skribs113 133
Grandmaster
In my BJJ gym, gray belt is the "highest belt". At least for now. It's still a relatively new gym. So far we have plenty of gray-and-black belts and solid gray belts, but we don't really have any active yellow belts. I do think we'll have quite a few in a month, as our first official belt day is next month. We have promoted 3 kids to yellow belt, but one of them has quit and the other two are so irregular that they might as well have quit.
The issue we're running into right now is many of the gray and gray-and-black belts think they're the Gracie's Gift to Jiu-Jitsu. They're obviously top of their class, so they feel like there's nothing more for them to learn. Instead, they're just there to goof off and to show off. The problem is that we don't really have anyone to prove them wrong. There's the coaches, but the coaches are so much bigger (and play with kids gloves when rolling with someone half our size and a quarter our age). There aren't any yellow belts to beat them into submission.
Most of our white belts drill better than our gray belts at this point. They pay attention during technique and do what was instructed (at least, to the best of their ability). A few of the gray belts get to the drill and don't even know what technique was demonstrated. They only pay attention to the broadest strokes. For example, yesterday we were drilling a setup which starts as a flower sweep, transitions to an armbar from guard, and then you push them over and finish the armbar from on top. One of the gray belts simply did a flower sweep into mount, and then S-mount transition into an armbar.
Instead of treating rolls as an opportunity to learn, they either treat it as an opportunity to show off, or as an opportunity to smash someone with the same sequence over and over. Even worse, some of them have learned some tricks from the adult class that aren't appropriate in the kid's class (such as jackhammering your thigh on your opponent's face to convince them to give up an armbar).
My Professor made a comment at the end of class yesterday that the white belts are doing great because they're trying to learn, but that the gray belts need to learn humility. That gray might be in front of the line in our gym, but it's one of the lowest belts in jiu-jitsu and they still have a lot to learn. I think he made a good point. But knowing these kids it probably fell on deaf ears.
I realize this is going to be a very niche question, but for those who have found themselves in a similar situation, where you have a newer school and the highest ranking kids (relative to your school) think they're too good for instruction, how do you approach it? How do you teach kids humility when there really isn't anyone who can humble them (without a big asterisk such as "you're twice my size and an adult")?
The issue we're running into right now is many of the gray and gray-and-black belts think they're the Gracie's Gift to Jiu-Jitsu. They're obviously top of their class, so they feel like there's nothing more for them to learn. Instead, they're just there to goof off and to show off. The problem is that we don't really have anyone to prove them wrong. There's the coaches, but the coaches are so much bigger (and play with kids gloves when rolling with someone half our size and a quarter our age). There aren't any yellow belts to beat them into submission.
Most of our white belts drill better than our gray belts at this point. They pay attention during technique and do what was instructed (at least, to the best of their ability). A few of the gray belts get to the drill and don't even know what technique was demonstrated. They only pay attention to the broadest strokes. For example, yesterday we were drilling a setup which starts as a flower sweep, transitions to an armbar from guard, and then you push them over and finish the armbar from on top. One of the gray belts simply did a flower sweep into mount, and then S-mount transition into an armbar.
Instead of treating rolls as an opportunity to learn, they either treat it as an opportunity to show off, or as an opportunity to smash someone with the same sequence over and over. Even worse, some of them have learned some tricks from the adult class that aren't appropriate in the kid's class (such as jackhammering your thigh on your opponent's face to convince them to give up an armbar).
My Professor made a comment at the end of class yesterday that the white belts are doing great because they're trying to learn, but that the gray belts need to learn humility. That gray might be in front of the line in our gym, but it's one of the lowest belts in jiu-jitsu and they still have a lot to learn. I think he made a good point. But knowing these kids it probably fell on deaf ears.
I realize this is going to be a very niche question, but for those who have found themselves in a similar situation, where you have a newer school and the highest ranking kids (relative to your school) think they're too good for instruction, how do you approach it? How do you teach kids humility when there really isn't anyone who can humble them (without a big asterisk such as "you're twice my size and an adult")?
