Helen Maroulis is the Olympic Gold medal Wrestler is now the IBJJF adult blue belt Lightweight Worlds No Gi Champion. Congratulations Helen and welcome to the Jiu Jitsu community!
@@semperfortisjiujitsu I should revise my statement and elaborate. The IBJJF promotion system sucks as far as regulating promotions. A qualified BJJ black belt should be able to promote her to any appropriate grade without forcing her into a white/blue belt division.
I remember having this conversation with a teacher about Helena Crevar. She has been beating black belts for a while as she's a blue belt (IDK if she got promoted to purple already). I think John would agree she's at least a Brown Belt but IBJJ says she's to young.
I was a 40 yo former college wrestler when I walked into a BJJ gym last year and paid for the year last year. I submitted all the blue belts and below easily with my ability to pass guard and apply top pressure. School professor sent the mat enforcer to wrist lock me into oblivion. I competed in blue belt GI absolute sub only x2 and won both. I am now subbing purples occasionally and have earned one stripe. Apparently takes 3 years minimum to get your blue belt and 3 to 5 years to get each belt after. That being said the brown and black belts absolutely maul me when I get the privilege to roll with them!
I am glad that you decided to make the transition from wrestling to Brazilian Jiu Jiitsu. My favorite training partners at my school are former wrestlers. Wrestling is an amazing martial art and the more wrestlers that start doing BJJ the better are art will be with the added talents and new grappling skills that wrestlers bring. Thanks for watching and sharing your journey.
@ apparently I was acting to much like a Wrestler and going to hard. Me and the enforcer are roll buddies now and he is was the one that told me that’s what happened. I was clueless, My wrist lock defense is on point now so was all good for me 👍
You cannot compete in a higher belt rank division than the one you have in an IBJJF tournament. She followed the rules and has only been training BJJ for 6 weeks. I am personally very impressed with her accomplishment.
I'm in favor of the "years experience" metric for nogi Seems silly to use belt ranks in a situation where you dont even wear a belt Novice -1 year Intermediate -5 years Advanced 5+ years Burns my biscuits to see d1 wrestlers going into white belt divisons when theyve been grappling as long as they could walk
@ i’ve always been a big fan of helen and was excited to see how she’d do. i kinda would like her to get into judo and see how she’d do throwing in the gi but i think it’s a much harder leap than going to no gi grappling
There should a separate competition for folks with a separate grappling background. With your logic bro Islam & Khabib are white belts. These come to bjj & dominate us that are coming off the couch.
@@semperfortisjiujitsu So you're saying that if you want to win be a world champion as blue belt, you should be ready to beat blacks belt from all other grappling arts? Or to put it another way, someone with a year or two of experience in BJJ should be expected to compete with someone who has decades of experience in another grappling art?
@@jzambiab Yes and I am good with that. No different than a person that starts BJJ at 6 years old and then receives their blue belt at age 16 and competes, they have 10 years of experience and are going to be very tough, but they are beatable. Other martial arts black belts and Olympic gold medalist have entered IBJJF tournaments at various belt levels and they are not unbeatable.
@@mfundimkhize3137 but they are both black belts in judo which involves a lot of submission and ground work so it’s a not surprising they can dominate against jiu jitsu
This is yet another reason sport BJJ shouldn't have belts. You could have a gold medalist wrestler and Judo black belt dominate as a white belt maybe through purple. People who compete don't need to be losing their money like this. While I agree with some of what you are saying I still don't think these guys should be allowed to compete as white and blue belts. If you are going to let them compete at the lower levels, belt ranks shouldn't be a thing. Only in the martial art of Jiu-Jitsu should there be belt ranks. Lets look at this logically for a second. Where are the belts in Muay thai? What about a blue belt in boxing? Purple belt in wrestling? Sounds stupid doesn't it?
I would be all for returning to the original Gracie Academy standard of the instructor wearing a dark blue belt and the students wear a white belt regardless of the level. As far as competition I think it is quite possible this Olympic gold medalist does not win their division.
@@semperfortisjiujitsu I think belts are an important part of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu but they have no place in sport BJJ. Brock Lesnar is a good example. Show him how to do an americana from side control and he beats 90% of heavyweight black belts on the planet. Without even knowing how to tie a belt. No one wants to spend their hard earned money on an almost guaranteed loss. Not many people wanna watch that happen either.
@dragonballjiujitsu in every competition there will be opponent's with significant advantages. For instance I have faced Megaton Dias 3 times in IBJJF tournaments and he beat me decisively all 3 times. Megaton was a black belt long before I started Jiu Jiitsu but I embrace the challenge and look forward to the upcoming Pan American Championship in March where I will have to face Megaton a fourth time if I want to win gold. I gladly accept the challenge.
Helen Maroulis is the Olympic Gold medal Wrestler is now the IBJJF adult blue belt Lightweight Worlds No Gi Champion. Congratulations Helen and welcome to the Jiu Jitsu community!
The people bitching should blame the IBJJF (who sucks).
The IBJJF definitely is not perfect but I personally enjoy competing in their tournaments.
@@semperfortisjiujitsu I should revise my statement and elaborate. The IBJJF promotion system sucks as far as regulating promotions. A qualified BJJ black belt should be able to promote her to any appropriate grade without forcing her into a white/blue belt division.
