Stages of Being a BJJ White Belt (And How To Progress Faster) | Ep. 4

what's up guys uh this is Andre and<br>Chase with the fourth episode of the<br>Jiu-Jitsu Junction podcast and on this<br>podcast we're going to be discussing the<br>different stages of being a beginner SL<br>white belt in<br>Jujitsu so I like breaking it down in<br>terms of like at least the beginning of<br>even understanding what Jiu-Jitsu is uh<br>I think the first stage is kind of the<br>complete ignorance of you know Jiu-Jitsu<br>or or even like fighting in general cuz<br>most people don't have hardly any<br>experience in any kind of fighting or<br>grappling or martial arts so people go<br>in with some pretty wacky ideas of how<br>they're going to<br>do we're talking about the type of a<br>complete not understanding where they<br>wear karate ghee to a ghee class like<br>that type of understanding right like<br>just your first time you didn't know you<br>seen you thought it was ghee yeah you<br>typed in ghee on Google and the first<br>thing that popped up was the karate ghee<br>yeah no problem that's that's not that<br>big of a deal I mean you gave it a shot<br>right um but like it's very easy to walk<br>in uh with complete ignorance because<br>you know we're not even allowed to like<br>touch each other on playgrounds as kids<br>like like especially not now yeah and<br>like it used to be where you would<br>understand how some of of those things<br>would go because you get in little tiffs<br>that usually meant nothing when you were<br>kids and now that's like not even<br>allowed yeah so um you know everybody<br>had some experience in Generations past<br>of having some kind of minor physical<br>altercation right and now we have<br>people highly overestimating how they<br>think they're going to do when they walk<br>onto the mats for the first time see it<br>every day they've watched a lot of<br>they've watched a lot of videos they've<br>they've seen a lot of fights yeah so<br>they have they have this crazy and I<br>mean they're they're they're a man or or<br>a strong woman like they they have<br>they're strong you know they they know<br>they're tough they they've never maxed<br>out their physicality so they they they<br>always feel like they've got enough left<br>in the tank to do something if it really<br>came down to it and it's not really the<br>case yeah I love it I love like the the<br>guy that come in he's athletic he's<br>strong you look at him like he's a good<br>and then you know he does you know he<br>runs or my favorite is a CrossFit guy<br>yeah those are those are he's like you<br>know I do CrossFit and man he's in super<br>he's strong he's<br>explosive but you hit about 2 minutes<br>and 20 seconds and he's looking at you<br>and be like man and he's dying he's like<br>oh it's a different shape and it's like<br>yeah you know that's the oh it boils<br>down to efficiency like they like the<br>whole the whole uh Being Fit things uh<br>it's Being Fit For What uh there there<br>is there is general fitness and Crossfit<br>guys and girls are really high in that<br>but if you're incredibly inefficient<br>when you're doing Jiu-Jitsu you're going<br>to get real tired real quick yeah expect<br>to get tired at first right you might as<br>well that's a good one yeah so so these<br>are these are all also fitting into this<br>category is the I just see Red Bro<br>people and that's just you know it's a<br>product of you know people not not ego<br>people not really having any um there's<br>no contact with reality when it comes to<br>like physical altercations cuz most of<br>the time if you're louder a posture more<br>in public like if you if you cause more<br>of a scene in public most of the time<br>people back down yeah um you know so<br>there's never really a threat of<br>physically coming in contact and like<br>when you so you could build this this<br>scaffolding of uh of a super yeah every<br>time I get loud and I make more noise<br>and people listen to me and yeah I slam<br>my hand and doesn't work on the map<br>that's because I'm tougher that's<br>because I can beat them up okay yeah the<br>only time they're slamming their hands<br>on the mats is when they're tapping in<br>in complete<br>panic and they just look at you pH like<br>what the world it's like yeah it's<br>different buddy it's okay yeah and then<br>like three to five more times during<br>that same round they're going to come<br>after you harder and harder and harder<br>and they're going to drown more and more<br>and more and that is like that's the<br>first stage is just it's kind of like U<br>breaking a horse you know wait hopefully<br>it's not your first stage hopefully you<br>go into with a different mindset an open<br>mindset and we skipped this first stage<br>so the second St this leads into the<br>second one the second second stage it<br>would be great if uh the second stage is<br>your first stage yeah let's let's skip<br>the first we're trying to do is create<br>better white belts right so let's skip<br>the first stage you're listening to our<br>podcast right like Jiu-Jitsu Junctions<br>pointing you in the right direction yeah<br>please skip the first