Q&A For BJJ: International BJJ Exchange, The Dark Prince & Choosing Competition Divisions

Episode 342: Do you travel and train BJJ at different gyms? An interesting question came through about an International BJJ Gym exchange- could 2 unaffiliated teams host seminars for each gyms champions. Also could the gyms build something of an alliance to enhance both of the BJJ cultures on different sides of the map. JT & Joey examine all the considerations and walk through what it might take to create a cultural exchange.
Who is "The Dark Prince" ? An international man of mystery who is also an OG of the Bulletproof program - but how did he get this Bad-Ass name and who is the man behind behind the alias.
If you are competing as a masters athlete and you have no one to compete against you have 2 options- Go up a weight class or join the younger folks in Adult at the same weight. The boys discuss the pro's & con's of both options and what you can do when you get stuck in a similar situation at your next grappling tournament.

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Transcript

Speaker 2 0:07

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Speaker 3 0:17

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Speaker 2 0:22

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Speaker 2 1:39

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. If you have questions, we have answers Sometimes accurate, sometimes not but if you would like to ask us a question about anything BJJ related, bulletproof related, go to the website bulletproofbjjcom, go to podcast, scroll down and there's a button there and you can leave us a message like these good people Let us know who you are, where you're from, hit us up. All right, a few coming in today.

Speaker 1 2:04

First, a cab off the rank hey guys, hannes, here from germany, I got, uh, maybe a little bit weird question for you, but I'm training jiu-jitsu in germany, recently, went to taiwan to train there with a friend and I love both countries and both gyms and actually both of our gyms have some champions with international success. So I got this idea of maybe my home gym and my friend's home gym could have some cooperation, maybe exchange some athletes or trainers for seminars, things like that. Um, but before I approach my my coach with that kind of idea, I wanted to know what do you guys think from a gym owner's perspective, what Boxes would need to be checked so that becomes a viable option and not just some crazy student's idea? Thank you in advance for your answer and goodbye.

Speaker 2 3:19

Awesome, Hannes, what a legend. Yeah, so good, Look straight out. I would say the thing about seminars is sometimes the gym owner is beholden to their affiliation, so sometimes gyms have to have people from their own affiliation do seminars. Now, if either gym isn't strongly affiliated with any major jujitsu franchise, there's probably not a problem. But I know for sure some of our friends who own gyms. They have to factor in having two or three of the best people or head instructors from their affiliation in and that's a cost Even though it's a benefit to the students. They have to factor that in, and sometimes gym owners will lose money on seminars to benefit the students.

Weight Division and Competing Strategically

Speaker 2 4:06

So it's not yeah, or to meet the standards of the affiliation yeah, and it's not a crazy idea. I think your idea is excellent, but it would also be interesting to understand if the cultures between the two gyms are similar. Now you train at both of them, so you like both of them. The only other thing I see which could be a hurdle is just cost. If you've got to fly an athlete out, it's not kind of the same as the old Olympic games thing where the government pays for a team to go train here and do that. Jiu-jitsu doesn't function like that, it's private enterprise. So to actually fly a top person out, like pay for their flights and then pay for the seminar, that's expensive. So I think it's just more to just keep that in mind and I think it's a really good idea. Yeah, I think it could be really cool.

Speaker 2 4:51

I reckon it would largely depend on as well on the attitude of the coaches, and so if your coach was like open-minded, kind of growth oriented, you know, kind of person that likes new opportunities and thinking outside the box, they might be like fuck, yeah, like I'd love to sort of partner up, have like a sister team in Taiwan that we can, you know, do shit with, or your coach just might not be that way inclined. They might be like why would I be interested in that? You know what I mean? I'm just trying to make ends meet over here. Well, we have champions here already, yeah, so in that way I think it just depends on their vibe. But I think the idea is great and if you reckon your coaches of that vibe and the coach that you met in taiwan's of that vibe, definitely worth connecting with you know, I mean um, germany, right, it's so central to europe, I'm sure that it's a I'm sure you would get.

Speaker 2 5:41

you could potentially have a lot of travelers passing through your gym if your gym was open for that kind of thing. So it makes sense to connect with other gyms and other coaches, like hey, we have a, a holiday program where people can come in and train here for one or two weeks and you could establish something. I think Taiwan probably doesn't get the equivalent amount of tourists going there that say, germany would Not necessarily, maybe not for jujitsu, like plenty of people. You know anyone that's been to Taiwan.

Speaker 3 6:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2 6:06

I know plenty of people go to Taiwan. It just depends on where you're from. Plenty of people go to Taiwan. It just depends on where you're from. Maybe not if you're from Australia, maybe, but anyway, no, but Europe is the fucking powerhouse of holidays, right, it depends on who you are. That's a very Eurocentric thing to say, Joseph, you Anglo-white male motherfucker. It's Germany bitch. Whatever the Germany man? I don't think Germany is necessarily as popular in Asia as Taiwan is Not for the Chinese. I don't think they're allowed to go to Taiwan. They're not asking anyone's permission, bro. Anyway, to the side, it's a great idea. I definitely think you should ask yeah, do it All right?

Speaker 4 6:44

next one hey fellas, this is Ben Hanawal. Come to you from Seattle, washington.

Speaker 2 6:50

Shout out Ben.

Speaker 4 6:50

Long-time listener. First-time caller. I got a question. So a lot of times on the pod you guys reference somebody known as the Dark Prince and just I got a simple question who the fuck is the Dark Prince? How did he get this badass name? Yeah, I'll see you in the Facebook community and thanks for everything you do. Take it easy, awesome.

Speaker 2 7:12

I Dark Prince putting his voice through a fucking AI voice alterator. No, it's not. It's not. Ben Hanawal is a very active member of our Facebook community.

