Achieving the Rank of Blue Belt

Recently, I was awarded the rank of blue belt in BJJ

This was an awesome day to say the least.

After almost 2 and a half years of training in BJJ, I was able to graduate from my phase belt and wear the blue belt around my waist.

My Coach and I after he gave me my blue belt

It was your typical Monday night BJJ class, and we were all gearing up for our typical 8:00 pm-8:30 pm rolling session. This is my favorite part of the class, because we get to test and use everything we have learned in the class while at the same time getting a seriously killer workout in.

The philosophy that we have in our gym is that if we train harder and longer than any competition would require, than come competition time, we all are more than well prepared.

I have had many hard training sessions before in my life, but that Monday night was easily one of the hardest.

My coach and I battled against each other for minutes on end, with him showing no sign of letting up on me. He wasn’t just beating me, he was smashing me. It was to the point where I would be in bottom side control, and he would use constant head pressure to inflict pain and discomfort, drilling directly into my stomach. It was freakin’ brutal.

Some of the mastery guys and I snap a team photo after class

After getting destroyed by him and being utterly exhausted, I was now the victim of a game we like to call “vultures”. It involves one guy (me in this case) starting in bottom side control, and having to go from bottom to top position against an opponent. Once this has been done, a new and fresh opponent jumps on top of you in side control, and you must repeat the process again.

After a few minutes of that, I can easily say that I had surpassed my previous physical and mental limits, and I was fighting with pure adrenaline. I had nothing left in me, and my body felt five times heavier than normal.

When it was all done, I stood up with the help of my fellow students and tried to catch my breath for dear life. I also had the interrupting urge to vomit. I came very close to doing so, but I mustered the strength to hold it down (luckily!).

As my coach gave us all a wise talk on how training hard like we did will ensure that we will all improve, he mentioned my name. He elaborated on my efforts and the time that I put in on and off the mats, then pulled a blue belt out of nowhere and surprised the heck out of me with it.

Fellow blue belt Josh Colacone and I

Being extremely exhausted, yet elated, I was very proud to have done what I did. I thanked all of my team and my coaches, as they were the ones who helped push me through it all.

It was a great day for me and a huge goal had been reached. I cannot wait to see where I end up on  my journey as a blue belt.

Progressing in BJJ

As we all know, progressing in BJJ takes time….Lots of time.

Rome wasn’t built in  a day people. The same goes for one’s jiu jitsu skills.

BJJ is a sport and martial art where hours of hard work and dedication are needed to progress and proceed. Most people don’t realize this. Many martial arts out there only require a few years from a student to attain the highly regarded level of black belt. In the martial art of BJJ, this is surely not the case.

Many BJJ students train and still do not receive the title of black belt for an average of 10 years. Most people who compare BJJ to other martial arts do not take this into account, and I feel that it is something that is under appreciated and under valued.

I’ll admit it, when I first started training in BJJ and submission grappling, I would look at the guys who were better than me, and say “I can’t wait until i’m on their level of skill” .  I would say this to myself, but I would also assume that if I just kept going to the gym to train and learn new techniques, then I would be where they are one day.

Boy was I wrong….

Improving your skills in anything, nonetheless BJJ, takes extra effort.

In the first 9 months of my BJJ career, I would come to class twice a week, train, and leave completely satisfied thinking that I trained really hard. It was a way for me to release stress, get a workout, and learn cool moves. This was great, but I never gave myself room for self reflection and self evaluation. I never even figured out why I liked BJJ.

As time went on over those 9 months, I saw myself getting better, but I was still getting smashed by some of the other more experienced guys. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get on their level of skill.

Sure, they started before I did, but I became okay with the idea that I would never be as good as them. This, among other external factors, led to me to take a break from the sport of BJJ for a while.

One day, I received a letter from an old friend of mine. He asked how I was doing, along with the common small talk stuff, you know what i’m talking about.

In the letter, he asked me to give BJJ one more shot.

This was after I fell into the college party scene, and had not given much thought to BJJ on a daily basis, never mind at all.

After receiving this letter and thinking a lot about where my life was headed in general, I decided to start training again. This time, however, I wasn’t going to train like I did previously.

I started making quotas for myself to meet each week, whether it was drilling techniques, situational rolling, or live rolling. I found weaknesses in my game and improved on them. I also found the strengths in my game, and improved them as well. With the help of my coaches and fellow students, I was able to make leaps and bounds in my BJJ skills.

Myself and a few others receiving our phase belts. For those of you who are not familiar, a phase belt is in between white and blue and serves as a halfway mark

I finally realized that if I wanted to be like the guys who were much better than me, I had to train like it and put a lot of effort into my development.

This doesn’t mean that I train 25 hours a day 8 days a week, but it means that I train smart. I analyze my game, find what I need to improve, and deliberately do so.

I also realized that improving in BJJ takes time and dedication, and without patience, mastery will never be attained. BJJ to me was now a way to center myself and a way to test my limits and push my personal potential, mentally and physically. It didn’t matter how good I was compared to other people anymore.

Returning back to BJJ after my absence was the best thing that could have happened.

For those of you on the path of BJJ, stay on the path, and keep progressing. It takes time, but it’s worth it in the end.

It pleases me to see my fellow students taking the same path as me, and finding success in it.

A lot of guys around me are deliberately improving, and that brings me great joy to see. One of my training partners who goes by the great name of “Dasani”, is on the path like myself, and he is progressing as well (check out his story here, along with many others)

Keep training hard!

-N