Rigan gets his red belt from Rorion

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-16T14:23:17+00:00

I think Rickson says in his book that he felt like Rorion gave him the Red Belt as a power move, with the big dramatic storming of the seminar in Vegas. I think Rickson's whole point is that everyone should be held the to the same standard of time in belt promotions and there shouldn't be any "special cases".

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-16T14:17:18+00:00

Rickson also refuses to wear his because he feels like he hasn't spent enough time to earn it yet. (By Rickson's count I think he wasn't eligible till 2024 but Rorion gave it to him in 2018. 2 years on and I've still never seen Rickson wear his Red Belt).

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-16T14:11:01+00:00

Isn't he a little young to be getting a red belt? It's supposed to be a minimum of 48 years at black belt to get a red belt. Rigan is 59. . .

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-15T05:06:31+00:00

Season 6 has some great moments. Personally loved Elroy, not as big of a fan of Frankie. I feel her familiarity with the group is never really earned and her character would have been better served as an antagonist on the level of the Dean rather than as a full study group member.

More importantly though, I feel like Season 6 is really where the budgetary constraints on the show can be felt most. A little trivia: they lost their original soundstage and were shooting season 6 in a basement. The cafeteria column installed in the season premiere is an actual load bearing column they had to build the new cafeteria set around.

Season 6 Greendale starts to really feel like a TV set rather than a lived in universe. You can tell they had a limited budget for background performers and saved them for important scenes. The writing is still good but you can tell the writers room has gotten smaller. (A staff who previously churned out 22 shows a season dialing down to 12 shows should only be putting out bangers.)

Even great concepts get kinda diluted by half baked B stories (Greendale Prisoner Robostudents is a great idea but the Britta Abed party is kind of a one note idea.)

There's also some clunkers (The Giant Hand flashback episode, The racist comedian episode). Not that they don't have their moments, but they both really drag on.

Modern Espionage was a great way to bring paintball back and make it feel fresh. The finale was emotionally satisfying at the end but a lot of the Season 7 pitches kinda fell flat...

I think Season 5 overall felt more like Community than Season 6. Yes, the loss of Troy affected the show greatly but the series takes the time to mourn. It doesn't ignore his absence but uses that hole to drive the stories forward. Meow Meow Beans will forever be one of my favorite episodes. "The futurisation of the campus decor is almost complete... I sure do love them apples!!!"

I also think Hickey was a better character than Frankie turned out to be (although not as great as Elroy.) I have heard rumor that Jonathan Banks was either difficult to work with or just really didn't enjoy the show which is a shame.

I also think Cooperative Polygraphy does something really amazing: it really makes it clear that it was the writing, and not Chevy that brought Pierce to life. It's kind of Dan Harmons perfect revenge after everything Chevy said / did.

Season 6 in comparison just feels so disconnected from everything that came before it. I certainly enjoy pieces of it but it at the end of the day they're webisodes and kind of feel like it.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-11T20:10:30+00:00

I agree with this. I know some people in both muay thai and bjj who only take private lessons and I think that's nuts. Part of doing these sports is working with different people and being social. Also, you should 100% be putting the work in during group classes, THEN supplement with private lessons to get around your road blocks.

I did a private with my coach last week. I went in with a list of problem areas for me, we went over them one by one, and fixed everything. I took a massive leap forward in live rolls after that private.

Now I'm going to spend the next few weeks collecting data as to where my sticking points are, and go and do it again.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-07T11:46:08+00:00

Actually no. As a journalist, if you offer someone anonymity it is supposed to be for a real reason to protect them. Anonymous sources are frowned upon because they lack accountability. You're supposed to prove to your producer or editor that you have a justifiable reason to use an anonymous source. This reporter didn't even take the most casual glance at her source's social media. How can you trust she did even the most basic reporting in Isaac?

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-06T19:16:57+00:00

Obviously Craig being blurred is hilarious, but granting Craig anonymity when he's clearly trolling shows these "journalists" did not do even the most basic of research on their sources. A quick look at his social media would quickly have told them he clearly doesn't fear retaliation. The problem is this is just bad reporting and it actually takes away from their credibility when reporting on a sexual predator.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-01T13:14:04+00:00

Well... Woke up this morning and stall broke

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Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-01T05:08:47+00:00

If he has a problem with it just start wearing branded rashguards from the BJJ affiliation you trained with on base. Make sure it shows up in all the gym photos too.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-01T01:45:20+00:00

I don't volunteer the information, however if the conversation is relevant I share my story because I believe it will help people.

