There has been some uncertainty over a tap at a Brazilian jiu jitsu school located in Bournemouth, England recently.
“I was under the impression we were going easy”, said Matthew Barnstaple, a brown belt who has been training for about eight years on and off.
“If it was a competition that would never have happened.”
“Plus that guy is really strong and I think he used to do capoeira or something.”
The incident occurred at around 8:15pm during the third roll of the evening. Barnstaple, who labels himself a traditionalist and is not a fan of worm guards or fancy open guards, quickly found himself succumbing to a sweep from the younger, more athletic white belt, who everyone only knows as “Jim” and has only been attending for a couple of weeks.
A gym member who was nearby during the roll claims he heard Barnstaple request that Jim “take it easy” because “he has a bad knee”, but did not hear whether or not Jim agreed to the request to go light.
Barnstaple maintains that “If [I’d] really been trying, there’s no way he would have swept me or tapped me out. I basically let him do it.”
The submission in question was a rear naked choke, which happened within the first minute of the roll.
The Awkward Shaka 
To be honest, who cares if a brown got tapped… even taking it easy… isn’t the point of training to improve… not say I can’t get tapped by a white belt.. or black or blue or anyone… I think people lose sight of the point of sparring… it’s to learn last time I checked , try new stuff.. and if you get caught, it means you work on that technique more intil you defend. That way when faced with it when it counts , you know the application and can execute it properly.
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Oh the shame!! Jk. I’m a black belt and have been tapped by blue belts in class.
Classes are a laboratory and used for experimentation and a learning experience for the students.
You can’t put much stake in anything that happens during class.
I’ve seen a world class black belt get beat in competition by a blue belt that had a great wrestling pedigree.
Doesn’t take anything away from that black belt. He’s won several prestigious competitions since including the IBJJF Master’s Worlds.
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Hilarious and well written 🙂 the author really managed to convey the ridiculousness of having to protect the ego at all cost due to the color of ones belt. Can’t wait to read more!
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Who cares this has to be the stupidsr crap I’ve ever read. When your role it’s every man for himself. On the street ya theirs no points. Train like u fight but fight harder than you train. At the same time don’t go ape shit crazy on a younger belt. Role and get over the outcome to easy.
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