Rolling slowly can create some interesting transitions you might not otherwise find
Are you starting out Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, getting tapped left and right even though you’re trying your hardest to do well when you roll at class? This little bit of BJJ advice may be exactly what you need to take your game to the next level: try slowing down.
This advice is very counter-intuitive for many. When you are first presented with this fantastic martial art we call jiu jitsu (or BJJ), one of the main attractive points is that you get to roll right away- trying out your techniques on a fully resisting opponent, who is simultaneously trying things out on you. Some say that jiu jitsu is like chess, and to a certain extent it is; but it’s even more than that. You can even use speed, strength, and other physical attributes in order to accomplish your objectives.
I’m telling you right now that if you are always rolling at a fast pace, you are missing the big picture. Here are three huge reasons why:
1. When you always move quickly, you are seldom going to process anywhere near all of the information that you’re presented.
Sure, you’ve drilled certain moves dozens of times in class. That’s certainly a necessary component to understanding BJJ. However, during live rolling, you are presented a possibly infinite number of small variations on every single scenario that you’ve drilled in class. Take the time necessary for your brain to answer the question: What was different in how my partner reacted? What should/could I have done differently? Above all else, why did this happen?
2. If you always roll fast, you will simply beat certain training partners just because you’re moving faster than they are. Congratulations, you’ve won the Gym Olympics for the night! But remember that your objective isn’t to tap out your partners by whatever means necessary. Your objective is always to figure out how to tap your partners.
In many cases, your slowest moving partners are going to be your most technical partners. This means that they have a great deal to offer you in terms of intelligent resistance to the techniques you’re trying. This is incredibly important in understanding BJJ! You have to let your partners show you what they have to offer in order to maximize the benefit to training.
3. Your training partners will appreciate the attention to technique, and they will also learn more.
Put in very simple terms, if your partners progress, you progress. If your partners are learning your game, it will force you to adapt and learn new tricks, or refine the existing tricks.
The paradox: by slowing everything down, you will dramatically speed up your jiu jitsu evolution.
On a cold windy day in January, 1969, the Beatles treated the public to a impromptu concert atop a London rooftop. This was the first time they had played live since 1965, and they thrilled and captivated the startled passersby as they sang for 42 minutes, before the police stopped their performance due to noise complaints.
When legendary basketball player, Michael Jordan, entered the NBA in 1984, he had a stipulation in his contract, now referred to as the “Love of the Game” clause. This clause allowed Jordan to play basketball anytime he wanted to during the off season. This was unique because prior to this, teams were adamant about allowing players to risk injury playing in unsanctioned games.
Armed with this superfluous information, I’ve wondered what it would be like to stumble upon a free concert performed by the greatest band in history- or, how amazing it would be to see Michael Jordan shooting jump shots and doing acrobatic dunks in the neighborhood basketball court.
These thoughts and feelings became a reality for me in the summer of 2006.
At the time, I was working and living in New York City. For several months prior, I had read on various internet message boards that Marcelo Garcia, one of the most beloved and admired competitor and teacher of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, was moving from Sao Paulo, Brazil to New York City, to begin teaching in the USA.
I was elated when I heard the news, and I was counting down the days until Marcelo would begin teaching classes a few miles from where I lived. That prior year, he had won the ADCC World Championships (the most prestigious submissions grappling tournament) in Long Beach, California. Through a combination of his skill and domination on the mats and his ever present smile after each victory, he had captivated the audience. I was equally affected, as I was also in the stands, attending my first grappling tournament. Marcelo made a huge impression on me that weekend, and from that weekend on, he became my favorite grappler to watch and emulate.
During Marcelo’s first week of classes in NYC, I took a long lunch break and attended one of his afternoon classes. As I eagerly changed into my kimono and walked onto the mat, I did not know what to expect. Although I was already in my 30’s, a college and business school graduate, and a manager of a team of people at work, I was still anxious to meet this 25 year old. Not only was I meeting a superstar in the prime of his competitive career (in a sport that I was engrossed in), he was going to be leading class and personally teaching me his techniques.
