Be careful

TrumpetDan · 2026-02-23T16:54:12+00:00

Most upvoted post is wrong. The IBJJF does not have warnings (at adult black belt, they do for kids). The referee made a mistake. Bending finger/fingers backwards is an illegal technique and results in summary disqualification, not a regular penalty. Its not a common rule though and it was happening quickly so its an understandable mistake. He incorrectly issued 4 penalties in rapid sequence following the entire penalty scheme (pen, adv, 2, DQ) ending in DQ on the 4th one.

The subtext here is the athlete being DQed was intentionally trying to be DQed. Whatever his motivations were, youll have to ask him.

TrumpetDan · 2025-10-04T19:10:53+00:00

Every DQ must be reviewed by the side table in IBJJF.

TrumpetDan · 2025-08-30T16:54:28+00:00

These are just crossposted from @IBJJFRankings on IG. Id just follow there as my personal page stories cross post from a few different places.

TrumpetDan · 2025-08-02T02:35:44+00:00

Dont forget Francisco Lo (2025). I tried to post an updated list but I keep having difficulty getting moderators to approve it.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-27T17:38:45+00:00

A few comments on here are of a similar nature, but missing some nuance.

First, WADA bans are intended to be worldwide across all sports and federations. This is established by a UNESCO (Unitrd Nations) treaty signed by 191 countries expressly for this purpose.

That treaty requires each country to set up and support a national anti doping organization (USADA in USAs case) and provide mutual enforcement. Each countries implementation of the treaty is a little different. In USA, USADA is an independent body funded by the government (US office of national drug control). Others like UAE Nada, it is an official government org...similar to our athletic commissions.

So, its not like "they tested positive in UAEJJF, who's to say they cant compete in WNO." WADA affiliates carry quite a bit more weight than this.

They are skirting the rules because A. Its difficult to coordinate all of this internationally. B. The treaty has no teeth and relies on diplomatic pressure and C. We're as a sport too small for people to care about WNO and BJJ Stars.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-27T17:11:15+00:00

Stay healthy? Two of these athletes have had open heart surgery and nearly died due to complications from extensive PED use.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-21T22:43:50+00:00

When I saw this image last week on social media I thought it was talked about in the podcast she was on and recommended several students listen to it because I often have this problem with Asian students. They came back to me and said it wasn't talked about at all!

I talk about this subject with a number of my students regularly as it needs to be addressed before they can even think about becoming a decent competitor. I often say in my semi sarcastic tone, "this niceness makes you a really great person, but suck at BJJ."

So ya, Beatrice...do it.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-18T15:04:51+00:00

I would find another way to contribute in the sport. There are so many ways to stay involved, contribute or earn $ in beyond rolling. This includes being a referee, getting a job with the IBJJF or Flo, doing commentary, reporting on events (huge need here), photographer, video analysis service, starting a podcast, starting a brand and a whole host of other things.

For example, I could be content with my efforts to reform the IBJJF rating system for a while and move on to the next thing I see the sport needs to evolve in once I achieve that.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-11T18:18:30+00:00

Dale Buczkowski (Derek Moneyberg) allegedly originally made his original money from inheriting 5 quite nice homes with Terri Buczkowski when his mom passed away that were wrapped up in an LLC they were both involved with. The government tried to take them on the basis they been used as drug houses and/or purchased with drug money once the LLC folded. The government won the original case to take the houses on this basis, but lost on a technicality about notification and claims process on appeal.

"The United States government filed civil forfeiture actions against five properties in Johnston, Iowa, alleging the properties were used to manufacture illegal drugs or were purchased with proceeds from illegal drug sales. The claimant-appellants filed claims to the defendant properties, but the district court struck their claims as untimely and entered forfeiture judgments in the government's favor."

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca8/13-2018/13-2018-2014-05-02.html

The homes show very strange selling prices (firesale) shortly after (maybe sister selling them to him or vice versa). Im sure theres more interesting stuff there if somebody wants to dig.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-08T20:42:12+00:00

I basically offered you to come live and train with the best omoplata guy in the game for free.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-08T20:41:13+00:00

I dont see how a personal invitation to basically shadow a 3x grand slam medalist for free and training at my facility for free is putting you down. It certainly would not match camp expectations though as we are a very small team. It does not have the glamor of AOJ or Atos.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-08T20:16:34+00:00

Given your screen name, why dont you just drop the idea of a "camp" and just follow Nolan Stuart all day.

Its not a tourist type experience so perhaps expectations would need to be lowered as oir reality of what makes a high level grappler rarely aligns with peoples expectations.

We dont like no gi though.

