Why I shouldn't be a blue belt

skribs said:
And Ellis Wormtongue.
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Exhibit AV
We have a new professor who will be running our next branch when it opens. I rolled with him for the first time today. After the roll, he said, "Thanks for flow rolling with me."

I was not flow rolling.
 
What was interesting to me is he took class as a student. Despite being a 4th degree black belt. He warmed up with us (until our main Professor told him to warm up on his own). He drilled one-on-one with one of the white belts and then rolled with everyone. He hit the move-of-the-day on me. He was the perfect model of what a student should be doing in class.

I did mess with the white belt, though. When it was time for positional rounds, I told him, "You got this. I believe in you."
 
We have a new Professor at my gym, who is hopefully going to be able to take over a new location for us soon. 4th degree black belt. So far, he's taken on the same role I have in the school - helps out with kids classes, takes the adult class as a student. I was joking with him in no-gi class yesterday that if he's warming up with us, people will think he's a blue belt. This leads us to...

Exhibit AW
I got to top turtle against him. I thought I was about to take his back. Then he does some ninja bull#@$! and gets into top side control on me. "Haha, you thought you were going to take my back, didn't you?"

After class, he asked, "Did you like that trap? You were so excited, I saw it!"
I said, "NO! I would have liked it better if I took your back!"

He's already told me his game is very trap-heavy. I should've known.
 
My main Professor has been telling me for weeks that I have a bad habit, when I sweep or do a take-down, I need to immediately work a pass; or when I pull guard I need to immediately work an attack. Instead, I have a tendency to stabilize first, which gives my opponent a chance to maneuver and get into an attacking position first.

Yesterday, our new Professor told me, "If I have one piece of advice for you, don't stop after the sweep. Have a plan to pass right away."

Next time I see my main Professor, I'm going to tell him the advice I just got from the other, and cheekily add, "I wish someone would've said that to me earlier."
 
skribs said:
My main Professor has been telling me for weeks that I have a bad habit, when I sweep or do a take-down, I need to immediately work a pass; or when I pull guard I need to immediately work an attack. Instead, I have a tendency to stabilize first, which gives my opponent a chance to maneuver and get into an attacking position first.

Yesterday, our new Professor told me, "If I have one piece of advice for you, don't stop after the sweep. Have a plan to pass right away."

Next time I see my main Professor, I'm going to tell him the advice I just got from the other, and cheekily add, "I wish someone would've said that to me earlier."
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That is why people do seminars. So they can learn the thing the coach was trying to tell them for years.
 
Exhibit AX
Rolling with a black belt who's getting ready for competition this weekend. At the start of the round, I asked if he's going light or hard this week.

He said, "I'm going light...but you can go hard if you want."
 
I hate to be fickle about the title, but can we change it again?

"Why I should be a blue belt."
 
Exhibit AY
During the demonstration, Professor said that if I get into a certain position, it's 85% chance I'll pass his guard.

During positional rolls, I got into that position several times. I think his estimate was around 85% too high.
 
I received my purple belt at the end of the tots class a couple weeks ago. It was the second time I had received a promotion at the end of the kids class instead of in my own class. Me and another coach both received our purple belts at the same time.

I had faced an extreme amount of imposter syndrome at blue belt. I really didn't feel ready when I compared my skill level to that of the other blue belt who had just been promoted, to the white belts (even 1-stripe and 0-stripe white belts) that still smashed me. However, I was one of the smallest people at a gym filled with giants, and it was very difficult for me to get any work in during rolls as a white belt and even into my first couple of stripes at blue.

However, I have noticed a significant increase in my game over the last 2 years. Nowadays, when we get those big white belts coming in, I'm able to handle them fairly well. The bigger blue belts (that were white when I got my blue) that used to absolutely smash me, now they may have the upper hand most of the round, but I'm also in a much better defensive position and more likely to escape and/or mount my own attacks. Where in my earlier blue belt competitions I failed to score a point or survive the round, in my most recent competition I was able to play my game and even win one match.

