It should be noted that the majority of BJJ schools don't do this today. It's an incredibly toxic ritual, and it always has been. I've never trained consistently at a gym that does this, but I've seen it first hand. Very gross.
Lazy of me to neglect to mention that not everyone in the BJJ community goes along with this (Black Sun mentioned this, I think). But these tiny snippets of cultural 'development' seem to throw light on something bigger, something lurking beneath the surface that more critical individuals will call out. There is a moral imperative in martial arts that we can't really duck.
I agree. I've seen brutal challenge fights inside other martial arts schools too, and unethical behavior hiding underneath the surface of what generally appears to be a very healthy culture. BJJ is not immune from this tendency, and there's plenty of toxic machismo around to try to justify crap like gauntlets.
I would say that this type of ritual happens at perhaps 10 or 15 percent of BJJ gyms today. Ten years ago, it was closer to 50%.
That, or BJJ has become much more mainstream, and businesses like mine have begun to dominate the scene. What I mean is that we treat people well when they come in, then tell others about this experience, so they then fill our gym up. We then build another gym, then another, and then all of a sudden we have like a third of all of the BJJ practitioners in a city with like 25 gyms.
We would treat folks well regardless, but this also happens to be good for business. Thus, I believe folks with business savvy are slowly taking over the scene. It's a bit cynical to say that that's the reason and not a return to decency or common sense, but on the other hand, the reason need not matter as long as the behavior changes as a result. I think that's what we're seeing now: it's just bad business to beat up your students.
That being said, cult-like little niches are bound to continue to prosper.
It should be noted that the majority of BJJ schools don't do this today. It's an incredibly toxic ritual, and it always has been. I've never trained consistently at a gym that does this, but I've seen it first hand. Very gross.
Lazy of me to neglect to mention that not everyone in the BJJ community goes along with this (Black Sun mentioned this, I think). But these tiny snippets of cultural 'development' seem to throw light on something bigger, something lurking beneath the surface that more critical individuals will call out. There is a moral imperative in martial arts that we can't really duck.
I agree. I've seen brutal challenge fights inside other martial arts schools too, and unethical behavior hiding underneath the surface of what generally appears to be a very healthy culture. BJJ is not immune from this tendency, and there's plenty of toxic machismo around to try to justify crap like gauntlets.
I would say that this type of ritual happens at perhaps 10 or 15 percent of BJJ gyms today. Ten years ago, it was closer to 50%.
Your statistics at the end of your comment are really interesting. Perhaps sign of a winnowing out of toxicity and common sense returning?
That, or BJJ has become much more mainstream, and businesses like mine have begun to dominate the scene. What I mean is that we treat people well when they come in, then tell others about this experience, so they then fill our gym up. We then build another gym, then another, and then all of a sudden we have like a third of all of the BJJ practitioners in a city with like 25 gyms.
We would treat folks well regardless, but this also happens to be good for business. Thus, I believe folks with business savvy are slowly taking over the scene. It's a bit cynical to say that that's the reason and not a return to decency or common sense, but on the other hand, the reason need not matter as long as the behavior changes as a result. I think that's what we're seeing now: it's just bad business to beat up your students.
That being said, cult-like little niches are bound to continue to prosper.
Not a good trend.