Rolled with a purple belt in BJJ

[asian-glow]

Reminds me of this fitness gal who started up bjj and posted on her facebook about how she rolled with a purple belt and held her own.

I wanted to burst that bubble so bad.

Anyhow, Purple and White is like boxercise person vs actual boxer.

I'm one of the smaller people in my gym so I always get partnered with new people. I used to think all people wanted a pleasant experience of a easy flow roll. Let them work their technique, etc.

Then I heard about people like this. If I think someone will be receptive to it I will tap them as many times as possible and give them nothing. Some of these guys will thank you for it.

 

[asian-glow]

Yes, definitely you can. Purple isn't magic. Frankly, almost anyone with enough drive can reach a black belt level of skill. It's just a matter of putting the time in. The best thing about real skills like BJJ is that they're hard to earn but no one can shortcut it. If someone is a good grappler it's because they put in the time. Talented people might reach that level faster, but they still had to work. And no amount of talent makes up for not working hard.

These threads always amuse me because I vaguely remember being a new purple belt and toying with white belts, and now I toy with purple belts (though sometimes they're hard to tap). And then I go to a seminar and roll with someone at the top of the mountain, and they just toy with me. There are levels to this shit.

When someone beats you really bad in a technical manner it is inspiring.

As far as white belts are concerned purple belts are magic. I remember as a white belt every Friday I went to an open mat and the only guy who showed was a striped purple belt. He would whoop my ass for 2 hours.

Can honestly say that was my most formative bjj xp and solidified that if I put the time in I could have that level of control over someone.

 

[shunyata]

One of the co-instructor is purple belt. I'm a white belt with 1 stripe. All I can say is Holy Cow. I got smash and submitted very easily. It's like there is huge gap between me and my co instructor. Granted he is younger and little bigger than I am but still.

I asked him if there is one thing I can improve on to better spar with him. He said movement. Just keep moving. I notice he was able to transition to position very easily and was able to put pressure at the right time which made it difficult for me to move . Honestly I felt little discourage. It's like your training at a boxing gym and get worked over by one of the stable boxer there. You wonder if this is for you.

Not only is it for you, it's for everyone who keeps on coming.

And not only that, but one day you may see that purple rolling with a legit brown or black belt and they're drowning, barely able to keep their head up for air.

The rabbit hole goes deep, just keep training.

 

[shunyata]

Another note - it's better to monitor your progress among people more along your skill/belt level. Tournaments are great for seeing where you're at. Like others said, if you were submitting a purple belt now as a white belt, I'd be questioning that person's purple belt.

Purple now, have tapped purples as white. But it was after multiple months of training and in the case of the first one he'd been kicking my ass all through those months, I was 20 lbs heavier than both of them and I grew up doing judo.

First one's response, "fucking wristlocks" "sorry man I put the pressure slow but thought I had it" "no you're good, I'm mad at me"

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

I'm one of the smaller people in my gym so I always get partnered with new people. I used to think all people wanted a pleasant experience of a easy flow roll. Let them work their technique, etc.

Then I heard about people like this. If I think someone will be receptive to it I will tap them as many times as possible and give them nothing. Some of these guys will thank you for it.

I'm the opposite - I try to avoid new guys. To avoid injuries.

 

[jack36767]

Reminds me of this fitness gal who started up bjj and posted on her facebook about how she rolled with a purple belt and held her own.

I wanted to burst that bubble so bad.

Anyhow, Purple and White is like boxercise person vs actual boxer.

I literally had this happen at a wrestling class I helped with at an mma gym yesterday lol. Dude just backs up and is stiff arming/popping me in the head.. so I just stand up, he finally shoots and gets on my leg. Because I’m there to help and don’t want to hurt anyone, I just whizzer and hip in a little and just put on a hip but don’t punish him and let him hang on my leg and work. Most of the go is like this, as in clearly not smashing him on purpose because I choose not to.. after the roll.. starts talking about “how good he did, how his shots were awesome just has to learn how to finish etc” acting like I had nothing to do with him not “winning” but only his mistakes. And talking about it after to other people. I realized how much I’ve calmed down because even a year ago I’d have grabbed him to roll again and smashed him.

Those people either quit or never really get better. No point in getting annoyed

 

[kpoz12]

Take a lot of steroids and acai.

 

[xMTDx]

Just keep showin up, you will reach a level far higher than you believe. Just keep showing up.