Looking back, it seems silly that I had any anxiety at our initial encounter, as Marcelo proved to be one of the friendliest and most polite person I have ever met. A few minutes before my first class started, Marcelo bowed and walked onto the mats. He greeted all of us with a big smile, shook our hands and welcomed us to his class. Moments later, he led us in a spirited warm up- where we jogged, did a variety of jumps, tumbles, and rolls, and other various grappling movements. The remainder of the class consisted of him teaching several techniques and us breaking off into pairs to practice these new moves. With 30 minutes remaining in class, Marcelo announced it was time to do live training/rolling. During this time, Marcelo and the students were paired up for 5 minute intervals, where we rolled and trained together, 1 on 1. Because the class was still relatively small in size, Marcelo was able to train individually with each of us before the class ended. To me, not only was I experiencing the thrill of watching an impromptu Beatles concert, I was now playing guitar with Paul McCartney.
It has now been over 5 years since the day I met Marcelo Garcia. After spending countless of hours on and off the mats with Marcelo, I’m proud to say that not only is he my jiu jitsu teacher and mentor, but he is one of my closest friends. You can only imagine my disappointment when I read Sam Sheridan’s book, The Fighter’s Mind: Inside the Mental Game. In the book, Sheridan writes that Marcelo Garcia is so charismatic, friendly, and likeable, many people come away from their encounters with him, thinking they are best friends with him…So maybe our close friendship is a just figment of my own wild imagination?
Nevertheless, when I am on my deathbed and my life flashes before me, aside from the precious moments spent with my family and children, I will always remember the first time I was at Marcelo’s school and we followed behind him as he was leading us through the class warm ups.
With the recent popularity of the UFC, MMA, and BJJ, many Jiu Jitsu academies are expanding at a rapid pace, bursting with new students. Before many of these BJJ teachers become too busy with their huge academies, now is the perfect time for any enthusiasts to seek out a class, seminar, or personal training session with one of these legends. Whether you go to New York City to see Marcelo Garcia, Los Angeles to see Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles, Chicago to see Hannette Staack, or London, England to train with Roger Gracie, they are on the mats nearly every day, waiting to teach and train with you.
In closing, the Beatles rooftop concert was the last public performance the group ever did. Take heed! Before it is too late, do not hesitate to visit your favorite grappler on your next vacation. Sure, it might take some convincing, bribing, and cajoling to the rest of the family, but trust me, it beats going to Disney World.
I have a confession to make: I care a lot about belts.
I know that this is not the most popular thing to say in BJJ. If a person asks about the importance of belts, the typical response is that belts are of minimal importance, if any at all. They are certainly nothing that a student should care about.
But I disagree with that point of view. Let me tell you why.
It’s not that belts are a goal of BJJ in and of themselves. They are colored pieces of cloth, and they do not collect your knowledge or your hard work or any of that nonsense. The most significant things they collect are microbes from training.
That being said, the belts of BJJ are great indicators of the true goal of BJJ – progress along your own journey of personal improvement. While belts are not the path, earning belts reminds you that you are on the path.
But if you know that you are improving anyway, do you even need a belt to indicate that? The answer is no, not necessarily. Martial arts have not historically used belts for very long, and even now most martial arts still do not use belts. These martial arts still follow the same path of personal improvement without belts.
However, since BJJ is an art that has chosen to use belts, they should be heeded as important indicators of progress. To ignore them completely is to take the measurement of your progress entirely into your own hands – a situation in which you are in danger of self-deception.
Consider the commonly used hypothetical scenario of the ten year white belt that is so skilled that he beats black belts. However, he still wears a white belt simply because he has never been promoted. This is a common scenario used to justify the unimportance of belts.
