How To Avoid Injuries When Rolling with Wild New White Belts in BJJ 

Back in the 90s, the blue belts where I trained all said that the best self defense training you could get was sparring with a new white belt because they would go crazy and do unpredictable stuff.

"Don't slam that guy on the ground, you might hurt his neck". "Oh yeah maybe i shouldn't do that". Lmao this jiu jitsu thing sounds fun, maybe someday i will get the chance to try it out

I’m a white belt 4 months in. I did a lot of research going in so I made it an early goal to not be a “spazzy” white belt. But at the same time several people said I can’t be afraid to try new things and experiment on the mat. So the middle ground I’ve found that works is that trying new things is okay as long as I remain hyper-aware of where my body is as well as there is some sort of logical reason I’m doing whatever I’m trying

We had a wrestler join once, about 2 months in he saw a video of an open guard pass, we called it the macho man pass. He tried it in one session and hurt everyone he rolled with. His reply was "I just need to get better at it," coach said "you just need to not do it"

First I stopped doing any inversions when rolling with new people, as a 50lb heavier dude sat directly on my spine. Then I decided to avoid all the white belts. Last week I got guillotine slammed by a brand new blue belt, who just got his orange to blue. Now my plan as a 130lb woman to stay alive, is to stick with the 40+years and purple or higher belts, as they do not think that every roll is a part of the Dana White Contender series.

This was timely. I got elbowed in the face by a new white belt last week and found out today he broke my nose.

Not only do you have higher belts who watch the channel, you have lower belts who became higher belts while watching your channel

"Let's roll slow" "Ok, cool" White belt has me in guard, starts working toward an arm bar, I was like "ok, cool, finish that $4!+" BAM! Instead of increasing the pressure slowly, he pops the arm full force like I had a knife and he was about to die. VERY nearly broke my arm and my elbow has been effed up for 12 weeks... so far. Doc said "If you baby it, you are looking at a solid year til you MAY recover." I won't roll nice with whites anymore.

Limiting your rolling to people who understand how to "do Jiu Jitsu" can be a bit mechanical and coreographed. Not unlike the opening moves in Chess. "Oh, that opening takes this counter. Which is followed by..." Being able to respond when people "don't do what their supposed to do" seems pretty important to me. Love your channel, Chew. Great information delivered by a genuinely nice guy. Keep it up.

I had one guy I nicknamed "The Cat" as he would claw the shit out of your hands whenever you would start applying a choke.

My experience has been that there is always someone who consciously or subconsciously wants to hurt someone else. I've had it happen. Usually some young, strong guy who pretends he doesn't know his own strength. They are the ones with whom you need to be careful,.

I’m a white belt. I’ve been training for three months and have already been injured several times by more experienced white belts. It’s extremely frustrating. I don’t get why people are spazzy and go super hard like it’s an actual fight. Its PRACTICE. I’m always controlled and try to take care of my partner but not everyone shares this same attitude. BJJ instructors need to do a better job talking about injury prevention when rolling, especially with newer students. It doesn’t seem to be a focus at all. You’re just thrown to the wolves on your first day. I don’t want to quit but I might if I keep getting injured.

Depends on the size of the spaz. If they’re big and muscular, hold them down with all your weight and crush the fight out of em. If they’re small and terrified, stop the roll and talk to them then continue.

It's a spectrum. The amount of safety I feel while rolling with a black belt is exactly the opposite feeling I have with a brand new white belt. They really are dangerous in their own way.

“Adam?” “Adam!” Quality 👌🏼😂

As always solid video….IMO really makes the case for why Rener and Ryron make people start out in combatives (basic ~32 jiu jitsu standing/ground moves) and then after they had at least 3 classes of each move bring them up to sparing….keeps everyone a lot safer and retains a lot of the people that would have otherwise quit when they walked off the street on day one and get tossed into a Z-half/X or de La riva on day one.

As a white belt I can only hope to one day match Adam's stoic, stock still air of quiet menace.

Was training for competition BJJ with a newer white belt in no gi. We started standing and I had taken him down several times with trips but he kept getting back up. Only reason being is that when I went to secure the position, he would legitimately kick and kick me away. I did not want to get near that because it almost seemed like he was trying to strike me. So I instead clinched and pulled him into my guard. Worked a lot better and I was able to get the submission without injuring myself or him due to his roughness. Great video Chewy!

