Do you ask for advice from higher belts at your Academy? Maybe your friends give you advice that seems a little questionable. Either way BJJ advice is not hard to come by but how do you know what's good info and what is fake news? JT & Joey have given and received a truck load of advice over the years and not all of it was helpful. To save you time there are some ways that you can cut through the BS and save yourself years of wasted time. When you are not sure if the advice you are getting is solid there are some easy things you can do to work it out. You need to get 2nd and 3rd opinions on the same question to see if there is a pattern between them. Also asking "Why do you say this...?" Getting an understanding of why your Advisor is telling you this will give context that can help inform whether or not the advice is relevant. Another key take-away from this discussion is understanding the person you are getting the advice from- What is their Hammer? What is their strength and are they only speaking from their place of capability which is not necessarily going to work for you with your specific skill set or body type. Lots of gems in this one- let us know the best BJJ advice you have received in the comments.
Do you ask for advice from higher belts at your Academy? Maybe your friends give you advice that seems a little questionable. Either way BJJ advice is not hard to come by but how do you know what's good info and what is fake news? JT & Joey have given and received a truck load of advice over the years and not all of it was helpful. To save you time there are some ways that you can cut through the BS and save yourself years of wasted time. When you are not sure if the advice you are getting is solid there are some easy things you can do to work it out. You need to get 2nd and 3rd opinions on the same question to see if there is a pattern between them. Also asking "Why do you say this...?" Getting an understanding of why your Advisor is telling you this will give context that can help inform whether or not the advice is relevant. Another key take-away from this discussion is understanding the person you are getting the advice from- What is their Hammer? What is their strength and are they only speaking from their place of capability which is not necessarily going to work for you with your specific skill set or body type. Lots of gems in this one- let us know the best BJJ advice you have received in the comments.
you better listen very carefully. A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Essentially, at this point the fight is over so you pretty much flow with the goal who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power I'm ready.
Speaker 2:
I've had that situation a couple of times recently where I've come to training with some water but I haven't had any electrolytes and I've finished training and I've had to go to a convenience shop and buy myself some kind of sports drink. Usually, a gatorade cost me like seven bucks. It's small and it really doesn't contain that much of the good stuff that I'm looking for, which are the electrolytes. Sodi, on the other hand, is my partner when it comes to hydration and I'd simply just run out of it and it sucks because I got to go buy expensive stuff that doesn't do anywhere near as good a job.
Speaker 2:
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Speaker 1:
Go to sodicomau, get yourself hydrated. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. I'm JT and I'm here with the irrepressible Joey. Are you getting bad advice for BJJ? You don't know. Is it solid or is it fake news? You listen to this podcast.
Speaker 2:
Well you're getting advice that I can tell you. That's true, but you've got to say that it's 80% banter 20%.
Speaker 1:
Any kind of sense of reasoning and logic.
Speaker 1:
So you know, you know what you get yourself in for. But we did have a question from one of our paid subscribers saying I don't know if the advice I'm getting is good or bad. I'm a white belt. I've been here, you know, a couple months and he says like two or three stripe white belt, but I'm getting advice from a purple belt and I just I don't know. He said basically I do want to be rude or disrespectful, like doubting them, but also was like is that kosher? Does that work? And it is hard to tell if you're early in the jujitsu journey, if something is solid advice or fake news. It is hard to know because different people will show techniques in different ways for different reasons. So I wanted to get into this a little bit today because I have followed bad advice before. I've also given bad advice before, because just simply because it worked for me doesn't mean it'll work for you.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think we're all guilty of that and I guess like, yeah, when we're saying bad advice, are we talking like, well, there's deliberate bad advice, like misdirecting somebody, sure, and then there's just bad advice like misdirecting somebody, sure, and then there's just you're giving advice which just actually isn't the best. You think it's great, but it actually is like, oh dude, like I've been on the carnivore diet, it's great. You've got to do it too Sure, and you're like, bro, that's not actually good advice. I know it's your first week and you're feeling great, but you know, yeah, so, yeah, so one is deliberate, one is not. What do you? What are we thinking here? We I'm? Did you allude to being misdirected by someone?
