The BJJ attitude

[Shogun]

(Before I begin, let me say this is just my opinion, no offense is meant by it)


I have talked to several guys who take BJJ from various schools in my area. Everyone of them thinks there is nothing that can touch BJJ. They have cocky attitudes and the words they use to describe MAs the havent heard of: Fake.
One of my aquaintances attends a local BJJ academy, and when I told him the martial arts I practice he had nothing nice to say. he said the Grappling we did in Budo Taijutsu is irrelevent, and said he'd never heard of styles such as Yoshin Ryu Jujutsu. I try to explain about the martial arts, but get nothing but rolling eyes. He said, "do you guys run around in little black masks and hide from each other?" anyone else experience this kinda "better than thou" attitude with BJJ guys?

 

[auxprix]

You know, I do pick up on this sentiment sometimes, but I've never really experienced it while talking directly to someone. I see it in print and online, but the BJJers that I talk to have always been very friendly.

I think that part of this stems from the art being so 'new'. I was in a bookstore yesterday, and more than half of the martial arts literature was on BJJ! To many casual observers, it would seem like this is the martial art to end all martial arts. So these people see it again on UFC, and it confirms their perception (at least for them). So they join classes in droves and rave to the world about the perfect fighting system. What I'm trying to say (though it's coming out poorly) is that this attitude is part of the excitement that people have while riding the wave as early adopters of this 'new' system. It'll eventually die down as they progress in their practice and begin to see the limitations.

I also have problems with the marketing of the art, but I'll save that for another post.

 

[Shogun]

Hey, thanks. I have talked to some nice BJJ practitioners, but not many.

 

[Old Fat Kenpoka]

The attitude comes from a put-up or shut-up competitive attitude. If you box, kick-box, wrestle, or do Judo (competition arts), you will get respect. If you do Kata and bow a lot, you won't.

 

[DeLamar.J]

(Before I begin, let me say this is just my opinion, no offense is meant by it)


I have talked to several guys who take BJJ from various schools in my area. Everyone of them thinks there is nothing that can touch BJJ. They have cocky attitudes and the words they use to describe MAs the havent heard of: Fake.
One of my aquaintances attends a local BJJ academy, and when I told him the martial arts I practice he had nothing nice to say. he said the Grappling we did in Budo Taijutsu is irrelevent, and said he'd never heard of styles such as Yoshin Ryu Jujutsu. I try to explain about the martial arts, but get nothing but rolling eyes. He said, "do you guys run around in little black masks and hide from each other?" anyone else experience this kinda "better than thou" attitude with BJJ guys?

It probly because they are good in a REAL fight and they know it, wich gives them a big ego trip. Just because they are good doesnt give them a right to act that way though. I would go to a different school with less attitude and stay awy from that one.

 

[Enson]

i think alot of this attitude is from "newbies" in their style. mostly anyone that practices a style for a time will develope respect for all other styles. another thing is that they are good at what they do in ufc and the likes. when there is nothing to do but go to the ground on a nice clean pad and stay there all night well its not that difficult. they have evolved their art to be good at just that. what happens when you have multiple attackers? or on the concrete or asphalt? they don't seem to realize that there is a difference in nhb training and fights than there are in street fights. and besides who wants to mess up their gi rolling around in the dirt? hee hee!:ultracool

imo... peace

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

The attitude comes from a put-up or shut-up competitive attitude. If you box, kick-box, wrestle, or do Judo (competition arts), you will get respect. If you do Kata and bow a lot, you won't.

I totally disagree. Cage fighting has really taken off in my area, and I get the same kind of attitude from them. They spend like 6 mos. training in MMA, win a couple poorly matched fights, and all of a sudden my training's worthless. . .frikkin' pitiful. I have a lot more respect for those arts/systems/dojos/gyms/ where respect is as much a part of the training as the training is.

AJ

 

[hedgehogey]

***** ***** *****, moan moan moan, complain complain complain.

BJJers have mad respect for wrestlers, thai boxers, judoka, boxers, etc.

We don't respect people who wave their hands and feet in the air and then have the nerve to claim their art is superior for teh str33t.

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

***** ***** *****, moan moan moan, complain complain complain.

BJJers have mad respect for wrestlers, thai boxers, judoka, boxers, etc.

We don't respect people who wave their hands and feet in the air and then have the nerve to claim their art is superior for teh str33t.

lol, point taken. BJJ craze does remind me of the TKD craze in the early 90s, though. [end bitching]

AJ

 

[Enson]

lol, point taken. BJJ craze does remind me of the TKD craze in the early 90s, though. [end bitching]

AJ

i must have missed that craze. then again i was quite young in the early 90's

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

i must have missed that craze. then again i was quite young in the early 90's

lol, me too, like 13-14, but it was a big thing, at least in my area, nor-cali. Everybody's like, "what's muay thai. . .no dude, you should do tae kwon do. . .much better."

AJ

 

[mliddy]

***** ***** *****, moan moan moan, complain complain complain.

BJJers have mad respect for wrestlers, thai boxers, judoka, boxers, etc.