As a noob spaz, my partners are lucky that I'm small and old (56yo 5'2" 110#) so my chances of "hurting" them are less. Nonetheless, my better partners help me not to spaz by giving me tips on what I could've done right before I started spazzing out. That way, I learn how to chain things together and to slow down, breathe, and relax, and they get better at teaching and creating a "flow channel" space for optimal learning for both sides. Another great video Chewie! This one helped me to understand how much of a wild-card I can become and not contribute to mutual safety, thanks!

Adam is such an awesome assistant, great vid guys!

I love that this video subject just came out. I'm just getting over an injury to my neck due to a spazzy white belt. Freak accident. We weren't even rolling. I'm a 4-stripe purple belt and this new dude after class one night asked me if I could go over a position with him, I said yeah cause as a higher belt I'm always down to help out. Anyway the new guy comes from a wrestler background and asks what he should do from pretty much a wrestling referee's starting position (hands and knees). I told him "a lot of Jiu jitsu guys would try for your back in BJJ". He said show me. So I got on his back, put in my hooks, got a seatbelt grip, and normally pressing my head against his back for safety but for instructional purposes my head was up so I could communicate clearer explaining each part (teaching moment)... that was the MISTAKE. As my head was up suddenly the white belt decides to do a Granby roll midway thru my instructional to him. His weight and my weight on my forehead via shoulder roll. My neck snaps back and I lose feeling in my left arm. I couldn't fully look left for 3 weeks, ugh.

Thank you, Professor! Great advice!

You are a great coach for jiu jitsu brother. Looking forward to learning from you one day.

Your videos are soo informative! I'm gonna watch them all! I can't train right now but am taking notes reading and watching videos for a year! Thx Chewie!

Really great advice, love it!

Always love that wave from Mr. Personality!

This was an excellent reminder of being aware of the unexpected. This lesson applies to all martial arts that have a “sport element of competition”. The basics are always the best!!!

Thank you Chewy, rolled with a very strong, very spazzy brand new white belt last week and was a bit stunned. I'm used to rolling with much more experienced players. This was a helpful video!

Brand new white belt popped my knee yesterday, kid was an absolute spazz

"higher belts are telling me their rolling with spazzy white belts, and getting hurt" Adam standing there with a fresh mouse under his eye lolol

He nailed it at 3:15. We need to roll with all diff people (size, strength and experience) for self defense practice. If I'm rolling with a spaz, its on me to protect myself. That being said, I don't roll with them all the time but I'll do it every so often

This is an excellent video! I feel a little embarrassed knowing that I used to kick my feet when I started ju jitsu.

Good advice in general I appreciate you

Thank u Chewy!!!!

Rolling partner is a robot that doesn’t blink haha amazing performance

yeah unfortunelty ive been injured several times as a whitebelt rolling versus other white belts (kneed in the head/ bruised ribs), super helpfull info here

I’ve learned a lot of ju jitsu from people who don’t do ju jitsu.

I like how at the end of the video the class register is taken.

Tight space is the key great advice judo it is the same thing with snazzy people I usually tye theme up tight until there fury is gone the mount my attack

Being on the smaller side ((140-145lbs) i agree. I keep it tight and make and use the basic moves (cuz they work!) I like rolling with new white belts cuz like you said on a previous video, its mpre realistic of what an untrained person would do.

Man, the RU-vid algorithm must be getting good. I literally just got home from a new taller/bigger white belt trying to choke me from my closed guard and falling forward onto my neck. Now I have a sore throat and a hoarse voice. 4 years of training and I have never been hurt by an upper belt despite getting my butt kicked by them.

I got a sudden neck crank from a very strong white belt and I felt 2 pops in my neck, and it’s been stiff and sore for a week so far. Hurts when I bend my neck back 😕

Hurricane pass. Love it.

HEY- I'm upper blue and I pull the spin off all the time. I started doing it after a monster purple did it on me.

I see rolling with new people as a gauge on my self-defense. Can I control them, get to a dominant position, and could I strike from that position if needed.

HAHAHA "The hurricane pass"!! LOL you are a genius coach!

