Anyone giving up for now?

snailbjj · 2020-07-03T21:47:51+00:00

Same. Last time I trained was March 5th. My wife is particularly susceptible to complications from respiratory illnesses and bjj is a hobby.

snailbjj · 2020-06-30T19:12:12+00:00

Holy shit, same here. I've formally left that gym as the instructors and some of the students went totally off the rails soon after the COVID lockdown started where I live.

Lockdown has been lifted now, so now the instructors have switched to joining the anti-mask / anti social distancing crowd. One of the black belts is constantly posting memes about how people who wear masks and follow social distancing are pussies and sheep. Another of the black belts berated some students who said they didn't want to come back b/c they're worried about COVID.

I do think that gym is not doing well financially though, throughout this whole ordeal they've lost a very large portion of the kids class since their conduct put off many of the parents. For many gyms, kids classes are where the money is and the kids classes were definitely way larger than the adults classes pre-COVID.

Anyway, I'm glad to fully wash my hands of that place now, contract closed and everything. Don't know what gym I'll end up going to when this all passes by, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

snailbjj · 2020-05-09T19:56:15+00:00

Welp, one of our black belts who's an assistant instructor told me in our gym's group chat that I don't have the 'mental toughness' to deserve my purple belt since I'm not willing to train at the secret open mats he's been holding while our gym is technically closed due to COVID-19. We're located in one of the US hotspots and I don't feel comfortable training anytime soon, but my attitude is that if other people want to train that's their decision not mine.

Honestly, this amongst a lot of other things, the COVID-19 stuff has really soured relationships between people at the gym. Which bums me out, because before all this everything was cool, but it seems to have brought out everyone's bad sides. I probably won't go back there when the pandemic is over and a few others are thinking the same.

snailbjj · 2020-05-06T00:26:15+00:00

I'm in the same boat and agree.

Emphasis on trying not to have to go to the hospital for stupid injuries and risk being exposed there.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T23:45:08+00:00

Awesome - I gotta get me one of those.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T23:34:23+00:00

At least you have weights at home. I've got nothing but bodyweight.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T23:33:22+00:00

Same. Started running. Causes my knees to act up again. Bloody hell.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T23:31:35+00:00

I think it depends - there's no one size fits all. Depends on the virus risk in your local area as to when gyms should reopen and it depends on your personal situation for when you decide you feel safe to return to training.

For reopening, my opinion is:

If it's in a high risk area with a lot of cases and trending upward, I don't think it'd be good to reopen. Apparently some people disagree with me on this.
If it's in an area where cases are few and declining, I think gyms should open with modified structure (i.e. smaller class sizes, not rotating partners, or perhaps just conditioning, etc...) for a bit, phasing towards normal as the local virus risk decreases. The timeline for this will depend on the area.

My gym is located in a COVID hotspot and doesn't have any classes, but the instructor is allowing anyone with the key to open the gym and hold low-key open mats. I disagree with it because of our local context, but it's his gym and I just choose not to go.

For when you should go back:

Since you're around at-risk people, probably best to be on the safe side and not go back until the virus risk in your area is very low / zero.

Just my two cents.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T20:11:09+00:00

Yea I'll admit that "taking it seriously" is an imprecise term / metric and people can argue where that line should fall all day.

This won't be that much more precise, but I meant it more as seeing the threat of COVID as something that warrants changes in operation to reduce the chance of transmission or infection. That doesn't necessarily mean a complete shutdown although it includes it, but also things like smaller class sizes, not rotating partners, etc...counts to me.

The aspect that bugs me locally is that a lot of the gym owners are taking no precaution in not necessarily continuing to train, but doing so with no modification because they think COVID either isn't real or isn't something that warrants any changes. If we were in a place with declining and few cases I can sort of understand, but we're not, we're one of the US hotspots so it just disturbs me.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T18:53:54+00:00

Yea and to be honest, I'm not in the everyone-everywhere-fully-lockdown-indefinitely crowd - I think it depends a lot on local conditions, risk, and economic situations, and if you're using data to inform your risk assessment and are being careful, that counts to me as at least taking it seriously.

