Joking During Rolling: Okay or Not?

[winterbike]

I had a guy in mount last week for what seemed like minutes. I eventually tried for a spinning arm bar, flubbed it totally, and the guy got on top of me.

Without even thinking about it, I said, "You're welcome!"

Did I break some unwritten rule of BJJ?

Similar thing here. Sometimes I try something new or something funky, which often ends up in some epic mess up. Which I find hilarious. No reason not to laugh at myself a bit.

 

[Leify]

Can you talk and still roll hard enough to give me a challenge or defend yourself? If so, go for it, but don't expect that I'm going to take a break from trying to smash you to talk back.

 

[Darwinambrosius]

It depends on the situation, but generally, I take talking or joking as a sign that I need to crank it up.

 

[kenpeters8]

OP doesn't like to keep it playful. LOL!

 

[HtomSirveaux]

depends on the situation and the person you are rolling with.

First reply nailed it. As a general rule there doesn't need to be any talking while rolling, but there are situations when a well timed joke to or by the right guy is fucking hilarious

 

[Uchi Mata]

OP doesn't like to keep it playful. LOL!

No, no I don't. I think keeping it playful is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Warmups fine, roll light. But if you're working to get better, FUCKING WORK TO GET BETTER! Joking is not a part of that. I'll joke with you all you want before and after training, but training is training, not some God damn ice cream social.

 

[kenpeters8]

Whenever some idiot tries to joke with me during a hard roll, I just keep my mouth shut and ignore it. I'll just keep rolling hard. After the roll, I'll just nicely say, "If you wanna chit chat, do that before and after class. But during a hard roll, it's business. No joke, no talk. Just hard rolling."

 

[mattemate]

If I joke during rolling it's probably because I'm easily smashing the guy

 

[Curly Peibce]

It can be annoying, especially if they start it right when you got a good poz or are close to a sub, that's just a bitch move to avoid a bruised ego.

 

[Balto]

I don't like joking during rolling. I don't like talking in general.

The biggest problems I see aren't even with jokesters. Those guys usually figure out where the line is pretty quickly in a good gym.

The biggest problem is all the coach types who never even let a beginner get a roll in. They just coach and coach the entire time. They don't even see the problem with this until I yell at them to shut up and roll.

I know the guys are making mistakes. They are white belts. They just spent 30-45 minutes listening to instruction. Give them a few rounds to just roll instead of sitting there listening to your theory, okay?

 

[Aethyr]

This has always been exactly my reaction to it. It usually seems to be someone trying minimize the fact that they're doing badly, when what they should be doing is concentrating on doing better.

Odd, usually its my coach joking as he's dominating

coach: "ohhhh, you let me sweep you! haha, now I choke you out, hahaha".

Me:

 

[Dogstarman]

So on /r/BJJ there's a pretty long thread about whether it's okay to joke while rolling, and I got downvoted like hell for saying that I don't think it's okay and it annoys me when my partner is talking and telling jokes during a roll. Am I taking it too seriously or are all the white belts saying it's important to be able to joke around in the midst of training not taking it seriously enough? I was really surprised how in the minority I was in not thinking it was cool and that rolling is a time for working, not screwing around.

The attitude on Reddit borders on sjw area. I also think it's a bunch of white belts on there that are voting you down. When I'm training I just want to train. There have been a few times where I've trained with a few guys where we have competitive but friendly rolls.

I remember I had the guy in an Ezekiel choke but couldn't get the angle quite right and he escaped. He kind of said yes to himself then told me - I thought we were friends, you don't try and choke your friends. It's on - At the time I just started laughing, he was joking of course, but I thought it was hilarious. It was spontaneous and funny given the context. Now I'm not into doing that every roll or even every week but every once in a while spontaneous funny shit happens.

I do agree with you Uchi. Reddit is a strange place. I hate the upvote system because stupid off topic comments are usually the most upvoted comment. Where the important or relevant comments are usually three or four comments down after a million threads commenting on the bullshit comment.

 

[Pixelated Porn]

Whenever some idiot tries to joke with me during a hard roll, I just keep my mouth shut and ignore it. I'll just keep rolling hard. After the roll, I'll just nicely say, "If you wanna chit chat, do that before and after class. But during a hard roll, it's business. No joke, no talk. Just hard rolling."

then you do the thing like you are going to high five them but move your hand away at the last second and are all like too slow bro

Give them a few rounds to just roll instead of sitting there listening to your theory, okay?

Is this a rhetorical question or should we answer?

