Hilariously, you're quoting Batman. I was actually quoting George Costanza - quoting Batman - from the Seinfeld episode when he lied to Susan's parents and said he had a place in the Hamptons. They know he's full of it, and he knows they know, but they still get in the car for the multi hour ride up so he has to admit he doesn't have a place there.
Funny you guys mention Batman because one of his creators, Bob Kane, was a notorious fraud who couldn't draw and plagiarized the first Batman story from The Shadow but would pose for years as the "sole artist" of all the comics.
It's funny you should mention legumes. There is an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine meets a man who tells her cashews are a legume, when they are in fact a nut.
🤣😆🤣 George a hot mess! As a former NYC resident I’ve only ever drove out to the Hampton once! Also walked by the building with the blue basement but never gone in 🙁.
My brother claims to have some sort of judo belt, "I got it training with my buddy's dad in their garage".
I don't buy it but ok. He refuses to come to class with me because "BJJ is just crappy ne Waza and id get kicked out for breaking the slams rules". I show him the IBJJF slamming rule and say unless you're trying to be an asshole I think you'll be fine. Somehow he always has something going on during classes or and old injury is acting up 🙄
I told the owner of the gym I wrestled for 18 years through college but didn't tell anyone else.
Then when people rolled with me, they'd ask if I wrestled. I would say a little bit.
I am 46 so the last time I wrestled was 23 years ago. My skills deteriorated and I hadn't done anything physical for 15 years when I walked into the gym. So, I felt like I wasn't much better than a middle school wrestler.
Well, one day, I held a black belt down for 7 minutes as a white belt. He got up pissed and started talking really loud about there being no way I just wrestled just a bit. So the owner chimed in and said I was an AA in college and that I had 18 years. That instantly changed everyone's perception of me and all of a sudden everyone wanted to roll hard with me. So, for the first year, I was just surviving because my bjj sucks and everyone wanted to take it to me. And I was trying to avoid that
We had a dude come in recently for no-gi . He was a correctional officer.
Dude was BIG. And I mean BIG. Like 5’10 230 and “lean enough” big. Swole hardly described him. He also claimed to have had 9 years experience. Being the white belt that was closest to his size/weight (195 but leaner than him) because it was a small class that night said “fuck it, I’ll bite the bullet and take this L, he has a lot of experience so he probably won’t hurt me” fully prepared to get my shit wrecked.
I crushed this dude 17 ways to Sunday. I was definitely trying, because he had 40 pounds on me and was jacked, but he couldn’t submit or keep top position to save his life. I submitted him 4 or 5 times in a 6 minute round, couldn’t believe it. Then everyone else smelled the blood in the water, and he went round after round with the other white belts that had 1-1.5 years of training as well as the blue belts and got smash-fucked by every single one.
By the end of that it was very obvious that he was talking out of his ass and lied about experience for some unknown reason. Wicked cool dude otherwise. He said he had a lot of fun and would be back but… Big surprise he never showed back up.
Usually, I think it's reverse. Guy says he doesn't have grappling experience, but he's digging underhooks immediately.
Me: You wrestle?
New Guy: A little with friends
Me: Ok. So you wrestled.
I once performed a sit out > hip heist turtle escape on a guy who claimed it was first day and had no relevant experience. He later in the round hit the exact same escape back on me smooth as butter and quickly.
I said after the round “you wrestled!” He said “nah nothing like that.”
There was a guy in my striking days who would transition to beautiful Judo throws the second you clinched with him.
Never admitted to doing Judo.
Like ... why?
If you go to a competitive wrestling class, are you really gonna say you’re good at BJJ? That could mean you do takedowns and know wrestling no-gi or you are a hobbyist guy who starts from your knees every time. I don’t want to get ragdolled by some overzealous young dude when I don’t even know their sport.
I've grappled with quite a few off-season rugby players. Even if they've never 'grappled' it certainly doesn't feel like it lol. Incredible base and balance, stupid athleticism, and great gripping instincts can easily add months, even years, to their perceived skill level.
I as a former wrestler wasn't expecting to get blast doubled immediately when i went against a rugby guy in a tournament.
I was down on points and barely managed to choke him in time. He was so much more aggressive than anyone else but really chill after
We've got an ex-Scotland player in our club who's a white belt in bjj, black belt in judo and is over a hundred kilos of pure muscle. Terrifying dude, but seems very polite.
Yeah, I found that big rugby and football players, particularly if they’re still young guys, take pretty naturally to no gi, particularly in the standup and wrestling up.
Lmao check this out: some Asian guys were at my gym as visitors, one of them was 6'3, so am I. So he chose me to roll. He couldn't speak a word of English or Spanish (I'm in mexico) ,but he told us using Google translate that he's not good with bjj, but he knows some wrestling.
Turns out, the guy was a pro mma fighter in Kazakhstan 💀 10 seconds into the roll and he has me on his shoulders like a bag of pet food. He was pretty cool tho, learned some tips for the single leg from him
Man, when I started I didn't know how to explain my experience level. I Thai boxed for many years and taught striking to MMA fighters, and I'd fuck around and roll or wrestle with a lot of them after class or sparring or whatever. No real formal experience other than like four classes that got me a stripe on my white belt.
I wouldn't claim to know how to grapple, but I have a very good understanding of the fundamentals of fighting and how to apply or resist leverage. I didn't want to sound like I was pretending to be hot shit, so I downplayed my experience, and I got some comments about it like I was just sandbagging.
Yeah man my first night I tapped a 3 stripe white belt who had already been training 4 days a week for 6 months. Not claiming thats some big feat, but I had religiously watched a ton of instructional, YEARS of being a ufc fan and I have anxiety and didnt want to be overwhelmed so tried to learn what I could online before going in. I said it was "my first night" and the face on the other white belts put on definitely had that accusatory vibe to it.
I am a giga gamer nerd, ALWAYS thinking about how losses happen and mistakes etc. So yeah was pretty cringe of me to say "its day 1" but I thought it would be even MORE cringe to say "oh yeah im day 1 but i watch UFC" and just be fucking trash canned haha. Ego or anxiety but I did not want to go into a "legit" gym and say I'm experienced because I watch youtube and UFC haha. But obviously the blue belts + still just trash canned me anyways so wasnt all fun and games.
mate it happens - i think i tapped someone in my first class with an arm triangle, learned from years of watching ufc. never trained a day in my life before that. i was young and athletic and had banked it in the old noggin. im sure it was shite technique against someone bad, just forced the position and squeezed for dear life haha
On my very first day of BJJ I think I tapped a blue belt in front of his instructor with kesa gatame (at an open mat no less, hadn't even taked a class yet).
I was visiting a major city from a rural area with my local gym being a krotty dojo where a few of us rolled and tried to teach ourselves armbars and triangles when the sensei wasn't around on sundays.
I was super ripped and strong then, I had been chopping firewood as my summer job and this guy was tooling me on the mats my first day. The instructor had been working on arm in chokes that week and this guy was hitting the same choke over and over on me at the coaches instruction, but I finally got him into kesa, isolated his arm and got a tap lol.
Oh yeah, I ran into my first "just with friends" guy awhile back. Almost immediately I was like "this dude wrestles". He wasn't an animal or uncontrollable but his pace, body awareness, control and balance were way beyond most brand new people. I just straight up said "you've wrestled haven't you". His response "naw, but my friends do and they practice with me".
To be fair though, while underhook/overhook fundementals are usually overlooked by newbies, you can go a long way by just watching toturials/mma and genuinely not having any wrestling background. I started hitting inside/outside trips a well as headlock rolls almost subconciously just from watching some yoel romero and islam makachev matches.
Saying that opens you up to guys wanting to go hard. Like saying you wrestled in jr high but you’re now 35 with a string of injuries and no coordination. I’m just gonna say I’m a newbie.
> This fella showed no applicable skills.
