Walking the Jiu Jitsu Gauntlet.

Why are BJJ people literally beating themselves up?

Thanks to Black Sun Boxing for alerting me to the polarised opinion on this.

The BJJ Gauntlet Walk Is Stupid

For anyone who has never heard of this ‘gauntlet walk’ thing; some kind of tradition developed where a kind of ‘rights of passage’ group hazing takes place in some BJJ gyms where when someone passes a significant belt examination they have to walk a gauntlet of their fellow trainees who take it in turns to whip them with their belts. A concocted ‘initiation ceremony’.

So it looks like flagellation is back in vogue.

Here is an example:

So there we have it. Notice I used the words; ‘Gauntlet’, ‘Rights of Passage’, ‘Initiation Ceremony’ and ‘Hazing’. Let me take those apart one at a time to see if I can get a handle on the ideas behind this.

Let me say; I have to really think hard to find anything in karate circles that loosely falls into this category – but maybe I can come up with something… read on.

‘Hazing’.

In the UK this word is never used, or if it is, I haven’t heard it. It seems to be something the Americans are fond of.

Digging around, it’s possible to track this all the way at least as far as the Greek philosophers, but a useful definition comes from Wikipedia, which describes it as, “any activity expected of someone in joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of a person's willingness to participate”.

I think we in the UK only know it though the ‘Animal House’ movie influence and the sorority hazing that used to be a thing in the States (maybe still is?).

Source: By R. R. Epperly - Cover of "College Humor" magazine from 1922., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95965192

I even came across it myself. Its popularity seemed to coincide with the release of the above mentioned ‘Animal House’ movie in the UK in early 1979. Sometime in the same year, my college housemates cooked up a mock trial, presided over by the senior students. ‘Crimes’ had been sneakily recorded and newbie students were kangaroo courted and punished (there seemed to be a bit of a thing with stripping people naked and tying them to lampposts in the city centre). Fortunately, I spotted what was happening and swerved it.

I also heard about ‘initiation ceremonies’ in English private boarding schools (the model seemed to be, the more disgusting the better). Inevitably this carried itself into rugby clubs; maybe there’s a class connection there?

Rights of Passage and Initiation Ceremonies.

This one is as old as humanity and takes many forms, including anything that marks a ‘coming of age’, you could say that significant birthdays are a kind of Right of Passage, but usually in a benign non-punitive way. These are found in nearly all human social structures and are used as markers. Sometimes they take on a darker incarnation.

In William Golding’s book, appropriately named, ‘Rights of Passage’, on a 19^th century sailing vessel a ceremony takes place among the crew called ‘crossing the line’ to mark the crossing of the equator, in which poor naïve Reverend Colley a passenger, is ritually humiliated (probably under the direction of Neptune) to the point of literally dying of shame. Golding was always good at pointing out the crueller inclinations of humanity.

The Gauntlet thing is probably closer related to initiation ceremonies. The real ‘running of the gauntlet’ was meant as a punishment and, way back in history, soldiers were not expected to survive – there’s something cruelly poetic that you die at the collective hands of your own brothers in arms.

The BJJ Gauntlet.

So what is it exactly?

According to sources, although supporters of the practice say it is ‘traditional’, it’s a relatively recent thing. Some say it started in the 1990’s and is reputed to be the idea of Chris Haueter of the Machado Jujutsu (sorry, Jiu Jitsu) school. Haueter himself said in an interview for BJJ Heroes,

“…having returned from some military training, and being kind of young and dumb, I thought we needed some sort of hazing ritual. Many, including some Brazilians, will disagree that it started at the Machado Academy, the brothers were not there as they were filming a movie. For a while, it got out of hand”.

To be clear, from the outside it looks like nobody is forced into taking part, but there is always the peer pressure thing, a kind of ‘expectation’, and nobody dies, right? It’s a kind of ‘mortification of the flesh’. And what did he mean by, “…for a while, it got out of hand”?

I did see video footage of a young woman going through the same procedure and there was something about it that made me feel uneasy, I can’t put my finger on it, but it might have been something to do with the power imbalance, highlighted by the gleeful (male) faces of those doing the whipping. Maybe I am getting this wrong, but it was certainly not about the young woman’s ability to endure the pain. There has long been a debate about women having higher pain thresholds than men, but research seems undecided. (Some say that their pain references are more advanced; but I am no expert).

Examples from karate.

Here, I am struggling. Traditional Japanese martial arts are never shy about ritual and ceremony, and the more modern systems are not averse to appropriating and reimagining older practices. But, I can’t think of anything involving this kind of ritualised (willing) punishment.

Is the Kyokushinkai 100-man kumite such a thing? I don’t think so, as it seems to be an ordeal where the protagonists willingly embrace the opportunity to test themselves, and, unlike being whipped by a belt, it is about fighting.

And there lies another weakness in the argument for the BJJ gauntlet; it seems so far divorced from what they actually do.

Googling around to find the pro-gauntlet argument, I have seen them talk about primitive societies creating harsh ordeals for their tribe members to enable some kind of transcendence. I get that, but it seems like an awkward fit.

I can think of examples from my own martial arts training where ordeals where concocted as a kind of right of passage thing. When I passed my brown belt my Sensei gave me the challenge of fighting every member of the Dojo (the last fight was against the Sensei). It wasn’t so much a rights of passage; it was a different message. It told me that 3^rd kyu might well be a marker of success, but it’s also the opening of a new chapter, one which I needed to step up to. The experience is etched in my memory.

I haven’t worked it out in my brain yet. Is this a harmless piece of controlled ragging that helps cement people together in a common bond; backslapping with the volume turned up? Or is it something else? If that kind of hazing becomes a thing, then how long will it be before somebody tries to top it by inventing a new ‘ritual’ in which real injury might occur?

Anyone for a flogging?

What does everyone else think? Let’s get a discussion going. Comments below please.

[I would comment on Black Sun Boxing Substack direct, but he has set it so that comments are limited to paid subscribers only].

Apologies for the AI generated header image for this piece. For some reason the algorithm insisted on throwing up some very obviously camp imagery. I eventually gave in to the Lord of Misrule and went with this one (I couldn’t help myself).