I was promoted yesterday!!!

[Ybot]

10 years ago the only places to train in my whole home town were run by blue belts. My first day I got my *** handed to me by a much smaller blue belt instructor. I thought at the time he was amazing. I could barely imagine at the time what a purple belt was like, let alone a brown. And black belts??? They seemed nearly god like to me!

So, today after we finished training and we lined up, Cassio retrieved a white plastic bag and brought it out. He proceeded to promote two of my team mates to blue, and one to purple. Then he called me up! It was the weirdest feeling in the world... I was shaking. I had every intention of getting my black belt one day, but it still seems crazy! I had reason to believe that my time was coming, yet it was still a shock!

Today I received my black belt from Cassio Werneck!!! I couldn't be more proud! Thanks to all my friends, family, and training partners! I wouldn't have made it without you!

Nova Faixa Preta!!!!

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Congratulations!

 

[Steve]

10 years ago the only places to train in my whole home town were run by blue belts. My first day I got my *** handed to me by a much smaller blue belt instructor. I thought at the time he was amazing. I could barely imagine at the time what a purple belt was like, let alone a brown. And black belts??? They seemed nearly Rickson Gracie like to me!

So, today after we finished training and we lined up, Cassio retrieved a white plastic bag and brought it out. He proceeded to promote two of my team mates to blue, and one to purple. Then he called me up! It was the weirdest feeling in the world... I was shaking. I had every intention of getting my black belt one day, but it still seems crazy! I had reason to believe that my time was coming, yet it was still a shock!

Today I received my black belt from Cassio Werneck!!! I couldn't be more proud! Thanks to all my friends, family, and training partners! I wouldn't have made it without you!

Nova Faixa Preta!!!!

Wow! Congratulations, Ybot! That's really awesome.

 

[Ybot]

LOL It's funny, I posted on another forum first, and just copied and pasted over from there. The funny thing is that on that forum any time the word "god" is posted, it is automatically replaced by "Rickson Gracie"! So, I have now fixed my original post to the way it was originally written.

I have also been answering questions people from other forums have been asking, and I thought you might be interested, so I will copy and past some of those over as well.

Congratulations!

Curious..."Are you a white belt that never quit?" I am interested in how you got to where you are.

Injuries? Life getting in the way? Did you ever think about quitting?

Like you, I was amazed at the talent level for blue belt when I was a white belt. Now it seems that the brown belt is the "new blue belt". Eventually, the black belt will be the only one that matters.

Again, congrats. I know the dedication and sacrifice it took for that achievement!

I was definitely the white belt that never quit. Never had any major injuries throughout my time training. It was a pretty solid 10 years I put in probably averaging 3 days a week over that time. There were spurts in which I would train 6 days a week regularly, sometimes twice a day, then there were times that life started to get in the way, but I always found the time and money to train!

Someone else asked if I plan on opening an academy and teaching. I have been teaching part time for a while now. Last year I had my own academy out in a Gym in Davis... for various reasons it didn't work out. I've been teaching a small jiu-jitsu class out of a Capoeira school now for several months and teach the kids class once a week at Cassio Werneck's school. I also spent several years helping out and teaching Grappling and Jiu-jitsu at the Sacramento State MMA Club. So I guess the answer is that yes, teaching is definitely in my future, as well as in my past, and I love doing it. Currently there is a possibility that I may move to Abu Dhabi and teach Jiu-Jitsu there in their schools. That is more or less my dream job, and I am hoping that will work out. Trust me, if it does there is gonna be a thread on that as well.

So, thanks again everyone, and if there are any other questions, I'd be more than happy to answer!

How would you describe yourself as a practitioner? Were you the technician in the gym who was always teaching? An active competitor? A fighter or someone focused on the self defense aspects? Some combination? And also, did you start with one goal in mind and change that?

I am always curious how people look at their training, especially at the higher ranks. I always looked at bjj as a martial art, and didn't compete at all as a white belt. Then I competed a little as a blue, and I hope to do more as a purple.

Oh, man... Really I would just say that I trained the majority of my time in Jiu-Jitsu because I like the game! I enjoy Jiu-Jitsu, it's a game, and a huge challenge. I think that is why it is so easy for me to keep going regularly... there is not too much pressure, I just do it for the FUN of it!