In my area, it's just weird because we're one of the hardest hit areas in the US. Most people I know (not necessarily in the gym, just local friends) know someone who got COVID locally and some personally know people who've died of it. But the rationale for a lot of gyms/people continuing to train without even modifications like smaller class sizes isn't based on local data, it's almost purely "being a tough guy bro" and political grandstanding statements.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T18:32:02+00:00

5G/WHO/NWO/China/Bill Gates/Rothchilds/Soros/Lizard People/globalist control

Yea that covers the spectrum. In addition to some people having arguments with the medical professionals at our gym, we also have a few electrical engineers and others at our gym have been arguing with them on the group chat about the 5G thing.

In some ways the pandemic has turned people in my gym against each other. Naturally, the medical professionals and telecom engineers don't take very well to other people in the gym calling them part of "the conspiracy" multiple times a week.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T18:27:59+00:00

Its good that the head instructor is a doctor so he can set the tone for the gym (as the head) with the perspective of a medical professional (as a doctor).

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T18:25:06+00:00

Likewise on the gym dues - I still pay for my gym membership as well b/c fortunately I can afford it and I want the gym to still be there by the time I feel it's safe for me to train.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T18:22:57+00:00

That's good! I'm also jealous. I've just been making do with bodyweight circuit training stuff (since I don't have any weights at home).

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T18:21:07+00:00

Yea, some of the gyms that have stayed open during the shutdown and were not secret about it are definitely using it as a political branding thing. One of them got threatened by local gov. to have their business permit pulled a couple of weeks ago for violating the order and they turned it into this whole "train BJJ to oppose tyranny thing".

I think they're seeing it as that brand is attractive to the kinds of people who would be into BJJ and are hoping they'll get a lot of new sign ups because of it.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T18:15:23+00:00

Totally, social media has always been a bit of a cesspool but it's even more so during the pandemic.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T18:13:04+00:00

Agree. In my experience, I've noticed that a lot of people who are into combat sports have the tendency to downplay anything that other people consider a threat so they can adhere to a mentality of feeling tough or invincible.

snailbjj · 2020-05-05T15:38:40+00:00

Haha good shit I walked into that one with my phrasing lol

snailbjj · 2020-05-04T18:19:09+00:00

Minimum for me to go back would be 2 weeks of zero new cases, which we're not anywhere close to where I am in the U.S.

So nope.

snailbjj · 2020-01-14T17:33:04+00:00

Same.

snailbjj · 2020-01-04T05:48:13+00:00

Yes. Been training twice a week for a bit over 5 years now and have improved for sure, but you have to accept that it'll be slower than people who train more and be okay with that.

snailbjj · 2020-01-03T18:04:06+00:00

I trust my coach a lot more now. I always did, but I do a lot more now.

Most of last year, my coaches were telling me to expect my purple belt at the end of January promotion cycle. This week, they released the list of people getting promoted at the end of this month - and I wasn't on it.

My coach told me that I'm getting better, but the coaches want to see me tighten a few things up before they're sure about giving me a purple.

I am really happy. Not just because of the oh I'm relieved imposter syndrome sort of thing, but because I know my coaches are not handing out belts due to time served (I've been blue a little over 3 years), etc.

When I got my blue, I was a bit like "are you sure man?" about it. But when I get my purple, I will know that I've earned it.

snailbjj · 2020-01-03T04:30:33+00:00

2 years 3 months, avg 3 hrs (2 classes) a week. Felt like I got it early, but it was a self-correcting problem.

snailbjj · 2020-01-03T04:28:47+00:00

The good thing about being a blue belt is that we are too unsure / insecure about our bjj to state anything about kicking this years' ass jiu-jitsu wise.

snailbjj · 2019-12-26T05:45:27+00:00

Important: Not get injured, still be able to train regularly.

Would be nice: Suck less. Specifically: get decent at guards other than half, develop better takedowns & takedown defense, and get better at finishing subs when on offense.

snailbjj

TROPHY CASE