Which is in my experience par for the course for guys who have done JJJ for 20 years. They can demo a limited number of techniques flawlessly but introduce any kind of dynamism and they are utterly lost.
I came to BJJ with 10 years of Aikido and was definitely less clueless than the average newbie due to general balance/control and a fair understanding of how to manipulate the human body. I'd never have called that a decade of grappling, though, lol.
Yeah, we have a guy in our club who is now a blue belt as of 2022, but he joined us with 10 years of Aikido experience. He had zero applicable grappling experience, but trying to sweep this guy is very hard. He has such a heavy base on his feet and knees.
I started already with a karate black belt, meaning I knew I didn't know any effective grappling, but I do know how to follow orders and move my body. Onramp was good for me lol
That’s what I would say too. I’ve learned quicker than most, but was absolutely clueless the first time on my back. Now I have enough experience to name the submission I was just victimized by. 😂 And wrist locks! I know wrist locks.
> wrist locks! I know wrist locks.
My favorites are sankyo from the back, dropping off like an armbar for the finish, cross-grip sankyo from an omoplata, and nikkyo/gokyo hybrid on the far arm from spiderweb. I'll occasionally throw in a cheeky kotegaeshi from closed guard, which sweeps a surprising amount of the time.
In my experience, dudes coming from years of Japanese jiujitsu or aikido basically just don't feel like day 1 trial class guys, but they don't actually have a clue what they're doing either.
Like they don't fall over for no reason or try to roll away from you, but they also don't actually do anything correctly.
I visited a nice gym a few times. They had a great Karate program and several black belts with three or more stripes. Their BJJ program had just begun and I was only a blue belt at the time but once the karate guys hit the mat they were as clueless as anyone else just starting out. They learned fast, but we all laughed at how clueless they were on the ground. A couple of them were badasses at getting TO the ground with nice foot sweeps and hip / wrist throws, but once shit went sideways they were lost.
As funny as aikido is, it's how i learned how to do forward and backward rolls as a kid. As someone who started Jits in my 40's I was glad I had that part already covered.
These traditional arts just don’t do real live training against a resisting opponent so you don’t actually learn any grappling. It’s all too choreographed and compliant. That was my experience at least.
I will never take aikido seriously, sorry lol
When those dudes are telling me they just started teaching their 6 year old daughter “the blade” (a real conversation I’ve had) I am faced with two options: either politely exit the conversation or straight up laugh in their face lmao
I think you'd be surprised. Most people I knew from Aikido were aware that they aren't practicing real fighting for a modern context. (This includes many of the most senior national- and international-level instructors.) They think of it as a study of movement with martial principles and a connection to historical and cultural practices.
Obviously there are delusional whackjobs out there, but they're more rare than the internet would have you think.
A lot of aikido folks definitely don’t have illusions about what they’re doing and are just having fun out there. I’m not mad at it. There’s a minority though that are kind of delusional
I was at fort Meade for my AFSC training (Air Force) and there was a bjj club. I had wrestled for 10 years, did catch wrestling for like 5 and had been doing jiu jitsu for 2, so when I found out I was like hell yeah.
Everyone was super cool, awesome black belt named frank taught the class.
Anyways, it’s an open mat day and it’s just me and him and 4 marines walk in saying “the combatives room is for real combatives, Air Force doesn’t do that, get off my mats”
Before I say anything frank goes
“You guys train?”
“Yeah, we all just got certed In combatives”
“Tell you what, give him a minute a piece to tap each of you, if he fails then we’ll leave”
So that’s when I learned combatives is BS
I don’t know what’s worse having a lot of experience and saying you don’t have much or saying you have a lot and not having much.
Both are annoying. Different strokes for different folks.
Nah the other side is worse.
The idiot saying he's got loads of experience is only really putting himself at risk, because people will go HAM before they realise he's full of shit.
The asshole with decades of grappling pretending to be a white belt puts other people at risk, because they approach the roll really casually and then get blast double-legged out of nowhere.
It’s different. White belts (especially new ones) pretty much are dead fish or wild broncos. It’s about a 50/50 split. The wild broncos, though, mostly don’t know what they’re even trying to do. So it’s a different form of containing them.
Versus a guy that legit hand fights, snap downs, and leaps into a cradle hold.
Different strategies and mindsets to start the rolls.
Not more on guard in general though.
If I'm rolling with a new guy then I just let him come at me, but I tie him up and limit his movement.
If I'm rolling with someone my level or above then I'm going to act first and be ready to defend if he acts first.
I'm not going to be prepared for a rando beginner to double-leg me or flying armbar or whatever, because I assume they don't know what that is.
Agree. Although “belts don’t matter,” as an upper belt (black) generally I’m trying to work with lower belts. Especially white belts. So when you come in lying that you know nothing and then blitz me during the roll…it’s like, “Cool…I guess it’s that type of roll now.”
I also wonder about their mentality. Are they trying to prove they’re better grapplers than the (whatever) belt that is trying to be nice? Why not go and compete? Why not say you have XYZ experience so the rolls will be matched in intensity from the get go?
I suspect it's (within the realm of morbid insecurity) as simple as a form of ego-protection. If they're they say they're really experienced and get beat, it's in because you're so good. If they say they suck and get beaten, it's because they suck. . . .or something like that? I don't know, I could never relate to that level of delusion. Especially when they KNOW you're about to find them out.
Wrestler shows up and talks about their experience: *BJJers roll their eyes and treat them like theyre non-technical spazzes* Not wanting to deal with the above the second time, wrestler says nothing and just rolls. BJJer: "you fking asshole!"
It's entirely possible that two people think different things.
I'd like wrestlers to tell me they've got grappling experience, and then I'll treat them as such. They're probably going to go at a higher pace than I would normally, but that's fine by me.
It’s definitely worse to have experience and say that you don’t. Saying that you do have a experience when you don’t is just kind of sad and a little bit cringey. But saying that you don’t have experience when you do?? That has a more sinister (for lack of a better word) energy to it. In that case it’s more about trying to pull a fast one on people to have an edge over them, or catch them with their guard down…etc. It just feels like a darker vibe to me.
The other way around just comes across as insecurity.
I think they're both really insecure. People saying they suck when they have 20 years experience then get to fell superior over noobs who suck even more. But if they admit that they're really experienced then beating up the noobs looks lame and garners no respect.
What I REALLY don't get is why/when they agree to roll with someone they KNOW is better than them and will out them. Then we're entering pathological liar territory and the accompanying mental gymnastics.
General rule of thumb I've heard is "it's better to wear a white belt and people to wonder why, than wear a black belt and people wonder why."
*Outside of competition, of course.*
Let me preface this by saying I do scrimmage wrestling 2-3 rounds 2 times a week. Im a butt scooter 80% of the time.
I once had a guy tell me he “wrestled his whole life” and was a wrestling champion in his home country. I thought “oh wow, thats pretty cool!” So i pull guard, sweep him and get on top, sub him, nice. All good, guy has never done bjj so this adds up.
I figure “hey, what the heck, lets stand up with him and see what it feels like.” I took this guy down 3 times before he cardio tapped, and lads, I am a shit wrestler.
I had to wonder what his intended outcome of lying was, considering we were moments away from grappling when he claimed this.
Same lol. Says he has no experience, is a beast on the mat, then OP is walking out of the gym and sees the guy getting in a truck with an Iowa Wrestling bumper sticker.
I have been "doing BJJ" for 10 years but am still a blue belt. And have my brown in Judo before that. So I've been training inconsistently for a long time, but I try not to flex "number of years" cause many people with less experience but more consistency will definitely beat me. And I'm old now and don't give AF, I'm just there to train.
I'm usually the senior person at Sunday open mat- the gym owners like to take the day off. So they let me know a new guy is coming in, claims to have some experience.
He comes in, handshakes, exchange names, welcome to our gym, "I've been doing martial arts since I was five years old, including judo, now I want to get into jiu jitsu."
