r/bjj

Will try and keep it short. Most recent two examples are both in the past couple of weeks.

First instance was when I was explaining to an old friend who is a Kempo black belt that I am taking privates. When I mentioned it was from a brown belt my friend laughed because "why would I learn from someone not really trained?". I tried to explain that a BJJ brown belt is no joke but he was having none of it because "A brown belt still has a lot to learn and shouldn't be teaching anyone but kids". I let it go.

Second one was a bit more annoying. I was speaking to some of the parents after my kid's taekwondo class and telling them about a shorter guy I see in my school who is a real monster and taps everyone. I said he was a blue belt and taps higher belts. None of them knew the BJJ belt system and when I told them blue was after white all of them erupted with laughter. The guys laughing all train TKD and were black belt or close and none of them could believe that the belt after white could have any skills. When one said "how long has he been training, a year?" and I said "a few", that was even funnier to them because obviously he must not be good because it's taken him so long and he isn't higher. Ok, then.

Sorry for the long post but it seems this is common thinking among some outside of the sport. Not insulting TKD, but my kid is on his second belt and has stripes after a year and barely pays attention in class. They just give him something every couple of months and he doesn’t seem to be progressing skillwise from what I see. I'd hate for one of these guys who train at my kid's place to get grabbed by some of the purple belts from my gym. Would be problems for them.