The flaw with this scenario is that it almost never exists in reality. In fact, I have never seen it, nor have I ever known anyone who has. If someone wears a white belt and beats a black belt, he likely has significant training in an art other than BJJ. Never have I seen nor heard of someone training seriously in BJJ for more than a decade, defeating black belts regularly, yet still wearing a white belt.
Another scenario that I have seen, albeit rarely, is the scenario of someone training seriously in BJJ for more than a decade, still struggling with other white belts regularly, and still wearing a white belt. This scenario occurs due to a serious flaw in training. Regardless of whether the training has been inconsistent, focused on the wrong aspects, or any other reason, it is a symptom of a serious flaw. The lack of belt progress is helpful as a clear indicator of the underlying flaw.
If you have trained for a while but have not seen any belt progression, which scenario most closely describes your training? Is it even possible for you to know yourself without asking others for their opinions?
I do not believe that most of us are impartial enough to evaluate the progress of our own training objectively. We should always strive to, but in reality, we can miss flaws in ourselves that others can see. As such, it would be wise to keep a close relationship with our instructors and ensure that we are on the path to the next belt. If there seems to be no progress, we should ask what we need to change in our own training in order to make progress. Otherwise, we may simply run in circles and never progress towards our goals.
To use analogy, belts are landmarks on a journey. They are not the journey itself or the destination, but they serve as good indicators that you are on the right track. If you walk for years but don’t see the landmark you were expecting, it would be wise to stop and ask for directions. If you keep walking because you don’t care about landmarks, you might be on the wrong track and never make it any closer to the destination.
As for me, I plan to stop and ask for directions if I don’t see a landmark. And that is why I confess that I do care a lot about belts.
By Randy Jones
The author has been involved in various martial arts for 21 years. He started training BJJ in 2004 and is currently a purple belt.
When I was 14 years old my grandfather passed away, leaving me his guitar. I had always wanted to learn to play and now had my grandfather’s instrument and blessing. As I began to learn about playing guitar, I was given a lesson that I’ve carried through my life and apply to anything that really matters to me. My instructor said “I can teach you how to play some chords and perhaps how to finger pick some songs very quickly. However, if you’re goal is to actually learn to play the guitar…really play it, you’re going to have to immerse your life into it.”
As I continued with my lessons, he began to explain further. Going to classes was good, but not good enough. I would need to surround myself with influences of guitar. Of course I had to do the basic scales, committing them to memory, but I also needed to explore and create as often as possible. I had to develop friendships with people that played guitar, so that I could play with others and learn from them. I was encouraged to seek out the instruction of many different people, so as to have the broadest exposure possible. I was taken to many concerts, so that I could witness first hand the true masters of music. Finally, I was challenged to play in front of people so that I could learn to handle that stress.
I still play guitar to this day, though life never turned into more than something I share with friends or during the occasional musical that I’m asked to play in for various organizations. Regardless, it became a permanent part of my life (and now the life of my children) and it all started with immersion.
Now, in the middle stages of my life (37), I’ve been blessed to discover Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, currently holding a blue belt under Rodrigo Vaghi. With running my own business, tending my own herd of alpaca and taking care of two young children, I do not have the time that youth once offered. Even still, I approach BJJ in the same manner as I did guitar.
Going to class is paramount. There is no doubt about that. Without the life blood of constant technical improvements, drilling basics and learning new and more interesting things, none of us would remain in BJJ. That being said, BJJ has to intersect at more points of your life, if you want to truly master it. You need to watch instructional videos, read books about BJJ and watch competition footage (if not live events). You need to become friends with people that are into BJJ, doing things outside of class. That way, people will know and actually care when you are gone from training. You need to seek out instruction at other locations (after speaking with your instructor), while on vacation. I love dropping in on other schools to fellowship with the brotherhood of BJJ. Finally, and this is not an absolute, I think people should compete at least once in order to find out if competition is for them. I think too many people assume that it is not and miss out on a another great intersection that BJJ has to offer.
