BJJ Half Truths

Yeah. Weirdly enough it's kind of common.

It's a cheap way of protecting ego by talking yourself down a ridiculous amount right before a roll. That way if you lose, it was expected. And if you win, wow what an incredible feat.

It's a close cousin to the "I'm really injured today" guy right before we roll. If we've trained a lot before and have a close relationship, it's a different story. But anyone new coming in and giving me that line -- I'm not buying it.

I now just say "Yeah, sounds like a bad injury. It's better to rest it. Sit this one out."

If a new guy comes in and just wants to roll normally without elaborate excuses and backstories, I'm down. Otherwise pass.

Almost every time someone has told me they are injured (white belts) they end up going hard. It's very irritating because esseially they are giving themselves a free pass to go hard but puts responsibility on their partner to go Light since they are aware of their "injury"

Personally I do not tell people I am injured unless it is something I legit am concerned about. And even then I always say "X is hurt you can roll however you want but I am going to go light and tap early." Sometimes that means I get shit on during the whole roll but as long as my injury doesn't get worse and as long as I try to work around it and able to fight back a little bit it's not a waste of time for either of us.
 
There's irony in these holier-than-thou types touting 'egolessness' as a trumpet to inflate their egos.
 
There's irony in these holier-than-thou types touting 'egolessness' as a trumpet to inflate their egos.

I'm so much more humble than you bro. You don't even want to find out how much harder I can check my ego.
 
Great thread gentlemen! Another half truth us "bjj filters out arseholes" and "belts are not important".

The former I thought was true when I first started training and kept meeting great , friendly people who shared the same passion. Further down the line I found out that it doesn't quite work like that, there's plenty of arseholes on the mats, no matter the experience level.

The latter is a bit tricky, on one hand it doesn't really matter what belt colour you are as long as the skill is there. I know someone who's a purple belt but has black belt-level skills and won competitons at black belt. There's a video on yt of him roliing with Marcelo and he's really doing great.

On the other hand though it's a recognition of years of hard work and sacrifice and also can be a source of a great pride because (at least in any decent school ) it represents real skill and knowledge that you have achieved through your dedication.
 
Re: go easy/go hard/ check your ego, imo there needs to be balance. I have no problem rolling light with people whom I have a big skill/size/strength advantage over, and I think it's important to use these opportunities to hone certain skills. That said, if I'm paired with competitive guys near to or above my skill level, it's a fight to the simulated death.

Also, I think that there comes a time for the more aggressive white belts where they need to recognise that trying to apply the moves they've learned during a roll is more important than winning that roll. This doesn't mean that they shouldn't aim to win, but spazzing out everytime won't get them far, and they will likely get subbed a lot in the process of doing things the right way.

+1 for "don't use strength" as being a half truth. The whole point of leverage is to increase force, and strength is another (and important) way to do just that.
 
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