am i over reacting or being unreasonable?

[ErikLavigne]

Then its easy, all you have to do is win and prove him wrong.

I can live with that. I like the perspective that its not sandbagging if the instructor puts me there. I am not trying to prove anyone wrong, just trying to play fair with a clear conscience

[NameLikeNoOther]

Your Coach and Zog are telling you to do the same thing, you should just do what they say. If anyone calls you a 'sand bagger' you can reefer them to those two people guilt free.

[ErikLavigne]

That's why Zog is the dude!!! He speaks the truth with. I struggle with many questions that bother me! When the entire time not asking the man(Zog) for advice. When I finally break down & ask, his answer may not be what you wanna hear. But it's what you need to hear. We're all constantly growing(even the best). But when given advice from such people, like it or not, take it and run with it. They're who they are for a reason. And just maybe have been through what's bothering you. Just my 2 cents

That's why I came on here to get some more experienced perspective. You're right about Zog, glad he chimed up

[sean applegate]

Just listen to your instructor. If you are paying to learn from him, why not do what he says? It will be good for you. If you get called a sandbagger, just say its what you were instructed to do. If they have a problem with that, and think you shouldn't have listened to him, its them with the real problem.

[Enrique "Kiko"]

[Chris Herzog]

For the record just so it doesn't get twisted, I'm against sandbagging I've encouraged my students to bump up divisions when they didn't think they were ready to do so, and had great results. It's all based on the individual which why an instructor's experienced insight is extremely important.

[Chris Herzog]

No

[Enrique "Kiko"]

No

I stand corrected.

[Cora Sek]

Are you going to be at Europa? Is this the tournament you are talking about? I want to see how all this unfold..

[Cora Sek]

I never said you shouldn't listen. In fact the very first thing I said was something like "have another conversation with your instructor, tell him how you feel, and ask him why he feels the way he does."

I also never said "compete where you want". Or "disregard his opinion" or anything like that.

All I was trying to say was that you should not blindly follow someone just because they have more experience in something (jiu jitsu or otherwise) than you.

There is a blue-belt assistant instructor at Lovato's who told me in no uncertain terms that rubber guard is bad for your knees, doesn't work, and that I was wasting my time learning it. Should I listen? He's better than me, more experienced than me, and authorized to teach by the most decorated American born jiu jitsu competitor of all time.

Not every jiu jitsu instructor in the world has his student's best interests at heart, nor is everything every black belt says correct, or a good idea. I'm simply suggesting that people should continue to think for themselves, and should also listen to what other people tell them.


As a good example, someone recently asked me if I "cleared it with the instructors" after they heard I had attended a 10p training camp. I had not cleared that with my instructors, I assumed that was completely fine. But if I was to find out that Raphael was upset that I would attend a 10p training camp, I would walk out the door and never come back. I don't care how good his Jiu Jitsu instruction is, if he has a problem with me learning from someone else then I don't trust that he has my best interests at heart, and I would not want him as my instructor.

Somehow I can't help myself but to agree with you. You make some valid points here. Also just because your instructor is the best American BJJ guy doesn't mean you will follow his foot step and become a World champion also. There are so much ego and politic in this sport, you just have to tread the waters very carefully.