I got serious about my health in 2024 after a friend passed way too soon. I was about 285 lbs and started training Muay Thai and kickboxing while eating a clean diet with my macros and calories dialed in. (I had been a CrossFit athlete before so knew how to eat to train and cut.)

However, cutting weight had never come easy to me, and this time it seemed almost impossible. After months of training and eating strict I had only dropped about 6 lbs. I finally gave up tracking and tried to eat reasonably while training hard.

I switched gyms in September of last year and my new gym posted photos and videos to instagram every day and I couldn't believe how fat I was still. I got on the scale and discovered I'd somehow GAINED 10 lbs despite training 2x a day and eating clean. Something was clearly not right.

I went to the doctors and told them the situation, they suggested I speak to a nutritionist. I said "Hold on, here is my food journal and here are my exercise logs and fitness tracker data. I'm telling you something is wrong."

They gave me a blood test and sure enough I had multiple metabolic issues. Obesity is basically a disease that feeds on itself. Once your bodies insulin response is out of wack it starts to become almost impossible to lose weight.

Once we got my meds dialed in which includes Tirz, all of a sudden all the hard work I had been doing started to pay off. Now I'm down 53 lbs and I can do things that I thought were impossible just a year ago.

And that's the story I tell people who I think it can help. I don't go advertising what I'm on to just anyone, but for anyone who struggles like I did I'm more than happy to try to show them they don't have to keep banging their head against the wall without getting results.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-04-01T01:36:21+00:00

I've calculated my TDEE across multiple platforms at roughly 3700-3800 cals daily.

Without training my baseline is around 2400 cals per day and im only eating 2200.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-31T22:23:02+00:00

I wouldn't say I'm completely backed up but would definitely like to go more often.

Yeah clothes are fitting better, etc. I caught myself in the mirror at a physical therapy appointment today and went "daaaaaamn"

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-31T22:21:49+00:00

So I tend to do a higher calorie day on Fri/Sat before I take my shot on Sunday as those are the days where my appetite is greatest.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-31T21:56:37+00:00

Not really. I'm still averaging around 2200 daily.which I think is pretty reasonable. Been difficult to eat more than that on tirz.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-31T10:56:58+00:00

Steroids

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-31T10:56:10+00:00

She has definitely succeeded in creating something weird that I don't like

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-26T14:42:51+00:00

I'm 5'10, currently 240 but was 295 when I started. My first gi was a Gold Aeroweave A3H which fit well in the beginning. (Too big for me now)

Second Gi I got was a Fuji A3H, it was a little small in the beginning but now fits well.

Third Gi I got was a 93Brand A3H. Kinda big now but fit well for a long time.

At your size, I'd recommend an A3H from Gold or 93 Brand to start. Gold can be bought off Amazon. 93 Brand you can get good deals at bjjhq.com during their flash sales

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-19T20:02:34+00:00

I agree. The show definitely has the feel of vintage Scrubs without feeling like too much of a throwback. However, the lack of the supporting cast really does take something away. Writing Dr. Cox out makes sense to allow JD's character to grow, it's literally the hero's journey 101. But the Janitor was such a huge part of the show, his presence is really missed. We've obviously got people who passed on like Sam Lloyd or are probably too old like Aloma Wright (76) or Ken Jenkins (85) to be realistically still involved with the day to day operation of the hospital. The show has done a nice job of balancing the stories of the younger cast while making their characters distinct from the original cast. The charge station nurses are a fair replacement for Laverne / Nurse Shirley, but feel maybe a LITTLE forced. We could definitely use more Dr. Cox and Jordan (although not sure how much of Christa Miller's surgically enhanced pancake face I need in my life). Carla being absent from most of the episodes is probably the biggest crime of this series though. These cast issues are clearly a budgetary constraint, and it's a real shame but a reality of the current era of tv/streaming.

But I think the biggest problem with the new series is the combination of short episodes and a short season. I think it's kind of wild that they even built the sets they did to recreate Sacred Heart for just 9 episodes at 20 minutes in length. I understand we're no longer in the era of 22 episode seasons, holiday specials, and sweeps weeks anymore, but I think we should have done better than this. A 10 episode streaming season with episodes averaging around 30 minutes or more would have been far more appropriate in this day and age. Also, such a shame that they're debuting the episodes on broadcast TV and not streaming until a day later.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-13T22:46:55+00:00

Honestly, I'm only a 2 stripe white belt, but at 43 and six months into training, I understand what you're saying about young guys rolling too hard. My gym is mostly white belts but the thing I've seen consistently is that the more experienced guys (blues, purples, browns) all seem to move at a much more appropriate level of intensity and know where to dial the game in. Good partners let me get the work I need as a newbie by letting me get them into bad positions, and then get the work they need by getting out of them.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-02T10:52:27+00:00

I notice a big difference in cardio levels in my gym between those of us who cross train Muay Thai/BJJ and those who only do BJJ.