Speaker 2 7:22

What a voice on Ben, by the way, you've got a badass voice. It's deeper than I expected, yeah, and it's just got a cool twang to it. It does Now should be narrating trailers for 80s action films Possibly, but look, we can't say too much. No, that's the short answer. I look, could we speak to the art, because I mean, I actually don't call him the dark prince, I just call him darkness yeah because, uh, and it's changed now.

Speaker 2 7:48

oh, because he's wow, he's living in a spanish speaking part of the world. So it's okay, el principe oscura. Oh yeah, I will never call him that, because the reason why I call him Darkness is if you guys remember the Charlie Murphy skit from the real Hollywood stories from Dave Chappelle's show, and it's saying fuck your couch. And he said Charlie Murphy Darkness. Like they've beaten the shit out of Rick James, rick James bitch. And he calls them Darkness because at that time in Hollywood, eddie Murphy and Charlie Murphy were very dark skinned compared to many other people and Rick James they're like the only black dudes. Well, no, because I mean probably.

Speaker 2 8:29

Wesley Snipes came in and he was darker, but he would say fuck you darkness. And I like to say the same thing about the Dark Prince. I'm always like fuck you Darkness. Anyway, dark Prince is a graduate of the Bulletproof program. He is. He's a jujitsu guy Trained in my small group here in Sydney for a long time.

Speaker 2 8:51

I actually did train him for a little while when I was running the jujitsu program. Yes, you did, that's right, and he was an epic disappointment. Yeah, has all the potential to be really good, but doesn't give a shit, which you know. I mean the darkness is true to his character. Yeah, he's basically a vampire. Yeah, he's just kind of ageless, in a way emotionless, but he retains a certain sense of cool, even if you hate him. It's like you can't break his vibe. It's fairly unbreakable and I've tried, I've beaten the hell out of that guy and he just refuses to accept. And anyone that's like that harbours a special, unique piece of real estate in JT's mind because he's like fuck, that's the one that I couldn't break I respect him and I respect it.

Speaker 2 9:39

I've pushed so hard to really bring his day down and you can't. If you follow me or Bulletproof on Instagram, you'll catch glimpses of the Prince here and there. There's times, you know, when we're in the same part of the world at the same time, and I always make it because he doesn't live on social media at all. So I always make a point of you know, posting the story there a little bit, just so the fans know. Well, below, uh, the radar, he might just appear in a flutter of bats. He might actually be joining us at adcc this year stay tuned.

Speaker 3 10:07

So stay tuned, for you know what's coming out.

Speaker 2 10:09

Catch a glimpse of the mysterious dark prince el príncipe. Next one.

Speaker 3 10:14

hey, gents, old man, question for you. I'm a master four, 49-year-old, white belt, middleweight, 181 pounds. No one's in my weight division for an upcoming competition. I want to compete again. Should I go up to 195, or should I go down to compete with the masters three, and why? Thanks, look forward to hearing from you.

Speaker 2 10:33

Sean. What a legend. Great question, very good question. I think so many people, I mean so many people, not even masters divisions, just but if you're competing at local tournaments, you find yourself in this scenario you get stuck. What do I do? Do I, yeah, the event organizer? Well, it's always, it's usually pretty bad. If you're on the lighter side, okay, yeah, we just chuck in the next category. We've got absolute coming up, because you want to, you want to compete right, yeah you're trained, you've done the thing.

Speaker 2 10:57

My personal opinion is always to play with the skill, not with the weight. That's my take on it. I think it is better to. The assumption is that if people are younger like they're in Masters 3 or Masters 2, they're more athletic or they've got more energy. It's not necessarily the case. Just so you don't spoil your own competition experience like trying to bulk up or cut weight, stay the same and, just you know, go, go against yeah jumping the younger category and you might surprise yourself.

Speaker 2 11:26

You know, like I think there's there's a benefit to that, that that would be what I would do. Yeah, I remember getting my ass kicked by a dude in the adult division at a comp in melbourne years ago and I was like pretty, pretty sure that guy was a Masters competitor.

Speaker 3 11:38

That motherfucker just beat the shit out of me. He brought the old man strength.

Speaker 2 11:40

Yeah, and he was probably like 32.

Speaker 3 11:44

You know what I?

Speaker 2 11:44

mean, but I was like 28.

Speaker 3 11:46

Yeah, who's this old man so?

Speaker 1 11:47

much younger yeah.

Speaker 2 11:52

But yeah, I would totally say the same thing. You're definitely surprised and, look, the beauty is the pressure's off. Yeah, because you're, you're coming, you're coming down to a younger category. It's like all right. Well, I'm not, you know, it's I'm. I'm at a slight disadvantage because that's just like, cool man, just get in and do your thing. And I think there is, even though it's not as though you are a small human, you're, you're a good size human. I've got to be honest, if you're not someone who is trying to win the absolute, going up against much heavier opponents is not ideal. That's what I would say. If you're not someone who's really dead set on trying to win the absolute, if your body weight is below 75 kilos or 70 kilos, don't go heavier. That would be my advice. I had to check 181 pounds, 82 kilograms.

Speaker 3 12:37

Yeah, this is just a very solid human.

Risks and Challenges in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Speaker 2 12:39

Yeah, yeah, decent, decent weight. I think there's greater risk of injury going yeah. And also, too, you get that thing where potentially, you just get nullified by someone that's heavier and stronger and they just like shut your shit down. You're like fuck, I couldn't even do any jiu-jitsu. There's no jiu-jitsu. There's no jiu-jitsu. There, yeah, legends. Thanks for the questions, guys. If you want to leave us one, go to the website bulletproof of bjjcom, hit the podcast page, record as a voicemail. We'll hit you up on the next q a episode. Also, like and subscribe my friends. We appreciate y'all.