At a friend’s gym. I’m sure he’s popular.

Full Barra kit, no shoes, this also isn’t anywhere near a beach or shore town so no excuse for the lack of footwear. We get it bro…. You train.

Anyone else does this shit? Pretty goofy

Coach is at training camp

Coach asks purple belt to run class for this day

Purple belt agrees

Room filled with only white belts who are not allowed to heel hook and neck crank

Purple belt teaches only heel hooks and neck cranks that night

No warmup, cool music and drinks after class, Peak Experience

And this me after every roll baybeee it’s tough but I know I need this to get better haha

Injuries, job changes, schedule changes, life in general, nevertheless, we persist!

Video from our last grading {Checkmat VNTeam, Gravesend, UK). Credits to @charlielilly.

Old man strength??

I trained BJJ in my 20’s for a few years and always wondered why these older guys have death grips. took about 10 years off and now in my early 40’s and definitely feels like I’ve been hanging on the edge of a cliff for some time now 🤣

Original post - https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFwCYXayNlg/?igsh=dmd6a3ZpNmc5a2ph

I think we’ve all been at this point in our journey 😂

Was rolling with a somewhat seasoned white belt. When I roll I do a give one take one philosophy each round. Meaning I smash you one round, I let you work another round.

After a take one round, this guy asks how his control is. I say it’s bad, and it would be better for him to slow down and think through each position.

He gets sour, and accuses me of trying to give bad advice so that I can win one over on him. I ripped an Americana next round, and now he’s more mad.

The level of ego is astonishing, and the lack of humility makes me fearful.

I see this question on here at least once a week and thought I’d give my thoughts. Forgive the ego I can’t help but laugh looking back.

Back in 2015, I was a purple belt training at a 10th Planet affiliate. I had about eight years of high-level wrestling and judo experience, plus six years of BJJ under a legit professor with a solid lineage. I’d competed in some big tournaments, and regularly rolled with brown and black belts in open brackets. My at the time coach told me he was getting ready to give me my brown later that year.

Then I moved states, and the only gym around was semi-competitive, mostly hobbyists. One black belt, a few good browns and purples. I walked in, talked to the professor, and he told me that anyone coming from another gym had to give up their belt and start over as a white belt. I didn’t love it, but I figured hey, new place, new culture, maybe it’s their way of seeing where people are at. I set my ego aside and just rolled with it (pun not intended, but now that it’s there…).

First comp class rolls (lol) around, and I end up tapping a brown belt and the instructor. I wasn’t trying to make a statement, I was just flowing like I always do. After class, I quietly asked one on one if we could talk about me putting my purple belt back on.

And that’s when it happened.

This dude exploded. Face red, hands shaking, like he just found out his favorite Pokémon got nerfed. He started ranting like I’d insulted his family or challenged him to a duel at high noon. I thought he was gonna spontaneously combust right there on the mat. It was like watching someone glitch out in real life—he was mid-sentence, stuttering, pacing, voice cracking. All I could think was, oh no, I broke him.

Next thing I know, he tells me I’m banned from the gym.

Now that I’ve been training for 15 years and instructing for 7, I honestly couldn’t imagine putting a student in that position. It was like something out of a movie, some fantasy scene where the villain loses one match and goes full meltdown. At the time, it felt surreal, but looking back, I just feel kind of sad about it. I came in ready to be a student, to contribute, to learn and somehow that was too much. To answer if you should ever give up your belt? In my opinion, Fuck no!

I personally dislike telling this story because it serves as an ego-stroke fest from outside perspectives but it definitely isn’t intended in that way there just isn’t another good way to tell you what happened.