Written by By Claire-France Thévenon for Jits.fr (translated from French)
Competition is war! Training can be as well, but in most academies there are more or less implicit rules so that everyone ends up with all their joints intact. Here is a list of behaviors that exist in training and yet will make you a despicable person on the mat!
1- Cranking submissions
An implicit rule in BJJ is to give your partner time to tap. There are, however, some BJJ practitioners who think that it’s your responsibility to hurry to tap and who don’t bother to hold back their movement. It’s dirty, but even worse, there’s also the one that keeps cranking the submission despite you tapping. Their usual excuse is: “yes, but you tapped too early, I didn’t have it yet”. Thank you, buddy, my arm will thank you as well… once separated from the rest of my body!
2- Choking someone on the jaw/mouth;
Is it legal? Yes, but this savagery is generally reserved for competition. Fighting in manly mode is good, but you don’t have to tear each others head off every time for fun …
3- Heel hooks
Yes, but it’s legal at the ADCC? OK, but you’re white belt Billy… Learn how to shrimp before baking your cake and trying to pull off a move you learned in the three MMA classes you attended. A heel hook quickly tears off a cruciate ligament in the knee (as an indication it is 6 months of rehabilitation after a rather painful operation). In Luta Livre, it’s different, the discipline allows it. A sport is played with rules, otherwise your opponent can always stick his fingers in your eyes to counter you because, you know, in the street …
4- Heel hooking beginners
There, things vary a lot from one academy to another. There are some schools where all moves are allowed. But if you are registered in a BJJ club and not in a fight club where Brad Pitt will violently smash Ed Norton’s face, normally, there are more or less rules applied to attacks on the legs like knee bars or heel hooks. Maybe it is done in some academies, but if you are a brown belt and you tap out white belts with leglocks , well done! Attacking a beginner on a move they aren’t supposed to know or apply is always funny. Next time, grab a crowbar to mug a fifth grader in school, that’s about as fair.
5- Leg locking higher belts
Reverse situation. The white belt launches a crazy kneebar on an upper belt. Let’s be clear, in one way or another, all the movements accessible from the brown belt (toe hold, slicers, kneebars…) are like sexual practices: it’s a question of consent! If you have agreed with your partner to apply these techniques, then no problem… If you have fun doing a prohibited movement on an upper belt: beware of reprisals!
6- Knee on belly after lunch
The knee on belly is legal, but in the afternoon training, after a little bean stew, it’s not fair play! However, this is at your own risk.
7- Chest/plexus compression
Chest compression basically consists of crushing and sashing your opponent. Often practiced with a body triangle, it is more unpleasant than it is effective. In training, it hurts for nothing. As useless and petty as a chin on the ribs.
8- Grappling against the wall
In MMA, the use of the cage is part of the fighter’s game plan. However, note that in a BJJ tournament, there are no walls! We know you got off to a good start in a great action, but you have to accept that you come up against the wall or against another group and that you have to stop. Everyone knows a training champion who attacks you as you release the pressure to move.
9- Tickling
It’s always a good way to get off the back. Deceitful and petty, at the same time we are ashamed for you and at the same time, well done!
10- Wrist lock
It is forbidden before the blue belt, if you are not the blue belt, it is wrong. Otherwise, it’s so fun to do! Completely legal, however, wrist locks are seen as really dirty moves to do in practice. They are seen like this because they are often slapped on too hard. In short, if you do them in training, you are despicable (but deep down, we understand you).
