ATTENTION!!!! Disclaimer: 'the articles presented are not a reflection of the views and values of the owners of BJJ Report'
Dear Fellow White Belts,
Imagine paying $1000 for a plumber to fix your toilet, but while he’s in your home working on your toilet, you find a ‘totally sick’ toilet fixing hack on Instagram or YouTube. You become very excited by this because it looks super cool. Being a leadership genius you somehow can’t believe the plumber your paying isn’t using this popular solution found on Instagram, you disregard the plumber you paid and try it out while the plumber is elbow deep trying to fix your toilet and BOOM, you’re both covered in shit water. OSS...?
Pretty stupid, eh?
Why would a beginner looking for guidance or help EVER rely on the internet over a professional that was paid by you (the BEGINNER) with your own hard earned money.
Essentially every time you choose to use the internet over your own Professor, you are the dumb ass in the aforementioned toilet scenario (except you’re getting joint locked and strangled into oblivion instead of getting covered in shit water… minor details...just try and keep up).
At the academy this kind of silliness happens all the time. 15 minutes before class starts you’ll see a bunch of students (White Belts) huddled together around a phone with reverence in their eyes as they’re watching a video of some type of “reverse de la bolo flying ashi lock” on Instagram (or you tube). These same white belts will roll their eyes through the hip escape tutorial of the day shown by your professor only to spend all of free training stuck in bottom side control and chain tapping.
The other day when I was holding a fellow white belt in side control, they gave up after a few poor escape attempts and instead opted to try and undo my lapel to try some variation of a loop choke. I was confused when they tried this, and when I asked about it, they just said they were ‘experimenting’ since they couldn’t escape. To say the least, this attitude pisses me off on a few levels. I pretty much got over my anger quickly when they verbally tapped… OSS
So moral of the story...
For starters, ignoring the techniques taught by your Professor is a spit in their face and adding insult to injury (your own injury...LOL); you’re essentially telling them their lessons aren’t worth your time. Secondly, experimentation is a privilege you EARN once you start grasping the fundamental concepts; why go through a bunch of dog shit techniques to find out they’re dog shit instead of just following the advice of the guy you paid to teach you.
Fellow white belts, I challenge all of you to get off Instagram and actually engage with whatever Professor is teaching, and I don’t mean flopping through drills. I mean truly thinking about how the techniques work, putting an honest effort to perform the techniques in a stressful situation, and failing consciously over and over again. I know we can do better than this, our Professors are living proof that we can.
Yours Truly,
Anonymous White Belt