Reddit Temperature: Black Belt in Under 5 Years, BJJ Polycule, Teaching Frustrations, Gym Red Flags

Reddit's r/bjj put in more work this week than most gyms do in a month.

**The Prodigy**

Belal Etiabari — born in Afghanistan, raised in New Zealand, now training under Lachlan Giles at Absolute MMA in Melbourne — got his black belt in just under five years. He won the Giles Trials for CJI 2, ankle-locked Geo Martinez at the tournament, and dropped his engineering degree to go full-time.

The community response was predictable and perfect.

"This makes me feel great about being a blue belt for 5+ years," wrote one commenter with 384 upvotes. "I was a white belt for 8 years," added another. Someone who rolled with Belal said he got leg-locked "about six times in six minutes. Maybe eight" — and described it as a casual round. That person had ten years of training. Belal had three at the time.

Full-time training, obsessive leg lock focus, no prior grappling background. He's legit. But the real content was the 200-person group therapy session it triggered about everyone else's timeline.

**The Polycule**

Someone posted a scientific study about oxytocin release during wrestling-style grappling and asked whether BJJ is "producing the world's largest polycule." Top comment: "It isn't even 8am." The thread devolved beautifully — oil check jokes, Greek wrestling references, and one person calculating they're two degrees of physical contact from Marcelo Garcia. "BJJ just keeps getting gayer," wrote one commenter with 290 upvotes. We're never beating the allegations.

**The Teaching Problem**

"What's your biggest frustration with how BJJ is taught?" drew 251 comments, and the answers are damning. Top complaint: everyone in the room — different ages, abilities, motivations — gets taught the same random technique and is expected to improve.

The standup gap came up repeatedly. One 6'4" commenter summarized it: "It's a long way down."

The CLA (Constraints-Led Approach) versus traditional teaching debate raged through the thread, with one instructor describing a flipped classroom where white belts follow video curriculum at their own pace while upper belts do specific sparring. Most honest take was the simplest: "You're going to have to own your learning at some point anyway. Might as well be now."

**The Gym Owner**

A gym owner posted a meme mocking a former student who'd left to start his own gym. The match between them? 0-0, ref decision. Multiple people from the area confirmed the gym bans cross-training, ostracizes former members, and charges for belt promotions. One commenter trains at the "loser's" gym. Another left specifically because of the owner's behavior.

"When people show you who they really are, you should pay attention" got 327 upvotes. By the end of the thread, current members were asking whether to stay.

**The Temperature**

Black belts in five years. Oxytocin polycules. 251 people explaining how teaching is broken. A gym owner getting crowd-sourced accountability from his own students. This is what the sport looks like when nobody's selling you a membership or a pay-per-view. The IBJJF charges for governance. Reddit does it for free.

Sources

• BJJDoc — Belal Etiabari Turned His Back on Construction Engineering to Go Pro in Jiu-Jitsu in Just Four Years
• MMA Mania — Declan Moody Wins CJI 2 Trials; Etiabari Completes Australasia Team
• BJJEE — Toxic Jiu-Jitsu Gyms: Examining Indicators of a Harmful BJJ Culture
• BJJEE — A Black Belt Says These 3 Red Flags Should Make You Leave A BJJ Gym Immediately

This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked above. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.