Magic Steam Mop

John Will (Master Grappler) received a message on Facebook from one of his friends saying that ‘he was just mugged in the Philippines … and hinted that he was penniless and stuck there’.   John was suspicious of the wording and asked a BJJ security question, something only his friend would know the answer to.  Needless to say, it was a scam.  This happens quite often on Facebook by people who hack accounts and pose as FRIENDS.

So, too, in the big WORLD of martial arts, we can expect some sort of scamming ie people after your  money.  Because Instructors are not licenced by any government regulating body they are not held accountable for what they say or do making it difficult for the average person to know what they are getting into.  These scammers (I hope not many of them) believe they are, or pretend to be qualified in the martial arts and do very well using clever marketing.  That spells 'gullible' but you only have to look at those people who are gullible enough to buy those useless Magic Steam Mops advertised on television. Maybe, we give one of these Steam Mops away to everybody who signs up.

These type of people have a fascination with belts and ranks and and look for an easy way to get promoted.  They love to add years to their training by not mentioning they had a 10 year break in between, and there are those who claim starting training as child with the few months they did but actually started training 10 years later.  I might as well claim 20 years training in BJJ if I count from my first seminar with John Will in 1992.

As an Instructor, it is important for him or her to maintain credibility based on years of training and authentic credentialisation.  Ranks and claims that are not genuine will only disrepute the Instructor and school. 

Hint: people who are after ranks don’t usually train, people that train are not usually after ranks. 
GA