Shower thought: Why are wins/losses counted in striking sports and not grappling

[Znap]

Ask someone their kickboxing or boxing record and they can normally tell you in a second. Ask about BJJ record and they will list medals or wont even know at all.

Is it because there is a belt system? Is it the broad skill range in each belt? The huge amount of fights that you can have as a grappler?

 

[JenStark]

I count my matches. Have a pretty excel sheet with lots of statistics from my competitions.

40-48 in five and a half years of BJJ.

 

[yetanother]

Ask someone their kickboxing or boxing record and they can normally tell you in a second. Ask about BJJ record and they will list medals or wont even know at all.

Is it because there is a belt system? Is it the broad skill range in each belt? The huge amount of fights that you can have as a grappler?

Not handpicking opponents.

 

[Higus]

No sanctioning bodies keeping track of competition records.

 

[rmongler]

Most competitive grappling is done through the tournament format.

 

[71Fish]

I count my matches. Have a pretty excel sheet with lots of statistics from my competitions.

40-48 in five and a half years of BJJ.

Damn that seems like a lot. I don't keep a log but this thread made me sit down with a pen and paper. As suspected I have a losing record, but I could still make the playoffs in some NFL divisions.

 

[Big Nasty Edison]

Would second the fact that grappling lends itself better to the tournament format so winning the tournament is more important than individual matches.

I also thought I was weird for keeping track of tournament matches but I only compete like once a year so its not a lot to keep track of (7-2 between gi and no-gi)

 

[j123]

Most competitive grappling is done through the tournament format.

Striking tournaments still add to the fighter's record, so that still shouldn't be a reason for grappling.

 

[Big Nasty Edison]

Striking tournaments still add to the fighter's record, so that still shouldn't be a reason for grappling.

Would you say it's easier though to compete in LOTS of grappling tournaments as opposed to competing in LOTS of striking tournaments? And have a much longer competition career at the ammy level?

 

[sb413197]

I would like to reverse the question - why do striking sports put so much focus on their record? Everyone knows that it's WHO you competed against that matters the most; yet in striking sports people get real bent out of shape about their records and will go to great extremes to skew that number on their side. It's like if you had Roger Gracie accumulating a crazy win/loss record by intentionally entering mostly small tournaments (not that his win/loss record isn't already crazy!) - in BJJ nobody would care and would think you are weird for doing this but in striking it is an accepted practice to try to inflate your record to make yourself look better than you are.

Striking sports track win/loss because it's a hype tool to promote their fighters. Grappling sports tend to not be as spectator focused so they don't track it, since it doesn't really matter that much.

 

[selfcritical]

If there were a central repository for grappling results in a given ruleset, ideally it would be tracked the way chess rankings are.

 

[Sexy Pants]

Fights are in a 1 match format. So many factors to a tournament format. If you are 2 to 1 with wins and loses with a bunch of matches your good. Some of the best in the world lost a shit load. It happens

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

most of the time in a striking sport, you fight once per event. in grappling, you could easily fight six times in a day. too much data to keep track of, and once youre a purple belt you wont give a shit about your record at blue, and no one but yourself will give a shit about your record until your black and even then people dont care.

 

[Nnedd]

I keep track of my competition record. I'm 18-3.

 

[Russky]

I think this is due to the fact that BJJ guys spar much more often than boxers. A typical BJJ/judo training day is 30-1hr of sparring. Fights do not mean much if you spar that often.

 

[AK Gerard]

I think this is due to the fact that BJJ guys spar much more often than boxers. A typical BJJ/judo training day is 30-1hr of sparring. Fights do not mean much if you spar that often.

I think he means more in the context of actual matches, such as tournaments, not training sessions. Not even sure how I'd keep track of wins/losses when rolling, being it's not uncommon for both partners to get a tap in a single session.
As for actual matches, I don't think an individual record is nearly as important as tournament performance. Doesn't matter if you win 3 matches to every 1 you lose if you can't finish a tournament. The reverse being it's at least a little impressive if you have a tournament medal, even if your record is 4-10 (assuming you got the medal by actually winning a couple matches and not because there were only two people competing in your weight class that given tournament, like I did )

 

[deadlizard]

So you mean Rickson's 400-0 record is fake?

 

[Chinaboxer]

because there is no distinction between amateur and pro in grappling. an amateur boxer, for example, get's fights for the experience and to work towards his/her pro card. a boxer's record and ranking is maintained by a local amateur boxing organization. once they earn their pro card, their amateur record no longer matters.

grappling tournaments do not have a real distinction between amateur and professional. IBJJF tournaments, for example, jam everyone into the same event. thus, it is left to the individual to keep track of their own wins/losses from white to black belt. and we all know that most of us don't want to remember, much less keep track of our losses!