 

[Old Man]

Andre Galvao thinks it's OK:

 

[winterbike]

No, no I don't. I think keeping it playful is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Warmups fine, roll light. But if you're working to get better, FUCKING WORK TO GET BETTER! Joking is not a part of that. I'll joke with you all you want before and after training, but training is training, not some God damn ice cream social.

Remember to do this once on a while or you'll blow your cover:

 

[Minnja]

I usually don't say anything. I'll laugh if my partner laughs. Sometimes I'll say "nice" or "fuck" (not in that order) or something like that but I roll pretty seriously because there's a lot of stuff I want to work on and I'm not good enough to mess around and dominate while doing so. If something pretty weird of lulzy happens me and my partner usually will look at each other and laugh for a second but it will be very brief and not break the pace of the roll

 

[ijustwannasurf]

No, no I don't. I think keeping it playful is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Warmups fine, roll light. But if you're working to get better, FUCKING WORK TO GET BETTER! Joking is not a part of that. I'll joke with you all you want before and after training, but training is training, not some God damn ice cream social.

Y'all have no idea how perfectly these words describe training with this Hoosier menace.

 

[CrazyN8]

I do it, never heard a complaint. Its really only in stalemate positions or if im rolling with someone im good friends with. I mean these are my training partners, i dont always try to manhandle them either. Im more offput by the guys who roll hard all he time, slowing things down, making them fun, working with people instead of 100% against them is my philosophy.

Case in point, i got a spinning armbar from side control on a purple belt yesterday. I spun, got the arm and he defended, immediately he said fuck, i said yup, its my arm now then put the blade of my wrist on his and pulled, got the tap. He said good job, then proceeded to armbar me and said paybacks a bitch, I laughed as I tapped. Then we talked about what worked for us and he congratulated me on my armbar control , good times.

 

[Garlic yum]

Ofc it's fine, just depends on the situation.

However you gotta pick your times/opponents. I'm confident I can tell who would or wouldn't enjoy it.
I also think it's not as okay if you're say a brown belt joking with a white/blue belt since it might come off as disrespectful

 

[RJ Green]

GOD FORBID WE HAVE ANY FUN TRYING TO STRANGLE EACH OTHER IN OUR JAMMIES

Too-intense dude is okay to roll with on the nights you want to get after it. And I get that it's an expensive hobby and if you're forgoing pizza and beer for an upcoming Fight 2 Win you''re gonna be a big cranky ginger puss until you choke the dude out and don't post any victory photos because they look *that* dejected, but I digress.

Not everyone's showing up every practice for the Mundials. Sometimes it's a workshop night and you're experimenting with different tactics, sometimes you're nursing an injury and shouldn't have shown up but you did so now you're rolling with the 100 pound girls trying not to die.

And you can probably understand as a bigger dude how hard it is to get anybody but other bigger dudes to train with you. is it your job to coddle the hobbyists? no, but you don't want people to outright avoid you.

if i'd roll you or schmoey or sledge i'd be going 80-90% just to survive, but most people take a lot, lot less effort to just completely smash. but again, rolling with a peer or better is completely different than rolling against someone who you're trying not to smash who's kinda scared to roll with you in the first place.

and at this point in your career, rolls like that might be a waste of your time. if that's all the rolling anyone wants to do it's kind of a waste of their time.

i dunno man, remember when we were kids and we could just play, and there was always that one kid who took it way too fuckin' seriously and never had any fun now he works at some badge-and-polo job and is always really mad people aren't turning in their brackets or emailing him 'as commissioner' every time there's a trade? that guy kinda sucks. that guy puffs his chest out and forms his identity around the idea that he takes sports or particular sports or 'competition' more 'seriously' than other people.

and sure, he can take it seriously. maybe that's where he needs to get in his head to perform at his peak. maybe he just needs to be really 'intense' all the goddamned time. maybe as the shitbag of the group i can see the line between 'fun' and 'fucking around' because i'm the one that draws it. it just seems like the dudes who keep it 100 are usually embittered from trying (and failing) to find that last bit within themselves that pushes whatever from 'good enough' to 'great'. they can't reconcile their ego with reality and have to define themselves by their competitive victories.

it's also super easy to frustrate that guy with only mild jackassery. hell, even the notion that you might be *enjoying* practice is enough to send ego dude into a blind rage. angry, aggressive people aren't thinking clearly and that makes it easy for them to be submitted by jovial dipshits with a pretty sick stand/pass/armbar game.

plus, again, we're in pajamas and spandies trying to murder each other in an overly brazilian or japanesey way. you get sweat dripped into your mouth and facefulls of taint and after a year at a gym there's nobody you haven't farted on or crop dusted.