We don't respect people who wave their hands and feet in the air and then have the nerve to claim their art is superior for teh str33t.

I think this is one of the differences between a MA and a sport. I think the 'arrogance ' comes from the sport style arts. If there are MAs out there proclaiming that their waving hands techniques are superior for the street that is their problem. BJJers are competitors, like boxers, sprinters, basketballers. To be the best you need that ego and arrogance.

If you do Kata and bow a lot, you won't

OFK - that is a bit harsh. The above does not preclude a person from competition. All of the seidokan and kyokushinkai karateka I have met all do kata and bow a lot. Some of them are top fighters in the K1 and pride events.

I have a lot more respect for those arts/systems/dojos/gyms/ where respect is as much a part of the training as the training is.

Great statement, this is one of the differences between a sport and an art.

BJJ is a great art and unforunately, as with any flashy new best ever type of thing, it attracts more than it's fair share of people who cannot entertain that any other type of training has value.

edit - when I wrote the above post I was considering having a go at the people who were making generalisations about partiular arts. Then I read back my own post and need to have a go at myself for the generalisation I made about BJJ

 

[Pittbull]

Shogun I also have noticed the attitude of which you speak.At the last tournament I competed was more of a submission wrestling than grappling and there were several bjj guys there and were spread through out all the divisions.Most had the "Bjj Attitude"
After competing and winning my division I talked to one of the guys that was from a bjj school.I of course asked him how long he had been practicing and he said 3 yrs. I now wonder about Bjj because this was my first comp since 97 and this was the beginers class. I went into the beginers division because I little about grappling out side of the wrestling I did in high school in the mid 90's.So my question is how good should you really be after training in a style for 3 yrs.?

 

[Sarah]

We should all respect each other’s arts, especially if we know nothing about it!!

And if you try to convince someone of a different style that your own is better you are probably preaching to the wrong crowd. Its like one footballer telling the other footballer that his team is better, do you think either one will stand down.

I agree with what has been said already, if there is an attitude it is probably the competitive/sport side of things.

Here is a question from an ignorant New Zealander, what is the different between BJJ and Jujitsu, I don’t think we have any schools for BJJ here.

 

[Shogun]

Apart from the arrogance, ans regular competitive nature, I was more refering to the fact that the ones I talked to thought Yoshin Ryu, Kito Ryu, Daito ryu, and other Jujutsu styles were "fake". to say this is just.....well....they are the martial arts that MADE BJJ. did he think that BJJ was created without influence (jeez, what am I saying, japanese jujutsu made bjj) from these arts? he claimed to know history of bjj, but had never heard of these. another thing I will point out, is that bjj, and judo, while are great martial arts, are geared towards sport. traditional MA were developed and refined in the heat of battle. they were made for war. not sport.

 

[hedgehogey]

What he's probably reffering to as "fake" is that the majority of yoshin-ryu, daito-ryu, etc. schools don't train "alive", with real resistance (I was in daito-ryu for six months). Instead, usually practice is done against compliant partners.

 

[tmanifold]

It isn't the competition aspect. Judoka, wrestlers and kickboxers all seemed to get along just fine. Most of the kick boxers up until about 10 years ago were Karate or kung fu guys. They still loved their arts but liked fighting too.

The BJJ/MAA attitude thing mainly has to do with its newness. In the 50's if you knew judo you could kick anyones ***.In the 60's "I know Karate" was the mantra of the deadly killer. In the 70's every one was Bruce Lee. In the 80's it was ninjutsu. Now in the 90's and into the early 2000's it has been BJJ and MMA. Most of the biggest mouths are those that have like 2 years of grappling under their belt. It is the same with RBSD. Everyone has a Reality based program, even the TKD school down the way from me.

It is annoying but it will go away. It is even worse for people who have been grappling for years, from before the UFCs, to be told how it is by these guys.

 

[JDenz]

I don't think it is a BJJ attitude more of a MA attitude. Seems like everyone on both sides think what they do is better or equal to what the other does. Since the only way to ever know for sure is to actully duke it out no one will ever know probably. On a side note maybe every 5-6 months martial talk should set up a fighting circuit and let it's users battle it out in a caged tennis court or something.

 

[Trent]

I don't think it is a BJJ attitude more of a MA attitude. Seems like everyone on both sides think what they do is better or equal to what the other does. Since the only way to ever know for sure is to actully duke it out no one will ever know probably. On a side note maybe every 5-6 months martial talk should set up a fighting circuit and let it's users battle it out in a caged tennis court or something.

Heh, I like the idea of a caged tennis court. How about we leave the rackets in there, too?

Of course, everyone thinks their style is of superior quality, perhaps not "the best," but one of the best, or they wouldn't be diligently practicing. We used to call "the attitude" the green belt phenomenon (i.e., around two to three years of training) many years ago , but as they matured as a martial artist and person the attitude drifted away.

 

[JDenz]

No we can't do that becvause then the people that practice Tennis Do will have an advantage. Of course those who practice "Nike"in dusua Kia (the running defense) will already be complaining about the caged in atmosphere.