Some purple belt dude opened a BJJ gym close to the MMA gym I train at.

[No Skill Gap]

@jx820 Yeah but regarding Jones...he's definitely the epitome of sandbagged.

He started fighting pro in 2008 and in the UFC as early as 2008-2009. He was a state champion wrestler in HS and community college national champion or all-american or something. So right off the bat within a ~year of training grappling or less he should have easily achieved a blue belt.

It's been 12 years since he started fighting pro. Obviously he has worked on his BJJ, in fact I remember him working on it in a camp or two specifically, whether that was Belfort or Sonnen, and even a Cormier fight. He said he was focusing on it.

So I think Jones is EASILY a black belt level BJJ player, but it's no-gi. He probably rarely trains in the gi and just doesn't give a fuck about belt ranks, so they sandbagged him this whole time and now he's a super sandbagged purple. Just my take on it.

 

[jx820]

@jx820 Yeah but regarding Jones...he's definitely the epitome of sandbagged.

He started fighting pro in 2008 and in the UFC as early as 2008-2009. He was a state champion wrestler in HS and community college national champion or all-american or something. So right off the bat within a ~year of training grappling or less he should have easily achieved a blue belt.

It's been 12 years since he started fighting pro. Obviously he has worked on his BJJ, in fact I remember him working on it in a camp or two specifically, whether that was Belfort or Sonnen, and even a Cormier fight. He said he was focusing on it.

So I think Jones is EASILY a black belt level BJJ player, but it's no-gi. He probably rarely trains in the gi and just doesn't give a fuck about belt ranks, so they sandbagged him this whole time and now he's a super sandbagged purple. Just my take on it.

That's exactly what it is. He doesn't spend a lot of time training in the Gi and many traditional BJJ instructors require it. I read an article about it years ago when he was a blue belt but had subbed a few legit black belts in the cage. I'd love to see him enter a purple belt Gi tournament.

 

[freakroor]

one of my best coaches was a purple belt.

 

[Te Huna Matata]

One of my instructor's first students had to move away from the area for work. He was traveling back once or twice a week for a few years to train, 2 hours each way. He eventually got fed up with it and opened his own school when he was a purple belt because he's in somewhat of a rural area and there was nowhere to train.

 

[j123]

Depending on his target audience, its fine to open a gym.

A teammate of mine was in a similar same boat, I was actually terrible in MT and striking at the time, and we were more or less around the same skill level. He opened his gym after getting concussion issues, and its been running strong for 6 years now. His market was cardio kickboxing, getting women in shape who were too busy with work and want to take control back in their lives, and overall the MT market in the area he opened in was pretty low key. Its still a large city, but MT wasn't huge there (only 2 significant gyms were around).

On paper if we went by sparring, fights, skill, and education background he probably shouldn't have opened a gym, but he went with it, and it worked. He gained exp on the job so its sort of evened out at this point.

In the world of fitness (inc combat sports) training and business, its more about your charisma, personality, and look in attaining and retaining clients/students than it is with absolute skillwork or top teir knowledge.

 

[yetanother]

In the world of fitness (inc combat sports) training and business, its more about your charisma, personality, and look in attaining and retaining clients/students than it is with absolute skillwork or top teir knowledge.

Bullshiting people works. Does not mean peddlers of shit shouldn't be ridiculed.

 

[j123]

Bullshiting people works. Does not mean peddlers of shit shouldn't be ridiculed.

I'm not saying its pure bullshitting, but rather that a person doesn't need to be the GOAT on the mats as a pre-requisite to being an instructor or gym owner. I've met alot of coaches / gym owners that were journeymen, not really having a great record, but still were great coaches that created good fighters.

Providing the skills, a proper environment, and getting students to feel motivated so that they keep training consistently and not devolve into a unhealthy lifestyle is really what a coach does as his or her job.

 

[yetanother]

Providing the skills, a proper environment, and getting students to feel motivated so that they keep training consistently and not devolve into a unhealthy lifestyle is really what a coach does as his or her job.

There is a huge gap between being a GOAT and a shitty purple belt.
It's highly unlikely the shit purple belt will teach anyone properly.
Sure the training might be fun and the students might learn something on youtube.

 

[PlayswellwithLawnDarts]

You gotta walk in there first day and punk his ass in the middle of class. Maybe urinate on the floor to assert Dominance

 

[liuk3]

I'm old, but I'm not fat. I'm a solid 225lbs of muscles, former college football player and college wrestler. Although I'm slow as fuck now. And like I said, if my old fart slow ass can whoop ass on that guy, I know that guy really shouldn't be opening a gym. Just imagine how many people going to dojo storm him.

