Piles of Training

I tend to get all stuck on rank progression goals in Jiu-Jitsu. It isn't supposed to be that way. Everybody knows that. Even Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid as much as said that belts don't matter.

So what does make somebody good at Jiu-Jitsu? I would say it's how much training they have done, and whether that training is focused or not.

I rushed to get my Blue Belt, and pushed to get a stripe added to it faster than would normally have been possible. To get both of these promotions, I took a number of private lessons, and spent countless hours on the mat drilling alone.

My training isn't all aimed at rank hunting. I go to whatever seminars are in Vancouver or Seattle put on by the Gracies, and have attended the Gracie's California academy for a total of 10 weeks. While there, I don't attend a few classes per week like a normal person, but have averaged over dozen each week.

I also train more than anybody else during our school's open mat sessions, and still attend the all the White Belt classes.

I am pushing to be as good at Jiu-Jitsu as I can. For me, rank has been both a reward for training, and as motivation to work hard.

Let's say I started Jiu-Jitsu with a twin who had attendance just as good as mine. I would have been collecting rank faster than him, but not as much as you'd think. About half of our Blue Belts continue attending the White Belt classes, so I made my twin be one of these people. Most don't attend open mat, so neither does he. Some attend seminars, so he does, but nobody goes to train in California, so he doesn't.

I think my twin would have received a second stripe for his Blue Belt about the same evening that I received my third. So what's the big difference?

I have done about 40% more training than my twin. All of those extra hours were either classes at the Gracie Academy, private lessons at home or in California, or doing intensive practice at open mat time.

Keep in mind that my hypothetical twin is a darn good student with stellar attendance. He will surely earn his Purple Belt on schedule. I find it interesting that I have already done more hours of training right now as a three-stripe Blue than he will have on the day he gets his Purple Belt.

So are there any more tangible rewards to working hard than rank? There are for me.

I pushed to progress as a White Belt so that I would qualify early for an additional, more advanced White-Belt class. I got to learn stuff fancier stuff.

I pushed to get my Blue Belt early so that I could begin attending the real advanced class. I got to learn the technique Blue Belts knew about 6 months earlier than my twin would have.

Learning material to pass ranks back then made sense. You had to get the rank in order to join the next class.

After getting a Blue Belt, you can attend everything. The problem is that there is so much to try and remember that most of it slips away. To retain the material takes a great deal of extra drill and practice. Most of what we learn builds on what has gone before. In Los Angeles they do technique of every level mixed together. The more you know, the better you can absorb and retain what is new.

And I want a Purple Belt.