Let me help YOU understand YOUR belt rank. White-Brown.

Unwritten & Unspoken

There are a lot of grey areas in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is to be expected. Every combative discipline, based upon reality, has a level of vagueness to it. There are endless unwritten and unspoken segments of the Gentle Art.

WHY does this happen?

Unpredictability. In combat, in reality, in a fight; you can anticipate, you can strategize, but there is ALWAYS a level of unpredictability. The answer to solving this problem -- TIME & EXPERIENCE. Over time and through experience, you will train the circuits in your brain to fire reactions quicker and you will learn the deep complexities of the art. Eventually, the deepest complexities will make the simplest sense. That is called MASTERY.

This is why traditional belt tests are so difficult to administer in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Your understanding of the art comes through practice, struggle, failure, and development of muscle memory. How can you test that? This is a MAJOR problem. So often, students quit due to frustration. When really, they are exactly where they NEED to be, they just don't understand what they should know, feel, or improve upon.

White Belt a.k.a.Elementary School

What you can expect...
In the beginning, expect a tsunami of confusion. Expect to feel as if you walked into another realm of reality or another planet. Expect a feeling of excitement, unlike ANYTHING you have felt before. Improving yourself and gaining knowledge, is one of the NUMBER ONE things you can do to prolong your life and become fulfilled with happiness.

What you struggle with...
You might feel like you aren't getting any better and wonder why you can't make anything work! What's interesting about this--if it were anything else, you would chalk up your frustration to inexperience and the fact that you are a beginner. The problem is, Jiu-Jitsu digs deep into your ego and chokes you into humility. Humility is one of the HARDEST things to develop. Everything in you fights against it. You have YEARS of pride built up and maybe a false sense of personal abilities, insecurities, etc. Most of us start Jiu-Jitsu in adulthood, riddled with bad habits, and some tough life lessons from our past. Then...Jiu-Jitsu reinvents you. White Belt is elementary school. You are just learning the alphabet, then making sentences, pretty soon you will be off into middle school, where you can start to roam a little more free. It is hard for a person to be a beginner. But it is something that will humble you and keep you engaged with life forever.
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Ideas to improve...
The two most important parts of your white belt experience:

1. Get fascinated instead of frustrated.
   
2. Allow 90% of your training to be academic.
   

This means you should be, drilling, watching, studying, asking questions, and finding and developing minor patterns. Jiu-Jitsu is human chess right? Physical training and rolling will be more important later. So white belt is about learning what the game is, figuring out what the pieces are and how they move, and getting to a point, (As Chris Haeuter says) where you can sit down and play a game.

Blue Belt a.k.a Middle School

What you can expect...
Your biggest feeling of gratification yet. After hundreds of classes and countless car rides home, wondering what the hell you just did, it is starting to make sense. Then, just as it is starting to make sense, you start to feel like you are going backwards. A sudden re-emergence of your ego comes back with your new found skill. Only to be crushed again. (It never wins, tap out).

What you struggle with...
White Belt is over. You have a decent grasp on what this Jiu-Jitsu stuff is. Now, your performance is being more and more evaluated. The teachers and teachers aides that you had in elementary school (White Belt), aren't there 24/7anymore. You have to start doing your own work and will be dealing with tougher material. Blue Belt seems like forever and there might even be some Blue Belt bullies who are closing in on Purple. Sometimes it feel like things are getting worse, and then you realize-- your partners were just getting better -- like you. You feel a sense of uncertainty and increased pressure. You might miss that white belt. It was nice, because of the lower expectations lack of pressure. Now it's time to perform!

Ideas to improve...
Focus on three main areas to accelerate your progression.