I remember having this conversation with a teacher about Helena Crevar. She has been beating black belts for a while as she's a blue belt (IDK if she got promoted to purple already). I think John would agree she's at least a Brown Belt but IBJJ says she's to young.
@tommyg8570 very interesting ideas! Thanks for sharing your ideas and watching the video.
I was a 40 yo former college wrestler when I walked into a BJJ gym last year and paid for the year last year. I submitted all the blue belts and below easily with my ability to pass guard and apply top pressure. School professor sent the mat enforcer to wrist lock me into oblivion. I competed in blue belt GI absolute sub only x2 and won both. I am now subbing purples occasionally and have earned one stripe. Apparently takes 3 years minimum to get your blue belt and 3 to 5 years to get each belt after. That being said the brown and black belts absolutely maul me when I get the privilege to roll with them!
I am glad that you decided to make the transition from wrestling to Brazilian Jiu Jiitsu. My favorite training partners at my school are former wrestlers. Wrestling is an amazing martial art and the more wrestlers that start doing BJJ the better are art will be with the added talents and new grappling skills that wrestlers bring. Thanks for watching and sharing your journey.
*"School professor sent the mat enforcer"* lol WTF?
@ apparently I was acting to much like a Wrestler and going to hard. Me and the enforcer are roll buddies now and he is was the one that told me that’s what happened. I was clueless, My wrist lock defense is on point now so was all good for me 👍
@@pavloz1818 I don't have mat enforcers at my school and have never been a fan of the idea.
You don’t get to promote yourself, but you can absolutely compete in a higher division than your rank.
You cannot compete in a higher belt rank division than the one you have in an IBJJF tournament. She followed the rules and has only been training BJJ for 6 weeks. I am personally very impressed with her accomplishment.
I'm in favor of the "years experience" metric for nogi
Seems silly to use belt ranks in a situation where you dont even wear a belt
Novice -1 year
Intermediate -5 years
Advanced 5+ years
Burns my biscuits to see d1 wrestlers going into white belt divisons when theyve been grappling as long as they could walk
Your idea sounds reasonable and fair.
I agree!
Thanks for watching!
you could apply this logic to size and age
True
Maybe move them to purple belt lmao
Maybe next year she will compete at Purple belt.
@ I’m sure she will. I seen Pat Downey just got promoted to purple after the comp
of course its fair
I agree! Thanks for watching!
no bjj blackbelt could enter a senior level tourney and dominate, why would a wrestler be any different?
I agree! What this young lady accomplished was very impressive and rare.
@ i’ve always been a big fan of helen and was excited to see how she’d do. i kinda would like her to get into judo and see how she’d do throwing in the gi but i think it’s a much harder leap than going to no gi grappling
There should a separate competition for folks with a separate grappling background. With your logic bro Islam & Khabib are white belts. These come to bjj & dominate us that are coming off the couch.
If you want to be World Champion then yes be ready to beat Khabib or Islam or any other accomplished fighter.
@@semperfortisjiujitsu So you're saying that if you want to win be a world champion as blue belt, you should be ready to beat blacks belt from all other grappling arts? Or to put it another way, someone with a year or two of experience in BJJ should be expected to compete with someone who has decades of experience in another grappling art?
@@jzambiab Yes and I am good with that. No different than a person that starts BJJ at 6 years old and then receives their blue belt at age 16 and competes, they have 10 years of experience and are going to be very tough, but they are beatable. Other martial arts black belts and Olympic gold medalist have entered IBJJF tournaments at various belt levels and they are not unbeatable.
@@mfundimkhize3137 but they are both black belts in judo which involves a lot of submission and ground work so it’s a not surprising they can dominate against jiu jitsu
This is yet another reason sport BJJ shouldn't have belts. You could have a gold medalist wrestler and Judo black belt dominate as a white belt maybe through purple. People who compete don't need to be losing their money like this. While I agree with some of what you are saying I still don't think these guys should be allowed to compete as white and blue belts.
If you are going to let them compete at the lower levels, belt ranks shouldn't be a thing. Only in the martial art of Jiu-Jitsu should there be belt ranks.
Lets look at this logically for a second. Where are the belts in Muay thai? What about a blue belt in boxing? Purple belt in wrestling? Sounds stupid doesn't it?
I would be all for returning to the original Gracie Academy standard of the instructor wearing a dark blue belt and the students wear a white belt regardless of the level. As far as competition I think it is quite possible this Olympic gold medalist does not win their division.
@@semperfortisjiujitsu I think belts are an important part of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu but they have no place in sport BJJ.
Brock Lesnar is a good example. Show him how to do an americana from side control and he beats 90% of heavyweight black belts on the planet. Without even knowing how to tie a belt.
No one wants to spend their hard earned money on an almost guaranteed loss. Not many people wanna watch that happen either.
@dragonballjiujitsu in every competition there will be opponent's with significant advantages. For instance I have faced Megaton Dias 3 times in IBJJF tournaments and he beat me decisively all 3 times. Megaton was a black belt long before I started Jiu Jiitsu but I embrace the challenge and look forward to the upcoming Pan American Championship in March where I will have to face Megaton a fourth time if I want to win gold. I gladly accept the challenge.