Important IBJJF Rules Changes On Minimum Belt Time Requirement - BJJ World (bjj-world.com)
Seems kinda governing bodyish to me. Odd that they have this power.
They can do what they want within their own org.
We know it’s a for-profit business scheme, not part of the Olympic movement.
Not that that is really not-for-profit…
Thats how governments work. They govern their organizations.
And?
Nobody is under any obligation to join.
Most of the black belts underneath me do not bother.
It annoys me, because it puts the printing-scanning-signing obligation on me,
and I don’t charge for it.
I’m correcting that meme as it was used to attack my mental health, the idea being that because the IBJJF is not a governing body, that clearly they don’t control rank at all AND that the hundreds of people around me under their influence, are clearly NOT members. I made all that up. In reality its the opposite.
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Feeding into the idea that the IBJJF has special status among the other tournament or competition options, creates or at least feeds the monster that you wish to oppose.
As somebody that has sponsored and help create other tournament orgs over the past few decades, the best thing to do to erode IBJJF marketshare and influence is compete and support the other tournament orgs.
As an aside, I am not a fan of their ruleset in several ways.
Their ruleset is not, in my opinion, the best representation of what makes Jiu-Jitsu good.
I prefer the rules sets of Vale Tudo / NHB, submission grappling, and old style BJJ point Jiu-Jitsu before advantage points, when more take downs were legal, and “knee reaping” was not yet an invented phrase, much less a rule against.
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I feel accuracy is more important. They are in fact a governing body. Regulating promotions for over 6,000 academies worldwide is a lot of governing.
As for their comp rules, I like them. I think they promote slow, fundamentally sound BJJ.
Basically, IMO, all his bullshit gotcha games need to come with a refund. Oh, graduation is impossible through no fault of my own? Cool. Pay me back what I spent plus opportunity costs.
At this point, dude needs to die in a fire, but thats what he should’ve done if he wanted to play games with peoples investments. BJJ isnt free, and if you do a live in program like I did, the opportunity cost is high, as are the actual costs.
Most people graduate.
Some of them choose to get IBJJF certified as black belt athletes for less than $50, and some don’t, their choice, no big deal.
Some of them choose to go through a background check, get first aid certified, and pass a rules course which costs $80 bucks, and pay a $400 certification fee, and some don’t, their choice, no big deal.
Lots of BJJ black belts choose not to be bothered with the IBJJF at all, also, their choice, no big deal.
They are still recognized black belts in BJJ.
Royce Gracie, the Machado Brothers, lots of well known BJJ affiliations, and networks completely do not participate with the IBJJF at all,
As well as BJJ Globetrotters, one of the largest BJJ affiliations on the planet, who charge their members no fees, to affiliate.
And Beltcheckers, who certify BJJ ranks for you guessed it, free.
So, while I feel for you that Souza tried to put a bite on you…
Uh…
The issue is that any interference should come with a refund. I have never had any school EVER interfere with my grades for any reason. Every class passed or failed was legitimate. And yes, I know that most people seemingly graduate BJJ just fine. Not sure your view is quite accurate though. It seems brown belt extortion is a booming business, with many, many that I know mysteriously dropping their brand to purchase an affiliation right before they get promoted to black. I think the students have an easier time graduating, while brown belt instructors face extortion. IMO the motive is keeping the number of instructors down so that theres more money to go about. And IMO, that plan should come with a refund. “Hey guys, industry is kinda small and if we advance too many people, we run out of money, so here is a refund.” Not these smears and lies. Also, the ways out are sorta disingenuous. When I was sorting shit out, the mob sorta rushed over to disrupt shit. Some people, to this day, actually believe the issue is that I bought a black belt. Why that narrative? Its disruptive and defamatory and thats all people were going for.
I have interfered with some brown belt holds, who were being held, for business reasons, before on a number of occasions.
My approach is always to encourage both parties to work it out.
One hates to see a relationship that often is a decade long, break off, for less than really material reasons.
But in those cases, where the brown was clearly a black belt, and purely or only being held for business reasons, or being kicked out, in some cases for purely business reasons,
I have caused a fuss from time to time, by telling the instructor in question, “OK, but if you don’t promote them, just for business reasons, I am going to, your choice.”
It has, from time to time, caused a fuss.
The whole thing reminds me of the worst frat pledge, likely in US history. Dude pledged, it did NOT go well for him, which was partially on him and partially on leadership. So he leaves the region and tries again. Nope, the people after him were still after him. State after state and he started to get the idea. We were EVERYWHERE. Now are there unscrupulous dudes who would’ve accepted his pledge? Sure. He had options. But where were we? He didn’t know. So any door he knocked on, there was a 95% chance we’d be behind it.
He tried explaining himself multiple times, getting yelled at, laughed at, and called a liar for his efforts. Nothing worked cause we weren’t having that shit. Turns out he was actually telling the truth the entire time. Doesn’t redeem him, but lo and behold he WAS who he said he was and witnessed what he said he witnessed. In the end, the matter proved to be too much for him and he allegedly died. I say allegedly, because its also possible his handler extracted him and he changed identities.
But yeah, the point is that how surrounded you are, when you are the one surrounded, is less important than how surrounded you appear to be. Its like watching a police raid on tv where you can see theres a clear opening in the lines on one side of the house. Sure there is, but the guy inside just hears hes surroundeds, sees flashing lights everywherew and feels stuck as fuck.
I’ve gone back and forth in my views on university social clubs that have secret ritual aspects, aka fraternities and sororities.
For a long time, I would point out statistically, that whenever large numbers of college students got together with drugs and alcohol present, problems tended to occur, so fraternities and sororities were a correlation, and not necessarily a causation factor, as the drugs and alcohol were by far the causative dynamics in problems occurring on college campuses.
However, I have very recently changed my view a bit.
The culty aspects of fraternities and sororities are an extra causative effect, and no matter how small compared to the drug and alcohol dynamics, college students fuck up enough, and get fucked up enough without the additional drivers which resemble closely a continuation of the Mean Girls dynamics or pick your favorite stupid mischief causing and male group that bullies others from High School.
So, in the past two years, as a university employee, I have switched my own perspective a bit on them, and I am more supportive of universities deciding to remove the greek social fraternities and sororities from their campuses.
Who needs one more set of problems to deal with, as university employees (said the old guy, who increasingly is becoming a grouchy, crotchety old fuck).
My frat is basically a bunch of drunk, coked up anti-heroes that say fucked up shit and every so often, on occassion, save the day.