Stupid Jiu-Jitsu

There are tons of stupid things that Jiu-Jitsu people do. They should just stop it.

Long hair? Not a good idea. It gets caught under people's arms bodies or heads, that then have an entire body weight ground down on top. Try doing some fancy escape when your head is pinned painfully down to the floor. Thankfully, I've never had to partner up with any gentleman sporting a long ponytail, but most women roll with either a ponytail, or braids, or some other nonsense that always seems to fail at the exactly wrong time.

And people should learn to tie their belts. The stupid things seem to be forever coming undone. There is a two-part solution to this. They need to be using the superior, double-trap knot, rather than the usual Karate-type one. It isn't hard, but is much, much less likely to untie. Don't even get me started on people who can't even manage to tie a Karate knot. There is also a second issue with knots. I have lots of friends who use the double-trap knot who still have their belts fall off regularly. The belt needs to be longer. If long enough, the belt is far less likely to come undone. I wear a long-ish belt, use a double-trap knot, and literally NEVER have it come undone.

You can see these two issues and their negative impact during any given sparring session. Let's say it's a big seminar, and there are 100 people rolling. At any given moment, several will have had to stop to re-tie their hair, several more re-tying their belts, and a great many rolling around in a snake-pit of untied belts.

Just stop it.

White is by far the most popular colour for Jiu-Jitsu uniforms. Many organizations and schools insist upon it, but lots do not. I have visited one school that did not, and have encountered lots of people at seminars wearing all sorts of colours. I have yet to run into anybody wearing a white Gi whose uniform was dirty. Literally, 100% of my coloured Gi partners has been filthy. I don't know if they wear coloured uniforms to try and hide the grime, of if people who like grime also like coloured uniforms.

Human sweat tends to contain all sorts of unpleasant organisms, some of which are really dangerous. They also tend to multiply pretty well on un-sterilized mats, and within unwashed, sweaty clothing. Having a dirty uniform is not just gross, it is dangerous both for the wearer, and for everybody they share a mat with.

Just stop, right now, please.

I recently saw a web page that had a bunch of the big-deal Jiu-Jitsu competitors on it. What's with all the crests and patches? They look ridiculous, and I'm a guy who likes wearing cool t-shirts and sweatshirts with cool or funny pictures and phrases on them. A typical crested-up gi has a HUGE patch, that is nothing more than an ad for the manufacturer; a big ad; a very big ad. They all have some kind of fancy stitching here and there, and maybe the person's name about the size of a large cat, and an even larger association patch, and usually some other stuff that has no meaning at all. The effect is extremely garish. Perhaps they don't understand the concept behind wearing a uniform.

Just stop it.

And there's a lot more.