Ultimately, it was this immersion mentality that has helped BJJ to become a fixture in my life. A few years ago, I injured myself and, if not for this immersion, I very easily could have quit BJJ. However, the art was intersecting so many different parts of my life by that time that I still felt connected, even when I couldn’t be on the mat. As a result, I was hungry to come back and took the time to study old competition tapes and really break down some of my weaknesses, so that I’d have a full agenda when I returned. As this immersion continues, it can encourage you to change other parts of your life, like health and nutrition. I’ve actually gone from around 280 to 210 lbs since starting BJJ, just from the encouragement that the BJJ community has offered me. My children are also becoming involved and that has been a great bonding experience between us.
Admittedly, this is the opinion of a blue belt, not long in the game. That being said, if you look around at the higher belts around you, you’ll likely find (as I do) that they have engaged and are engaging in the exact same immersion activities that I’ve mentioned here.
Train long enough in BJJ as a newcomer and you will either hear this question, or ask it yourself. I know I have. Since I began training almost 4 years ago, I’ve asked myself this question over and over.
But I’m not alone. Google search “How long will it take me to get my Blue Belt in BJJ“. You’ll see yahoo answers, links to forums, links to blogs and the list goes on. What is it about that blue length of cloth that vexes so?
To me, it symbolizes achievement. It’s a physical representation of the hard work, dedication and progression I’ve put into my BJJ journey.
It’s validation! I won’t be respected until I have it! It’s the next stage of my journey and I simply won’t move forward mentally in BJJ until I reach it!
Or so I thought.
I started training at Revolution BJJ in January 2011. Previously, I had trained at another academy for 3 years and due to a series of events, belt promotions did not happen. When you are a big fish in a little pond, it is easy to delude yourself. So, when I started at Revolution BJJ, I fully expected to be a blue belt within a month. After all, there were students of all belt colors there and surely I would be noticed for my skills. Surely, they would see my spectacular technique!
The ego is a funny thing. I had convinced myself that I would be able to not only hold my own, but SUBMIT blues, purples and browns.
My first class at Revolution BJJ popped my ego balloon immediately. White belts were submitting me with ease. The students I rolled with had top notch technique. Calm, cool and collected they showed me in a few rolls just how much I had to learn.
I started investing myself in training between 3 – 4 nights a week, and I started to gradually get better. Around July, I started that blue belt chase again. Mentally, I was so focused on when I would get promoted that I stopped having fun with BJJ. Every class was more and more frustrating. I kept looking for the moment where a technique would show everyone that I deserved a blue belt. And all of that frustration was placed on me by myself. I had become so consumed with chasing a belt promotion that I forgot to enjoy what I was doing. I lost sight of why I was training in the first place. I was embarrassed to talk to anyone at the gym about it because when I said it out loud, I felt like an idiot worrying about a colored piece of cloth.
In August, I competed at a US Grappling Submission Only event. I placed third in my division and third in absolute. I was disappointed with my performance as I felt that if I had won gold I would have been promoted to blue. I felt like I had let myself, my instructor, and my team down. I was in a rut.
After mulling it over for about a week, I realized that I had focused so much on getting my blue belt, that I’d forgotten how to just enjoy training. I really had to ask myself a hard and firm “why are you doing BJJ?”. I came to the realization that I was doing BJJ because I love BJJ. So, I let go of my belt chase. I focused on having fun and really learning my techniques. And you know what? I’ve gotten LOADS better. I’m enjoying myself every training session, making huge improvements. All because I stopped worrying about getting a blue belt.
I am telling my story because I thought there might be white belts out there like myself. Maybe you’re feeling like you are chasing a belt. Maybe you’re frustrated. Maybe you don’t know what to do about it.
My advice to you? Don’t worry. Relax. Train. Have fun. Focus on doing what you love because you love it. Time on the mat is supposed to be fun and enjoyable.
And getting your blue belt? Keep training and it will take care of itself.
Don’t worry about average times or when anyone else got promoted. Just train, train, train. Have faith in the training, and enjoy it.
