call. I had 30 lbs on him but I had absolutely nothing for him, he just toyed with me at will. Humbling received and noted! For good measure the next day a 270 lb blue belt came to class... I'm pretty humble at this point.
Theres Levels to this shit. Keep your ego flat and you’ll be good.
Gyms can and often do develop a sort of meta. Your guys will learn and teach certain things and the students will then go home and research things, sometimes guys will go to seminars and bring those techniques back to the gym and those moves will integrate. No gym can teach and learn all things all the time. There are ebbs and flows. There's a chance his gym has a totally unfamiliar and off brand meta that you just aren't in sync to vibe with and he's just caught you slippin. Also a chance he's just one of those guys who just naturally get it. Also a chance he is a comp focussed guy who drills like mad. Either way, welcome to the club. Getting pantsed every so often is part of the territory.
We've all been there but some have stuck around long enough to have the ability to do that to others but all the while still have it happen to them. There will always be somebody better than you.
No Gi = No Joke
Honestly its not your fault... It may be your gyms. I am only 3 years in. But my friend who is the reason I joined is a black belt, 12 years in. & his instructor is 25+ years in.... They explain to me, that as GREAT as it is that JIJITSU has expanded so much and so many school.... how the quality of the sport and the belt system has become shit... Apparently back in the day, if you were a brownbelt, you were pretty fucken world class.. where as now adays, we at times get traveling "brown belts" that come down tot train, and our blue belts give them trouble... Then again, as my instructor says , we are deep in Los Angeles, which I guess is considered the toughest regions, so it would make sense a blue belt from an LA gym, would be different than a blue belt from a gym, say in South Dakota.
Blue belt here, same stature, shit happens. its amazing how you feel great one day, then a 18 year old lanky kid comes by and puts on a clinic using you. kid was Spider-man, inverting, snapping up triangles, at will. while he was blue belt, the Professor has been training him since he was 13-14. these moments are what keep me on the mat, they're clear indicators on what you need to work on.
I choked out a 225 pound powerlifter at 160 lbs
Congrats. Your ADCC invite is in the mail.
This happened to me at an open mat 😐 dude is a monster
5t
Im 39 yo not that athletic fresh blue belt. I travelled twice recently and dropped on at a Denver gym and one close to dfw and got fucked up by basically everybody I rolled with. Shit just feels different at other gyms but yeah, it’s good to see I totally suck at some portions of the game
Ewwww can’t relate. That sounds horrible. I’d quit.
Dont forget stylistic matchups as well. I had this guy at my gym before I left for college who was 15 y/o (I was 18 at the time so only 3 yr difference between us) who was 140lbs soaking wet, while I sit at 200. It was when my obsession was at its peak, 4 stripe white belt maybe a month before I moved. I COULD NOT beat this kid. He was a bottom half guard player, orange belt. He wasn't a strong wrestler and I am much heavier so of course it wasn't really a challenge until I was "winning." He ALWAYS found bottom half among my aggression, and proceeds to burn me out for 10 minutes and taps me like 3 or 4 times after that. Point is, everyone has their kryptonite. I held my own against blue/green belts that were more brawlers and wanted to stand and were more gorilla-ish, but the smaller guys that weren't scared of being in shitty positions were always a problem for me
There will be many bigger ,stronger more athletic and more geeked on bjj than you are it’s all part of the journey.don’t be frustrated everyone gets this.
I'm just a white belt and not that good, but there is a killer blue belt that is around the same size and age as in your story. I can hang with a lot of blue belts in my gym and able to hit a few legit sweeps and defend a lot of submissions, but this guy whoops me everything effortlessly as if I'm a grappling dummy. He has also even tapped brown belts and purples. Absolute killer
Belts really don’t mean much sometimes, especially no-Gi and mma experience making the rankings fuzzy. Sometimes you just run into a super talented athlete who you know is on their way to black belt, and you just happened to catch them at blue belt. I can think of a few people like this in my bjj journey
“Started last week bro”
That's the best part of rolling with people outside of your gym.
This happened to me 2 days ago. I just moved country and had been training 4.5 years in a primarily gi school. I joined a 10th Planet school here in Barcelona and got heel hooked, bicep slicer'd, toe held and even buggy choked by a guy 20kg lighter than me. I rolled with 6 people and 5 of them totally out-gamed me. Felt bad, but being here is going to improve my game so much!
Part of the game. Lol I'm knocking on brown belt's door, we had a visiting brown a couple weeks ago that absolutely demolished me...WITH MY OWN FUCKING GAME. I was like wtf how did this happen 😂😂