stage yeah so so<br>the second stage is known ignorance you<br>know that you don't know Jiu-Jitsu you<br>know that you probably you've probably<br>never redlined in any kind of uh<br>fighting or grappling<br>environment and that's a better place to<br>start that's the place to start and to<br>live from from that point on that's like<br>the yeah if we can if we can go ahead<br>and get to this stage you're already<br>kind of embracing what what you're what<br>you need to get from Jiu-Jitsu yeah<br>because usually Jiu-Jitsu people talk<br>about jiujitsu being The Humbling you<br>know how humbling it is and yeah you all<br>those you know all the the famous guys T<br>and all them talk about how Jus is one<br>of the hardest things in the world<br>because you physically got to go with<br>someone else and that's something that<br>you really never never do yeah not<br>anymore you know so once you get to this<br>stage where you've got that known<br>ignorance you know you can really learn<br>from there you can really uh listen from<br>there you know until you kind of at this<br>stage you're just butting your head<br>against the wall yeah and there's a lot<br>of tough walls and it if you're if<br>you're if your cup is full you're not<br>going to be learning you got to empty<br>the cup you could either walk in Humble<br>or you can be humbled it's much more<br>pleasant to walk in Humble it will<br>happen okay it will happen so and and<br>even even as you progress throughout<br>white belt throughout blue belt<br>throughout whatever um you know every<br>once in a while I need to be broken too<br>yeah no it's it's understood yeah so uh<br>so known ignorance like it's it's a<br>pretty it's a pretty powerful place to<br>be because when you're when you know<br>that you don't know you're open to<br>learning the<br>skills and and doing what you're told to<br>do instead of what you think you should<br>do yeah not not putting value on winning<br>the position because what happens a lot<br>of times you get somewhere and you're<br>like H this isn't working so you try<br>something different or try yeah you know<br>no like know that you don't know so you<br>need to need to stick with what you've<br>been shown you know and try to do that<br>that that'll help there too just<br>understanding that like yeah you can<br>look around at your training partners<br>and you can see what they're doing you<br>can be rolling with a training partner<br>who might also be wearing a white belt<br>and pick out the skills that they have<br>and like being able to pick out the<br>skills of your training partners and of<br>your of your instructors in a very open<br>and you know respectful way honest way<br>you know if you're if you're open to the<br>learning experience it's going to it's<br>going to be uh more pleasant for you and<br>it's going to be much faster for you<br>yeah uh and other people are going to<br>enjoy uh working with you more yeah you<br>that's that's probably the biggest one<br>everything you said's right on I don't<br>have anything to add there you know<br>other than man if you're doing those<br>things if you're kind of okay I know I<br>know I don't know this you know I got to<br>watch man every little thing he's doing<br>I want to ask a question about like I<br>have no why is he putting his foot there<br>why is he grabbing the elbow why isn't<br>he grabbing the wrist the wrist is<br>closer yeah you know why isn't he<br>grabbing the head here can't he just<br>grab the head you know so like uh but<br>but when you kind of already understand<br>that that no people are more willing to<br>work with you you know probably one of<br>the most annoying things in Jiu-Jitsu is<br>working with somebody where you<br>completely know more than the person and<br>they're trying to you know tell you the<br>adjustments yeah for sure I had a gym<br>interaction yesterday with someone in a<br>different class but it was that way and<br>I had to be like no no I'm sorry I'm I'm<br>telling you what the instructor is<br>wanting you to get out of this drill I<br>promise I I I know what he wants you to<br>get out of this drill so won't just try<br>it the way we're trying to do or you can<br>do whatever you want to do that's fine<br>yeah you're going to stunt your growth<br>though you're going to yep and this this<br>one took it as far as what he went and<br>grabbed Jeff was like Hey like is is<br>this really yeah and he was like hey<br>what exactly do you and he wanted he had<br>never trained with me so he didn't you<br>know and I guess yeah again that's<br>ignorance right like he's I guess I put<br>him his complete ignorance stage there<br>cuz he he went right and he came over he<br>okay I see what he wants now<br>you know and it made a big uh by the end<br>of the class he got he got it he was<br>like okay I see it um but you can tell<br>he's just kind of uh big guy a lot of<br>instructors just kind of let him get<br>away with doing what he does yeah you<br>can get away with a lot when you're<br>bigger and stronger but it's because of<br>the complete ignorance stage is why<br>they've allow like like listen<br>instructors and your training Partners<br>will