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July 10, 2025 • 12 mins

If someone tells you to stop using/drilling a move because "it's a low percentage move", what do you do? Is tradition a thing of the past in BJJ? Sure, some of us only do nogi and like to get in and get out, but what about the culture that jiu jitsu was built on? A couple of BANGER questions on today's QNA one coming from good friend Samoan Strongman.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
A good martial artist does not become tense, but
ready.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Essentially, at this point the fight is over, so you
pretty much flow with the goal.
Who is worthy to be trustedwith the secret to limitless
power?

Speaker 4 (00:39):
I'm ready.
Go to bulletproofforbjjcom, hitthe podcast tab and record a
voicemail.
You can ask us anything youwant about the show, about
jujitsu, about strength, aboutthe jujitsu politics that you're
encountering.
We want to hear it and we seeourselves as your jujitsu big
brothers, and so we're happy togive you the hard truths that
maybe others won't tell you.

(01:00):
First one coming in today fromRusty.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Let's go you, first one coming in today from rusty,
let's go.
How's it going, guys?
So, uh, white belt here.
I've been doing jiu-jitsu forabout uh, 18 months and I focus
on the the no-gi side of things.
I find it more interesting.
So, anyway, today I went to openmat.
I was wanting to practice amove.

(01:24):
It was scissors sweep fromguard, no-gay version.
Anyway, I found a guy topractice with.
When I told him the move, hesaid look, that's actually a low
percentage move.
And he was trying to show meshoulder crunch sweep instead
from guard and from butterflyguard.

(01:45):
And I said to him look, I don'tnecessarily disagree with you,
but if it's okay, I'd just liketo practice this move.
And he started to get a bitcondescending.
He was sort of saying oh look,if you want to work on moves
that don't work, then be myguest.
And we did actually end uppracticing it, but we only did a
couple of reps and it was a bitkind of awkward by then.

(02:05):
Um, so my question for you isum, should I ditch that move or
should I ditch him?
Because I'm just a white belt?
So I realize that other peopleknow a lot more than me.
This guy's, I think, a bluebelt somewhere you know he's
been a blue belt for a couple ofyears.
Should I try and take that kindof advice, or should he have

(02:31):
helped me actually learn themove that I wanted to learn at
the time?
Thanks for your comments.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Russ, you sound like a smart bloke and I think you
know.
I think you know Ditch the guy.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, look, don't getme wrong.
You can get good adviceanywhere, but you can also get
pretty average advice everywhereas well.
So taking it on the authorityof a blue belt actually doesn't
mean a whole lot.
And low percentage scissorsweep is actually one of the
highest percentage sweeps I, Ibelieve, possible in terms of
mechanics, even in no-gi.

(03:02):
So low percentage is onlyrelevant to the individual, like
your proficiency in thetechnique.
There are certain things thatcome up more, so certain
positions you get exposed tomore.
Therefore, if you can do stufffrom there, it's more likely to
happen.
But I would just say if youhave said to from there, it's
more likely to happen.
But I would just say if youhave said to someone I'm working

(03:23):
on this, this is what I want towork on, and you're clear about
that.
Generally a good trainingpartner will oblige, even if
they don't think what you'redoing makes any sense.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yeah, I mean, if you ask the person hey, what do you
think of my choice of techniquehere, Then sure Tell me you know
, know what?
I don't actually think it'sgreat for these reasons, yeah,
but, motherfucker, that youweren't asked that.
You were like hey, can you be abody?
Yeah, for me to work this thing, and it's like you could be
working that for any multitudeof reasons yeah so, yeah, it's
pretty lame on their part.
Um, fine for them to even sharetheir take on it, but to be

(03:54):
condescending when you're likeno, I just want to stick with
what my original plan was.
Yeah, that's super lame.
Hashtag blue belt mentalityyeah, ditch that cunt.
Limited, um, or hopefullythey'll hear this and they'll be
like shit.
Yeah, maybe I was being a bitof a cock.
I mean, the whole highpercentage thing, like it's.
Like, it's so subjective.
Yes, there are techniques thatwe see more of at the upper

(04:15):
level and you could say, well,you know, uh, inside heel hook
from fucking, you know,ashigurami, like a super high
percentage technique.
But then you get someone thatcomes along that does one
particular thing extremely well,and maybe not everyone else is
doing it, but they do that tofucking everyone and they make
it effective.
That's also a high percentagetoo, if you're good at that For

(04:35):
that game, yeah.
So yeah, good on you, rusty,keep it up yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
So, yeah, good on you , rusty, follow your nose, mate.
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Speaker 4 (05:19):
Not sure who this guy is.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, welcome, welcome to
another Samoan Strongman.
Q&a for Bulletproof BJJ.
Oh yeah, the oost with theboost Fam, I've got one for you.
So back in the early 2000s,when I was training capoeira and
I started delving into bjj like2000, so that's like 25 years

(05:48):
ago, far out, that's so old.
Anyways, I, um, I remember this, that's um, you know, the lower
bouts at end of class, lowerbats typically would mop the
floors, sweep the mats and mopthe mats.
Sure, and if you did your beltup on your gear, you'd always
face away from the class and doyour belt up, bow and all that.

(06:11):
Typically, I've found as,coming back, they it's not
really emphasized as much.
I noticed, like in gyms andthat, why is that?
Are we sort of is that just ageneral thing where people just
don't really think that it'snecessary, or do I don't know?

