A Note on Jiu-Jitsu Dojo Etiquette

 

I enjoy listening to the Shintaro Higashi podcast, and a recent episode addressed dojo etiquette. Shintaro said that he had heard that it is a breach of etiquette for lower ranking BJJ players to ask higher ranking BJJ players to roll. In other words, it would be odd for a white belt to ask a blue belt to roll.

I have a limited view on the subject, having only started training in January 2017, and having only trained at one school. I have attended seminars and camps outside my own school, but those settings are a bit different. I am also only a blue belt, so I do not have much experience being a "senior belt."

For what it's worth, at my home school, One Spirit Martial Arts, I have not encountered this situation. As a white belt, or as a blue belt, I did not feel any concern asking to roll with a higher belt. I do not feel weird when a white belt asks to roll with me. I believe this is a cultural norm set by professor Sauer and the head instructors at the academy.

I'd like to describe a drill that encourages a culture of mixing lower and higher belts, particularly white belts with colored belts.

When professor Sauer runs a mixed level class (featuring all belts), there's usually a similar number of white belts and colored belts. For example, you might have a dozen white belts and a dozen colored belts. If there are far more colored belts than white belts, then you might get close to even numbers by putting the white and blue belts in one group, and the purple and higher belts in a second group.

To run a drill, the instructor tells the higher level group to take the mat and spread out. The lower belts each then pair with one of the higher belts. The teaching method is to run some sort of positional drill that benefits both partners. Consider a drill where the higher belts start in the bottom of mount, with the lower belt in mount position. The lower belt has to try to submit the higher belt, and the higher belt has to survive or escape during the two or more minutes. If the higher belt escapes, then they restart in the original position.

In one variation of this drill, if the lower belt succeeds, then he or she takes the higher belt's place on the mat. In another variation, the pairings change after two or more minutes, with the lower belts choosing another partner.

In either case, both belt groupings get used to working with each other. I have found that working with a senior belt is one of the best ways to really learn jiu-jitsu. When you work with a higher belt, especially a brown or black belt, you get insights into movements and tactics that are generally out of your current reach. I remember being brand new and working with a black belt. I could not understand how he escaped mount so easily, so he showed me some ways to make it more difficult for him to escape.

The key is to make sure each party is getting something useful from the experience. A secondary benefit, and one which is the target of this post, is encouraging a culture of learning across all levels of experience.