Seems just that Alex has a harder-than-average time with emphatising with other peoples position. Super hard in written form/Internet anyway. Leads to much wasted man-hours :) Yes, I do believe that you, Alex are polite and kind in person, highly likely we'd get along just fine, you're definitely an intelligent person and we share the love for BJJ and analysing BJJ. But you do present your opinions in a way that you claim is logical (and therefore you present yourself as open to discussion - the other opinion just needs to be more logical) BUT there is a fallacy there because you have yourself created the rules for your personal viewpoint logic and therefore it's rather impossible to 'win' by your rules :) And that leads to where you think other people are inferior in their viewpoint (stupid if you get personal, I don't know if you actually do) and other people think you are closed minded in your viewpoint (stubborn / arrogant if they get personal).

It does feel a bit personal being a flipping blue belt and having the 3rd most viewed profile on the site,

I'm 34 years old, at best I could compete until i'm 40, which means in the absolute best case scenario i might get 1 season at purple belt before I end my competition days.

Stop bragging about the view count lol it literally will go up every time you refresh your own page, I am #20 just because I refresh a lot it's def not because people are wondering what I am up to. The view count is more of a metric of how much time you waste looking at your own page or checking notifications then anything else :-p

That's a bit of nonsense. I'm 45 and have been actively competing for about 5 years now. Normally don't even fight in my age group and am normally the oldest in my division.

Made me laugh. :D But if the number of views there after the # ranking is correct, I find it quite amazing that Alex has refreshed his own page 24.450 times.

Stop bragging about the view count lol it literally will go up every time you refresh your own page, I am #20 just because I refresh a lot it's def not because people are wondering what I am up to. The view count is more of a metric of how much time you waste looking at your own page or checking notifications then anything else :-p The people who check and respond on the forums is pretty much down to around 20 to 30 people anyways.

Most profile view counts outside of Christian I am guessing is at least 90% of their own doing and the other 10% maybe from others.

Most profile view counts outside of Christian I am guessing is at least 90% of their own doing and the other 10% maybe from others.

What makes you think Christian doesn't like looking at himself?

So i only refreshed my page 22,005 times? Or did i pay someone on upwork to do it for me?

So i only refreshed my page 22,005 times? Or did i pay someone on upwork to do it for me?

Not sure exactly how long you have been on this website but I believe at least 6 months. 6 x 30 = 180. 22,000 divide by 180 = 122 per day (would be less if the start time is more then 6 months ago) 122 divide by 16 = 7 per hour. I mean it is very possible that you check the website around 100 times per day lol nothing wrong with that but it is mathematically possible.

Seems just that Alex has a harder-than-average time with empathising with other peoples position. Super hard in written form/Internet anyway. Leads to much wasted man-hours :) Yes, I do believe that you, Alex are polite and kind in person, highly likely we'd get along just fine, you're definitely an intelligent person and we share the love for BJJ and analysing BJJ. .

In the year our Lord 2020, purple belts promoting blues is like 15 year olds giving life advice to toddlers.

I was against stripes now we do them. More meticulously for WBs, coloured less so.

At the end of the day, we want more students to last for the long haul..... and unfortunately not everybody is made for that journey. Some folks just need that symbology to enforce their reason to progress... I think it was a good addition to our martial art for the sake of growth.

I feel like if your going to do stripes they should mean something and not just be attendance based or well its another promotion day but your not ready for your next belt so here's a stripe. Not in any order: Stripe #1: Ability to survive. Escapes/Reversals/Movement Stripe #2: Ability not to get guard passed (Guard Retention) & ability to sweep opponents removing their posts. Distance/Space management. Able to Manipulate Opponent with strategy. Stripe #3: Ability to pass guard and not get swept. Having good balance and post awareness. Comfortable in neutral and 1/2 guard positions. Stripe #4: Ability to control your opponents. Maintaining and transitioning through positions while going for submissions and able to start chaining controlled methodical submission attempts together. Being promoted to Blue Belt: - Having a Plan A & B from every position. - Being able to be calm and relaxed and not stressed in any position. - Being able to easily manage a larger/stronger opponent with less experience. - Know how to transition to any position near the current position like a video game controller. Forward, Backwards, Left, Right etc., while still understanding the need to either create or remove space, being aware of your posts and posture while controlling your opponents. Overhook/Underhook crossface awareness. - The general ability to flow with your opponents with no need to try and win every roll and be able to learn something from any roll by either letting the other person work or understanding what you need to focus on to get better. Improving your weaknesses as your opponents most likely will take the path of least resistance.

Interesting... Your version of white sounds a lot like blue and your version of blue sounds a lot like purple... Maybe your version of the belts are the later stages of each of them?... I find the beginning and end of the the first three belts to be a relatively big difference...in my limited experience at least.