Speaker 1:
no, I, I'm just thinking more that, um, someone had given me a tip because it had worked for them, right, right, but what they didn't say was it only works on white belts.
Speaker 2:
You know, it's classic, you, you're talking to someone, they're like off when they close their. You're going to take your elbows and you're going to dig it into the fucking inside of that knee.
Speaker 1:
That adductor dagger technique. No, you try and take on as much as you can and if a higher belt offers you advice like wow, the light has shone down. The jiu-jitsu gods are smiling on me, but also they might be a troll.
Speaker 2:
They might just be.
Speaker 1:
They might just be giving you they might be, craig, jonesing you they might be. And and then, uh, okay, here's a terrible piece of advice which un-jiu-jitsu related, but I heard it at jiu-jitsu. One guy was like, said to some guy as a joke, I was like, hang on a second. He said, oh, you got t. Have you ever tried pissing on your feet? It's fantastic for clearing up tinea.
Speaker 2:
It's like oh, have you got a fungal? I've heard.
Speaker 1:
Pissing on is a thing. Have you got a fungal infection? Do you want to put more bacteria in there and feed that infection? Go for it, like I'm pretty sure. When you look at the tinea cream, it doesn't say contains urine. This is not right, my friends. So let's get down into this, because I think a good way to start. If you're not sure someone gives you some advice or you ask a question, ask that question of three different people, so you could ask that question of a higher belt. They give you some advice. Maybe ask your coach, but then also ask someone who may have tried it as well. You know, I think it's good to get second and third opinions with anything to do with jujitsu, because I've I've been on the mat with different coaches and they've shown different details and it changed my understanding. Yeah, and I was like right, right, that's the next step. How would you approach that, joe?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think that's a. I mean, I think, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I, you know, I think it takes a lot of effort to do that and for most of us, like, yeah, I'd love to think I'm going to do it, but I'm probably not, and that's kind of the way this thing works. Right, it's like, hey, I heard this thing on a podcast and I think that's true. Or hey, I read this book and I think that's true. I've done some research, yeah, and you're like hey, and? And so we usually just get, you know, rogan said this, jt and joey said this. You, you know, and you're like you take it as gospel, because, whatever, you're looking for a solution you haven't got time to filter, yeah, and you trust that person.
Speaker 2:
And so you know, if the big strong person at jujitsu that's better than you, that looks tough and stuff, and they say, do this, you're going to be like fucking got it. Thanks, thanks, big tough guy, yeah, and so it is a very tricky one. I totally agree that, yeah, you should go and try and pressure test that by asking a few other people. But if you're the type of person….
Speaker 1:
We're lazy cunts, we're fucking lazy cunts we collectively can be, but what I want to say is that if you're the type of person who gets a bit of info and straight away you look at it and you go, I don't know about that.
Speaker 2:
If you're like the Dana Scully of the scenario. Maybe Just a career skeptic yeah maybe I fucking hate skeptics, by the way. But yeah, go on.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's not even skepticism, it's just, you see something and you're like ah, that doesn't look right, it's a great quality to have, by the way.
Speaker 1:
It's more curiosity. Yeah, and other than asking heaps of other people, here's something simpler. If you fall into the lazy cunt bracket, which we all do from time to time, ask why they say that. That's what I generally do. If someone says, hey, every time you're here, make this grip, every time you're here, put your elbow like that, that's cool. But just go that one step further and go oh, why, why do you say that? And then that might actually open up and reveal a lot more.
Speaker 1:
That's what I tend to do to try and milk. That's what I do. I milk information out of people hard. If I meet someone who's an expert, I'm like they think that they may have bailed me up at a barbecue and said, hey, man, I'm a PhD physicist. I'm like, oh, really, tell me why let's talk about that, because I'm a nerd and I love mathematics and I have no life. But I will go oh, tell me more about that. And I try to. I go oh, you did a PhD, amazing, all right, what did you do that in? And then I'm like how can I just take 10 years of learning? Take away what was your key insight? Okay, cool, bye.
Speaker 2:
See you, joey, I've got a topic for the next podcast.