You can't have it both ways. If you are a brown belt that is 225 lb of solid muscle as well as a former college football player and wrestler, then it would be pretty sad if you were not dominating this purple belt. You are probably heavier, stronger, and more physically gifted than 90% of the people on the mats with your prior collegiate background. First you say that you are a crummy brown belt dominating this sad purple belt who shouldn't be teaching. Now you say that you are some kind of brown belt physical specimen dominating a purple belt. No idea what point you are trying to make anymore with regard to the purple belt.

 

[SandisLL]

Of course, especially to be gym owner : business owner might be even just an investor. Without any skills, for this he is able to hire coaches.

Regards to another part, too yes and sometimes one just didn't had opportunity to get suitable pro bouts to climb up.
*
One from world level weightlifting coaches in his sport career was just champ in small country.
Get injured.
He is true A+++ level coach, if I correctly remember 26 years was National Olympic team's head coach. Why he is more than just coach? He is excellent tutor and now most likely his student reached level to serve next games as National team's head coach.
Yes, not notable former athlete was able not only help to get medals, appeared that was able to teach a guy to be his level coach.
*
Another example: highest sport achievments ; once junior champ and once student's champ in large country.
Mainly because he was a student in Uni not just formally.
Best his students achievment level was Olympic gold medal level.

-

-
BTW, what accomplishments had these guys:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Kuznetsov_(wrestling_coach)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cus_D'Amato

Cus had a brief career as an amateur boxer, boxing as a featherweight and lightweight, but was unable to get a professional license because of an eye injury

 

[SandisLL]

Looks like someone is just worried about concurrence in business.
I don't know why to worry: if a coach isn't good, serious students will not stay long in club.

 

[kenpeters8]

You can't have it both ways. If you are a brown belt that is 225 lb of solid muscle as well as a former college football player and wrestler, then it would be pretty sad if you were not dominating this purple belt. You are probably heavier, stronger, and more physically gifted than 90% of the people on the mats with your prior collegiate background. First you say that you are a crummy brown belt dominating this sad purple belt who shouldn't be teaching. Now you say that you are some kind of brown belt physical specimen dominating a purple belt. No idea what point you are trying to make anymore with regard to the purple belt.

I've stated earlier I'm an old fart that's slow as fuck and I have trouble with younger purple belts close to my size. An old fart like me should not be whooping ass on some early 30's purple belt so easily. Just saying.

 

[Foppa21]

Weird flex, but ok.

There's a difference between coaching and doing. The guy might be a good coach.

If it's a small community, it's even weirder that they open close to you. My community is relatively small so it's kinda frowned upon to set up shop nearby another gym.

 

[ChickenBrother]

So some purple belt dude opened a BJJ gym close to the MMA gym I train at. I thought that's pretty odd because that dude actually sucks! he came to our open mat and rolled, I was tapping him left and right, i just thought that it's weird and unheard of when a purple belt younger guy in his early 30's that sucks would opened up a BJJ gym. He said he'll be teaching all by himself, won't even hire anyone to teach for him. Wow, that's very ballsy. I guess he doesn't mind feeling stupid if people go there and tap his ass left and right like I did, and I'm just some mid 40's old fart hobbyist brown belt.

Serious gold right here

 

[DatCutman]

There are a lot of shitty gyms man. Law of averages and all that.

Though it should be a rule in jits that if you tap the instructor left and right, you can choose to either shutter the school or take it over.

 

[Coconutwater]

I know of a Muay Thai instructor who is also teaching BJJ on the side as a purple belt. His students are supplementing their striking with some basic ground skills and there is nothing wrong in learning that from a purple belt. I would be more upset if a fake black belt opens a school rather than a legit purple who is honest about his rank. People can make an informed decision if they want to learn from a high end black belt or the purple belt.

I’m not big on the idea but at least the guy is honest with his rank. That’s a plus. But yeah, it’s weird to open it soooo close to an MMA school.

 

[Normot]

We have a fighter/grappler at my gym with only a bluebelts who submits most of the blackbelts in nogi. He is 6-1 as a pro and has been doing nogi grappling over a decade. Before which he was a state champion wrestler. Never wears a gi. The instructor who refuses to promote no-gi guys gave him a bluebelt. If he started a gym I would not tell anyone to not go to it.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Our two main instructors are purple belts, we have a brown in the gym, but he's happy to let the purples do the coaching as they're more inclined to spend the time structuring coaching/watching DVD's etc.

Whenever we enter comps we seem to medal more often than not and when I go to open mats with gyms with BB coaches I find I'm at least as good as people with a similar experience level to me.

 

[xMTDx]

I run a small hobbyist gym a couple days a week as a brown belt. I know of younger purple belts who give me trouble and some hardcore active competition focussed and mma guys who will smash me if I'm not on point. But I have been in the game a while and am a good instructor. Everyone has their niche and skillset!