JohnnyS

We have a guy training with us who got 6th in the world's strong man competition. He is surprisingly fast and has good endurance (which you need to pull an aeroplane, carry large stone balls etc). He went in one of our comps and took down an experienced blue belt after less than a month's training. He subsequently lost however that was due to little knowledge. After three months training he won the pan-pacs in BJJ for the white-belt division. So I wouldn't discount a strong-man. With only a small amount of training they would be very formidable opponents.

Please clarify your question. What is submissions ? Who is the instructor etc ?

People are their own responsibility. I'm not going to go out of my way and hurt someone deliberately, but if I want to improve I have to know that when my opponent taps the submission is on. If they don't tap then the submission is not on, so I'll keep applying it or tighten it up. If my opponent is so ego-driven that he doesn't want to tap and doesn't want to take responsibility for his own loss, then he's the one who'll pay. Why should I give up and let go just so my opponent's ego doesn't get bruised. The only people who don't tap and get hurt are the people so ego-driven that they deserve it.

I always make sure I tap if someone gets me in an armlock, and I make sure I tap faster if caught in a leglock. It's my responsibility to tap when I get caught. I also never crank on a lock too fast for my opponent to tap. People who refuse to tap are usually ego-driven, and they know the rules. If they don't tap it's nobodies fault but their own. I don't break an arm completely if someone refuses to tap, but I will keep slowly applying pressure. After someone hears the first crack in their arm or leg they'll usually submit pretty quickly. They'll have a sore arm or leg for a few months, but it's generally not enough to make them stop training completely. Once again, it's up to the person caught to tap.

There is no such thing as a Vale Tudo style. It's no rules fighting, but the people who enter it can be from any style E.g. Bjj, wrestling and kickboxing etc.

Drive you head into the left side of his neck, control his right arm with an overhook and try and drive him onto his back. Keep your arms in against your body and use the strength of your whole body, not your arms - this is especially relevant against a big guy.

It's not a matter of disliking them, it's a matter of them letting you know when the submission is on. If you're wrestling someone and get them in an armbar and break their arm because they refused to tap it's their fault. I'm not talking about white-belts, but people who know what they're doing. If they refuse to tap, how do I know that I've got it on correctly ? I don't, so I keep applying the pressure and if their arm cracks it was their fault. I don't go around breaking people's arms and legs on purpose, but when it happens it's because they thought they could get out of it, and well, they were wrong. I've had my own arm cracked when I thought I could get out of a submission and I couldn't. I don't hold the person who cracked it responsible - I should have tapped earlier.

If someone doesn't tap then break their arm. Do it slowly and after the first crack they'll tap. Seriously, they need to take responsibility for themselves, and they should know the rules. I've cracked plenty of arms and legs from people who wouldn't tap. I don't like it, but it's up to them to tap and not get hurt, and it's up to me to keep applying the move until they do tap. Otherwise how do I know if the technique really works or not ?

I've had two friends bitten in streetfights. One ignored and completed the armbar - it's hard to bite when you're screaming from a broken arm. All my friend got was a bruise on his leg as the guy's teeth didn't penetrate my friends jeans. The other had a guy bite him on the stomach when they were grappling. My friend swept his opponent and then broke his arm. Both times my friends ended up with bruises and their opponents with broken arms. A pinch won't do anything in a real fight with adrenaline pumping through your system. Beware of attacks that only work on pain as they will have little effect on some people - especially if they are high or drunk.

Melbourne Australia, in Machado BJJ.

You're right about not getting caught in the first place. Are you talking about armbar from mount ? So if the guy is armbarring your right arm, does he have his left leg over your head, left foot flat on the floor with his knee bent and his butt against your right shoulder ?

If you waste your time trying to pinch or bite your way out of a submission you'll end up with a broken arm/leg or choked unconscious. You are far better off learning the correct way to get out of submissions than relying on things that will not work against someone who is committed to hurting you. You won't have time to try a pinch, then if it doesn't work try something else. In training people are nice to each other and will generally apply the armbar nice and slow at the final stage so as to not hurt you. People who mistake this for what would really happen and believe they can use this time to pinch their way out will surely come undone in a real fight.

TJS is correct. The last thing i'm going to be worried about in a fight is someone pinching me. I've had two friends bitten in fights and they both said it had no effect, one guy broke the others arm, the other guy who got bitten swept his opponent and then armbarred him. The thing you need to remember as TJS put it, is that when you're in a fight you're not gently putting on the armlock, waiting for the tap. You control the arm and break it straight away - thus there's no time for pinches etc to work.

Thanks Dustin. You really did impart what *little* you knew.

GoldenPanther wrote: "It's not about giving away belts, it's about what the belt represents. In Asia, black belt is not a sign that one has the ability to kick everyone's a**. It is a sign that one has mastered the fundamentals and is then truly a BEGINNER. " Not sure if you realise this, but Brazil is not part of Asia. BJJ has no bowing and does not involve any other parts of Asian culture. So why they should follow the same rules when it comes to grades is beyond me. I think BJJ should be proud of its quality. Years ago a black belt actually meant something. In BJJ it still does. If you’re a black belt you’re a person of exceptional skill and dedication. You’re correct that one person may be a great teacher and not necessarily a great fighter but it’s up to the individual instructor to grade those people how he believes. But a black belt still has to be someone who can do, not just teach. You have to be able to do the technique on a live opponent to really know a technique and its intricacies, and thus be able to teach it. Once again, I see no reason why BJJ should change it’s grading standards, and you’ve offered no argument for it except “It’s not the same in Asia”. I think I might be getting trolled here.