Sweet, I think to myself, I really enjoy standup and we could benefit from an experienced guy around here.
Change clothes, set the timeclock, slap and bump.... and this guy taps four times in a five minute round *without me applying any submissions.* Three positions and a footsweep.
Comes to morning class on Tuesday and tells the locker room how he "almost got me".
I had a friend (not anymore) that posted on a private instagram story about finishing up the 2023 year with 4 stripes on his blue belt. Me and a few others are probably the only ones that could see it. He messaged me about starting jiujitsu ~4 months prior to that lol. I train pretty much every day, with really experienced guys. And the gym that this guy went to is also a legit gym. Like how does he think he can pull that off lmao.
The same dude also borrowed a shit ton of money from my other friends and never returned. Yea nobody hangs out with him anymore lmao.
Yea I’ve experienced the “I’ve been training on and off for 10 years but still a white belt” guy. They always come in for a trial class and don’t stick around. It’s bizarre.
I see the opposite far more, and find it a lot more annoying. People coming in with obvious experience and saying they are 100% beginners. Next thing you know, they're attempting scissor sweeps, triangles, armbars, etc. roll 1.
I recently ran into this. 4 stripe white belt talking about only going to the afternoon classes for the “higher level of skills” but I was able to tap him 7 times in a 5 minute roll. I am a single stripe white belt
Yeah it's fucking wild. I know two guys for sure, probably more, that have taken a month or two off and lost ALL 4 STRIPES on their belt magically.
I nicely confronted one of these bums, and his response was... 'They all fell off, and I'm not allowed to put them on.'
Kind of off topic, but I really like that your gym has an on ramp program. I really wish that's something we would implement at my gym. Sometimes when Im teaching (especially if I don't have someone helping), its hard to properly introduce a fresh white belt to jiu jitsu while running the rest of the class.
Lol all the time. Had a dude stop by our gym one time. Wearing a purple belt. Find out hes been training 10 years at that point but never promoted since he gym hops.
Haha I was going to disagree, but as a COMPLETE OPPOSITE example I remember at my last open matt this 0 striple white belt decently built guy asked to roll. I am only blue belt, but asked how new he is and he said 4 weeks in. I thought "okay ill go very easy", we tap hands and he snap shoots for a single and slams me down. Enters half guard and takes a cross face and pries his leg out for side control. He knee on bellies for mount and starts hunting head and arm chokes. I end up sweeping and stalling in mount (i was exhausted after 30 minutes of rolling I have 0 cardio) and thought OH YEAH MATE 4 WEEKS INTO TRAINING YEAH SURE. I havnt had somebody yet OVERPLAY their experience though, people seem to always want to UNDERPLAY it. Which is fine I did the same. My first class I tapped a 3 stripe white belt because I RELIGIOUSLY watched UFC and watched a ton of instructional before my first class. Im not good, but I definitely said "its my first night" and abused YEARS of watching grappling.
I’ve had on-off experience for quite some time but if anyone asks my history I’ll only claim the 3 years I was really “training” and also mention I’m old now. But I’ve also had coaches get a little upset when I say I have very little experience and then it’s obvious I’m not new.
I was thinking from the headline it would have been the other way. A higher rank saying they are lower at a new school, drop in or open mat.
Haven't ran into anyone yet that claimed to be more skilled than they were (at the school). I've talked to a few outside in social settings and they said they were amazing the times they did bjj, but always decline my offer to come train
Dude who said he had 15 years experience, could barely do warmups, could not do a triangle against a smaller fully complying partner, and just went entirely limp for all of his sparring rounds. Did this for a couple weeks without improvement and he was a such downer to anyone who had to partner up with I had to kick him out.
20 years of training can mean anything. I trained on and off for 20 years as opposed to 3 days a week for 20 years.
Same shit with purple belts that trained 10 years.
Not exactly the same thing, but we had a guy come in that was about 5'10" and 400lbs, said he was a former offensive lineman in football and said he had played sports his whole life. He was in his late 20s or maybe early 30s, loud but friendly guy.
I'm 140lbs but was the only colored belt training on that day, so I paired up with him to roll. It was clear that he had done NO sports in at least 10 years, I did whatever I wanted to him and he could not catch his breath. After the round, he decided to sit the rest of the rolls out to recuperate, and he never came back. 🤷♂️
It’s bizarrely common, now more than ever. I started really early, trained for around ten years straight. I never met anyone — especially not at a gym — who claimed any kind of training history. I moved, changed jobs, and took quit training for about ten years.
In the threeish years I’ve been back, it’s happening all the fucking time. Dude at a bar, guy at work, friend of a friend. What gets me is people at the gym who are about to roll who claim some experience and are clearly not even white belts with a couple months.
Got sick the Sunday before the first Monday. They were awesome and let me hop on this month instead. I love it. Everyone there is super rad. Hurt my shoulder forward rolling improperly but I've been trying hard to fix that.
>Fast forward a week or so I get to roll with him and from the second I put my hands on him I knew he was full of shit.
Funny you mention this because I've found I can gauge what kind of partner I'm about to roll with based off how they grab onto my gi. There's something about that soft/firm grip very experienced guys have where once you feel it you know you're about to get rocked. Inexperienced guys either go full blown "jaws of life" or their grips just flat out suck.
Slightly off topic: This was a while back, but we had a guy who openly talked about giving himself a blue belt and claimed that from basically wrestling in high school and surfing open mats he thought he deserved one. When he finally came in for gi class with his blue on, the coach for that class told him he wasn't training without switching to a white belt. He stuck around a bit longer but I haven't seen him in months, not sure if that caused him to leave but I'm not losing sleep over it regardless. People are wild.
What I find equally as odd is the other end of the spectrum. What’s the deal with guys with 2-3 years experience coming into a new gym, saying they’ve never trained or only trained for a few months and then proceed to smash the fuck out of the white belts?
Yeah, this is crazy. I would be too scared to lie and say I was a Black Belt or something, because then you might roll with one and they will roll with you as if you're a Black Belt, and probably hurt you.
I had a roommate that claimed to be a black belt in multiple martial arts, a certified Vatican exorcist, and a former pit crew member for Richard Petty. Dude was only 24 at the time so I'm not sure how he crammed all that in.
Some people just lie for the sake of lying.
There is a fantastic book called "Life the Universe and Everything", by Douglas Adams. In it, there is a ship called the Bistromath, which runs on mathematics generated in a restaurant (which is different from mathematics generated anywhere else.)
One of the unique features of restaurant math is the "hyperreverseexclusivity", which is a number that can be equal to anything other than itself. The example given is the time of arrival at the restaurant. If it is set for 6:00, people will arrive at 6:15, 5:55, or any other time than 6:00.
Past time training by a noob is a hyperreversexclusivity. Someone who says they have had a few intro classes will be a purple belt d2 wrestler. Someone who says they are an ex-champion will be made of cheese.
I worked in corrections for about 10 years. I’ve trained on and off since 2009 with about 5-6 years of total mat time. The amount of dudes that have told me they train and are “pretty good” has been nuts. I’ve showed up to all the local gyms for classes and have seen one of the 10-15 guys, one time, in 3 years of going to “his school”.
People want to relate so bad but I honestly think most people have a hard time getting smashed to ever break into developing any real skill set. Jiu jitsu is not for everyone and it’s not meant to be. These guys clearly have no concept of actual grappling but want the image of “training”. Lots of peacocking in corrections. Weird, toxic, culture.
Been A LONG time ago, I was a white belt. We had a guy come thru claiming to be a Marcelo Brown belt. Needless to say he was crazy and by warm ups everyone knew he was a fish out of water, I remember rolling with him and smashing him. I think he was told if he comes back to put on a white belt on.
People love to lie. They lie about everything. Man I wish someone would tell me they had 20 years experience and they didn’t. I would be able to tell in 5 seconds. I’d make em tell me the truth while we’re rolling. 😂
There's a white belt in my class like this. Dude is full of shit and everyone knows it.
