135. Why white belts quit

Are you ready for a transformative journey from white belt to blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu? We're about to reframe your approach to acquiring skills and ascending ranks, highlighting the essentials of mastering a complex discipline like Jiu-Jitsu. This episode is a goldmine of practical insights, enlightening discussions, and personal anecdotes that will redefine your perspective and give you a fresh take on this challenging journey.

Moving from a white to a blue belt isn't just about grappling techniques—it's about the mental resilience to overcome the confusion, chaos, and complexities that come with learning Jiu-Jitsu. We'll reveal how to develop a healthy relationship with the sport, focusing on understanding balance, distance control, and leverage rather than chasing belts. We'll also shed light on how instructors can better support students, and why it's crucial for you to learn at your own pace. By the end of this episode, you'll see why it's not the shiny belt that makes a Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, but the love and understanding of the art itself. So join us, keep training, and let's start this journey together.

Ask me questions on IG @rozdzynskibjj, I will personally respond to you and record the episode with an official answer.

Links you need to check out:
www.rolacademy.tv
www.therolradio.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Here's why white belts quit. It's simple. Getting from white to blue is one of the hardest things that you will do in Jiu-Jitsu and oftentimes it is simply not reachable for many. And it's not because Jiu-Jitsu is hard, but Jiu-Jitsu is complex and the journey between white and blue oftentimes is very confusing. It's very chaotic. There is a lot of things in students' mind at the beginning of their journey and oftentimes those obstacles just feel bigger than us. Unfortunately, a lot of this is not on a student. A lot of this is on instructors. Oftentimes it happens where a student is at the academy. They are going through classes, they are actually loving Jiu-Jitsu, but the expectations are not being set by the instructor. As a matter of fact, oftentimes the instructor doesn't even present the expectations to the student at all. So as a result of this, the student doesn't even know what is necessary for them to get to the next level, skill set-wise and rank-wise.

Speaker 1: 1:18

First things first. I highly recommend for all students to stop chasing the belts. Don't worry about the blue belt, don't worry about the purple belt. Whichever rank you are, don't worry about those stripes. Those should be considered as a reward of your hard work, not a goal for you to chase. That's a big difference. Rewind that and listen to it again. It is really important that we set our goals based on a skill that we are trying to achieve, not the rank that we wear or would like to wear. So, as we go through that rank of white belt, the first year or two, different academies, different instructors grade students differently and, to be honest with you, different students train differently. If you train twice a week is very different than you train five times a week, so the time varies between students and between the ranks.

Speaker 1: 2:14

At the same time, during the first year or two, jiu-jitsu becomes very confusing. And why so? Listen, you were engaging in something brand new that you've never done before. Two, it is very complex. There's multiple layers and at the very beginning, it's extremely, extremely stimulating. Stimulating in your mind. All these new things are being thrown at you, solving puzzles, you solving problems, you learning new things. Obviously, we have social media and everything online which is being pumped into you, so you're receiving all this information from different areas, different platforms in the class, outside of the class, at the academy, from different instructors and so on. All of this is extremely stimulating to all of our students, to all of the students out there, so it is overwhelming. So finding ways to categorize these information and, in a way, ignoring a lot of it is a big key to success.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Take your time learning Jiu-Jitsu. You don't have to learn everything. No matter the fact you won't learn everything, no matter how good you are, you won't know everything. Many, many black belts say this out publicly on different platforms and to their students, but what is really important for a white belt in order for them to sustain training even past the moment they get promoted to blue, they continue on is the simple fact of loving Jiu-Jitsu itself.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Slowing things down and I don't mean in a sense of speed when we train, I'm talking about slowing things down from a perspective of learning. You don't need to solve every problem. You don't need to know every single sweep. You don't need to know every single submission.

Speaker 1: 4:13

Where you should focus on is understanding how Jiu-Jitsu work Understanding balance, understanding distance control and distance management, understanding leverage. What does that really mean? What is balance? How does it work? How does gravity can be used for me and against me?

Speaker 1: 4:34

See, these things are critical, foundation points in the core of Jiu-Jitsu, which will set you for success as you continue exploring it within the white belt, but also as you go through the ranks of blue, purple, hopefully brown, and one day, one day, you join that 1%, and I call it the 1%, the black belt, the black belt group. I really do wish all of you guys to get to that point. But in order for you to achieve that level, in order for you to train for a decade or longer to get the rank of black belt, the acquisition of knowledge is so important. So let's start doing it right. Let's focus what's important in Jiu-Jitsu and stop chasing the shiny object that is being thrown at us from social media, from other things. So don't take me wrong All of these things are important, but we can learn everything. So we have to be selective on what we learn and how we learn it. Keep on training, peace.