I wasn't sure how I'd feel going into purple belt. But I definitely feel a lot better about purple than I did about blue. Looking back, it makes me feel better about when I got blue: I was on the right track, because I've gotten to this point now.

When I started at this gym, it was brand new. We had a few "upper belts" who had transferred in (blue and purple), and mostly white belts. One of our coaches, who is now a brown belt, was a purple belt when I started. I don't think he was a fresh purple belt, and I definitely think (based on his experiences in the gym) that if you were to take me from today and him from 3 years ago, he still has the edge on me. However, for newcomers to the gym, I'm now in the same position as he was. It's a bit of a surreal experience.
 
We just had another gym member get his purple belt. He was a blue belt when I started, either 0- or 1-stripe, but was very inconsistent until this year. Last night, he comes to class as a 3-stripe blue belt. Professor gets the piece of tape ready for a stripe promotion at the end of class, starts talking about this guy, calls him up. Then turns around and puts the tape down and picks up a purple belt.

A few months ago, I was casually wondering if this guy would get his purple belt before I did. Turns out we were both right on track.
 
skribs said:
Yep!

And not to be self-deprecating, but now I understand all of the posts about imposter syndrome and blue belts still not being very good. Don't get me wrong, I've felt it was close. But there are some areas I feel inadequate enough that I didn't think I was ready. One of my classmates was just promoted earlier this week. Same age, same weight, and he's usually making more good moves against me than I do against him. I felt if he got his this week, I was a few months out.
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Blue belt isn’t about competitiveness like it has nothing to do with beating anyone. You should be able to beat complete beginners. But there’s no expectation to perform at any level of excellence. Blue belt is like being a C student in every subject. You won’t be great but at least you can pass the basic 101 classes. Often the reason blue belts feel inadequate is because they don’t actually know half the basics and were just promoted due to time showing up to class. If you have a student who shows up regularly 5-10 years they kind of have to get a blue belt or else it makes the school look bad. Like how are you so ineffective at teaching that after 10 years of consistent classes, someone doesn’t even know the basics ?!?. Sadly many bjj places are like this though.
 
Kurwenal said:
Blue belt isn’t about competitiveness like it has nothing to do with beating anyone. You should be able to beat complete beginners. But there’s no expectation to perform at any level of excellence. Blue belt is like being a C student in every subject. You won’t be great but at least you can pass the basic 101 classes. Often the reason blue belts feel inadequate is because they don’t actually know half the basics and were just promoted due to time showing up to class. If you have a student who shows up regularly 5-10 years they kind of have to get a blue belt or else it makes the school look bad. Like how are you so ineffective at teaching that after 10 years of consistent classes, someone doesn’t even know the basics ?!?. Sadly many bjj places are like this though.
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Blue belt is the first time you have responsibility for representing the club.

and that can weigh on people.

You are also still not necessarily good enough to beat the trial class guy because of whatever excuse you want to tell yourself. Bigger, stronger. Whatever.
 
drop bear said:
Blue belt is the first time you have responsibility for representing the club.

and that can weigh on people.

You are also still not necessarily good enough to beat the trial class guy because of whatever excuse you want to tell yourself. Bigger, stronger. Whatever.
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I feel much more responsible for representing the club now that I am purple.

But I also feel much more empowered. For example, when I was a blue belt, if Professor was talking to someone during warmups, I would often wait for permission to take over warm-ups, or at least ask. Now that I'm a purple belt, I feel comfortable just taking over.
 
skribs said:
I feel much more responsible for representing the club now that I am purple.

But I also feel much more empowered. For example, when I was a blue belt, if Professor was talking to someone during warmups, I would often wait for permission to take over warm-ups, or at least ask. Now that I'm a purple belt, I feel comfortable just taking over.
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Cool story, bro.
 
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