Speaker 1:
Quantum mechanics.
Speaker 2:
See you, joey, I've got a topic for the next podcast, like in Tanganyik's theory no-transcript, I think. I'm thinking like kind of in a similar way, but to also like kind of always keep in your mind that what worked for them isn't necessarily going to work for you Definitely. So it's really good, like cause people will ask me like hey Joey, what would you do here and in in in jujitsu, and I'm, as I've mentioned many times, I'm a really basic guy with jujitsu, and so I I my response is usually pretty unexciting. I'm like I'll just fucking do this, or, you know, I just like like I don't have like this sick technique that I'm going to use to counter this problem you've presented me with I'm going to do something really basic that hopefully just bypasses the issue, and dudes will be like or people will be like that's awesome, thanks, joey, but I'm thinking like, dude, you're probably going to take that information.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome, thanks, joey, but I'm thinking like dude, you're probably going to take that information and that now is the universal solution to that problem. Like, that's just what I do. Go ask someone else, because they'll do something totally different.
Speaker 1:
But we're lazy cunts, Joey. But that's the thing. It's okay, because I guess here was something I got from what's his name? The producer with the big long white beard, Rick Rubin. He was saying if you're an artist, we were making some music together.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, me and Rick.
Speaker 1:
Rubin hanging out in California. Pharrell was there. Yeah, jimmy Iovine, it was cool. But here's the thing. It was chill.
Speaker 1:
He said that when you're an artist or you do something, once you've made the thing, you have no say over what the person then does with it, right? So if someone then takes that as their personal gospel, that's not your fault, you know. But you gotta, I guess you know it's not. You didn't say, hey, do this for everything. Right, they just you, you're just being generous, you were just trying to share, right?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I think that's one way to look at it. Like, yeah, definitely, but you know, they say like if all you've got's a hammer, then everything's a nail, kind of thing. Like, I think it's important when you're, it takes a bit of self-awareness, but also it takes a bit of like awareness of the person you're asking the question of. So what's their hammer? Like, what's their strength?
Speaker 1:
If you're talking to someone who has been a powerlifter their whole lives weighs 120 kilos, you know 250 pounds, whatever, and is a crush monster, yeah, maybe, I mean, you know, I don't assume, you know, these people can be technical too, but their hammer most likely will be something that requires strength, force application, because that's what they're good at, yeah, whereas if someone is is like a smaller, uh, less strong, but very good at jiu-jitsu person, you could know that you're going to get a very technical answer out of them. So even before you ask your question or if you're trying to validate the information you'd be like you don't even need to ask them why. You could be like, oh, they're saying this because they're fucking huge. Yeah, oh bro, I just hit kimura from, so I just big harris. That motherfucker shout out big harris, kimura from side control. Yeah, you're not bigger for all day works right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I just grab the wrist, put it there and then finish and so that may not work for um for everybody yeah, that's a. That's a really good point is, yeah, like, look, look at, look at the bias there. I mean, you know, that's kind of why they say like it's, it is kind of good to train around. You know, train with people similar size to you, because a lot of the solutions then are kind of naturally more in alignment with what's going to work for you, aren't they?
Speaker 1:
yeah, definitely, I've seen this fail. So there's a pass called the Sal Polo pass where you get a big, deep underhook. They've got you in closed guard and you put a lot of pressure on the underhook and you turn the hips and you kind of force the guard open and you pass in this way.
Speaker 2:
You're in closed guard, right yeah?
Speaker 1:
This is a big guy move. Yeah, now I think this um before buchesha became absolute world champion, leo naguera was absolute world champion leo naguera yeah, he beat um buchesha when he won his absolute world championship okay and he was heavyweight world champion two or three times big monster of a guy.
Speaker 1:
And they actually used to be friends. They used to train at the same team. That team closed and they disbanded the team disbanded. Buscesa went to Czech Mad and Leo Nogueira went to Alliance. So they were friends but they ended up being competitors. Eventually Buscesa beat him and went on to have his career as well, but he showed this Sal Polo pass and he's a big monster of a guy.
