I couldn't resist posting about this article. Although it is a couple of years old, it resurfaced recently when a couple of guys on the BJJ forums decided to use it to have a pop at BJJ bloggers. The sweet irony of using a blog to spout off against other blogs I am sure was deliberate.
Well, if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?
Right, back to my "whiteboard and substandard training partners" to notch up my next revolutionary training method.
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7 comments:
I'll start by saying I haven't yet started a personal blog because I don't feel like I have yet anything to say (since I've been doing BJJ for only 3 weeks).
But when I do, the last thing I'll care about is those who do nothing but criticize people who talk, muse, debate or (over)analyze aspects of BJJ. You see, there's lots of people like that in every sport. You go to a bodybuilding forum and you'll have a bunch of tough guys whose replies consist mainly of "stop talking about this and go train", "stop counting calories, shut up and eat already". This is as if writing stuff on the internet (or any other hobbie for that matter) is mutually exclusive with working one's ass off on the mat, the gym, wherever. Like I'll stop being on the computer at 11pm so I can go roll an extra hour everyday.
It's just stupid.
Yeah good point Andre.
The only statement from Hywel's article that I take real issue with is this:"I have never come across a bigger bunch of self-obsessed, egomaniacal piss-artists than I have in the world of martial arts."
I would argue that a lot of traditional MA are full, perhaps too full, of the aforementioned p-artists, who not only blog, but litter martial art magazines with articles and fill youtube with their guff and produce books en-masse. So I avert my attention away from these things as they burn my eyes.
I guess i haven't run across the self-obsessed, egomaniacal blogs yet. The ones I've read are usually lower belts trying to sort things out.
But it was a funny, biting article nonetheless. On which board did you run across the link?
The freedom of the Internet. Its a great thing. It allows everyone to have voice no matter their credentials. Even me.
This was the core message for me:
"If you blog about BJJ and you use it as a journal for your training, that’s fine. I’m not bothered. I may even be interested. If you use it to communicate with friends and acquaintances who aren’t nearby, that’s fine. I dig that.
If you’re using it to promote yourself as some kind of jiu-jitsu authority or to appear clever, then fuck right off."
In other words, stay humble and you'll be roight guv'nor!
@Steve, the forum thread where I first saw the article is found
here
I think the same sort of sentiment as that post expresses can be applied to anything else personal that anyone blogs about. And someone will always take issue with the way you write or present yourself. Whatevers. If you don't like it, don't read it. Click "Unsubscribe" and you're done.
For me, I write about everything because everything happened, and this is the way it happened for me. I'm sure I make mistakes, do the wrong things, say the wrong things -- and I have no problem with these being pointed out to me -- but then I've never claimed to be perfect in either jiu-jitsu or life. I still have a lot to learn. Sometimes I learn it as I write, and sometimes as I read back over it later. (And yes, I read back over my own posts even months later. Not to see how great I did back then, but to see what I'm missing and where I can improve.) In many ways, I'm not writing for anyone but myself; I'm just letting you all read it, too.
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