Higher belts compliment your courage and adversity. Lower belts admire your dignity and grace. Your enemies would never dare to test your strength and ferociousness. And your friends and family don’t really understand why you go to a legal fight club every week but they like you anyway. You’re basically a modern-day samurai.
After getting my first stripe on my blue belt, I finally feel like a blue belt. What does that mean exactly, to ‘feel like a blue belt’?
It feels like I understand most basic positions
I might not know all the techniques in jiujitsu, I’m not sure anyone actually does. But I can understand what instructors are saying 90% of the time. However, if they start talking about K-Guard or leg entanglements then I’m pretty much lost.
It feels like I can submit and positionally dominate white belts
The difference between a three stripe white belt and a one stripe blue belt is patience. All the white belts I roll with (and some blue, but all white) are either tense, shaking, rushing themselves, or panicking. Nowadays, I’m cool as a cucumber even when someone takes my back and has a body triangle locked in real tight. As a result my defense is getting better with every open mat. When it comes to positional control, I can really get a sense of where and how I am supposed to be putting my body in certain positions and how I and my partner are most likely to react in those scenarios. Beating up white belts makes me better.
It feels like I’m not going anywhere
They say most people quit at blue belt. They think they know all they need to know. I actually agree with that. If everyone out there was a blue belt, street fights would be safer and there might not be as many. I want to do this as a life long activity. A hobbyist who competes sometimes. Maybe one day could teach others how to survive even when someone takes their back and has a body triangle locked in real tight.
Here are three skills that got me this far:
1. Taking my lumps
2. Knowing my body / recovery
3. Research
Taking Lumps
I get beat up at every class. Doesn’t matter who I was rolling with. Sure, I might get more subs then my training partner (doesn’t happen that often for me) or my defense will be solid, but none of it came easy. It was always a grind. But I kept showing up. There is this weird phenomenon that I will call the Fight Club Phenomenon (will henceforth be referred to as FCP). FCP is when you get beat up but keep coming back. There is a feeling of triumph even though you got smashed. You put your body through hell, and came out alive. You realize you can do a combat sport without quitting. You learned a lot about yourself. Fighting becomes a form of self-improvement and you want more!
Knowing your body / recovery
You want to know a little secret? Sometimes I choose not to go to bjj class. Not just because I have an injury or I am busy with something else. Sometimes I don’t go simply because I don’t want to. Don’t get me wrong, I still love rolling. But sometimes I need to listen to my body. And when my body says ‘hey maybe we should take a break and let that chronic shoulder injury you’ve had since high school recoup a bit’ I take its advice and don’t go for a few days or even a week. There’s nothing wrong with taking time off. As they say, the mats aren’t going anywhere. And the mats want your body to be at its best when you are there.
Research
I watch bjj comps and match videos often. I bought a yearly FloGrappling subscription a year ago and there is tournaments on all the time. Also, on Youtube, there are free livestreams of IBJJF comps all over the world. (side note: I cancelled my FloGrappling subscription and it won’t renew at the end of August, since I didn’t want to pay another $200+ again. Its a cool app, but not worth it for me when I can find competitions for free elsewhere.)
I also read about jiu jitsu often. Here’s a short list of books I’ve read or I’m reading or I plan on reading, that have helped with mindset and keeping interest in the sport:
-Grappling 101: How to Avoid Being Bullied on the Mat by Bakari Akil II PhD
-The Lazy Man’s Guide to Grappling by Bakari Akil II PhD
-The Black Belt Blueprint: An Intelligent Approach to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by Nicolas Gregoriades
-The Jiu Jitsu Answer Man: Intriguing Questions, Thought-Provoking Responses, Informative Articles, and Fascinating Stories by Roy Harris
-Becoming the Black Belt: One Man’s Journey in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by Roy Dean
-On Jiu Jitsu by Chris Matakas
-Mastering the 21 Immutable Principles of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by Paulo Guillobel
-Jiu Jitsu 101: White Belt Survival Guide by Jiujitology
-Jiu Jitsu 201: From Blue Belt to Black and Back to White by Jiujitology
-Jiu Jitsu University by Saulo Ribeiro and Kevin Howell
To name just a few.
The power of osmosis has my brain soaking up all this knowledge unconsciously and then it swells up to my consciousness when I roll. I have no idea how it works, but it works.
With all that being said, sometimes I miss being a white belt. It was an amazing feeling.
Are you a blue belt? What have you enjoyed so far about that belt?
Are you a white belt? What are you looking forward to the most when it comes to getting your blue?
Keep showing up and you’ll get that stripe on your blue belt quicker than you think.
P.S.
My wife recently got her third stripe on her white belt, well deserved!
There and Back 
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