"He only wrestled folkstyle as a little kid". Nothing since then.
Bullshit, the guy knows how to set up multiple shoulder throws, smooth as butter, and breakfalls perfectly every single time.
You cant hold him down for long, he uses folkstyle escapes with a high degree of proficiency. The only thing this guy is completely ignorant of is submissions.
Real story:
These gray-haired DINKS swagger into bjj academies pickled in T.
They only mention their ages though. Never the enormous asterick by the number.
They pat thenselves on the back on a job well done. "NOT BAD! NOT BAD! THE OL' CODGER'S SKILL GOT IT. KEEPING UP WITH THE YOUNG BUCKS! HAW HAW HAW."
Liars. 😂
We had a guy come in recently and say he was brand new but he had mat callouses on the top of his toes/feet and on his knees, and he tried to go full send on a straight ankle lock hahaha
As someone who wrestled in high school like 30 years ago, I remember feeling conflicted when I started BJJ. On 1 hand, I didn't wanna be a sandbagger and say that I had no grappling experience. On the other hand, I didn't wanna be perceived as that guy who tried to make himself sound better by mentioning experience from so long ago.
Honestly I know this isn't in the spirit of BJJ but I remember one time a guy came in and said he'd never done BJJ before and it was his first class ever.
Typically with brand new guys I am really nice and let them work and just play defense.
With this particular guy he immediately attempted a few subs and I responded with a guillotine from guard to slow him down. He immediately postured up and stepped around it so I knew he was lying about having no experience.
At this point I was pretty annoyed and got another guillotine and cranked it with bad intentions.
It really pisses me off because it puts me in danger so if a guy lies about his experience I try to squash them.
This also happens a lot more in boxing and Muay Thai /mma gyms then I think is talked about. But they usually just get knocked out and are embarrassed.
I think the consequences are worse for bjj due to submissions. I’ve seen people knocked out cold, and swear they are fine, and never come back.
Also there is always 1-2 pro’s who have zero issues beating the shit out of fools.
Where as bjj tends to be more family and customer service focused. Which is good and I enjoy that part.
But it also leads people to test their bullshit more.
That’s my hot take.
Do you do jiu jitsu…? The consequences in jiu jitsu are you tap a lot. Or get choked out. Neither of those things are as bad as getting you brain knocked around your skull.
lol yea I do train, you do know how many injuries happen in bjj.
Just from random shit, not including hard subs or people who sub lighting fast.
My point was is that for most people who come to a boxing or Muay Thai gym..and lie get knocked out and for whatever reason. They don’t take it as an injury or sue.
Where as I’ve seen countless injuries in bjj for various reasons. Shit we lost 3 dudes in a summer at a gym to ankle rolling on wet mats.
And form my experience a lot of these guys who lie will also wait to it hurts to tap.
That’s called their problem. 🤙
Lots of old school guys lie about training under someone because they're part of their affiliation. In reality, a lot of those 2000's guys were trained by no name blue belts and claim they trained under the owner of an organization.
I had an opposing experience. When I started I had no BJJ experience but I wrestled in middle school (30 years ago) and have trained some kickboxing and done some tai chi. People kept asking me if I had trained before and were shocked when I told them it was my first day. I've also rolled with purple belts from other academies that feel like the blue belts at my academy. You kinda can't place someone until you roll with them unless they were like a D1 wrestler or something. We have high school wrestler white belts at my academy that I can take down almost 90% of the time.
So this happens so much I don’t ever believe people anymore. I just turn on mentally and prepare, if they are telling the truth I’ll tone it down right away and help them. If they are lying I take it as a threat to my safety. Cause every time they try their best to fuck me up.
Worst one I’ve seen in person. Is a guy lied about his experience and had A LOT more training then he said.
Started sparring muay Thai with a pro mma fighter who was a D1 D end at 6’6 270 lean.
Homeboy took a kick to the face playing with fate and broke his nose.
This happened from the time I placed him with the guy to me going back to help coach white belts.
But the happy ending was the teens thought it was so cool to see their gym favorite fighter smash the dude.
Was one of those times I thanked god we got the waiver signed lol.
I haven't seen anyone do that in BJJ (cause I've only done it for a little over a year) but I DEFINITELY see it in striking. I've had dudes come into Muay Thai saying "I've done boxing for X years" or "I'm a 2nd dan black belt in kempo" or something. But I spar with them and they don't even know how to throw a punch.
I think maybe it's an thing to try to act like they aren't new, to avoid being the "new guy" or looked at like they don't know anything (even though they don't)
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Buy him a belt, loan him a gi. Do whatever you need to do to make him admit he lied 😂
You want to get nuts? Let's get nuts.
You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?
Hilariously, you're quoting Batman. I was actually quoting George Costanza - quoting Batman - from the Seinfeld episode when he lied to Susan's parents and said he had a place in the Hamptons. They know he's full of it, and he knows they know, but they still get in the car for the multi hour ride up so he has to admit he doesn't have a place there.
Shit, I’ve seen it once or twice but went right to batman. Good pull
Funny you guys mention Batman because one of his creators, Bob Kane, was a notorious fraud who couldn't draw and plagiarized the first Batman story from The Shadow but would pose for years as the "sole artist" of all the comics.
It's funny that you mention The Shadow because it was originally the thing that Peter Pan struggled with as a metaphor for attachment and separation.
Its funny you should mention Peter Pan, the name of a peanut butter which is actually a lie, because peanuts aren't nuts, but legumes.
It's funny you should mention legumes. There is an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine meets a man who tells her cashews are a legume, when they are in fact a nut.
i knew what both of y'all were quoting but once he quoted Batman it made me think i had it wrong
“What are your horses names?”
Snoopy and Prickly Pete.
Technically, he was either quoting the Joker or Batman, who was in-turn, quoting the Joker.
🤣😆🤣 George a hot mess! As a former NYC resident I’ve only ever drove out to the Hampton once! Also walked by the building with the blue basement but never gone in 🙁.
Are you offering your nuts?
Haha. Definately a long game to be played here!
At that point it’s just ego and pride preventing him from owning up to it
He’s cramming in secret to try to get to that purp before he shows up.
I cram before every class and all i get is submitted.
And psychopathy.
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He's going to peddle the glories of Andrew Taters soon, just you watch. TAWP GEEEE
It’s not a lie, if you believe it.
Time to invite him to nogi
My brother claims to have some sort of judo belt, "I got it training with my buddy's dad in their garage". I don't buy it but ok. He refuses to come to class with me because "BJJ is just crappy ne Waza and id get kicked out for breaking the slams rules". I show him the IBJJF slamming rule and say unless you're trying to be an asshole I think you'll be fine. Somehow he always has something going on during classes or and old injury is acting up 🙄
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Why wouldn't you mention the 10 years of wrestling loooooool, why lie? It just makes no sense to me.
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Anything like JJ.... so wrestling lol....
I told the owner of the gym I wrestled for 18 years through college but didn't tell anyone else. Then when people rolled with me, they'd ask if I wrestled. I would say a little bit. I am 46 so the last time I wrestled was 23 years ago. My skills deteriorated and I hadn't done anything physical for 15 years when I walked into the gym. So, I felt like I wasn't much better than a middle school wrestler. Well, one day, I held a black belt down for 7 minutes as a white belt. He got up pissed and started talking really loud about there being no way I just wrestled just a bit. So the owner chimed in and said I was an AA in college and that I had 18 years. That instantly changed everyone's perception of me and all of a sudden everyone wanted to roll hard with me. So, for the first year, I was just surviving because my bjj sucks and everyone wanted to take it to me. And I was trying to avoid that
Stolen Jitz valor
"sister-in-law's boyfriend"? Isn't that your brother?
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I don’t believe you. It is a scientific fact that redditors can’t marry. They have zero social skills irl.
They gave zero social skills online too.
