The Toughest Student

Who do you think is the most bad-ass student at your Jiu-Jitsu academy?

My opinion might be very different than yours, but even if you disagree with me, I think that you’ll have to agree with my findings somewhat based on the actual evidence.

At the two school where I regularly train, there are all sorts. There’s a huge cop, and an even bigger gentle giant. We have slender dudes, and muscular ones, young ones, and even a few geezers like me.

There are also a fair number of female students. Of these, most are somewhere in the 120 to 140 pound range, but there are a few even smaller.

I would contend that the toughest student in the school has to be amongst the smallest females.

Why? Isn’t it obvious?

Let’s forget about my schools, and even yours, and make up a new one.

Let’s say you are male, and a raw beginner, are 6’1” tall, and weigh in at 200 pounds.

At this particular school all of the other students are quite different from you physically.

Their average height is 6’5”, and their average weight is 312 pounds. They all have a significantly lower percentage of body fat than you, meaning that each pound of those guys is more muscular than every pound of you.

If you need help visualizing this, the stats I’ve chosen for the other students are what is average for NFL linesmen.

You start out, and maybe half are pleasant to work with, but the rest are dicks.

They do everything possible to make your training miserable. They crush you hard enough that you sometimes tap from the pressure alone. They use their superior strength and mass to shut down every move you attempt, no matter how well, and to force through their own, no matter how crappy.

You end up getting hurt much, much more than any other student at the school. You also are regularly insulted for your size and lesser strength. Some of your partners openly express the opinion that there is no place for you at the school.

You continue regardless, taking your lumps, and doing all that you can to progress in such a negative environment. Some people are happy to work with you, and somehow magically manage to make their size and mass go away, but they are few and far between.

There's nobody that you can ever hope to out muscle. You try and learn every movement perfectly, and become somewhat of an expert in surviving discomfort, and pain, and being unable to breathe. You do not develop any sort of swollen ego, as you tap more often than anybody else.

Eventually, it becomes promotion time, and you are awarded your new belt at the same time as a couple of your peers, some of whom openly scoff, and consider it an insult to their own, superior performance.

Who is the toughest student at that school? Who has taken the most abuse? Who has suffered the most physical pain? As a result, who is the actually has the most perfect technique.

Clearly, you are the toughest, and are your schools pound-for-pound champion, and you care the least about suffering pain or injury.

You would be a big time bad-ass. But not as much as a 110 pound female who regularly trains with 200 pound men. To match the size disadvantage that she would be facing, your school would have to be full of students 50 pounds larger than the average for NFL players.

While your large partners average 56% bigger than you, the ones she regularly faces out mass her by 81%.

We used to have a dedicated young woman training with us who was well under 110 pounds, and she often rolled with our biggest guy, who at that time weighed about 235. For him to face a similar challenge, he would need to stand up to an adult male mountain gorilla.

Buck up, Buttercup, she’s tougher than you.