Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach Malachy Friedman has ignited a heated debate within the BJJ community, following a controversial social media post.

Specifically, Friedman asserted that students lying down during instruction is disrespectful.
Here is what he had to say:

You’re not at the beach, this isn’t your house.

When your coach is instructing you, make sure that you’re sitting there and being respectful…
Being attentive, being part of the group.

Friedman explains why you should act like this:

Remember, being a teacher is hard.
You want to capture everybody’s attention and you want them to enjoy it.

And then you see some guy sitting off in the corner or some guy sitting like he’s at the beach…
It distracts the coach.

In other words, it’s about making sure that you show coach the proper respect – so they can coach properly as well:

You want your coach to be excited when teaching.

If you see somebody laying down or off in the corner, that might bring down his urge to teach a good class.
And that’s going to affect everybody else.

Just sit there, be attentive, you don’t have to be a monk or anything – just be cool.

 

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