1. ​Defense - Try and learn to become un-submittable. To improve, you will need to test your offense. But sometimes, see how long you can last without being submittied or fatigued. Do it with various skill levels, sizes, and ages. With better defense, you will have most of your problem areas and gaps close, which will lead to time slowing down for you and a better chance at offense.
2. Strategy - Just because you know a certain move in a certain position; doesn't mean that it will work against every person, even in similar conditions. The moves you know, are useless without the right strategy and plan of attack. Start thinking about how you will out technique or out smart your opponent. Start analyzing where you are getting beat. Don't get too obsessed with a position (yet). You might love the half guard, but you might not want to be there against a half guard slayer.
3. Try to be GENTLE - Pedro Sauer said in an interview on Budovideos.com, "Do the move to your partner like they are a FIVE year old child." Reflect on that. If they were five, you would have to do it correct to show form. You would have to do it smooth as to not hurt them. This is what you should do to everyone. Smoothness and fluidity are what you are searching for. It's easy to add speed and strength to a PERFECTLY smoot technique. Focus on gentility and fluidity and you will truly FEEL Jiu-Jitsu.

Purple Belt a.k.a High School

What you can expect...
Hey, you survived! At this point, you are most likely a lifer. You aren't going anywhere and you are actually, quite advanced. You have your own flow on the mat and have developed your own "style". You can expect to have some pretty exciting things happen on the mat. A lot of Purple Belts, finally "catch" a Brown or Black Belt. Don't lie, you know it's exciting. But, like high schoolers, you might think you know it all, and might have someone more experienced put you in your place. You know a lot, but the experience is still missing.

What you will struggle with...
At first, like all belts. Growing pains. As the belt is being tied on, you are whispering to yourself, do I deserve this. You definitely do. It's a simple equation, you have people at the same belt rank who might be 2-5 years ahead of you, it's a big gap. You will grow into it. As I talked about in a previous blog, you are dealing with some un-teachable aspects of Jiu-Jitsu. Namely, transitions, anticipation, and sensitivity. Only experience develops those attributes. Higher belts transition a bit quicker. They have more experience, so they anticipate the road ahead. They have a six sense, and can FEEL the fight better than you. This comes with time sand this is why ROLLING is so important at this belt. Various types of rolling.

Ideas to improve...
Click the button below to read an entire article dedicated to improving at this rank!

Learn more about this belt

Brown Belt a.k.a College

What to expect...
Two kinds of PRESSURE.

1. ​Pressure that you use on your opponents. It's high level now!
2. The pressure of that next belt.

Here's a bit of advice. Focus on your next belt. Focus on what you need to do, in order to get there. I have found that people don't focus on their next belt for two reasons.

• ​Reason one...it takes pressure off of them. Having to think about what it takes to get that next belt, adds anxiety and stress. Good. All great things evolve because of survival and necessity.
• Reason two...People have this idea that if they are focused on the next belt, they are just focused on the materialistic part of it. Maybe, maybe not. Everyone wants their next, let's not kid ourselves. If you say you aren't, then when you get your Black Belt, don't post it on Facebook. OF COURSE, we want that belt. If you went to college, wouldn't you want that diploma. YES, it signifies the amount of work you have put in! When you look down at your waste, you will feel such accomplishment, as you scroll through your mind and recall your BJJ history.

What you will struggle with...
Those damn Black Belts are still kicking your butt and even some of the Purple Belts are doing well against you. Well, if tapping, getting swept, and taken down, is a sign of not deserving a rank, then ALL of us, should go hand our belt back. Brown Belt is undergraduate and graduate school rolled into one. You are cramming the final pieces of information in and you are preparing to enter the workforce and will be let loose. Don't waste your time at this Belt. The last thing you would want to have happen is, you get your Black Belt and don't know what to do with it.

Ideas to improve...
Focus on using pressure. I don't necessarily mean, body weight pressure. Use pressure to induce panic. How? Real pressure in Jiu-Jitsu, will make your opponent open up quickly, in ways they usually won't. This pressure, is caused by the threat of offense. When you are advancing position, working a submission, or unbalancing your opponent for a sweep, they HAVE TO react. If they don't, they will lose. When imminent damage is unavoidable for them, they will panic. They will do whatever it take to survive or they will fail and they will NOT survive. Pressure your opponents. Make them always uncomfortable and unsure of what "could" happen. Click below to read more about this belt.

The definitive guide to Brown Belt

Closing

There is so much more to be said about each belt, There is so much to be discovered and put into language. That's what give the art it's beauty. It's infinite and perspective is something that everyone has to themselves and eventually, through mastery, will share with those around them!

Eddie Fyvie