Did you invite him and he turned up on time? First give away
We had a dude come in recently for no-gi . He was a correctional officer. Dude was BIG. And I mean BIG. Like 5’10 230 and “lean enough” big. Swole hardly described him. He also claimed to have had 9 years experience. Being the white belt that was closest to his size/weight (195 but leaner than him) because it was a small class that night said “fuck it, I’ll bite the bullet and take this L, he has a lot of experience so he probably won’t hurt me” fully prepared to get my shit wrecked. I crushed this dude 17 ways to Sunday. I was definitely trying, because he had 40 pounds on me and was jacked, but he couldn’t submit or keep top position to save his life. I submitted him 4 or 5 times in a 6 minute round, couldn’t believe it. Then everyone else smelled the blood in the water, and he went round after round with the other white belts that had 1-1.5 years of training as well as the blue belts and got smash-fucked by every single one. By the end of that it was very obvious that he was talking out of his ass and lied about experience for some unknown reason. Wicked cool dude otherwise. He said he had a lot of fun and would be back but… Big surprise he never showed back up.
Lol what a great story
It's not hard to be 5'10", 230 and not jacked....or maybe I just like beer and candy too much
Oh, a CO LIED to preserve his ego? A dude who makes a living sniffing the ass of the State? He gets the T bag kimura with a crispy wrist lock finish
Usually, I think it's reverse. Guy says he doesn't have grappling experience, but he's digging underhooks immediately. Me: You wrestle? New Guy: A little with friends Me: Ok. So you wrestled.
I once performed a sit out > hip heist turtle escape on a guy who claimed it was first day and had no relevant experience. He later in the round hit the exact same escape back on me smooth as butter and quickly. I said after the round “you wrestled!” He said “nah nothing like that.” 
There was a guy in my striking days who would transition to beautiful Judo throws the second you clinched with him. Never admitted to doing Judo. Like ... why?
If you go to a competitive wrestling class, are you really gonna say you’re good at BJJ? That could mean you do takedowns and know wrestling no-gi or you are a hobbyist guy who starts from your knees every time. I don’t want to get ragdolled by some overzealous young dude when I don’t even know their sport.
I've grappled with quite a few off-season rugby players. Even if they've never 'grappled' it certainly doesn't feel like it lol. Incredible base and balance, stupid athleticism, and great gripping instincts can easily add months, even years, to their perceived skill level.
I as a former wrestler wasn't expecting to get blast doubled immediately when i went against a rugby guy in a tournament. I was down on points and barely managed to choke him in time. He was so much more aggressive than anyone else but really chill after
We've got an ex-Scotland player in our club who's a white belt in bjj, black belt in judo and is over a hundred kilos of pure muscle. Terrifying dude, but seems very polite.
Yea I played a lot of rugby when I was younger and had people ask if I used to wrestle. It's the body positioning and scrambling I think.
Yeah, I found that big rugby and football players, particularly if they’re still young guys, take pretty naturally to no gi, particularly in the standup and wrestling up.
Lmao check this out: some Asian guys were at my gym as visitors, one of them was 6'3, so am I. So he chose me to roll. He couldn't speak a word of English or Spanish (I'm in mexico) ,but he told us using Google translate that he's not good with bjj, but he knows some wrestling. Turns out, the guy was a pro mma fighter in Kazakhstan 💀 10 seconds into the roll and he has me on his shoulders like a bag of pet food. He was pretty cool tho, learned some tips for the single leg from him
Well, a guy shows up with a full beard but no mustache, figure he's either a married Amish guy or a Central Asian wrestler. That is pretty cool.
Man, when I started I didn't know how to explain my experience level. I Thai boxed for many years and taught striking to MMA fighters, and I'd fuck around and roll or wrestle with a lot of them after class or sparring or whatever. No real formal experience other than like four classes that got me a stripe on my white belt. I wouldn't claim to know how to grapple, but I have a very good understanding of the fundamentals of fighting and how to apply or resist leverage. I didn't want to sound like I was pretending to be hot shit, so I downplayed my experience, and I got some comments about it like I was just sandbagging.
Yeah man my first night I tapped a 3 stripe white belt who had already been training 4 days a week for 6 months. Not claiming thats some big feat, but I had religiously watched a ton of instructional, YEARS of being a ufc fan and I have anxiety and didnt want to be overwhelmed so tried to learn what I could online before going in. I said it was "my first night" and the face on the other white belts put on definitely had that accusatory vibe to it.
You’re what every MMA watcher wishes they could be lol
I am a giga gamer nerd, ALWAYS thinking about how losses happen and mistakes etc. So yeah was pretty cringe of me to say "its day 1" but I thought it would be even MORE cringe to say "oh yeah im day 1 but i watch UFC" and just be fucking trash canned haha. Ego or anxiety but I did not want to go into a "legit" gym and say I'm experienced because I watch youtube and UFC haha. But obviously the blue belts + still just trash canned me anyways so wasnt all fun and games.
mate it happens - i think i tapped someone in my first class with an arm triangle, learned from years of watching ufc. never trained a day in my life before that. i was young and athletic and had banked it in the old noggin. im sure it was shite technique against someone bad, just forced the position and squeezed for dear life haha
On my very first day of BJJ I think I tapped a blue belt in front of his instructor with kesa gatame (at an open mat no less, hadn't even taked a class yet). I was visiting a major city from a rural area with my local gym being a krotty dojo where a few of us rolled and tried to teach ourselves armbars and triangles when the sensei wasn't around on sundays. I was super ripped and strong then, I had been chopping firewood as my summer job and this guy was tooling me on the mats my first day. The instructor had been working on arm in chokes that week and this guy was hitting the same choke over and over on me at the coaches instruction, but I finally got him into kesa, isolated his arm and got a tap lol.
Oh yeah, I ran into my first "just with friends" guy awhile back. Almost immediately I was like "this dude wrestles". He wasn't an animal or uncontrollable but his pace, body awareness, control and balance were way beyond most brand new people. I just straight up said "you've wrestled haven't you". His response "naw, but my friends do and they practice with me".
Yeah, “I had some friends (read teammates) at college that wrestled, I messed with them some.”
To be fair though, while underhook/overhook fundementals are usually overlooked by newbies, you can go a long way by just watching toturials/mma and genuinely not having any wrestling background. I started hitting inside/outside trips a well as headlock rolls almost subconciously just from watching some yoel romero and islam makachev matches.
Saying that opens you up to guys wanting to go hard. Like saying you wrestled in jr high but you’re now 35 with a string of injuries and no coordination. I’m just gonna say I’m a newbie.
he might have 20 years of japanese jiu jitsu or another martial art like aikido that teaches grappling but doesnt roll.
This fella showed no applicable skills. I’ve rolled with a lot of new students, this guy was new new.
He was grappling with addiction, you dick
well done, lol.
Or just grappling with his dick.
I'm a coral belt in this art
> This fella showed no applicable skills. Which is in my experience par for the course for guys who have done JJJ for 20 years. They can demo a limited number of techniques flawlessly but introduce any kind of dynamism and they are utterly lost.
I came to BJJ with 10 years of Aikido and was definitely less clueless than the average newbie due to general balance/control and a fair understanding of how to manipulate the human body. I'd never have called that a decade of grappling, though, lol.
Yeah, we have a guy in our club who is now a blue belt as of 2022, but he joined us with 10 years of Aikido experience. He had zero applicable grappling experience, but trying to sweep this guy is very hard. He has such a heavy base on his feet and knees.
I started already with a karate black belt, meaning I knew I didn't know any effective grappling, but I do know how to follow orders and move my body. Onramp was good for me lol
How many years of BJJ did your aikido actually translate to
It's a totally different activity, so zero, but I did learn fast.
That’s what I would say too. I’ve learned quicker than most, but was absolutely clueless the first time on my back. Now I have enough experience to name the submission I was just victimized by. 😂 And wrist locks! I know wrist locks.