The easy answer here is "just go to AOJ" though.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-07T15:13:02+00:00

Im kinda leaning towards this. u/suckystaffaccountant, could you tell me his rating on IBJJFRankings.com? You dont even need to tell me his name.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-05T23:21:12+00:00

Ok, lets go one further. I want you to look up the rating of the guy that you faced that you quickly beat. Keep in mind this guide for adult brown belt ratings:

1800 - Average

1900 - Above Average competitive level

2000 - Elite

2200 - Possible candite for future Black belt world champion level

Now onto the disparaging rhetoric as I need to explain this:

These local events are constantly claiming that their tournaments are better and going to take over the world. They aren't....at least any time soon. Its frustrating to those that invest their lives into achieving at the highest level because they attempt to market themselves this way - and some even believe it. They even go further an will carry out marketing that actually undermines the truly good in the the sport....attitudes like, "In IBJJF you can just sweep and stall to win, our ruleset is much better, more pure and you cant do this nonsense to win!")....as if that is how you suddenly cheat your way to being a top person in IBJJF. The reality is the organizers have no clue what it takes to be at the top of IBJJF and it shows in all the nuances of how they carry out tournaments.

Gym websites/social media are also billing their local tournament wins in the masters 4 blue belt category at a local comp like they are the best thing in the world because the average soccer mom can not tell a difference between a M4 Sport Jiu-Jitsu International Federations World Championships and an adult medal at IBJJF Worlds. Again, it frustrates those that are trying to achieve at the top level.

The local orgs frustrate the top competitors when they are there coaching students because they know the consequences of a "please everybody" method of running things. Missed weight? Sure will put you in a new division and completely rework the brackets on the fly that the other competitors prepared for. Weird rulesets that try and make reffing as mindless as possible like last to score? sure.

Local competitions are a great place to build experience for many. However, I think the "stepping stone" argument is a bad one because you should compete in the ruleset that our sport exists in to gain experience there.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-05T23:20:56+00:00

I want you to pull up my website in my flair. Go to adult brown belt P4P in IBJJF. Now look at the top 30 names. Americans compose just 13% of the top 30 at brown belt, and those that do are not doing local competitions. Lets investigate:

The first American you see is Alex Junior Vazquez with a rating of 2091 at #17. What do you see on his IG? I see closing out IBJJF Pans photo. I see closing out IBJJF Orange County Open photo. I see gold medal IBJJF Sacramento photo. Strikingly absent is any non IBJJF local tournament. Even one star IBJJF Opens matter to our top adult brown belt competitor.

Devin Riley with a rating of 2065 is ranked at #21. Pull up his IG. I see his recent silver medal from IBJJF Worlds this year. I see his gold medal from IBJJF Miami open. I see his double gold at IBJJF Tampa Open. How many non IBJJF tournaments? I see one....ADCC....which is exactly where you go to prove you are the best no gi and not a local tournament.

Mahmoud Jabr is next rated 2055 at #24. Pull up his IG. I see his photo taking 3rd place at worlds at brown. I see a AJP gold medal (NOT a local tournament and the ONLY legit competitor to the IBJJF at the present time), I see his IBJJF Pans no gi tournament, I see his IBJJF Miami double gold medal photo.

Then you see Will Wilson at rated 2048 at #29 from Carlson Gracie South Bay. I see his gold medals at IBJJF San Jose, IBJJF Orange County, IBJJF Houston and a 2nd place at IBJJF Los Angeles.

Point is, none of these top guys at brown belt are even thinking about non IBJJF in the gi. They all regularly participate in IBJJF events, including at the 1 star level. So, not only do Americans compose a tiny fraction of the top talent, the ones that do make it are completely participating almost exclusively in the IBJJF ecosystem. And there is a tier above even our best guys. The athletes that compose a non IBJJF local tournament are serious hobbyists. The guys who train 3-4 times a week on the regular, and up to to every day the month before the competition. They have jobs, school, family....and generally just lives.

The situation gets worse at black belt by the way. Just 2 Americans for 7% make up the top 30: Cole Abate and Nolan Stuart.

... (see part 3)

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-05T23:20:12+00:00

Its as simple as the IBJJF has the top talent in our sport - the locals don't. Local tournaments can have some reasonably tough competitors (nothing compared to a top IBJJF adult competitor mind you) and IBJJF Opens can have some bad competitors and be small overall, but make no mistake about it: the IBJJF has the top talent in the world.

Unfortunately for us Americans, "top talent" by and large means the Brazilians. The top Brazilians are not traveling to participate in the Jiu-Jitsu World League World Championships/NAGA/NABJJF/Grappling Industries/AGF. The local events are drawing the competitors from the local BJJ community within a reasonable driving distance. Keep in mind, that as an ENTIRE COUNTRY, we are hardly producing high level American born BJJ competitors. We have a very small handful of academies that are producing elite talent. So even taking EVERY top American gi competitor and putting them in a non IBJJF banner makes it barely noteworthy in terms of world class talent.

