No I'm not trolling. Here goes.
Is there an attitude problem pervading the BJJ scene? Or have I somehow managed to only see one very narrow view of it?
I don't train BJJ, but I recognise it's value. I practice a primarily striking art. The philosophy in our style is that the ground is the worst place to be, and is to be avoided. If you do end up down, we get back up as fast as possible. Of course that's not always possible, which is why most of us recognise the value for other styles that are strong not areas where we are weak, or even where we're matched but look at things from a different perspective.
This in mind, I did a bit if research with a view to possibly trying BJJ. YouTube is full of videos that claim either BJJ is the best, or BJJ is the ONLY system worth bothering with.
OK. That's youtube. Hardly comprehensive. More input needed. So my nephew comes round. He does BJJ. the entire time he's here he's applying locks on my son and saying ha, where's your karate and aikido now? Just horseplay of course. I glanced across a few times, and told my son, who is much younger than my nephew, you know at least half a dozen counters to that, it's just a minor variation for such and such. That's when his mother tells me she's heard them mocking our art in class. In our class, if our instructors heard us being disrespectful of any other style, we'd probably be asked to leave.
Meanwhile I looked on the BJJ clubs Facebook page. Initially all good. Pics of people looking proud of their club, little videos of people practicing. The usual stuff. But then I read some of the public comments. Once again. There's that theme. BJJ is the only thing. Anybody hat doesn't do BJJ 'won't have a clue what's happening ' when you apply your BJJ on them. A former marine even questioned the merits of brainwashing students to think they're invisible. He wisely pointed out that that attitude gets people killed. He was publicly mocked.
I'm not aiming to prove this attitude problem exists. on the contrary I'm hoping to learn that I'm wrong, that open mindedness and mutual respect is as central to BJJ as it is to other arts. I'd like to learn some of it, to plug some other gaps in the styles I practice. But I can't train in an environment that teaches contempt.
Is there an attitude problem pervading the BJJ scene? Or have I somehow managed to only see one very narrow view of it?
I don't train BJJ, but I recognise it's value. I practice a primarily striking art. The philosophy in our style is that the ground is the worst place to be, and is to be avoided. If you do end up down, we get back up as fast as possible. Of course that's not always possible, which is why most of us recognise the value for other styles that are strong not areas where we are weak, or even where we're matched but look at things from a different perspective.
This in mind, I did a bit if research with a view to possibly trying BJJ. YouTube is full of videos that claim either BJJ is the best, or BJJ is the ONLY system worth bothering with.
OK. That's youtube. Hardly comprehensive. More input needed. So my nephew comes round. He does BJJ. the entire time he's here he's applying locks on my son and saying ha, where's your karate and aikido now? Just horseplay of course. I glanced across a few times, and told my son, who is much younger than my nephew, you know at least half a dozen counters to that, it's just a minor variation for such and such. That's when his mother tells me she's heard them mocking our art in class. In our class, if our instructors heard us being disrespectful of any other style, we'd probably be asked to leave.
Meanwhile I looked on the BJJ clubs Facebook page. Initially all good. Pics of people looking proud of their club, little videos of people practicing. The usual stuff. But then I read some of the public comments. Once again. There's that theme. BJJ is the only thing. Anybody hat doesn't do BJJ 'won't have a clue what's happening ' when you apply your BJJ on them. A former marine even questioned the merits of brainwashing students to think they're invisible. He wisely pointed out that that attitude gets people killed. He was publicly mocked.
I'm not aiming to prove this attitude problem exists. on the contrary I'm hoping to learn that I'm wrong, that open mindedness and mutual respect is as central to BJJ as it is to other arts. I'd like to learn some of it, to plug some other gaps in the styles I practice. But I can't train in an environment that teaches contempt.
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