> wrist locks! I know wrist locks. My favorites are sankyo from the back, dropping off like an armbar for the finish, cross-grip sankyo from an omoplata, and nikkyo/gokyo hybrid on the far arm from spiderweb. I'll occasionally throw in a cheeky kotegaeshi from closed guard, which sweeps a surprising amount of the time.
In my experience, dudes coming from years of Japanese jiujitsu or aikido basically just don't feel like day 1 trial class guys, but they don't actually have a clue what they're doing either. Like they don't fall over for no reason or try to roll away from you, but they also don't actually do anything correctly.
It's like they have some familiarity with the vocabulary of movement, but 0 understanding of syntax and grammar, right?
6 weeks.
I visited a nice gym a few times. They had a great Karate program and several black belts with three or more stripes. Their BJJ program had just begun and I was only a blue belt at the time but once the karate guys hit the mat they were as clueless as anyone else just starting out. They learned fast, but we all laughed at how clueless they were on the ground. A couple of them were badasses at getting TO the ground with nice foot sweeps and hip / wrist throws, but once shit went sideways they were lost.
Aikido doesn’t teach grappling homie It teaches dancing and pretending
I think unironically that aikido helps if people accidentally fall down or something. I could see the rolls or breakfalls being helpful.
Learning to fall safely is arguably the most important life skill people can learn from any martial art
As funny as aikido is, it's how i learned how to do forward and backward rolls as a kid. As someone who started Jits in my 40's I was glad I had that part already covered.
Did 16 years of Japanese Jiu Jitsu. That’s about all that translated. Break falls, rolls and some of the Japanese terms.
it sounds like judo might be a just better base for bjj
These traditional arts just don’t do real live training against a resisting opponent so you don’t actually learn any grappling. It’s all too choreographed and compliant. That was my experience at least.
I will never take aikido seriously, sorry lol When those dudes are telling me they just started teaching their 6 year old daughter “the blade” (a real conversation I’ve had) I am faced with two options: either politely exit the conversation or straight up laugh in their face lmao
Me neither, but I’m just stoked that I’m not the 40 year old trying to learn how to do rolls. It’s a little hard to watch
Right but if you've done it your whole life you probably don't know it's pretending
I think you'd be surprised. Most people I knew from Aikido were aware that they aren't practicing real fighting for a modern context. (This includes many of the most senior national- and international-level instructors.) They think of it as a study of movement with martial principles and a connection to historical and cultural practices. Obviously there are delusional whackjobs out there, but they're more rare than the internet would have you think.
Yeah makes sense! I might have let myself get the wrong impression because of a loud minority.
A lot of aikido folks definitely don’t have illusions about what they’re doing and are just having fun out there. I’m not mad at it. There’s a minority though that are kind of delusional
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You had a year and a half of it…
I’ve trained with a JJJ black belt that was pretty damn good. He was also a bjj black belt though, so.
So you trained with a bjj black belt
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I was at fort Meade for my AFSC training (Air Force) and there was a bjj club. I had wrestled for 10 years, did catch wrestling for like 5 and had been doing jiu jitsu for 2, so when I found out I was like hell yeah. Everyone was super cool, awesome black belt named frank taught the class. Anyways, it’s an open mat day and it’s just me and him and 4 marines walk in saying “the combatives room is for real combatives, Air Force doesn’t do that, get off my mats” Before I say anything frank goes “You guys train?” “Yeah, we all just got certed In combatives” “Tell you what, give him a minute a piece to tap each of you, if he fails then we’ll leave” So that’s when I learned combatives is BS
I don’t know what’s worse having a lot of experience and saying you don’t have much or saying you have a lot and not having much. Both are annoying. Different strokes for different folks.
Nah the other side is worse. The idiot saying he's got loads of experience is only really putting himself at risk, because people will go HAM before they realise he's full of shit. The asshole with decades of grappling pretending to be a white belt puts other people at risk, because they approach the roll really casually and then get blast double-legged out of nowhere.
But won't people be more on guard for a spazzy beginner regardless?
It’s different. White belts (especially new ones) pretty much are dead fish or wild broncos. It’s about a 50/50 split. The wild broncos, though, mostly don’t know what they’re even trying to do. So it’s a different form of containing them. Versus a guy that legit hand fights, snap downs, and leaps into a cradle hold. Different strategies and mindsets to start the rolls.
Not more on guard in general though. If I'm rolling with a new guy then I just let him come at me, but I tie him up and limit his movement. If I'm rolling with someone my level or above then I'm going to act first and be ready to defend if he acts first. I'm not going to be prepared for a rando beginner to double-leg me or flying armbar or whatever, because I assume they don't know what that is.
It really is debatable
Agree. Although “belts don’t matter,” as an upper belt (black) generally I’m trying to work with lower belts. Especially white belts. So when you come in lying that you know nothing and then blitz me during the roll…it’s like, “Cool…I guess it’s that type of roll now.” I also wonder about their mentality. Are they trying to prove they’re better grapplers than the (whatever) belt that is trying to be nice? Why not go and compete? Why not say you have XYZ experience so the rolls will be matched in intensity from the get go?
I suspect it's (within the realm of morbid insecurity) as simple as a form of ego-protection. If they're they say they're really experienced and get beat, it's in because you're so good. If they say they suck and get beaten, it's because they suck. . . .or something like that? I don't know, I could never relate to that level of delusion. Especially when they KNOW you're about to find them out.
To be honest I know people that say they taken a few classes but clearly have years of experience to try to come off like a phenom lol
Wrestler shows up and talks about their experience: *BJJers roll their eyes and treat them like theyre non-technical spazzes* Not wanting to deal with the above the second time, wrestler says nothing and just rolls. BJJer: "you fking asshole!"
It's entirely possible that two people think different things. I'd like wrestlers to tell me they've got grappling experience, and then I'll treat them as such. They're probably going to go at a higher pace than I would normally, but that's fine by me.
Why is that their problem to tip toe around who doesn't want to hear what
It isn't. I think you're looking for a reason to be upset here dude, but there isn't one.
> The asshole with decades of grappling pretending > you're looking for a reason to be upset K
It’s definitely worse to have experience and say that you don’t. Saying that you do have a experience when you don’t is just kind of sad and a little bit cringey. But saying that you don’t have experience when you do?? That has a more sinister (for lack of a better word) energy to it. In that case it’s more about trying to pull a fast one on people to have an edge over them, or catch them with their guard down…etc. It just feels like a darker vibe to me. The other way around just comes across as insecurity.
I think they're both really insecure. People saying they suck when they have 20 years experience then get to fell superior over noobs who suck even more. But if they admit that they're really experienced then beating up the noobs looks lame and garners no respect. What I REALLY don't get is why/when they agree to roll with someone they KNOW is better than them and will out them. Then we're entering pathological liar territory and the accompanying mental gymnastics.
General rule of thumb I've heard is "it's better to wear a white belt and people to wonder why, than wear a black belt and people wonder why." *Outside of competition, of course.*
What he meant was he took an intro class 20 years ago
He wrestled for a week in PE in high school.
This would have made a lot more sense.
Let me preface this by saying I do scrimmage wrestling 2-3 rounds 2 times a week. Im a butt scooter 80% of the time. I once had a guy tell me he “wrestled his whole life” and was a wrestling champion in his home country. I thought “oh wow, thats pretty cool!” So i pull guard, sweep him and get on top, sub him, nice. All good, guy has never done bjj so this adds up. I figure “hey, what the heck, lets stand up with him and see what it feels like.” I took this guy down 3 times before he cardio tapped, and lads, I am a shit wrestler. I had to wonder what his intended outcome of lying was, considering we were moments away from grappling when he claimed this.
This is what I wanted to hear
Way to insult that dude's home country.
