We Need to Do Better.

With all of the news that has come out in the Jiu-Jitsu community this last week. Thing that keeps coming up in my mind is that WE need to do better.

MEN in the Jiu-Jitsu community need to do better at calling out this sort of behavior and stepping in to stop it. MEN need to take responsibility for their actions and the actions of other MEN that make this sport less safe.

We need to do better about barring these people from our community. People do so much harm, make a non-appology, disappear for a while, and then get welcomed back with open arms because they are good at Jiu-Jitsu. No, we should kick these people out, they should be banned from every event and made to feel unwelcome at schools.

We need to do better, of being open and inclusive of everyone. How many times have you heard someone say "Jiu-Jitsu is for everyone" out of one side of their mouth and then disparage a group of people out of the other side of their mouth.

We need to do better about creating spaces where people are safe. More training on recognizing the issues and red flags of abusive actions, more structure to report people's behavior, a frame work to protect victims.

We need to do better about calling out hypocrisy in our sport. Plenty of people denouncing Andre Galvão this week, still support people like Donald Trump. You can't denounce one without denouncing the other.

I love Jiu-Jitsu, but it is far from perfect. There are glaring issues with the community and many of the people involved with the sport. Can we improve this? Absolutely. But it starts with all of us looking around and saying how can I make this better, safer, more inclusive. We need to do better, and we are all responsible for that.

We need to do better...