Can BJJ Become A Cult?

Most often, we think of a cult as some offshoot religious group. It doesn't have to be. Other groups and communities can have cult like attributes. There are several work out and fitness groups that seem very cultish, from Crossfit to yoga.

Often times these groups themselves recognize it and will joke about it and wear it as a badge of honor, such as the Crossfit guys. I would have to say though, BJJ guys are more fanatical about their sport than the Crossfit guys and would put them to shame, but I never hear the word cult uttered from any of them. Maybe the cult is that strong?

This is more of a reflection on what I've seen and experienced and also done tongue and cheek but there are many similarities.

1. Religious. Though cult isn't thrown around, the word religious is. Often to describe how often someone trains or competes.
2. Sacred space. A place where all cults need to go to meet, have their own rituals, and ceremonies. This would be the academy.
3. Their own sacred clothing. Gi or no gi. Belts as well.
4. Own language. TMA, MMA, S&C, Gas, Rolling, Spaz, BRO, Oss, I can keep going on and on.
5. The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its system, belief, leader (alive or dead) as the truth.
6. Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged.
7. Chanting. As heard in every IBJJF tournament.
8. The leadership explains, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel.
9. The group is elitist and claiming an exhausted status for itself, its leaders, and members. You complain to your teammates about how your other friends or loved ones just don't get it? Do not understand how special you are a human being are for doing this art?
10. Which leads to this next thing. A you vs. me mentality.
11. The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered abnormal or dangerous. Competing. Training while injured. Not working. Not going to school. Living off parents. Eating expensive acai all the time. Etc.
12. The group induces feelings of shame and/or guilt iin order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion. Why can't you train more bro? Don't be a pussy. Come on compete!
13. Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities. I watch so many videos and drill so much bro, you don't even know.
14. Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
15. The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be.
16. Status and rank. Promotions.
17. Proof of commitment in the group, usually through ritual. Belt ceremony, whipping or being tossed.
18. Ultimately you have improved greatly through the group and would not have done so otherwise without it.
19. Just STFU and train bro!
20. You pay to be in the group.

This is all in humor of course so relax. I think BJJ is a great art and sport and I truly love it. But I think you need a balance and sometimes people take it too seriously and let it under-develop every other area of their life. If a baby didn't want to explore or play you would worry because it wasn't trying to develop. So you would take it to the doctor to see if they were mentally retarded. Your job as an adult is STILL to develop as a human being, in all the areas that human beings can develop in. If you don't you may need to question if you are also mentally retarded.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

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Lately a lot of people have been advertising invisible Jiu Jitsu. And after thinking about it a lot, and speaking to people like Henry Akins, I think invisible Jiu Jitsu is just forgotten Jiu Jitsu. It's all the little details that our instructors teach us, that we just forget over time. Which is natural. Whether you write it down, rep it a bunch, we can only retain so much.

A way to get a grip, a way to grab the collar, a way to control their hips. And as people get their black belts, they all put their own spin, their own unique twists on Jiu Jitsu.

It's like taking the Mona Lisa, and then a really great artist, hand copies it. Then another great artist, hand copies that. And after a while, it may still look good because it's made by good hands, but maybe it doesn't look so much like the Mona Lisa anymore. Or maybe it looks like her, unless you look close. This is what probably happened to a lot of martial arts.

Our ability to retain the basic principles and details will determine our ability to master the invisible. It's invisible because we are doing the shit the other person forgot right? Or their instructor forgot to teach for that matter.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

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15 April 2010 @ 06:46 pm

If it were a video game, and you are creating a character, you can put a certain amount of points into their skills or into their physicals. You could have a magician who would be highly skilled, or a barbarian who is very physical. Or a knight who is somewhere in between.

BJJ is the same way. You can come from the mindset where technique rules over all. Or someone who thinks physicality rules. Someone who relies purely on his physicality will think if they have an off night, they are just out of shape, they just aren't in the zone, they aren't strong enough, etc. When it could be their technique is what's failing them. On the other side a technician who is having an off night may think they have to learn a new technique or fix a perfectly fine technique, when in actuality it was their body that failed them not their skill.

Both have a lot to learn from each other. You need a proper blend of both.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Coach, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Yoga and Pilates instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.