Exactly. Don't quit and don't die lol. Keep showing up, and you'll get there. Three stripe purple belt here after 13 years. Got tapped by a good blue belt tonight once I gassed. Tapped a black belt a week or two ago. Either way it doesn't matter. Keep showing up and enjoy the process. Make yourself accountable to the mats for your long term health and humility, you'll be a better person in the long run.

 

[asian-glow]

I'm the opposite - I try to avoid new guys. To avoid injuries.

Yea I hear you and I think it's an intelligent thing to do.

Part of the reason I do BJJ is for self defense. One of the best ways to do this is to train with new guys because they'll usually start wildin out at 100% - they'll do a lot of wacky things that trained individuals will not do. Is there a risk? Yes there is. But it's worthwhile to me because those are the types of people I would probably face if I ever needed to use my bjj.

Plus I am on 100% alert mode. If I sense any kind of malice on their intent, which to be fair is hard to distinguish from them just not knowing any better and going into survival mode, I will give them nothing and set my ray gun to vaporize.

I would also find it disturbing to know that my bjj didn't work on someone who knew nothing, even on people who are large/muscular, so I'd rather work out those kinks now on a soft mat with people to intervene than an unknown environment. While anybody can be beat, to loosely paraphrase DirtyHolt, a new person injuring you would in a way affirm that weight lifting are better martial arts than bjj.

I respect your decision to refrain though - maybe when I'm older I'll look back and laugh at how dumb I was - like when I used to think being on bottom was a good place for small people.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

Yea I hear you and I think it's an intelligent thing to do.

Part of the reason I do BJJ is for self defense. One of the best ways to do this is to train with new guys because they'll usually start wildin out at 100% - they'll do a lot of wacky things that trained individuals will not do. Is there a risk? Yes there is. But it's worthwhile to me because those are the types of people I would probably face if I ever needed to use my bjj.

Plus I am on 100% alert mode. If I sense any kind of malice on their intent, which to be fair is hard to distinguish from them just not knowing any better and going into survival mode, I will give them nothing and set my ray gun to vaporize.

I would also find it disturbing to know that my bjj didn't work on someone who knew nothing, even on people who are large/muscular, so I'd rather work out those kinks now on a soft mat with people to intervene than an unknown environment. While anybody can be beat, to loosely paraphrase DirtyHolt, a new person injuring you would in a way affirm that weight lifting are better martial arts than bjj.

I respect your decision to refrain though - maybe when I'm older I'll look back and laugh at how dumb I was - like when I used to think being on bottom was a good place for small people.

Well I am older - in my 40s now so I have to be very proactive in avoiding injuries. They take forever to heal now.

I will also scope out newer guys and kinda gage them and roll or not roll with accordingly.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

Take a lot of steroids and acai.

 

[dmwalking]

One of the co-instructor is purple belt. I'm a white belt with 1 stripe. All I can say is Holy Cow. I got smash and submitted very easily. It's like there is huge gap between me and my co instructor. Granted he is younger and little bigger than I am but still.

I asked him if there is one thing I can improve on to better spar with him. He said movement. Just keep moving. I notice he was able to transition to position very easily and was able to put pressure at the right time which made it difficult for me to move . Honestly I felt little discourage. It's like your training at a boxing gym and get worked over by one of the stable boxer there. You wonder if this is for you.

LMAO. Guy with more experience beats you and you get discouraged. What did you expect?

 

[DanaWhitesButler]

One of the co-instructor is purple belt. I'm a white belt with 1 stripe. All I can say is Holy Cow. I got smash and submitted very easily. It's like there is huge gap between me and my co instructor. Granted he is younger and little bigger than I am but still.

I asked him if there is one thing I can improve on to better spar with him. He said movement. Just keep moving. I notice he was able to transition to position very easily and was able to put pressure at the right time which made it difficult for me to move . Honestly I felt little discourage. It's like your training at a boxing gym and get worked over by one of the stable boxer there. You wonder if this is for you.

Reframe that and just imagine you'll be that good one day if you just keep training. It's exciting!

 

[Higus]

lol, i remember when I was starting bjj, I was getting handled by some blue belts. There wasn't anything I could do against them. I remember talking to them afterward and they would mention how the purple belts would wipe the floor with them, and then the purple belts would talk about how they couldn't do anything against the black belts. The black belt mentioned that he went to a seminar and rolled with a pro and he couldn't do anything either. My mind was blown.

