Is There Something Wrong With Jiu-Jitsu?

The good, the bad, and the illegal.

Photo by Gold BJJ on Unsplash

I’m 28 this year. I’ll be 29 in August.

I started Jiu-Jitsu in 2015. The world was very different then. Vine was still around, for example.

You couldn’t post training clips on social media because the social media apps didn’t even have that yet. You couldn’t sell instructionals because BJJ Fanatics hadn’t been launched. Leg locks were taboo, pretty much everyone trained in gi and no-gi, and my entire Jiu-Jitsu life revolved around when the next IBJJF Open was coming to a city near me.

For the most part, my first 2 years or so in the sport, I was more of a hobbyist than a competitor. I trained hard because I wanted to, I competed because “it seemed cool”, but I never thought about making money in the sport. I never thought that Jiu-Jitsu was affecting me long-term.

I didn’t think about making money or my long-term health at all…

It’s no wonder that competitive Jiu-Jitsu is a young man’s game.

The sport has changed a lot since I’ve been around, but has it changed for the better?

Let’s talk about it.