A Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu student was given a promotional stripe, which left him incoherent and in a literal state of shock. Fortunately, after a dose of pre-workout followed by five minutes of knee-on-belly switches by the instructor, the white belt student came to and realized he was still awful at BJJ.
This may seem odd, but it’s not something completely out of the ordinary when white belts get promoted. Although, this particular white belt suffered an extreme case of promotional shock, creating quite the panic as the evening unfolded.
Fortunately, we were able to contact the BJJ Professor who shed light on the incident. “It all started on promotion night when a student of mine was getting their first stripe on their white belt,” explained Professor Poppinfresh. “I used basic finger tape that I’ve always used and immediately, the white belt’s eyes glazed over and he started stumbling around incoherently. He was trying to literally pat himself on the back, which, is a position he has no real ability in, but I digress. After he regained his wits, he was acting as an assistant instructor, walking around the mats and nodding approval to others rolling, as if he was a purple belt or something. He began coaching other white belts through techniques incorrectly and boxed our training dummy in a ‘championship bout,’ in which he did win.”
The Professor was perplexed, but this wasn’t the first incident of a white belt going mad after a promotional stripe.
The black belt explained that this has actually been going on for years. While he has always figured it to be an automatic white belt ego response, he was now ready to, “look into” further.
He chatted with his old professor and other black belt instructors for some perspective on the situation. They all seemed to have had the same issues when white belt received their promotional stripes since they could remember. Professor Poppinfresh realized that this wasn’t a new problem and could very well be an epidemic that has been plaguing the BJJ community for decades.
After deep meditation and completion of the Yoga for BJJ series, the Professor connected the dots and solved the complex issue. “I realized it was the actual promotional tape that was the issue. For years we assumed white belts just got big-headed when they received their first stripe and acted like fools. But we were literally just physically shocking them when applying the tape, and they shouldn’t be held accountable for their irradiate behavior. There was no way we can continue to blame white belts for an ego problem when it was the actual tape being applied,” Professor Poppinfresh explained.
“We decided to try out electrical tape to use for promotional stripes.”
Since the switch to electrical tape, there have been no further problems during white belt promotions. All the white belts are back to practicing the most complicated techniques they can find on YouTube and taking BJJ selfies.
If you are having white belt promotional issues, making the switch to white electrical tape may be an option for you.