Because I just did it for the fun of it, I was never one of those people that could write it all down and train systematically. Just not how I work. I'm reasonably intelligent (if I may say so) and have always had good kinesthetic awareness (maybe my early Karate training helped there), but I am really disorganized. I was the type of guy that in school only took notes if they were "required", and then rarely went back to look at them again even if I did take them. I tried to keep a journal for jiu-jitsu, but it was very short lived... I just didn't care about writing it down or reviewing. I thought about technique all the time, and would often meditate on particular techniques, repping them in my head. But I am prone to go off on tangents, so rather than concentrating on one game, or set of techniques I would just go with the flow, and learn and concentrate on what ever I was interested in at the moment. Eventually a game developed, but it certainly was not systematically set up in any way... it just came together over time. Eventually, as my game came together and I started to recognize that I was prone to working certain types of things (mostly guard stuff) I found guys that I would like to watch who had similar games. I took early to Braulio Estima, loved watching Roger Gracie, and Rolleta! I wouldn't specifically work on any one of their techniques, but see the things they would do it slowly influenced my game.

As far as the kind of guy I was at the academy, well I was always showing people the latest thing I saw, read about, or learned. I would also sit around after class while others would ask questions of each other, of the instructor, or just try stuff out, and I would soak as much in as I could. I guess I must have always been reasonably technical for my belt level on the way up, because people would often come to me with questions about technique... and I guess I'm approachable that way too, which helps. I enjoying helping people out whenever I can. I feel better training partners helps to push me too!

I actually started training because somewhere in the mid 90s a good friend of mine and I began renting the early UFCs. I didn't see them first run, I was training Karate at the time and remember hearing of that guy Royce Gracie, but I didn't actually see any of them until later. When they broadcast the first Pride GP from 1999 on American TV that's what pushed me over the edge, and I knew that I would never go back to Karate. It was gonna be Jiu-Jitsu.

Anyway... keep the questions coming.

first off, congratulations. i'm a white belt myself and can hardly imagine getting my purple, let alone black. and thanks for posting about your promotion. i love reading these. it gives me a chance to live vicariously for a moment while i work toward my own promotions.

i'm really interested in what you said above about how 'eventually a game developed'. this is something i can relate really strongly to, altho i'm wondering if it's problematic or not. it's also possible i've misunderstood you.

the thing i like most about jiu jitsu is the movement. movement is what got me into martial arts in the first place, but jiu jitsu has a very specific type of movement that you learn and i think it's different from other strike-focused arts. it's 3-dimensional. x y and z axis. inverted, even. it's like this 3D puzzle where your body parts are the pieces you have to move around to solve a problem. i'm much less invested in the competitive "win/submit" aspect, tho of course i enjoy that too. but the thing is, since i started bjj i haven't really focused much on submissions, or on a game plan. every time i roll i just like to see where it goes. i just try to get and maintain positions, and if a submission presents itself, i'll take it. based on feedback i've been getting i think i *might* be getting close to my blue belt (but who knows!). and as more pieces of the jj puzzle start to click together, i'm starting to feel like i should have a game of some sort. i have things i'm good at (or at least that i'm better at than others), but i don't know if i one could logically string them together and call them a "game". but perhaps that's my own ignorance.

in any event, how far along were you when your game emerged? do you think i should be getting more focused on a game plan, a strategic set of techniques that will lead me to a submission? or is it actually alright to take a more winding, wandering path? will such an approach hurt my progress, or, with proper mat time, will we all wind up at the same place eventually?

i'd love to hear from other higher ranks as well, esp seasoned purples and up.

cheers!

Honestly, as a white belt, I wouldn't worry too much about "your game". You are at a point in your training you should be focusing on basics, and learning what you need to do to survive in rolling longer. I find that people usually start developing "a game" in the latter half of their time as a blue belt. By Purple they have their game, and they will continue to improve upon it, and start working to improve the weaker parts of their training (ie. if you're a takedown and pass guy, as a purple going to brown you'll start trying to improve your guard game, or vise versa).

What I meant about the way my game developed has more to do with these up and coming phenom grapplers we've been seeing lately. You see them systematically develop certain parts of their game that they become absolute monsters at. They make a small part of their game black belt level... Then they work on not being taken out of that game. I guess what I mean is my jiu-jitsu development was less directed and more organic. I may have taken longer to reach black belt than if I had been more focused. I'm not sorry about a single aspect of my journey so far, though.

 

[Pyrock]

Holy *****....Congratulations!!!!!! That is simply awesome!

 

[Sukerkin]

I might not know a great deal about BJJ other than it's athleticism but I am well aware of the importance of that step from the ranks of the 'beginners' and into the space where students know enough to ask the right questions and realise just how far they have to go.

Welcome to the journey :rei:

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Congratulations!

 

[MA-Caver]

Many congratulations! :asian:

 

[dosk3n]

Congratulations.

I still have many years to go but I will keep training!

 

[Ybot]