Repetition and Reporting

Martial Arts are all about repetition.

It is the key to mastery in every aspect of training.

You do things over and over to improve them, and to make them automatic and smooth.

There is also a lot of repetition outside of the training.

For me, one of these will be ending soon.

Rank in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu starts with a White Belt, and progresses through to a Blue Belt, then a Purple and Brown, and eventually to a Black Belt.

For each of the belt changes, there is a major exam or evaluation. These are usually very demanding and demand a lot of preparation.

There are also ranks awarded within each coloured belt level. The student starts with an unadorned cloth belt. Small stripes are awarded and added to one end of the belt. Each belt eventually receives 4 such stripes.

The rules for all of these stripe are the same regardless of the belt colour.

The student must have been training for a bare minimum of 8 months since their previous promotion, and have attended at least 100 classes. At that point it is up to the instructor to decide if the student is ready to move up. Sometimes this happens at or near the 8-month mark, but sometimes a delay can be considerable.

My own training has pretty much aways been a bit of a mish-mash. I attend appropriate classes at several schools in the course of any given year, as well as working one-on-one at non-class times.

Because of this the normal school-attendance recording system doesn’t work for me. When my 8 months are up I notify my instructor about the state of my attendance. As a Blue Belt this was usually to tell him that my tally wasn’t done.

I like moving along promptly. Missing my total for a first Purple Belt stripe was so annoying it inspired me to bump up my training on an ongoing basis.

I’ve been a Brown Belt throughout the Covid era, but it was much harder to get enough training done. I managed.

Yesterday was the 8-month point for getting a third stripe on my Brown Belt. I notified my instructor, and it’s now up to him.

I beat the 100 class requirement with a tally of 112. That isn’t a very wide buffer, and the patterns of training not typical at all. A delay in promotion might well be in the cards.

Whenever it happens I will be left with only a single stripe to earn….ever.

I don’t mind keeping track of my classes at all. Training a lot is also right up my alley. What I don’t like is having to nag my instructor about it every 8 months.

Luckily, I’m darn near done with that. Just one more time and I’ll be out of stripes forever.