Your opinion on beating up on white belts

[Vitamin C]

Ok guys.

So I'm coming back from not so much a break, but an extended period of time where missing a week or getting to only one class a week was normal.

I normally play a pretty lazy game and I'm trying to change that up now. Both to improve my overall cardio and to begin preparing to compete maybe later this year. So now I'm not waiting for anything, my goal when sparring is to always be moving one way or the other, attacking or escaping.

The thing is then with the white belts, that I will end up tapping them many times in one roll. This is not a brag, they're mostly fairly new white belts.

So, I feel like the submissions I'm hitting are not gratuitous. I'm feeling work on my timing and set ups, and getting a good few reps on similar attacks every roll beats only hitting it once and then intentionally going easy or looking for other things. If it's there it's there and I want to practice taking it as presented.

I see it like those white belts also get reps off opportunities to defend our escape. I recall that my defence to triangles improved as a white belt because I was getting triangled alot.

On the other hand, I'm hitting submissions largely because of white belt mistakes or because it's easier to isolate arms for locks etc on newbies.

So what say you f12?
Do I continue to show no mercy?
Or do I ease up and just work on getting my cardio by dancing on their backs like Galvao?

 

[Dogstarman]

It depends on the white belt. A six month white belt and up,I say have at it. A guy who just walked in the door, take it a little easy in them, unless they are a wrestler.

 

[71Fish]

When I roll with someone I completely dominate, or have a relatively easy time with, I "catch and release" a lot. Never finishing anything, letting them improve them doing it again. It makes them feel more confident (at least it did for me as a beginner) like they are surviving, and it help me see more opportunities.

 

[Big Nasty Edison]

My current club has a lot of white belts, and only a handful of blues, one purple and our black belt instructor. I just got my blue and I have a huge size and weight advantage on all our white belts. I play pretty safely with them. At the start of the roll, I'll match them until I catch something and sub them. Then after that I play. I don't give them crazy amounts of pressure, and if I'm holding a dominate position I'll "let" them escape. If they are so new they don't now the escape we'll work through it. They all say they appreciate it, and after the roll we might sit and chat about certain opportunities.

We had one first day guy come in I beat up on though. As big as me, probably more athletic. Bragging about his muay thai and MCMAP and this stuff. Going super hard, trying to defeat the moves in drilling. His GF is a 1 stripe white and she's cool. He was going super hard with everyone even drilling so when it came time to roll we teamed up. I let him start mounted, escaped, swept and was gonna footlock him and take the foot home until the purple who is assistance instructor was like "oh boy that foot lock looks pretty snug, wouldn't want anyone to get hurt!" to tell me "don't rip his foot off". Instead I took mount, gave him da pres and subbed him with a mounted wrist lock that I know had him sore for a while.

Afterwards he was rolling with his GF who is maybe 5'2'' and 100 lbs and he was going super rough with her and accidentally smacked her in the face and she started crying. If he comes back, this time the foot will go home with me.

Moral of the story is work with your partners and train. No one learns just from beating them up all the time if you are significantly more experienced. But sometimes, people just deserve a beatdown. They'll either learn a lesson or they'll not come back. Otherwise treat people how you want to be treated.

 

[Solidus Snake]

Care about your own training. If chaining sub after sub is useful to you, do it. It will be good for them too don't worry.

 

[Big Nasty Edison]

Care about your own training. If chaining sub after sub is useful to you, do it. It will be good for them too don't worry.

True as well. Being a good training partner and getting your own training in is definitely an art and not a science

 

[Uchi Mata]

I beat up white belts. Not brand new ones, but ones who have some idea what they're doing, sure. I'll generally do the same thing over and over to them, both because it's something I'm working on and it gives them a chance to start learning to defend in a systematic fashion. As usual, take considerations of gender, size, age, etc. but don't feel bad about beating up decently sized men who have some idea of what BJJ is about just because they're white belts. Part of being a white belt is getting tapped a lot.

 

[Vitamin C]

I'm the smallest guy in the gym, easily.

These white belts have all been training for a few months at least and have earned their first stripes.

I'm usually the guy that our instructor sticks with the week one newbies cause he knows that I'll roll easy and let them work... I'm just getting a little tired of that to be honest. I feel like I need a cycle of more intense training.

 

[mattemate]

If you want to work on technique in a legit way bit also want to let them work, just out one hand in your belt.

 

[Vitamin C]

If you want to work on technique in a legit way bit also want to let them work, just out one hand in your belt.

It's not just working on technique though. I want to work on essentially my competitive grappling ability.

I don't want to handicap myself in any way, whether that's dialing back intensity or removing options for myself. My goal is to train like I would want to compete. The end result is I'm rolling at full tilt and its more than enough to steamroll white belts. I don't hurt them, I'm not heavy enough that my my weight alone is dangerous, and I don't use pressure in any amount that would be mean. I'm just not forgiving any mistakes made; arms reached out get locked, necks left open get choked.

I guess I'm saying, for years I've been the guy that let white belts work, and would mentor them through rolls if they were confused. I've put in I feel my fair share of mat time with a bias to the lower belts growth, and I'm feeling a little bit plateaued. I've begun full time shift work which was what has made it harder for me to be consistent. The few hours a week I do get to get to class I don't want to play the upper belt teacher anymore. I want my training time to be about my own personal growth, selfishly.

The selfish part is I guess what I'm needing to adjust to.

 

[Ton]

It's not just working on technique though. I want to work on essentially my competitive grappling ability.

