Whilst part of North America have been out of lockdown for quite some time, some states are still restricted on what they can and can’t do. In fact, some BJJ gyms have been forced to close due to not being able to open and still being liable for rent.
In the rest of the world, particularly Europe, some countries still have these nationwide restrictions. This has led to a variety of new ways for gyms to try and earn money whilst they can’t train. There has been a massive increase in training with a grappling dummy, non-contact jiu-jitsu, zoom lessons and most obviously no sparring.
Sparring is a massive part of BJJ – it is what separates it from other martial arts. If we look to some of the watered down martial arts such as Aikido and sports Karate, there is never any sparring. Due to this, the technique has become sloppy and it is completely untested in a self defense scenario. There is likely a reason we haven’t seen any Aikido or Wing Chun fighters in a professional MMA promotion, and it’s not because they’re “too dangerous”.
Due to the current financial pressures on BJJ – we do not want to throw any particular gym under the bus, we have done a lot of research on this topic. Disturbingly, there are some cases of white belts who began the pandemic on 1 stripe, now have 4. Whilst this may be rare, the timeframe takes place over complete lockdowns during this period (so only zoom classes at most). If a gym was thought to be training we didn’t take their students into account as they may have been fully sparring.
It seems that due to the financial incentives behind signing up new students and retaining them. There are a few gyms and franchises which are happy to sign up beginners and promote them through the ranks. It could be that in early 2021 we will have blue belts from previously well respected gyms and instructors who have literally NEVER SPARRED.
People were quick to criticise Grace University when you could train online for a blue belt, but now it seems money has become harder to get, some organizations are switching over to this practice.
What Happens In The Future?
As we are still in a worldwide pandemic we can understand why gyms are doing this. It is certainly morally questionable whether you should throw away your lineage to make money, but if you have a choice between this and losing your house, perhaps we shouldn’t judge it (which is why nobody has been named).
However, the question continues, if the pandemic stops in 6 months, will these gyms continue to promote without sparring? If it is profitable to run an worldwide zoom class with a single instructor and give out promotions – will this practice stop?
It also will be quite worrying, embarassing and perhaps dangerous for the newly promoted students when the government regulations on gyms are relaxed. If you were a 1.5 year zoom blue belt, I can’t imagine you would be any better than a 3 month white belt who had done sparring every time they trained. For most people earning a belt is the physical representation of hard work, determination, and being pushed physically…often with injuries to show for it.
Perhaps instructors will gain monetarily now, but their financial gains will not be enough to buy back their reputations once the dust settles. When there are blue belts walking around the mat who got the rank by being financially supportive during a difficult time, people will begin with the McDojo accusations, and rightly so.
