If You’re A Blue Belt & Take Ster*ids, You’ll Become a Purple Belt

Firas Zahabi, a respected black belt under John Danaher and head coach at Tristar Gym, has voiced strong concerns about the pervasive use of PEDs in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Zahabi begins by addressing the misconception that physical dominance reflects technical proficiency…And how performance-enhancers can distort the natural progression of a practitioner’s abilities:

You have to differentiate between being effective and technical.

If you’re a blue belt and I jam you up with a bunch of steroids, you’re going to become a purple belt in not long.Not technically a purple belt – but because of added strength now you can compete with the purple belts.

Zahabi’s concerns aren’t limited to competition.He warns of the broader implications for the teaching and learning of Jiu-Jitsu:

Imagine there are a lot of instructors out there who take a lot of steroids…They don’t understand technique because they’re so strong they’re doing it wrong.

When you’re on steroids, you feel stronger, so it makes sense you want to force your way into a submission or force your way to the back.

But that takes away from thinking about the better solution – how to avoid the guy’s strength and subdue him using angle or leverage.

Perhaps most concerning is Zahabi’s acknowledgment of how deeply ingrained PED use is at the elite levels of Jiu-Jitsu:

Even the most technical guys are on juice. Even the most.That’s the crazy thing about the sport of Jiu-Jitsu.

There are very few natural guys.There are very few in the elite level because they don’t test, right? They don’t test.