Go Fund Me? Go Fund Yourself.

As the World Championship nears, I’ve been seeing more Go Fund Me pages pop up recently for “athletes” who need help paying for their registration and travel expenses for the upcoming competition season. Normally, I don’t usually see a problem with this, as I know that travel and tournament fees can be quite pricey. However, the part that does bother me is that these “athletes” who create these Go Fund Me pages all use the same sob story about how they work full-time, have a family to take care of…  but yet they have world champion aspirations and need YOUR help to get there.

Since when did the average jiu-jiteiro become so… entitled? What separates them from the hundreds if not thousands of other jiu-jiteiro/jiteiras that work hard and balance their own schedules to take time away from work and pay their own way to compete?

But that’s not all. I think what bothers me the most is that Go Fund Me was started to actually help people who really need it. Like you know... people who are fighting cancer, people who got into serious accidents, people who lost their homes or loved ones... REAL IMPORTANT THINGS. A lot of these "athletes" with Go Fund Me pages just want your money and they don’t even feel one tinge of guilt doing so. They promise to “try hard” to get that world title but yet are doing nothing to give back to the BJJ community. Some Go Fund Me pages offer to give back a portion of their donations to a charity, or even raffle off products from their sponsors, which perhaps makes it more attractive to donate to their cause… but still doesn’t make it quite right. 

Oh Mr./Ms. BJJ is LIFE, you are not the only ones that want to become a world champion. I know A LOT of hobbyist jiu-jiteiros who have world champion dreams too. But they only compete once a year because it’s all they can afford and they are satisfied with that. Rather than sulking about how they can’t compete in every major tournament, they train hard for the one competition that they can afford. OR their team, much like a kids’ sports/hobby team, FUNDRAISE together so that they can offset the costs so that they don’t have to ask complete strangers for money and offer them nothing but a promise to “try your best.”

It’s getting annoying, people. Stop expecting things to be handed to you just because you asked and because you looooovvvveeee BJJ. Behind some of the greatest NON-professional world champions in the sport are regular people who have full-time jobs, have a family to support, and who train two times a day even though they just worked a graveyard shift and are dead tired. They don’t ask for anything except to have great training days and partners – so why should you be asking complete strangers for money if these people aren’t? And if you love BJJ so much too, why don’t you do something to give back to the community too while you’re at it?

**end rant**