Chris Haueter, one of the original American pioneers of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a sixth-degree black belt, recently sat down for a deep and honest conversation on the Partizan Grappling podcast.

Haueter reflected on his long career, the growth of the sport, and some of the traditions that have evolved, for better or worse, over the years.

For example, Haueter addressed the origins of the infamous belt-promotion ritual known as the gauntlet — where newly promoted students are whipped with belts by their teammates as they run through a tunnel of people:

I’m pretty darn sure that it was me (who started the practice).
The Machados were off filming a movie… We’d promoted a couple guys and we wanted to give them a right of passage.

According to Haueter, it was originally meant as a lighthearted initiation, with just a single strike from each teammate:

We wanted to give them a right of passage.
It’s a bunch of us young new black belts and I said why don’t we run them through a whipping gauntlet.

But the ritual soon morphed into something else entirely — spreading rapidly and getting more extreme along the way:

Within a year it was viral, and then it got brutal.
People were putting their belts in Icy Hot… It got absolutely cruel.

I remember thinking: “God, I wish I would have never started that.”

As the practice caught on, especially in Brazil, it sometimes took an even harsher form:

Some of the other black belts wanted to do a lot meaner stuff like paddling them.
Everyone just does one hit… Everyone gets a body shot.

He emphasized that not all hazing is inherently bad, but when boundaries aren’t set, things can easily spiral:

Hazing is a spectrum, the problem is when it gets out of hand.
If I would do it in my later stages, I would do it much more respectfully.”

In other words, some pressure can build character — but only to a point:

Some hazing is good, but obviously it goes off the rails.

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