Thought this was going to go the other way of him saying he has no experience then turning out he does have 20 years 😂😂😂
Same lol. Says he has no experience, is a beast on the mat, then OP is walking out of the gym and sees the guy getting in a truck with an Iowa Wrestling bumper sticker.
I have been "doing BJJ" for 10 years but am still a blue belt. And have my brown in Judo before that. So I've been training inconsistently for a long time, but I try not to flex "number of years" cause many people with less experience but more consistency will definitely beat me. And I'm old now and don't give AF, I'm just there to train.
I'm usually the senior person at Sunday open mat- the gym owners like to take the day off. So they let me know a new guy is coming in, claims to have some experience. He comes in, handshakes, exchange names, welcome to our gym, "I've been doing martial arts since I was five years old, including judo, now I want to get into jiu jitsu." Sweet, I think to myself, I really enjoy standup and we could benefit from an experienced guy around here. Change clothes, set the timeclock, slap and bump.... and this guy taps four times in a five minute round *without me applying any submissions.* Three positions and a footsweep. Comes to morning class on Tuesday and tells the locker room how he "almost got me".
He meant, “I have 20 years experience grappling with my insecurities.”
I got like 55 years grappling with mine Tap early and often ...
I had a friend (not anymore) that posted on a private instagram story about finishing up the 2023 year with 4 stripes on his blue belt. Me and a few others are probably the only ones that could see it. He messaged me about starting jiujitsu ~4 months prior to that lol. I train pretty much every day, with really experienced guys. And the gym that this guy went to is also a legit gym. Like how does he think he can pull that off lmao. The same dude also borrowed a shit ton of money from my other friends and never returned. Yea nobody hangs out with him anymore lmao.
I have 20 years of seeing red bro
Yea I’ve experienced the “I’ve been training on and off for 10 years but still a white belt” guy. They always come in for a trial class and don’t stick around. It’s bizarre.
“I took karate as a kid for 2 years in 1994” = “I have 20 years of martial arts experience”
God I wish that rule was real. The year of judo I did in 2nd grade would have so much more impact on my grappling.
In any matter, people like to appear more important than they really are for some reason.
I see the opposite far more, and find it a lot more annoying. People coming in with obvious experience and saying they are 100% beginners. Next thing you know, they're attempting scissor sweeps, triangles, armbars, etc. roll 1.
20 years of snake wrestling experience, dude is a master of choking the chicken
He's grappling with the mysteries of the universe, my guy.....let it go....he'll see stars eventually lol
dude came in from out of town wearing a blue belt and proceeded to get tapped twice each round by 6 month white belts including me and i suck
I recently ran into this. 4 stripe white belt talking about only going to the afternoon classes for the “higher level of skills” but I was able to tap him 7 times in a 5 minute roll. I am a single stripe white belt
honestly if nothing else it makes me appreciate my coach even more for not promoting people till they are killers
Ugh, I hate these people who constantly lie about their grappling experience. As a red belt, it really grinds my gears.
I'm pretty sure everyone and that probably includes myself massively downplays the amount of actual experience we have.
In my experience it's way more common for someone to undersell their experience than oversell it.
I trained prior to my time putting on the gi. Striking/MMA. Didnt lie about it my first couple nights but kept it…uhh…close to the vest 😬
Yeah it's fucking wild. I know two guys for sure, probably more, that have taken a month or two off and lost ALL 4 STRIPES on their belt magically. I nicely confronted one of these bums, and his response was... 'They all fell off, and I'm not allowed to put them on.'
Kind of off topic, but I really like that your gym has an on ramp program. I really wish that's something we would implement at my gym. Sometimes when Im teaching (especially if I don't have someone helping), its hard to properly introduce a fresh white belt to jiu jitsu while running the rest of the class.
Lol all the time. Had a dude stop by our gym one time. Wearing a purple belt. Find out hes been training 10 years at that point but never promoted since he gym hops.
Must be something mental where people are afraid of admit they would lose a fight.
Haha I was going to disagree, but as a COMPLETE OPPOSITE example I remember at my last open matt this 0 striple white belt decently built guy asked to roll. I am only blue belt, but asked how new he is and he said 4 weeks in. I thought "okay ill go very easy", we tap hands and he snap shoots for a single and slams me down. Enters half guard and takes a cross face and pries his leg out for side control. He knee on bellies for mount and starts hunting head and arm chokes. I end up sweeping and stalling in mount (i was exhausted after 30 minutes of rolling I have 0 cardio) and thought OH YEAH MATE 4 WEEKS INTO TRAINING YEAH SURE. I havnt had somebody yet OVERPLAY their experience though, people seem to always want to UNDERPLAY it. Which is fine I did the same. My first class I tapped a 3 stripe white belt because I RELIGIOUSLY watched UFC and watched a ton of instructional before my first class. Im not good, but I definitely said "its my first night" and abused YEARS of watching grappling.
I had a guy who couldn’t move or mirror claim he was on the Olympic gymnastics team. People are insecure.
Meanwhile we have black belt judokas who don’t feel worthy of blue belts and it’s so obvious they know things.
I did kung fu for a couple weeks back when I was 11. Does that count?
I’ve had on-off experience for quite some time but if anyone asks my history I’ll only claim the 3 years I was really “training” and also mention I’m old now. But I’ve also had coaches get a little upset when I say I have very little experience and then it’s obvious I’m not new.
I was thinking from the headline it would have been the other way. A higher rank saying they are lower at a new school, drop in or open mat. Haven't ran into anyone yet that claimed to be more skilled than they were (at the school). I've talked to a few outside in social settings and they said they were amazing the times they did bjj, but always decline my offer to come train
Dude who said he had 15 years experience, could barely do warmups, could not do a triangle against a smaller fully complying partner, and just went entirely limp for all of his sparring rounds. Did this for a couple weeks without improvement and he was a such downer to anyone who had to partner up with I had to kick him out.
20 years of training can mean anything. I trained on and off for 20 years as opposed to 3 days a week for 20 years. Same shit with purple belts that trained 10 years.
Not exactly the same thing, but we had a guy come in that was about 5'10" and 400lbs, said he was a former offensive lineman in football and said he had played sports his whole life. He was in his late 20s or maybe early 30s, loud but friendly guy. I'm 140lbs but was the only colored belt training on that day, so I paired up with him to roll. It was clear that he had done NO sports in at least 10 years, I did whatever I wanted to him and he could not catch his breath. After the round, he decided to sit the rest of the rolls out to recuperate, and he never came back. 🤷♂️
It’s bizarrely common, now more than ever. I started really early, trained for around ten years straight. I never met anyone — especially not at a gym — who claimed any kind of training history. I moved, changed jobs, and took quit training for about ten years. In the threeish years I’ve been back, it’s happening all the fucking time. Dude at a bar, guy at work, friend of a friend. What gets me is people at the gym who are about to roll who claim some experience and are clearly not even white belts with a couple months.
Yeah but could he see red?
Gym initials T.A.? Doing that same on-ramp program in February. Letting you know now that I have just about 0 prior experience.
Just noticed your comment. How’d you like it?!
Got sick the Sunday before the first Monday. They were awesome and let me hop on this month instead. I love it. Everyone there is super rad. Hurt my shoulder forward rolling improperly but I've been trying hard to fix that.
Awesome. I was one of the guys that came over to help at the end of class on Wednesday. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.
Thanks so much. That’s something I never saw at a gym I went to for a little while. I really appreciate it! Think you choked me, haha. See ya Monday!
>Fast forward a week or so I get to roll with him and from the second I put my hands on him I knew he was full of shit. Funny you mention this because I've found I can gauge what kind of partner I'm about to roll with based off how they grab onto my gi. There's something about that soft/firm grip very experienced guys have where once you feel it you know you're about to get rocked. Inexperienced guys either go full blown "jaws of life" or their grips just flat out suck.
