Sandbagging is a term used in martial arts to denote a practitioner who competes at a skill-bracket deemed less rigorous than their actual level of competitive ability. The term is adopted similarly in golf and various forms of racing. In contrast to these sports however, it remains unclear whether the grappling “sandbagger” necessarily does so intentionally. For example, in Judo or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, where competition is generally divided by belt rank, a practitioner is conventionally not allowed to choose his or her own ranking and thus must compete at a level predetermined by his or her instructor.

This week at the 2024 IBJJF European Championship a competitor from Germany, Salvatore Cotrone age 22 competed as a white when he was in fact already a blue belt Since may 2023 under his instructor Norman Schaeffer. He holds 60 wins in Grappling/BJJ on Smoothcomp alone. He ended up winning the white belt division at the Europeans and proudly posted his picture on Instagram.

Dated from last weekend, January 2024:

Pictures from his Instagram (before he deleted all the pictures) show that he was a blue belt from as far back as May 2023.

He had also competed numerous times as a blue belt and is also listed as a BJJ blue belt on Smoothcomp.

IBJJF have already been informed and are contacting him. A serious penalty will follow for him, since IBJJF does not tolerate any form of sandbagging.

His instructor Norman Schaeffer, who is a Luta Livre black belt, attempted to clarify things saying that his student is in fact a blue belt in Luta Livre, not in BJJ. The problem is, that he was already registered on smoothcomp as a blue belt in BJJ from way back in 2023 and competed twice already as a blue belt.

“Good morning all together. Just to clarify one or two things. Our student is a bluebelt, yes. But it is a bluebelt in LUTA LIVRE ( Nogi Submission Wrestling style), wich is not accepted by the ibjjf. Our student does his Bjj/Gi-training and competition with Gracie Barra, where he holds the rank of a whitebelt. As far as I know (and I don’t know much, nor care about the ibjjf rules et tbh) the ibjjf doesn’t allow you to start in a higher division, even if you’ve wanted to. And he wanted to…
The fact, that he wears a Bluebelt (his Luta Livre belt) in a Grappling Industries Event was in search for more challenge and matches. Which is common practise. The post above were just congratulations for his accomplishment and growth in the Gi training with his Gracie Barra team.
Salva doesn’t duck for adversity. We will bring the Bluebelt gold medal in the future. So please, chill.”

Salvatore’s BJJ instructor, Andre Nunes, from Gracie Barra Sternschanze should have been aware of this as he is the one who had signed off on Salvatore’s IBJJF registration.

He posted this picture on IG, celebrating the victory which he deleted afterwards:

Sandbagging prohibitions: Some officiating organizations attempt to proactively curb the occurrence of sandbagging. These actions range from simple rule restrictions, such as the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation prohibiting those with a Judo black belt from competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu white belt divisions, to organizations such as the North American Grappling Association employing a special tracking system designed to record competitors nationally and potentially re-assign them to a higher skill-level in NAGA events.