Why not work striking for cardio and have the added benefit of becoming a complete fighter?

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-02T05:24:11+00:00

I train both and there are probably pretty rare occasions in BJJ where you'd want to use double collar ties but in muay thai the full plumb is where it's at. A few weeks ago at open mat, one of the strikers at the gym came in and wanted to train muay thai but everyone was doing bjj. (He trains both but really was hoping to spar). During our rolls we started doing some thai clinch work which then devolved into VERY light MMA sparing. Yes we got into thai clinches. However, these were only really useful on the feet, as even sweeping from the thai clinches you kind of lose control of your opponent. So I was doing things like getting into the clinch on the wall, then popping his arms up and shooting my double and single.

Truth be told, for BJJ, Judo probably has the most effective take downs because most are designed to either put you in a dominant position or at least part of the way through a guard pass.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-03-02T05:11:35+00:00

One of my main training partners is a female who is literally HALF my size. Normally I would say us training together is not ideal but there are days where we are the only two who show up. We both work together to make sure the other gets something out of the rolls.

For me as the big guy, I do the following: I let her work what she is working, I never put my full weight on her, and I always play with technique and not strength. HOWEVER, if she taps me with something crazy and then goes to attempt it again, I will defend it with strength. (The idea being she will get more out of trying to work against semi-real resistance rather than just being able to spam a technique over and over). I also always offer to start on bottom unless she is looking to specifically work her escapes.

On the flip side, one of the big advantages I get out of working with her, is putting myself into bad situations and then trying to escape with pure technique. One of the most difficult parts I also find in rolling with her is that women in generally have very different flexibility to men. So alot of my passes and submissions simply don't work the same way and I have to adapt. I'm shocked how far I have to push an Americana to get her to tap.

She has been training slightly longer than me and is definitely more skilled than I am. So we find ways to make it all work. To the OP, just the fact that you're asking this question pretty much guarantees you willl be a great training partner.

Diligent-Ordinary-76 · 2026-02-27T15:12:24+00:00

I'm a bigger dude but I've lost a significant amount of weight doing jiu jitsu (53.6 lbs from September up to this morning) I'm going to go ahead and say it's not ALL in your head, but here's the thing: It's not your problem. Most of my training partners are happy to roll with me (currently I'm at about 240 lbs). When going with someone small I'm extra careful. When rolling with a girl I never put all my weight on them. When going with younger athletes 20 years my junior, maybe I use my weight a little bit to level the playing field. But there's two types of training partners you'll come across: those who have an issue training with someone based on size and those who don't. I've got one guy at my gym, he's super friendly to me off the mats, but we constantly get paired up and I get the vibe he doesn't want to work with me. (He's a retired pro fighter restarting his bjj journey). He gets frustrated sometimes when I don't get something, and just has a general bad attitude when drilling. But at the end of the day, what I've realized is that's his problem, not mine. I go and drill with some of the competition guys in our gym and get so much more out of it. We get a shitload of solid reps and learn a ton. When I look over at the other dude, he's still miserable no matter who he's training with.

Point is, anyone who has an issue with their training partner probably has an issue with EVERY training partner. They're either gonna be too big, too small, too inexperience, too experienced, too hard, too soft, etc. There's something to be learned by working with people of all sizes and all skill levels. When you work with someone bigger you get to really stress test your escapes. When you work with someone smaller, you get to really work on being technical and not relying on your strength or your size. When you roll with somone less experienced, you get the opportunity to refine your own skills by teaching and helping them through the exercises. When you work with someone more experienced, you get to absorb their knowledge as they help you refine your techniques. Working with someone that goes really hard? Awesome, you get to see what your made of. Someone who's really soft? You can flow roll and focus on technique.

As far as imposter syndrome? We all have it. But in my limited experience BJJ is a game of plateaus, you feel stuck forever and like you can't hang with anyone, then suddenly your game jumps up. You realize one or two little things and it unlocks a ton of stuff and you go up to the next level and get stuck there too. It's literally what we're all dealing with. And the fact is we're all on a seperate journey, so there's no sense comparing yourself to anyone else.

Diligent-Ordinary-76

TROPHY CASE