I don't want to handicap myself in any way, whether that's dialing back intensity or removing options for myself. My goal is to train like I would want to compete. The end result is I'm rolling at full tilt and its more than enough to steamroll white belts. I don't hurt them, I'm not heavy enough that my my weight alone is dangerous, and I don't use pressure in any amount that would be mean. I'm just not forgiving any mistakes made; arms reached out get locked, necks left open get choked.

I guess I'm saying, for years I've been the guy that let white belts work, and would mentor them through rolls if they were confused. I've put in I feel my fair share of mat time with a bias to the lower belts growth, and I'm feeling a little bit plateaued. I've begun full time shift work which was what has made it harder for me to be consistent. The few hours a week I do get to get to class I don't want to play the upper belt teacher anymore. I want my training time to be about my own personal growth, selfishly.

The selfish part is I guess what I'm needing to adjust to.

Well, if i was in your shoes, i'd be doing what you're doing. Its important to be a bit aggressive when training for a competition. I find that in the few comps i've done - matches i lost were due to me being lazy and just playing around rather than going after it.

 

[HtomSirveaux]

Depends on a lot of stuff. What mood I'm in, whether I like the guy or not, how long they've been training, whether or not the coach is watching lol, etc.

There's nothing inherently wrong with it tho. I understand a little pampering for new people but they have to learn how to be the nail eventually, and blueish level guys have to develop their offense on someone

 

[jcandoitbig]

yea usually i just put myself in bad positions to start the roll. sometimes though they need an ego check, I was rolling with a marine the other day who tried to slam me when I had him in a triangle. that's when I went full smash mode

 

[QingTian]

Some say a white belt should focus on defense. At first it sounds odd, though making sense from a long term perspective. But now I realize that the true benefit is that now higher level training partners will benefit from rolling with you too, which only helps you. So yes, white belts should be beaten up on, or else nobody will want to train with them.

 

[Big Nasty Edison]

I do like rolling with the bigger 2 stripe whites as the offer good cardio training lol. New enough to have a little spaz in em but know enough to make me work.

 

[Knock Out Ned]

I've begun full time shift work which was what has made it harder for me to be consistent. The few hours a week I do get to get to class I don't want to play the upper belt teacher anymore. I want my training time to be about my own personal growth, selfishly.

The selfish part is I guess what I'm needing to adjust to.

You compete how you train. Keep doing what you're doing.

Also, you seem like a good guy, and someone who respects your training partners. You are doing nothing wrong. You don't need to change. The white belts can suck it up. I did, and I was just fine.

I have one year of graduate school left, so I'm extremely busy as well. I compete, so I have to maximize my training time. I'm almost 37, so I need to work my cardio hard to stay in shape, too. That means steam rolling people and moving as much as I can during rolls.

 

[CYKO]

I always go hard until the first tap.

Then if it was too easy, I ease up and work on other positions or defense. If it was hard to tap them, then I don't ease up.

 

[EGDM]

White belts are open season - within the bounds of safety and not making them so discouraged that they're going to quit training. Imo, as a white belt the primary purpose for rolling is to get immediate, repetitive feedback on your mistakes. It's humbling, but you should WANT to get tapped a lot. Worry about "doing something" once you've made all the newbie errors a few dozen times and have internalized some basic concepts of structure and movement.

As a higher belt, the time to be laid back, give up position, and/or talk white belts through their mistakes is after class or during breaks. Rolling time is for rolling, not teaching.

Edit: If you're advanced enough that you can guide the roll to create situations you think are important for your partner to work on, that's fine. Do it subtly, though. To them it should feel like rolling, not a lesson.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

My current club has a lot of white belts, and only a handful of blues, one purple and our black belt instructor. I just got my blue and I have a huge size and weight advantage on all our white belts. I play pretty safely with them. At the start of the roll, I'll match them until I catch something and sub them. Then after that I play. I don't give them crazy amounts of pressure, and if I'm holding a dominate position I'll "let" them escape. If they are so new they don't now the escape we'll work through it. They all say they appreciate it, and after the roll we might sit and chat about certain opportunities.

We had one first day guy come in I beat up on though. As big as me, probably more athletic. Bragging about his muay thai and MCMAP and this stuff. Going super hard, trying to defeat the moves in drilling. His GF is a 1 stripe white and she's cool. He was going super hard with everyone even drilling so when it came time to roll we teamed up. I let him start mounted, escaped, swept and was gonna footlock him and take the foot home until the purple who is assistance instructor was like "oh boy that foot lock looks pretty snug, wouldn't want anyone to get hurt!" to tell me "don't rip his foot off". Instead I took mount, gave him da pres and subbed him with a mounted wrist lock that I know had him sore for a while.

Afterwards he was rolling with his GF who is maybe 5'2'' and 100 lbs and he was going super rough with her and accidentally smacked her in the face and she started crying. If he comes back, this time the foot will go home with me.

Moral of the story is work with your partners and train. No one learns just from beating them up all the time if you are significantly more experienced. But sometimes, people just deserve a beatdown. They'll either learn a lesson or they'll not come back. Otherwise treat people how you want to be treated.

Boy i relate a lot with you, i used to be a lot like that a couple of years ago, now, class while rolling kind of bothers me, while facing white belts I either let them have fun or go kind of easy, but not going to teach while rolling that's for after the class, funny thing before I was an instructor, i did t a lot and liked it while upper belts were not doing it and I used to wonder why weren't they doing it... Now I get them

 

[berimBOWLoh]

honestly, it depends how im feeling that day and who the white belt is.