Love Adam's side faces lol

Hi Prof. Nick (or Chewy) from Hong Kong! Thank you so much for the video and this subject really call my attention, cause I'm a purple belt and 1 month ago I fought with a 220lbs big guy white belt (I'm 185lbs) then ends up with MCL grade 1 injury in my left knee, the situation was I'm half guard and he was on top, then he grap my knee shield then lifted up my ankle then my knee goes down and the horrible pops sound out! Well, after this injury I was thinking to quit cause I got so many small and serious injury then my wife is starting worry about me, but after I discussed with many friends and the only way I can keep train jiujitsu is change my game. Therefore, may I know the mindset of sparring with beginner is that you will take the fully control in every sparring? But I'm struggle if I want to teach them or give them space to lear during the sparing and if I just hold them or submit them, so they can't learn from sparing, cause I used to let them do their skills or movement (try in a safe situation, but obvious cannot be 100% safe) and I will correct them or guide them if once they do anything wrong, so can you give me your opinion? Another question, what is your mind set in sparring with color belts? You will go for submission or more focus in control and guard pass (or sweep)? Thank you so much and hope you will give your opinion by return!! OSS!!

The hurricane 😂😂. Yup. Definitely seen that one.

So one of the issues in my experience is, that when rolling you somewhat non verbally agree to a certain speed and power level. If you have one newbie and one more experienced guy, the more experienced one tends to do certain moves with more speed. It is necessary for the move to work, but it still makes the newbie also increase speed or power. So you should also tell the "pro" to keep the same speed against newbies. Oh, and about slamming from a Triangle choke. It is a stupid rule for stupid people. If I can lift you up while you do a triangle choke, you are not doing a good triangle choke. But people often want to force their techniques and do not let go. If you get picked up, you should let loose or immediately tap. But people are stupid and stupid people need to be protected. And that is why it is forbidden.

Hey man, Just wanted to ask a question. I’ve been doing BJJ for 4-5 months now and I love it. I have been coming consistently 5 days a week. I have tendonitis in my forearms which made me want to ask questions about BJJ and longevity. I started talking to purple belts, black belts and even my professor, all of them seem to have injuries; knee operations, shoulder injuries, elbow injuries, etc. I love this sport so much but I don’t think I’m willing to sacrifice my longevity and health over it. I’m 19 right now and I don’t want to be a 40 year old with a cane unable to do any physical activity. This really worries me man as I took a real liking to the sport. Any advice would be sincerely appreciated. Additional information: I train gi and no-gi I also lift weights 5 x per week in the morning Jiu Jitsu evening sessions 5 sessions per week (session: 30mins drilling + warmup, 30mins rolling - I don’t take a break I have decent cardio I usually roll the entire 30mins)

Enjoy your channel and video series. I am on the opposite side of the spectrum. I treat the upper belts with respect and don’t use dick moves...knuckle in under chin, jamming my forearm under throat when they have side control. Also as a bigger guy you want to be sensitive to your training partner namely don’t smash them it’s just a roll. The injuries I see usually comes from ego by upper belts when they are in a bad position they get evil...solution I tap even in a dominant position. Then they say why? I said it is getting outta control then they ratchet shit down.

I let them know the rules after rolls(aside from tapping because that's their safety), if they want to grab my fingers, slam, ect fine. it's great training to let them know after and just deal with it in the moment, even better to know it can happen and play a better bjj game around it. I feel this has definitely benefited me in the long run. highly recommend it but its on you if you let someone wrench your fingers or poke your eye accidentally.

Another is eye pokes! I’ve had 2 bad eye injuries from beginners coming at your collars with fingers everywhere!

The feet of death!! I'm thankful for my mouth guard evey time this has happened !

I'm a white belt and was told by another veteran white belt who competes that we should really be going like 70-80% max. But, that I'll run into people who don't compete and treat the weekday roll as their competition and go full speed. The other day I ran into that person he described and got completely fucked, my knee is still bumping from a crazy full-speed sweep.

We were drilling sit-up sweeps and the guy swept as hard and fast as possible, I couldn't do anything to be safe and landed on my finger tips. It's been 3 weeks of probably a broken finger. Since then, I've experienced subs that I didn't know and in turn didn't know to tap and got injuries. For example, we were in guard or mount and he used his legs to straighten mine and hyper extended my knee. I would've tapped, I just had no idea what was happening. From my perspective, there's only so much you can do to protect yourself when you are new.