Speaker 1:
And my friend shout out Walter Buse, you, he's not a huge guy. He actually was cutting weight, I think, to get under 66. He's like a 75 kilo guy. Amazing wrestler, tough guy. I think Walter was a brown belt at this time. He's a black belt now. Amazing competitor Like Walter is one of the best competitors I've ever trained with and an ultra tough guy. But in competition he'd cut a bunch of weight. We went to this fucking tournament in the middle of nowhere and the scale was broken, so he'd been starving and all this stuff and he wasn't thinking super clearly. We'd rehydrated. He tried to hit the sal polo pass and got fucking triangled like because he was a smaller guy.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, he was trying to do the body leverage, but he didn't have the torso length, he was offside and the guy just whipped the like, opened his guard, whipped the leg over, swept and triangled him like because you're where you're, you're pinning that bottom knee.
Speaker 1:
You've got a far side under hook, yeah, and you're turning your body and you need to be kind of a fairly long frame human to keep the pressure and also not get swept or be off balance. It's a big commitment move, yeah, and he was dehydrated, tired, all these things not making good, and he's like, yeah, yeah, so polo pass works 60 percent, 100 percent of the time and it just didn't work for him. And I'm not saying this to throw shade because, like I said, walter is amazing competitor and I think he might have won pan americans at brown, like he's a beast of a competitor, but he maybe took something that wasn't actually appropriate for his body and it and it did. It did not work. You know, even though someone might be a world champion and say this works for me and I'm the best, you do have to kind of step back and go.
Speaker 2:
You know trial and error BJJ is so much trial and error even though your coach might give you very well reasoned advice and put context around it, you do have to mess with it a lot to find out if it's going to work for you yeah, it's, it's great point, you know, I was just thinking back, like when you're, when you're early on in the piece and you shopped class and like the way higher belts often just seem like so fucking incredible and there's a real like, there's a real dilemma there because, like and and that thing is probably fading a little bit these days, higher belts a lot more easy to come by.
Speaker 2:
Um, we kind of it's more out in the open that like hey, we're all just playing this game and you know, like, and you go to some gyms and there's not even belts and whatever. But but back in the day, when we were training, it was like that hierarchy was like so significant and on your psyche as like a white belt or even. But you looked at those high belts like, oh my god, they're like a god. You know you get to do some sparring with, like like you get to do some drilling with a brown belt or something like, oh my god, don't fuck it up yes, this is big, yeah.
Speaker 2:
And so when that cunts like yeah, man, I just eat steak, I don't eat anything, like fuck, yes, I have to, only ever eat steak like there's a real imbalance, um, as to what that information is worth.
Speaker 2:
Yes, coming from them, what I was going to say, um, I remember my point regarding the rick rubin thing yes I think, um, that comment in terms of like, yeah, you're just giving someone, you're just genuinely trying to help and that's the thing. But I do also think, as a like this coach, this coach or teacher student relationship, when someone asks your advice and you give them advice, even though it might be be seem kind of insignificant to you, that can be hugely impactful on them.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And so I think that it's important to sort of respect that. And you know, it's kind of why these days I have no problem with saying to someone I don't actually know what to tell you, man, like I don't know what I would do from there, because, to be honest, I don't have a good response for you, because I know if I give someone a response, they're going to treat it with, they're going to take that, whereas if I'm like, look, I got a response but I don't think it's a particularly good one.
Speaker 1:
So let's ask somebody else. But I hear what you're saying, but I don't know if that's necessarily the case, as in your response isn't good enough, like as someone who likes to say something is better than nothing, joe, which I do not. Giving them a response might be all the help they need, even if you don't value it as being great.
Speaker 2:
I mean, yeah, it might be, but I mean I'm choosing to make that decision right. Sure as in, like bro, I don't want to. Yeah, I don't have. My advice right now is not going to be of a standard.
Speaker 1:
Well, maybe it's just a judgment on yourself. Well, it absolutely is. Yeah, but what I'm saying is, if that person's a white belt or a blue belt and they're lost, lost, you know, pointing them in a direction which you can see and you're responsible with your advice. You're a coach, you know, you're not just like nah brah, just blaze every day, but that's but that's exactly the point.
