A question of procedure

**Ungjaevel** · Posted On: 12/25/2007 1:16pm

I am currently in Sweden for the holidays, and as I have not been there in a while, I thought I would stop by my old club for old times sake. What I had trained there initially was some ju jutsu kai and sport ju jutsu, but then I moved to the US and found Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to be better and a lot more fun.

When I called my old trainer to ask whether there had been any changes in the class schedule, he said no, however they had added BJJ classes three times a week. Now at this point I am thinking to myself "hmmm, that does not sound right. No one at that club had any training in BJJ in August, so they must have a new guy to teach those classes."

Nope. They have a Ju Jutsu Kai greenbelt who has been through some sort of instructor course teaching BJJ from a book. I rolled with him earlier today, and I demolished him. Mind you, I have a little more than a year of BJJ under my belt, and after spanking him completely I asked how legitimate it was for him to claim credentials as a BJJ instructor. I did not get a straight answer, and thought that it would be imprudent to push the issue at the time.

This reeks of bullshido to me, but my question is what I ought to do about it. Since this is my club (sort of) I am not sure how to go about this. More importantly, I am unaware of any sort of governing body, Swedish or otherwise, that I can report this to, because what they are doing is nothing short of fucking fraudulent. So because I do not feel that it is right for them to be offering courses in "BJJ" I feel that something has to be done, because people are getting ripped off.

**RobT** · Posted On: 12/26/2007 5:18am

How is the class advertised/described by the club? Are they taking money specifically for BJJ lessons? I assume so by your post. What belt does the guy wear while he is teaching?

I would go back to your questioning of how legitimate it is for that guy to be teaching. If you still don't get a straight answer then keep asking.

Are there any other BJJ schools nearby?

**cyril** · Posted On: 12/26/2007 7:36am

This is also getting to be starttling common in USA as well. I know that my school recently went to a weekend seminar and will now be teaching BJJ but I'm not sure if they will continue training, which would be acceptable, or if they will be douche-fags and say that they're now masters.

I'm guessing the latter, and it really makes me cringe, but this is a serious problem.

**Askari** · Posted On: 12/26/2007 8:00am

Take it up with your old instructor, but go into the conversation with a plan for them on how they can improve their skill.

Either suggest they bring in more seminars, or that the guy who is teaching find somewhere to get rolled regularly by some people with skill.

**Ungjaevel** · Posted On: 12/28/2007 8:57pm

Originally Posted by RobT

How is the class advertised/described by the club? Are they taking money specifically for BJJ lessons? I assume so by your post. What belt does the guy wear while he is teaching?

I would go back to your questioning of how legitimate it is for that guy to be teaching. If you still don't get a straight answer then keep asking.

Are there any other BJJ schools nearby?

The class is advertised as BJJ taught by a "certified instructor," which is total horseshit. As far as payment goes, I am only aware of a general club fee that entitles you to all of the classes that are offered by the club, as opposed to a specific fee for just BJJ. The guy wears his Ju Jutsu Kai belt while he teaches BJJ.

I had a word with the owner of the club. I pushed the question of legitimacy, and he basically pretended to not know what I was talking about. So I said to him that I have spent a fair amount of time interacting with the BJJ community, both in the US and in Sweden, and I'm 100% certain that under the general code of conduct therein, what you are doing is not kosher. Given how concerned the BJJ world is with legitimacy and preventing crappling from spreading under the name of BJJ, this is most certainly not a good thing to be doing. He said he'd look into it, but that seemed like a lame attempt to get me to stop asking questions, frankly.

Unfortunately, there is no other BJJ within 45 minutes.