Counter perspective. I have been training for a month now, and was slammed hard enough by a partner who has a black belt in judo that he cracked one of my ribs and seperated my ribs from the cartilage. I am out for six weeks and every breath hurts like hell right now. Some people are in permanent competition mode, regardless of their skill level. The guy wasnt even malicious, he just doesnt have an off switch I guess?

I got a spine injury rolling with a brand new white belt. It was a 6 am roll, first of the day. Guy had about 60 lbs on me. I was letting him work and let him get double unders on my legs so that he could start working on guard passing, he lifted me and slammed me on my neck while trying to flip me. I was out for months.

I've got a literal handful of lessons in BJJ, just joined its lots of fun, the secret white belt technique "bicycle kicking of doom" did not occur to me. Duely noted as a non technical plan to have lol

"But don't you know, there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight? Awkwardness and stupidity can. The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do: and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot." Mark Twain

I feel like this is especially true with big guy who are new white belts. As someone with 6 years of bjj, I still have trouble with a guy who has 50 or more pounds on me. When they ask me what would you do in this one situation? My half joking answer is to either run or strike.

I just go ultra defensive if they aren't too heavy or strong, just lay down and use spider guard, etc. If they are strong and heavy, I gas them out, plain and simple. Usually a minute or 2 in 100kg or kesagatami and they no longer explode.

Funny how i got recommended this just after I dislocated my knee and had to wait 4 hours for ambulance to get there. It was not my training partner’s fault but it all just came down to bad luck as I landed sideways on my kneecap 👍

1:05 the hands don’t match the face expression and I love it

Hey Chewie, what takedown would you use on a spazzy/brand new guy? Loved the tips in this video but got me wondering about the takedown.

The old triangle slam, was training with my friends who doesn’t do BJJ and I can remember it so clearly two of my friends where rolling and I supervised them. One of them had rolled with me before so he had some idea of what to do and the other one did this for the first time and he is strong och big. The smaller more experienced friend tries a triangle and the first thing the new strong one does is try to stand up. I jump up from a seated position and scream/run towards them to stop “Don’t slam him!”. The panic was real. But I have also been in this situation and I just let of the submission and stop to explain that you don’t slam your partner in practice.

Just sparred with a spazzy white belt for the first time, almost broke my arm. Dude tried to go to side control and then sat on my posting arm, right at the elbow. They are really scarier than rolling with black belts

Touché ! I'm a hurricaner ! (But I never elbowed anyone during the rotation ^^)

omg thanks, DO not play hashi or de la riva vesus new white belt espacially if they have 20-40 pounds on you! I got stack so hard on my neck :( they dont understand they weight advantage. SO true thanks for advice, treat it as a MMA fight keep them tight, love it.

LOL. Im here just watching youtube because a big ass white belt smashed/fell on me and gave me a rib injury. Have to sit out for a month.

I had one not listed happen about 2 and a half months ago. I took new guys back in turtal he stood up and rolled with me on him slamming my head into the mat with my own knee bashing my nose with all their weight on it breaking my nose. Spit blood for over a week and got a concussion. Don't take a new guys back in turtal he might just stand up and do a flip with you on him.

This is great, half my injuries were from. Spaz white belts. 🤦‍♂️

We all used to be the spazzer lmao. I just let the new guys know thT “Hey you’re spazzing out, it’s normal, it’s fone, just relax before you put me in a coma kneeing my balls again.”

Rolled with a new guy yesterday (I'm also a white belt 5 months in) and he kept directly grabbing my thumbs. I also broke my toe in that class but idk how or when.

I got a question. Lets say if there's a kid about 10 or 11 years old who wants to wrestle. I'm concerned about the knees from shooting single-legs. Kneepads are gonna be a given, but is there another way they can save their knees for longevity? I'm reminded of this thinking about a conversation with my buddy when I said I was gonna get some cheap running shoes, he told me "you only got 1 pair of knees, buy some good shoes, not some cheap crappy ones"

I'm facing this situation a lot currently, but most of the guys are 20+ lbs bigger and I'm just getting my neck cranked constantly, not enough to tap, just enough to be annoying.

I'm a white belt but I'm also the biggest guy in the gym so I get the white belts as training partners after they do their free classes. So this will be 2x helpful, not to be an idiot myself, not to eat an elbow.

I just started a month ago and I'm very squirmy, my coach says to be more fluid, what does that mean?