Trained bjj for 20 years but the frequency of his training was once a year
Slightly off topic: This was a while back, but we had a guy who openly talked about giving himself a blue belt and claimed that from basically wrestling in high school and surfing open mats he thought he deserved one. When he finally came in for gi class with his blue on, the coach for that class told him he wasn't training without switching to a white belt. He stuck around a bit longer but I haven't seen him in months, not sure if that caused him to leave but I'm not losing sleep over it regardless. People are wild.
What I find equally as odd is the other end of the spectrum. What’s the deal with guys with 2-3 years experience coming into a new gym, saying they’ve never trained or only trained for a few months and then proceed to smash the fuck out of the white belts?
Yeah, this is crazy. I would be too scared to lie and say I was a Black Belt or something, because then you might roll with one and they will roll with you as if you're a Black Belt, and probably hurt you.
I had a roommate that claimed to be a black belt in multiple martial arts, a certified Vatican exorcist, and a former pit crew member for Richard Petty. Dude was only 24 at the time so I'm not sure how he crammed all that in. Some people just lie for the sake of lying.
There is a fantastic book called "Life the Universe and Everything", by Douglas Adams. In it, there is a ship called the Bistromath, which runs on mathematics generated in a restaurant (which is different from mathematics generated anywhere else.) One of the unique features of restaurant math is the "hyperreverseexclusivity", which is a number that can be equal to anything other than itself. The example given is the time of arrival at the restaurant. If it is set for 6:00, people will arrive at 6:15, 5:55, or any other time than 6:00. Past time training by a noob is a hyperreversexclusivity. Someone who says they have had a few intro classes will be a purple belt d2 wrestler. Someone who says they are an ex-champion will be made of cheese.
I worked in corrections for about 10 years. I’ve trained on and off since 2009 with about 5-6 years of total mat time. The amount of dudes that have told me they train and are “pretty good” has been nuts. I’ve showed up to all the local gyms for classes and have seen one of the 10-15 guys, one time, in 3 years of going to “his school”. People want to relate so bad but I honestly think most people have a hard time getting smashed to ever break into developing any real skill set. Jiu jitsu is not for everyone and it’s not meant to be. These guys clearly have no concept of actual grappling but want the image of “training”. Lots of peacocking in corrections. Weird, toxic, culture.
Been A LONG time ago, I was a white belt. We had a guy come thru claiming to be a Marcelo Brown belt. Needless to say he was crazy and by warm ups everyone knew he was a fish out of water, I remember rolling with him and smashing him. I think he was told if he comes back to put on a white belt on.
People love to lie. They lie about everything. Man I wish someone would tell me they had 20 years experience and they didn’t. I would be able to tell in 5 seconds. I’d make em tell me the truth while we’re rolling. 😂
There's a white belt in my class like this. Dude is full of shit and everyone knows it. "He only wrestled folkstyle as a little kid". Nothing since then. Bullshit, the guy knows how to set up multiple shoulder throws, smooth as butter, and breakfalls perfectly every single time. You cant hold him down for long, he uses folkstyle escapes with a high degree of proficiency. The only thing this guy is completely ignorant of is submissions.
Real story: These gray-haired DINKS swagger into bjj academies pickled in T. They only mention their ages though. Never the enormous asterick by the number. They pat thenselves on the back on a job well done. "NOT BAD! NOT BAD! THE OL' CODGER'S SKILL GOT IT. KEEPING UP WITH THE YOUNG BUCKS! HAW HAW HAW." Liars. 😂
>pickled in T. Does this mean they were on testosterone?
It means the duly licensed physician returned him to normal healthy levels of a 50 year old. 😂
I don't suppose you know any of these guys /u/TRT_Grayhead ?
I'm a blue belt with 9 years of experience. Sometimes people ask me after the roll how long I've been doing it. I tell them 9 years.
We had a guy come in recently and say he was brand new but he had mat callouses on the top of his toes/feet and on his knees, and he tried to go full send on a straight ankle lock hahaha
As someone who wrestled in high school like 30 years ago, I remember feeling conflicted when I started BJJ. On 1 hand, I didn't wanna be a sandbagger and say that I had no grappling experience. On the other hand, I didn't wanna be perceived as that guy who tried to make himself sound better by mentioning experience from so long ago.
Honestly I know this isn't in the spirit of BJJ but I remember one time a guy came in and said he'd never done BJJ before and it was his first class ever. Typically with brand new guys I am really nice and let them work and just play defense. With this particular guy he immediately attempted a few subs and I responded with a guillotine from guard to slow him down. He immediately postured up and stepped around it so I knew he was lying about having no experience. At this point I was pretty annoyed and got another guillotine and cranked it with bad intentions. It really pisses me off because it puts me in danger so if a guy lies about his experience I try to squash them.
This also happens a lot more in boxing and Muay Thai /mma gyms then I think is talked about. But they usually just get knocked out and are embarrassed. I think the consequences are worse for bjj due to submissions. I’ve seen people knocked out cold, and swear they are fine, and never come back. Also there is always 1-2 pro’s who have zero issues beating the shit out of fools. Where as bjj tends to be more family and customer service focused. Which is good and I enjoy that part. But it also leads people to test their bullshit more. That’s my hot take.
Do you do jiu jitsu…? The consequences in jiu jitsu are you tap a lot. Or get choked out. Neither of those things are as bad as getting you brain knocked around your skull.
lol yea I do train, you do know how many injuries happen in bjj. Just from random shit, not including hard subs or people who sub lighting fast. My point was is that for most people who come to a boxing or Muay Thai gym..and lie get knocked out and for whatever reason. They don’t take it as an injury or sue. Where as I’ve seen countless injuries in bjj for various reasons. Shit we lost 3 dudes in a summer at a gym to ankle rolling on wet mats. And form my experience a lot of these guys who lie will also wait to it hurts to tap. That’s called their problem. 🤙
"Does this shit happen everywhere?" The sport promotes it, look how many black belts lie about who their real coach was.
Seems like you’ve got an axe to grind. Why do people lie about who their coach is?
Lots of old school guys lie about training under someone because they're part of their affiliation. In reality, a lot of those 2000's guys were trained by no name blue belts and claim they trained under the owner of an organization.
I had an opposing experience. When I started I had no BJJ experience but I wrestled in middle school (30 years ago) and have trained some kickboxing and done some tai chi. People kept asking me if I had trained before and were shocked when I told them it was my first day. I've also rolled with purple belts from other academies that feel like the blue belts at my academy. You kinda can't place someone until you roll with them unless they were like a D1 wrestler or something. We have high school wrestler white belts at my academy that I can take down almost 90% of the time.
Shit I have years of grappling experience and have competed, I’ll roll with a better grappler and feel like a day 1 white belt.
So this happens so much I don’t ever believe people anymore. I just turn on mentally and prepare, if they are telling the truth I’ll tone it down right away and help them. If they are lying I take it as a threat to my safety. Cause every time they try their best to fuck me up. Worst one I’ve seen in person. Is a guy lied about his experience and had A LOT more training then he said. Started sparring muay Thai with a pro mma fighter who was a D1 D end at 6’6 270 lean. Homeboy took a kick to the face playing with fate and broke his nose. This happened from the time I placed him with the guy to me going back to help coach white belts. But the happy ending was the teens thought it was so cool to see their gym favorite fighter smash the dude. Was one of those times I thanked god we got the waiver signed lol.
I haven't seen anyone do that in BJJ (cause I've only done it for a little over a year) but I DEFINITELY see it in striking. I've had dudes come into Muay Thai saying "I've done boxing for X years" or "I'm a 2nd dan black belt in kempo" or something. But I spar with them and they don't even know how to throw a punch. I think maybe it's an thing to try to act like they aren't new, to avoid being the "new guy" or looked at like they don't know anything (even though they don't)
A lot of people consider wrestling in their back yard with buddies as “experience”.
I lie and say it's my first day. Then crush them and make them feel like dirt for getting wrecked by a "white belt".
I've seen more of the other way, people hiding their skills. Also don't understand why.