Milestone - I got my Blue Belt

After starting my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) practice at the start of 2023, so more than 3 years ago, I got my first BJJ promotion — the move from white belt to blue.

How do I feel about it all?

Looking back, I enjoyed the white belt stage and wish I was more grateful to be in this position. There weren’t many expectations and you didn’t feel that bad when a stranger would walk into the gym and you couldn’t quite control them or submit them (they might even get you). Even then, most of the regulars or coloured belts would constantly make you tap even if they were not going pedal to the metal. Again, there was no shame.

However, with the ascension in rank, nothing from the above has changed — I still carry the brain confusion of roughly knowing — but now there is expectation. There is, quite frankly, a target on your back. Everyone you face is now going to work a lot harder to “take you down”.

I did feel, when Coach was tying this blue belt around my waist, that I didn’t deserve this promotion. But at the same time, I should trust Coach’s judgement. It’s hard to see the incremental improvements in yourself, and I must remind myself that Coach has been doing this for decades, promoted countless athletes, so there is vast experience in determining for who gets promoted and when.

Coach did say to me (and I’m paraphrasing):

You’ve improved a lot since you first walked into the gym.

This made me think about comparison and how everyone has different starting places. You can’t compare yourself to someone who had a full-on fighting background. And when you see your peers, they are constantly getting better, which pushes you to get better as well.

There is a joke that when most people get their blue belt, they stop training. It takes years of dedication to get the first milestone. Eventually, the lustre of the new blue belt fades into how it felt like being two tab white belt - only you have those expectation I explained earlier and that target on your back). The next milestone becomes the objective, that would be the next tab or the next belt (purple). This seems so far away and I think that’s why so many people stop.

Hopefully, I won’t be in that statistic but the mentality I’ll adopt is: nothing changes, keep turning up and keep drilling the fundamentals, always have that beginner’s mindset; it helps you in BJJ and in life.

Finally, a special thanks to Coach and everyone I train with for being a part of this humbling journey. OSS!

Conclusion

Blue belt promotion was a 3 year journey, which still continues. My fear is the greater expectation put on myself and the goal is to keep training and drilling the fundamentals.

Update

I also wanted to talk about other concepts:

• I do think higher belts are okay with losing vs. a fresh white belt will treat every role as a life or death battle
• When you start to get good at something and stop, it’s actually harder to come back to it, compared to if you were to start again.
• BJJ has a long path to “mastery”. This made me appreciate mastery in general, as well as cultivate patience. I think a lot of expect to ‘get things’ quickly. But acquiring skills that seem simple take a lot of time, not just a year or two, but a decade of intentional learning.