I totally have had this issue before a couple times... but it's also sad that this has to be a topic. BJJ was meant to be a martial art, therefore used in a fight situation! From a personal & historical standpoint, if my jui jitsu isn't good enough to control a spazzy white belt, then I need to fix my jui jitsu... not the white belt.

Im a purple belt and just had my nose broken last week from a white belt. I somehow got kneed to the face from grip fighting.

Watching this as a white belt so I can better injure my higher belts

Im probably gonna start at a brazilian jiu jitsu place next year. So for people who‘ve been doing jiu jitsu for a while, is it ok to go for scissor takedowns?, Ive seen some videos where people got injured from it. Im def gonna ask the instructor at the bjj gym, before I roll, but I‘d like to hear from different people.

just got my nose broken from a spazzy knee last month. good times

I'm a white belt and decided to practice a move with another white belt. I always roll with higher belts since they know what they're doing. This dude decided to go way too hard and try to get a submission when all I wanted was to practice a move. I forgot the move so I tapped his arm and said I couldn't remember the rest. Ended up in open guard, I go to stand up and he literally just hangs off my keck via collar hold. I said alright that's enough and he kept going. Took me saying it a few times and tapping his arm a few more times. Pissed me off man. Dude has less experience than me and I'm knew. Fucked up my neck and aggravated a toe injury I'm working around.

White belts are actually great to practice self-defense with. Jokes aside, they regularly put elbows and knees and places they don't belong so you regularly have to be aware of your range. Either all the way in or all the way out or you might catch an elbow or a knee or some weird move or erratic behavior.

Interesting. I train Gracie JJ, its not sport, so punch defense is part of what we do, and always passing tight and so on. All training happens with the assumption that it's a street fight and someone's trying to take advantage of any opening or weakness in technique, as well as hit you if within reach. So when I hear about this type of Jiu-Jitsu, it's foreign. The sport realm looks like a fun place for people who love Jiu-Jitsu to exercise the art and test themselves and just take part in that world. I can completely appreciate that. But my mind has always been focused on self-defense, so I like to train that way.

We need some narrated Adam rolls.

A spazz gave me cauliflower ear on his first roll by cranking a cross choke that wasn't anywhere near my neck. Super annoying and I am not going to roll or train with the guy again.

I got kneed in the nuts hard as heck a couple days ago. Worst pain I have ever felt. Was writhing around on the floor for about five minutes. Damn white belts. I was playing open guard lazily so in part it was my fault

First (and so far last) time ever in BJJ, me, 30, 300lbs, him 40, 200lbs. I was going easy, but keeping him from doing what he wanted with my strength advantage, so when I was on my back, he posted on me and lifted his whole lower half high in the air, and slammed his knee into my ribs, breaking 2 of them. His excuse was he was trying to pass into mount. So I've been hesitant to try it again, hence looking up these videos.

Is a novice allowed to stand and shuck a triangle off, rather than stand and slam?

Guard Passing vs “FEET of DEATH”😂😂😂😂

ROGER THAT. MURDER THE NEW TRIAL CLASS GUY. FLYING EVERYTHING

Any tips for someone looking to get into BJJ @ 26? Just in general

If your a blue belt or above, it seems like you would be able to manage the situation.

Wrestled 3 years still trying to break the explosive mentality about 5 months of bjj I'm on my 2nd Injury lmao

Been training for about 6 weeks. The other day was doing a warmup roll, with a woman. Was going like 10% super light super slow going but wanted to show respect and give a little bit of defensive resistance. I grabbed her calf area and she tried to rip it out of my grip and popped her own knee super loud like everyone stopped and looked. Shes been out for about 2.5 weeks. I feel like such a dumbass for having a woman get injured while doing a warmup roll with me (even though it was totally inadvertent).

Assuming the whitebelt is of a reasonably similar size to you, if you're getting injured by a whitebelt during rolling, then you're not actually as good as you think and you probably shouldn't be a "higher belt." Don't get me wrong, sometimes freak accidents happen, but if this is a common thing, then its definitely because you're not controlling the roll, and if you can't control the roll with someone who has little experience in jiujitsu/grappling, then why do you deserve to be a higher belt? Sounds to me like you should still be a white belt.

Hey why you hating on NAGA :( I love my cute lil' white belt sword lol