Welcome back
from Thanksgiving ya’ll. Hopefully you stuffed yourself with food and then
tried to roll, resulting in someone getting sick on the mat. It really is the
only way to go.
The weekend
before Thanksgiving our instructor (The Honorable Greg Halsor) promoted two of
our white belts to blue. Aside from live rolling, belt promotions for other
students are one of my favorite things our club does. We are a tight-knit club
and we do not promote quickly. So, when someone finally achieves a higher belt,
it is a pretty big deal. A belt promotion is also a success for all the higher
belts. There was a lot of time and effort put into my progression (as a white
belt and currently as a blue belt) and my teammates should (hopefully) feel
equally responsible for any success I achieve.
With all
that being said, belt promotions in BJJ are a lot different from other martial
arts. First off, when a student is given their belt many school have different
ceremonies to recognize the achievement. Some gyms whip students with their belts,
Greg and Jeff Curran have always thrown us,
The throws look basically like this....
other gyms visit a Turkish
Bathhouse (I am not sure if that is true, but it sounds plausible).
I like the
idea of throwing students, it reminds students that no matter your rank, you
are doing this to practice the art. I don’t get the belt whipping, it seems unnecessarily
punitive (Caio Terra doesn't agree with the belt whip). Turkish Bathhouse is cool if that is your type of thing.
The other
enigma related to belts in BJJ is how a student is actually promoted. The process
is awkward to say the least. Some schools have a set testing curriculum (our
organization is moving that way), other schools just promote when a student is
ready, and still others have been accused of only requiring money. In addition,
the length of time a practitioner has to spend at each belt varies greatly by
school. The IBJJF has a set standard,
as do several other organizations. With
that being said, belt promotions are really handled from school/organization to
school/organization.
However,
there is one thing that every BJJ gym I have went to says to all new students, “Don’t
worry about your rank, just come in and train.” There are undertones of this
saying I love and their implications I do not. First, I think one of the main
goals of this statement is to remind students that they are only as good as their
ability to roll on the mat. Simply put, if you are a black belt and get handled
by blue belts in live rolling, does that really mean you are a black belt (see this link for an extended discussion on promoting people too quick)? It
is best for the new student to focus on learning and improving their ability to
roll with their teammates. Great lesson, everyone should read it 10 times
before they go to bed.
It also
reminds students that they should trust their instructor and higher belts to be
mentors to them. The higher belts and instructors will be there to give new
students instruction, feedback and encouragement. With that, if they show up
and participate the belt will come. BJJ really is an outstanding environment in
that way. Also, it rewards hard work and dedication…more than a deep pocketbook (this link is a great article on charging for belt promotions).
On the
downside, “don’t worry about the belt…but keep coming in and training and
working towards the belt” is really ambiguous. As anyone who has participated
in BJJ knows, it is a sprint not a marathon. 2-4 years to a blue belt (in some
schools) is a crazy long time. To add to this ambiguousness, many instructors
are not great at communicating with their students about their progress and the
expectations for promotion (for the most part this is not our school or
organization). Finally, students pay a lot of money to participate in BJJ (most
of it well earned by the instructors, I understand they run a business). This
all adds up to a very arduous slog towards progress. Yes, progress needs to be
an internal desire on the student’s part, but desire is fostered by success and
vice-versa. We had a former students who had outstanding attendance, busted his
butt to get his blue belt. Finally, he tested for it, received it and then
never showed up again. Some of that is on him, but I also think the process of
working towards that belt burnt him out.
What is a
new student to do? First off, pick a good school. An instructor that is honest
and cares about BJJ and their students will solve many of these problems. Second,
set intermediary goals on your way to getting a belt. Some schools “stripe”
belts, which is a great bit of encouragement. But, students should also remind themselves
when they achieve a success. Did they last 40 seconds against the purple belt
when they typically last 20? They should buy themselves a McFlurry on the way
home…unless they are lactose intolerant, then they might want to go with some
McNuggets.
 |
| Can't all be this happy everyday.... |
What has
helped me the most (remember, I am for sure not the “fore most” expert on this
stuff) has been to seek feedback from upper belts. They are typically amazingly
encouraging. When I started out there was a blue belt named Brian whom kicked
the crap out of me all the time. However, after we would get done rolling, he
always had something complimentary to say. Such as, “wow, you are getting your
guard back quick when I pass it” or, “dang you didn’t feel nearly as close to a
dead fish as you did before.” I remember driving home and thinking, “if someone
that good notices my advancement, it must really be happening.” When I asked
for feedback he happily gave it to me. When he learned a new move that suited
my style and skill level, he eagerly showed it to me. This all kept me coming
back. I try to emulate that quality to our new guys and it seems to keep them
around.
No comments:
Post a Comment