If you are training in a BJJ academy or have just joined a BJJ Academy, please take the time to look at these signs of cult behavior that you may have seen in your own BJJ academy. Some academies have some of these features and that’s not so bad. If your school has most of these features then you should be asking yourself some questions and think of what’s best for YOU.
First of all, what is a cult?
A cult is any group which employs mind control and deceptive recruiting techniques. A group or movement may be a cult if it acts in ways that are illegal, abusive or otherwise unacceptable in a civilized society.
Cults look great on the outside but on the inside they are rotten and very manipulating.
Here are cultic BJJ warning signs
1. Opposing critical thinking
The best BJJ instructors are open minded. They do not see their way as the only way and accept the fact that BJJ is a complex martial art that can be taken into hundreds of directions. In a cult -like group, your professor asks you to stick strictly to what is being teached, not allowing you to explore new BJJ techniques on your own.
A cult BJJ academy will not allow their ways or practices to be questioned. If you question, then automatically you will be alienated and they will assume that something is wrong with you. The members don’t know any better as this is the only BJJ academy that they have been exposed to. The one who ask questions will be deemed as having a “bad attitude”.
2. Single charismatic leader.
The cult BJJ instructor is very dangerous because of the influence they have on the students. They have a cult like following when they seek inappropriate loyalty from the students. The students are fed a blown up or false story about the instructors accomplishment (it can be a having an unbeaten 400-0 fight record for example) or even having ‘mythical powers’.
A BJJ cult leader may come off at first as being very friendly but beware, they know how to take advantage of vulnerable people who are looking for answers, leadership, guidance etc.. They can get vulnerable people to believe anything or to do anything. You might think you’d never get taken in, but don’t bet on it.
Anything the group/leader does or has done can be justified no matter how bad it is.
3. Brainwashing and mind control over the students
Mind Control are psychological techniques that cult leaders attempt to control their members with. They are a dishonest influence applied by the cult leader on members.
They are the only true Jiu-Jitsu academy, the only one teaching ‘pure Jiu-Jitsu’ straight from the source… So why go anywhere else and learn wrong the ‘other’ Jiu-Jitsu?
In this video, Rokas an Aikido Black belt instructor, who also trains BJJ and BJJ, takes an in-depth look at BJJ and what aspects of it may fall into being a cult.
00:00 Intro – Understanding Cults
04:24 Personal Disclaimer
06:27 Extreme BJJ Cult Example – Team Lloyd
13:35 Comparing BJJ and Aikido as a cult
20:22 The Creonte Phenomenon in BJJ
25:14 BJJ Against the BITE Model
35:18 Summary