 

[DanaWhitesButler]

I literally had this happen at a wrestling class I helped with at an mma gym yesterday lol. Dude just backs up and is stiff arming/popping me in the head.. so I just stand up, he finally shoots and gets on my leg. Because I’m there to help and don’t want to hurt anyone, I just whizzer and hip in a little and just put on a hip but don’t punish him and let him hang on my leg and work. Most of the go is like this, as in clearly not smashing him on purpose because I choose not to.. after the roll.. starts talking about “how good he did, how his shots were awesome just has to learn how to finish etc” acting like I had nothing to do with him not “winning” but only his mistakes. And talking about it after to other people. I realized how much I’ve calmed down because even a year ago I’d have grabbed him to roll again and smashed him.

Those people either quit or never really get better. No point in getting annoyed

These people piss me off. I intentionally make sure I go 95% with my regular training partners at least occasionally so there's no delusion about pecking order. They all know what I'm capable of whether they're better than me or worse. The amusing part of this is that the completely new guys will mistakenly assume I'm better than some of the higher belts because the higher belts never show them an intense roll. Some of them think I'm one of the best in the academy (LOL!)

 

[Gandhi]

Ha 4 stripe blue and I just got murdered by a purple belt at a gym I was visiting. Lock down never works on me but he had it on constantly LOLOLOL. Whata ya gonna do? T-R-A-I-N

 

[Thrawn33]

Purps liked to start standing f with me to work TDs....and most of the I took them down but if there was ever anything that re-enforced the importance of throwing someone and landing in a dominant position it was throwing a purple. At least landing in control outside of guard they had to work a little...

 

[CrazyN8]

Purps liked to start standing f with me to work TDs....and most of the I took them down but if there was ever anything that re-enforced the importance of throwing someone and landing in a dominant position it was throwing a purple. At least landing in control outside of guard they had to work a little...

I can see this, I just had a 4 stripe white get a single leg on me, good stuff, but i swept and submitted him almost immediately afterwards, baseball bat choke, I kinda felt bad cause it was a good dump on his part.

 

[Gabicho]

First time i rolled with a purple belt, i felt he was a jedi.
This was probably 15 years ago, when there were very few black belts, browns and purples. The majority of instructors where purple belts (outside of Brazil). The blue belts where "ok", but the difference between them and purples seemed abysmal. Purple belts, to me, are sort of the "enforcers" of their club and BJJ in general. They have to show the power of the gentle art and it's normal to be and feel dominated by a good one if you're "new".
Unfortunately, fast forward to this day, and i feel like there's so many Barney Belts instead of purple belts. Donkey, monkey, twinkie, humpty dumptey guards who will roll in agony like Neymar if by accident someone reaps their knee by an inch or if a white/blue belt forces them to roll hard to beat them up. A few years ago they'd just smash and destroy with no contempt for organic life.

 

[mattemate]

@jack36767 came here to relate a similar story.

I have to say this is legitimately the first time I've been pissed off at a white belt. There's a new guy, 25ish. Very athletic, played baseball or soccer at a D1 school, forgot which sport.

The first time I rolled with him it was his third class. I let him pass into side control and try to work the choke we were drilling in class that day. Of course I escape. Afterwards he starts going on about how he almost had me. I told him man I let you get that position. He insists he almost had me. I let it go. Whatever.

A couple of days ago. Open mat. I'm playing open guard. I let him take side control and then mount me. Escape, reverse, arm bar. Reset. I catch a triangle. He's getting very frustrated. "Dammit, I fucked up." I say, "Hey, don't worry about it. I screw up 50 times a day. We're not in the finals at the worlds here, we're just playing around." Then I catch him in the exact same triangle, exact same setup. I guess this really pissed him off. We reset, I end up in side control pretty quickly. This is where it goes bad.

I'm inside control and he starts digging his far side thumb into my throat. Hard. From side control obviously I can do the same only much worse. But I just say, "Hey dude, get your thumb out of my throat." He says, "I'm just grabbing your fucking collar." I just get up and walk back to the wall and sit my happy ass down. There's still 3 or 4 minutes left on the clock.

So now I'm wondering what I should do next. Sit him down and tell him basic Jiu-Jitsu courtesy? Get the word around so everyone knows to smash him? I'm kind of thinking next roll with him to just make it suck for 8 minutes. Fist to throat from closed guard, knee on belly, cross face pressure, elbow grinds, chokes on his jaw. Good old Ralph Gracie style.

I helped to open this academy and am a charter member. Never dealt with this type of asshole before.

Thoughts and suggestions?