I fucking hate martial artists. Mostly because of watching them over the years. Biggest nest of arrogant punk motherfuckers I’ve ever witnessed. These people train to dominate others and I think it gets in their head. And experts on everything in and out of the cage. No wonder they’re also promoting everything from lizard people conspiracies to junk science.
I just joined BJJ to try to improve my opinions of martial arts. Figured I’d start with proven shit to build a base. So far it’s fine. Good exercise. Fun.
My problem is it’s not improving my opinion. At all. Nothing to do with my place, theyre all great people. I think it’s because of how ma is seen in public. I don’t want to tell anyone that I train a ma because it would be fucking embrassed.
I’ve not found the BJJ community to be significantly different than society at large in most ways once you account for geography. Gyms do vary some and this is largely a function of the instructor. I.e. is it a “traditional” vs competition focused school. One does have to possess sufficient financial resources to train BJJ due to its relative expense though.
Despite spending quite a bit of time in the “community”, I’m no more likely to enjoy the company of any of the members vs any other random person.
The people you describe are a mirror for you that reflect the qualities about yourself that you despise.
This is, to a large degree, why you are bothered by them.
Higher incidence of ringworm, than the general population.
Also, the longer the train, the higher the chance they will have more disabling injuries, than the general population.
I guess the biggest question I have is, are you sure you are practicing any martial art for the right reason? I could be off base, but it seems like you are learning various arts for the purpose of impressing people (yeah, I know, you said you are embarrassed to tell them - we call this part “projection.”)
If you want to go deeper, the way we hone our skill is to continually practice/compete against our betters. This is the “sport,” argument, boiled down.
If you want to be realistic, the fact that you practice any martial art puts you above 99% of the general population. This is the “self defense,” argument, boiled down.
I’ve observed, over my 30+ years in Judo and a scant few in BJJ, that a lot of humans seem to be looking for a leader to follow, and a tribe to join. Sometimes, people choose a combat sport like BJJ or Judo, sometimes stuff like karate/TKD, etc.
That often involves getting into the culture of the country of origin of the combat sport of choice. Like, Brazil and BJJ, Japan and Judo, for example.
It can be really annoying. Getting involved in the cultural stuff can be interesting and educational, as well. It’s all a matter of degree and kind.
Maybe you should just not worry about finding a MA role model at all? I don’t think a student really needs one. Especially a presumed mature adult would need one, especially outside of MA classes.
This is a key criterion in my book. A corollary is how clean everyone keeps their clothing. I’ve seen a few gyms where people will just hang their wet uniforms and rash guards up in the dressing room and leave them there.