Two more things: 1) There is no Gracie Organization. The Gracie family is huge and there are many organisations in BJJ. 2) Who are you to tell these people that they grade too hard, or their standards are too high ? Why are you so threatened by BJJ having high standards. I have to admit it's the first time I've heard someone criticize an art because they don't give away belts.

Q:Why charge high prices ? A: Why not ? Ever heard of supply and demand ? If people didn't want to pay for it then the instructors would have to lower the prices, but that's not the case. Why should they give their art away for free when they've had to pay for it in money, blood, sweat and tears ? People who are black belts and are teaching their art should be able to make a living out of it. People who can train all the time are more able to further develop the art than hobbyists. Also, BJJ doesn't generally get huge numbers of students because it is so tough - it's not a McDojo where you can have hundreds of kids in your classes. So the prices need to be higher to allow the instructor to live and teach full-time. As far as being better respected - better respected by who ? By people who believe they should be given stuff for free ? Lastly, I never said that skill level has no bearing on belt rank. I think it does in BJJ, more to an extent than any other art. I also think it should. Why give out grades for a martial art your skill level has no bearing at all ? Why should they change the way they grade ? Why do you care about it so much ?

What's wrong with black belt being a master ? Most people believe that to be a black belt in a martial art you must be a "master". Bjj is the only art that actually means it. In my experience a Blue belt belt in BJJ is the same as a black belt(maybe even higher) in other arts, in terms of the ability to make the techniques work. I see nothing wrong with black belt being a master. I'm a brown belt and I've been training in BJJ for 12 years. My instructor is not Brazilian and so has no problem with letting me wait until he thinks I'm ready to be black belt (thank God). So there goes your "Brazilians holding people back" argument. I don't feel like I'm ready for black belt yet and that should mean more than what an outside believes. Chuck Norris said he was more proud of getting his blue belt in BJJ than getting his black belt in any other art because in BJJ you have to earn your belts. If you're a blue belt you can defend yourself, if you're a purple belt you can kick ass etc. There is no money issue with holding people back in the grades until they are ready, unless you believe that people only train to be given a belt and then leave ? You seem to be saying that giving away belts is better for the art than making people work for the grade and making the belt mean something. How do you figure that ? And as far as skill having nothing to do with it and it just being a way for the Brazilians to keep control - this really shows how ignorant you are. Go to Brazil and you'll see just how tough their coloured belts are, let alone the black belts. If what you're suggesting was true then foreigne coloured belts should be easily able to beat the Brazilian coloured belts since the foreigners are being held back. Sorry, doesn't happen that way. You claim that the Brazilians only promote Brazilians to high grades - which is false. You claim that they hold people back in the grades for money - which is false. You also claim that they only teach for money rather than the good of the art - which is also false. It seems to me that your posts are very anti-Brazilian, why is that ?

There's also Leka who's a female black belt. As far as non-Brazilian men who are high-ranking, that's because BJJ has only been out of Brazil for around 10-15 years, apart from a few people in Rorion's garage. Since it commonly takes around 10 years to get a black belt in BJJ, it's no wonder that no non-Brazilians are higher than 2nd degree.

At the school I train at they only allow blue belts and above to wear coloured gi's.

Not all the best BJJ fighters are Gracie's - look at Minotauro, Mario Sperry, Bustamante, Vitor Belfort. Kicking and pivoting won't work to stop a shoot. Neither will evasions. If they worked then you'd see wrestlers using them. Wrestling is 5000 years old and uses the sprawl to counter the shoot because it works. You need to learn how to sprawl and use whizzers(see Frye vs Bitetti). You'll most likely still end up on the ground, but if you have good wrestling skills you can control the fight enough to get in some good shots. If the fight does hit the ground, and you haven't done BJJ or a lot of Judo then you will get submitted by a BJJ guy.

Jerry is correct in saying that all these different people's answers only confuse the issue. I'm still no clearer on what it is though. What is it , and how can it be proven to exist ? If it can't be proven, then it seems it is more a faith (superstitious) thing than anything else.

Although this is off-topic I'll address it here anyway. Fear is not bad. If you eliminate fear then you'll die young. Anyone who says they don't get scared is a liar or an idiot. Rickson Gracie himself says he's always scared before he fights. Also, how can you have courage if you don't have fear ? Courage is overcoming fear, not being oblivious to it. If you had no fear then it wouldn't be a courageous act, it would be a mundane act.

I'm sorry, but you're doing exactly what everyone else does: attributing different things to ki. The power behind my punch comes from physics. Seeing a group of people shut-up when someone talks is charisma. What Lt Murphy did was courage. So you're saying that ki is courage, charisma AND physics ?

Everyone seems to have a different definition, from having your body in alignment to near-magical powers. This is a quote I got from somewhere: ***The most miraculous power that can verifiably be attributed to "chi" is its ability to be all things to virtually all people, depending on what version of the superstition they are attempting to defend at any given moment *** which seems to illustrate my point. So, what is it and what does it do ?