(06:32):
Like it's a weird one, but letme know your thoughts.
As always, big love andappreciate you guys, bang bang.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
Oh, Samon Strongman.
Always a pleasure to hear fromyou, bro.
Thank you so.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
I think it's two things, joe, and two things for
our man, staunch Chocolate.
Essentially, jiu-jitsu has movedaway from its traditional roots
.
So these ideas of kind ofbuilding up, like being an
apprentice and being the firstyear and beginners clean the
mats Even the judo gym I used totrain at, even the black belts

(07:06):
would clean the mats to honorthe gym, kind of like this is
our service to the space, likemonks cleaning the temple.
Jiu-jitsu has moved away fromits traditional roots.
Like tying the belt, likefacing away that's what we had
to do when we did Taekwondo.
That was a much moretraditional thing, that you
didn't want to be disheveled infront of the master.
So you know, tie your beltlooking away, and then present

(07:28):
yourself.
But also it's the move for BJJtowards sport and commercial
gyms where people are payingmore fees now they don't want to
clean the mats, you like, it'spainful, I pay my gym service
for that and also it's a sport.
So people, I think, think ofthemselves more as customers of

(07:49):
a sports team or commercial gymmore than members of a martial
arts community.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
yeah, this is my take it's a business as opposed to a
club.
Yes, and I remember my um, myoriginal gym, the dojo.
Our coach there really tried torun it like a club, which I can
appreciate the sentiment, butwe were all paying a fee every
fortnight or whatever.
So it conflicts with that.
But we had that thing right.
Everyone would clean the matsand certain things would be

(08:17):
expected and I kind of came upthinking that that was sort of
the cool thing.
And then I remember trainingwith adam and he's like I'm not
gonna ask you to clean the mats.
You pay a membership fee.
Right, you pay a membership feeto learn jujitsu.
It's my job to teach youjujitsu and then keep the
facility clean I clean the matsbecause it's my business and I
waslike, well, that actually makes
a lot of sense too, yes, and soI think that, um, there's

(08:38):
probably a bit of a grace periodin the early 2000s there where
it was this, this gray areabetween, like a traditional
martial arts like dojo, and abusiness, yeah, some kind of
gray area, and we tried to holdonto it.
Right, this is where the wholeCriancho thing and all that
Loyalty, yeah, but at the end ofthe day, capitalism reigns
supreme.
It does.

(08:58):
The business is what prevails.
And let's be honest, like, thisis the way our society works,
right, it's not.
You're not passing down a skillset from, you know, master to
apprentice and so forth in thattraditional way, but so, yeah,
so I think that maybe I'mdetecting there that for our
staunch chocolate brother,something's been a bit lost in
that, because he was like fuck,I wanted to come back to that
traditionalism.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
There are certain pros and qualities that come
from that.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
Yeah, there is something lovely about that, and
I think that is, for a lot ofus, maybe what attracted us to
jiu-jitsu, particularly forthose of us that have been doing
it for more than 10 years.
Right, sure, that is slowlyfalling away as just like, hey,
come and train hard and be thebest.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, and look, I think there's pros and cons to
both.
Having been raised in atraditional martial art and
being very proper about bowingand all this stuff.
It was good discipline for meas a kid to learn how to
function in a hierarchicalstructure and be respectful and
shut the fuck up, otherwise youget caned type stuff also.

(10:03):
I can see that this is hard to.
It's a hard standard to holdfolks to in modern day life if
they are paying 50 a week andthey got to get in and get out.
And it's got nothing to do withwhether you're a white belt or
a black belt.
It is a business now.
Yeah, and it is.
It is a business now and it is.
It is a sport now.
And those traditional elementshave been replaced with

(10:26):
convenience and service, whichis a completely different take.
And but still, has value.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
Yeah, you know, I just on that.
I think that like a gym could,totally, could totally still
operate in that middle ground,like if, if a gym's like say,
here at our gym, right, sure,the members built the garden.
Yeah, and every, at the changeof every season, the garden is
renewed and the members do it,yeah.
Now you can make the argument.
Well, the Members pay amembership fee.
Why are you getting them tobuild?

(10:54):
Surely that should cover thecost of no, the building of the
garden is part of the cultureand part of the community here.
Participating in it, so youcould make that case for any of
those things right.
In that traditional form ofjujitsu, I think it's just about
an academy going hey, we'regoing to do this because we
believe that this is importantfor the cohesion of the group,

(11:14):
and so this is how we run ourgym, and I think that a lot of
people would be like that'sfucking sick.
I love that.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, but the garden thing is volunteer, like you
don't make anyone do it, no, thegoodwill created by the culture
of the gym means people want tocome and do that.
Yeah, and if you're shaping theculture of a gym, yeah, you can
guide that.
Yeah, the goodwill is kind ofnurtured by the vibe and the
interactions in the gym, so Ithink it doesn't have to be as

(11:43):
exclusive and as clean and cutas not traditional or modern.
There could definitely be anice hybrid spot.
But could you say, joe, thatcapitalism has stolen the soul
of BJJ?
Fuck brother.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
Deep questions, that's a hashtag right there,
and yes, I believe that it has.
Thank you of BJJ.
Fuck brother, deep questions.
That's a hashtag right thereand yes, I believe that it has.
Thank you for the questionsthis week.
Fam, get us leave us avoicemail.
Go on, do it.
We know you've got somethingburning on your mind that you
want to ask.
Go to bulletproofforbjjcom, hitthe podcast tab.
Record us a voicemail and we'llplay on the next one.
Us a voicemail and we'll playon the next one.

(12:28):
Appreciate you, guys.
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