BJJ Scams in India and how to Avoid Them: Part 1 – Siddharth Singh
- By Renjith Ravindran
- July 22, 2017
THE Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Scams making rounds in India have cast a dark shadow over the BJJ community in nation. The scam, which saw people being ‘gifted’ blue belts after a one-day seminar had captured the attention of combat sports fan.
As part of spreading awareness regarding these on-going BJJ scams, we decided to start a three-part series with each part covering an expert opinion on the topic.
This first part of the series features Crosstrain Fight Club Founder Siddharth Singh. Siddharth is a 3rd Degree Purple Belt under BJJ World Champion Ivan Tomasetti. He has been training close to five years in BJJ and is a six-time national champion as well.
When asked his take on the scams, Siddharth said that such scams are also common in other martial arts like Karate as he was offered a black belt for a certain amount. Below is what Siddharth had to say.
On the BJJ scams around the nation:
Siddharth Singh: Grading in Jiu Jitsu is very difficult when compared to other traditional martial arts. At Crosstrain Fight club, which is my school, for example, some of our senior students have taken up to 3.5 years to get their blue belt. They have also had to compete and win tournaments all over the country. This, of course, is quite challenging and not what everyone wants to do. The shortcut therein is to not train but instead pay someone to give you belts and that's whats happened in India.
I was offered, a couple of years ago, a Karate Black Belt for Rs 15,000 and I told the person that I don't even know the basics but that was not a problem for him. I had to turn it down saying that I could buy a black belt from Lajpat Nagar for Rs 500. We need to prevent the same thing from happening in BJJ. BJJ belts are earned not given.
About doing his bit for the sport:
Siddharth Singh: I have started the process of making a list of good jiu jitsu schools in India with legitimate instructors so people are aware that they are not being duped by black belts of other martial arts. Its only a handful of schools in each city that offer a good program so its not such a difficult job. I think it’s important to speak up against corruption and fraud when we see blatant scams in front of our eyes. Keeping quite only encourages frauds to prosper.
How to know if your coach is legitimate or not:
Siddharth Singh: A good lineage is usually a good indicator. For example, what rank does your instructor hold and who graded your BJJ instructor, what grappling tournaments he/she has won and what are the achievements of the academy in Jiu Jitsu tournaments. For example if your trainer has only trained and competed in Boxing then he probably should not be teaching Jiu Jitsu.
Siddharth concluded by saying that the sport is growing in India. He went on to add that we need to keep the fraudsters away as one is enough to raise questions about everyone in the community.
Tune in for the second and third parts of the series where we feature Jitendra Khare from Evolution MMA and Rama Reddy from Combat Carnival respectively.
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