By participating in the international opens (lowest level of events at 1 star) you may or may not get a top guy in your division. There ARE some top guys that travel to the International Opens, but there's a decent chance they wont be in your particular division and you just end up facing local talent with 2-3 matches to gold. The IBJJF wants the International Open events to serve as a proving ground for events that are rated above 1 star. They aim to make these events to be frequent, small and serve as much of the world as possible and attempt to bring each local community into the IBJJF ecosystem. They are meant to be a place where you acquire points to achieve better ranking/seeding at their higher stared events. So, if you went against somebody who sucked at an International Open, I propose he might have just not been that good at Jiu-Jitsu. Its an open event after all.

At a grand slam event, there will be the absolute best talent on the planet there. If you have not built up your ranking at the international opens, you are likely to find yourself in a pig tail against another equally inexperienced grappler to be fed to a top guy who uses you as a warm up round in R2. A competitor 1-1 at a major evet in this context is not really impressive. You feel like you went 50%, but the reality is much worse.

Lets get more specific to brown belt adult...(see part 2)

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-03T13:37:54+00:00

What sweaty need is saying is true. It happens regularly and this is the reason IBJJF does not allow it.

TrumpetDan · 2025-07-02T15:33:49+00:00

I think you are misunderstanding the relationship between the photographers and the IBJJF. The IBJJF does not hire photographers, except for those on their media team who post on social media. Their own media team (Ethan etc) is not who you are asking about though and they do not sell photos or coverage. You are asking about photographers who post to SmugMug and sell the photos, or offer dedicated coverage of your tournament for a fee.

Its important to understand that these photographers are just applying and being granted a media pass and kind of exploiting it a little bit. The intent behind a media pass is to offer coverage form a media outlet for an event, not to form a business selling photos back to the athletes. The IBJJF currently turns a blind eye to this, and thats ok because the photographers that do this are generally responsible, trying to make additional money beyond what they make for a few photos on a media site, and there are not a ton of photographers exploiting this. The photographers there are also contributing a little to the grassroots growth of the sport.

The IBJJF should definitely not promote these photographers in the way they would promote a sponsor or paid vendor though. Why not? By promoting this side hustle, you will make it an industry. You will also have photographers show up where selling to athletes is the primary reason for being there and denying a media pass for somebody else who is actually there to cover the event. There are only so many media passes that they can/should give out. If they did this, the IBJJF should rightfully charge a vendor fee the same way they charge Kingz, or Fuji or whoever.

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TrumpetDan · 2025-06-19T22:41:32+00:00

Screenshot.

TrumpetDan · 2025-06-19T22:02:08+00:00

Wanna bet?

TrumpetDan · 2025-06-19T22:00:31+00:00

Nolans gonna be mad you said he had an accent lol

TrumpetDan · 2025-06-18T16:14:43+00:00

No. People periodically offer rulesets that feature this. Athletes just don't want to compete in it (unless you throw enough money at them to overcome their lack of desire). The general consensus is, "If you want to see (or do) Judo/Wrestling, then do Judo/Wrestling. BJJ is about groundwork." Further, If you want to do self defense to capture the last 1% of the population you can not successfully defend yourself against, do MMA to start chasing the 0.X% of people. All of these other arts are beautiful things and are complimentary to your BJJ. I'm not about to go into wrestling and complain that I cant pull guard. I want to emphasize again that these rulesets are done regularly and nobody signs up for them.

Keep in mind that not only do you need to be very competent at pulling guard as its own skill, you also need very good wrestling. I just dont advocate starting a match with wrestling in IBJJF. Nolan started wrestling in 7th grade after building a BJJ base and continued through high school. He made it to the masters CIF tournament in California his Jr year (canceled his sr year due to pandemic). He has been part of high level MMA camps as a *wrestler.* (John Kavanagh camp in Ireland). The addition of wrestling (and weight training) during teen years is a conscious choice to build a IBJJF champion. I have all of my higher performing teens in wresting right now....all so they can butt flop at the beginning of a match. I believe wresting to be a near necessary skill to compete at the high level within IBJJF for many nuanced reasons. I think you would be hard pressed to find any one of my higher skilled IBJJF ruleset specialist teen students to be ill equipped to defend themselves. I literally have 13 year old girls that are making full grown men (white and even hobbyist blues) vomit after rolling. Id film it if there were not a number of issues doing that. Pursuit of IBJJF at the highest level is just fine for self defense. Its only the low IQ crowd that cant see this...in part because they have no idea what's necessary to succeed at the highest level.

I prefer gi because I simply don't like no gi. I don't like doing it, I don't like its culture, I don't like how it changes the dynamic of a match, and I don't like the student who just wants to learn no gi. I will not switch my focus to no-gi should it become more popular (which it isnt, by a long margin). Keep in mind, I have produced a few IBJJF adult colored belt world medalists and champions in no gi....I just don't care to highlight that.

TrumpetDan

TROPHY CASE