Speaker 2:
Right is because I am responsible with it. There are times where I'll be like nah, dude, I'm gonna like point you in a direction. That guy, oh yeah, fair, no, no, no, I think definitely it's not a sorry, I've got nothing to help you with. It's like no, let's try and find that, but I don't have the solution.
Speaker 1:
Let's try and find the person who does Fair enough, and I don't think there's anything wrong with saying I don't know, but I think jujitsu is littered with people who are telling you I know, I know and I think and I think that that's really kind of part of the problem is that everyone knows, like every personal trainer, every coach, every person on the mat knows.
Speaker 2:
It's like no cunt, not everyone knows. So people's inability to say I don't know is kind of part of the part of the problem of bad advice, because you just want to tell someone something and then they take that as gospel and it's like now you've influenced them yeah, but then them taking it as gospel is a reflection of their inability to discern what's right, and that's on them yeah, but that's a, but that's a. That's a really hard thing to do when you're fresh.
Speaker 1:
Yeah well be done. Like you got to go there to come back like, fuck up, you know, go. Like you've got to go and try. This was saying trial and error, right, like maybe that piece of advice is the thing that works for them forever. Like so, obviously, with anything we give, like we are. This is very general topic discussion, but if you can just think about jujitsu or think about your thinking better, then you'll be better off in life.
Speaker 1:
If you can have more than one source of information. It's not just your coach, perhaps it's you've got a teammate or whatever, asking a few different people that might give you the response you want. Or maybe you're a lazy cunt so you don't do it. Asking why, like, why do you say that? That will often unpack? How well the person knows that? Do you know what I mean? Because if you say to them, oh, why do you do that? And they go, I don't know, it just fucking works, all right, what do you want from me? Like okay, but if they can actually explain, look, I tried it this way, it didn't work. I tried it that way, it didn't work. And I did this, it did work, then you're like, oh, there's some thought there, you know, and because we're very visual creatures, like humans, we just look at something to go, oh, but they, but they look so good. There was an episode of 30 Rock. This might date me a little bit, but Tina Fey's character I forget her name was dating a really good-looking guy. It was Jon Hamm.
Speaker 2:
Oh, that's the guy from Not Suits. Yeah, Mad.
Speaker 1:
Men, mad Men, right, and Jon Hamm is known for being like this charismatic handsome guy Also Top Gun Maverick.
Speaker 1:
Right, he um. So in this show she's like can't believe she's dating him because he's so good looking. But the more time she hangs out with him she realizes he's fucking stupid. She's like well, how can he get away with being so stupid Like they? He does tennis lessons and stuff, but he's terrible at tennis. But everyone just takes his advice because he's really good looking, right, and he like teaches tennis lessons. She's like hey, we should play each other. And then she goes like I'm going to beat him and she beats him. He's like you can't beat me. She's like why you suck at tennis? I'm a tennis pro? She's like you're not, but, but I look so good. She's like no, and then he has her over for dinner and she makes duck a larange and he makes it with like orange gatorade. She's like what is this?
Speaker 2:
he's like I used orange gatorade.
Speaker 1:
All right, please talk me through the rest of the episode anyway long story short she, she cracks it and just goes the guy's not good at anything. But people just buy into the charisma and the look and I think that oftentimes what people look good get an advantage. Yeah, what we do as humans is we look at someone like God. Their jujitsu looks good and you might, you know, whatever they they, they got the right kid on or whatever.
Speaker 2:
You're like man they must know jujitsu, you know, and it's like not necessarily, I think it's. I mean, this is, this, is the influencer life right whittled down to. Yeah, they look good. I take their information as gospel yeah, fashion versus uh, function like.
Speaker 1:
I've always been that way, I guess. Um, I always look and I go what's the utility? How can I use this? Is it helpful? And and you know style points, whatever You're looking good, that's great. But if you can work out, if what the person is saying to you is applicable to you, then that is a key skill too. Asking questions is great, but also having enough self-awareness to go. I wonder if this will work for me or not. And just asking that question can be super valuable too. There it is, folks. Good advice, bad advice. You've got to know yourself before you ask the question.