allow you to all right if you don't<br>listen then just keep doing what you're<br>doing we've got a training partner that<br>way and May<br>you for for forever it's like okay if<br>you're going to keep doing that you just<br>keep doing that and we won't yes yeah<br>well you you stay there you stay in<br>place um you let your your physicality<br>eventually Decline and everyone will be<br>past you yeah so yeah we got to get a<br>knowing knowing ignorance quick yeah and<br>and during during the known ignorance<br>part you're really focused on building<br>up your knowledge base you're not going<br>to be like oh okay so now I know these<br>things because I I've been ignorant I've<br>been willing to learn and I'm like<br>absorbing these things that doesn't mean<br>you're going to be executing them yeah<br>right so that's that's a much longer<br>complicated process but building up that<br>big knowledge base and people think oh<br>white belts don't know anything I'm like<br>I no no I actually think that if they if<br>they get through this to this stage<br>stage two or hopefully stage one right<br>if they get to the known ignorance stage<br>that's when they like they're like<br>everything every like their their head<br>is empty they're ready to learn they<br>learn a bunch they learn a bunch then<br>right yeah they learn they learn a bunch<br>accumulate tons of knowledge they they<br>they ask questions they get to the<br>fundamentals they they un they try to<br>they start understanding why movement is<br>happening in certain ways but that<br>doesn't mean they're executing right and<br>that's that takes<br>years that I I think that you start<br>really truly executing Jiu-Jitsu like<br>starting somewhere in mid blue belt yeah<br>well that that's kind of what leads into<br>the next stage right<br>is okay you kind of feel like you got<br>enough knowledge now yeah and you're<br>like w okay now now it's time to start<br>going hard and you start going too hard<br>and you don't really know as much as you<br>thought you knew you so maybe even<br>repeats at least you're not applying it<br>the way you you think you know it yeah<br>and and obviously uh you're not going to<br>have a uh assimilated everything in the<br>best way possible because you're a<br>beginner right um so you you have all<br>this total knowledge but you haven't you<br>don't have the context to sift through<br>all of that total knowledge and create<br>an effective you know<br>jiujitsu full full skill set you know<br>yeah well yeah you don't have I think<br>that's once you start learning you know<br>as a white belt you you learn a lot of<br>times you know now there are people who<br>learn super fat but most of the time<br>like you learn a move you know and that<br>that's it's the way instructors teach<br>you know over a six-month period you may<br>get I don't know let's say 10<br>submissions um but you might not get 10<br>submissions and then the next two<br>counters after that so like you're going<br>after the move that you know and that's<br>kind of like where you're going hard<br>then you lose it and you're in a b man I<br>just need to go harder to get it I can't<br>get the move and it's like no there's a<br>whole book that comes after that like<br>you just don't and you show like oh man<br>I didn't think like yeah like you just<br>hadn't been in it long enough and like<br>you're and that's obviously the good<br>when the person has a good reaction to<br>tell them they're going too hard you're<br>like they're like oh man I didn't think<br>about it like yeah man there's a lot of<br>stuff there after that I just think I<br>wasn't doing it right yeah no you were<br>doing it right like and I get that's why<br>you were trying to go harder but no<br>there's there's a book after that like<br>man once you go there like that's a<br>setup for three other things you know so<br>so in like in Jiu-Jitsu like you start<br>out with the simp simple tools right you<br>you're if you're going to fundamentals<br>classes you're a beginner you're going<br>to be able to execute simple tools and<br>the First Tool in this metaphorical tool<br>belt is a<br>hammer right so it's the simplest tool<br>we've got right so the hammer might be a<br>camora if you're a big guy the hammer<br>might be a high agility armar if you're<br>like a small guy who's naturally<br>athletic right or a fast back take right<br>or a fast back take you know all like<br>you you have one tool and if you have<br>one tool that's been effective it's easy<br>to get trapped into using that one tool<br>that you've<br>developed<br>and that's why people go too hard like<br>okay if this doesn't work what are my<br>other options these pieces of crap that<br>I haven't been able to pull off in any<br>VA got hammer yeah but I've got this<br>Hammer let me swing it harder to drive<br>it through right so so like that's like<br>the kind of the the next stage is<br>like you're going too hard because<br>you're trying to make this one or two<br>tools fit every situation and that that<br>might even look like I'm stuck in this<br>position I have to get out of this<br>position so you'll blast through it in<br>order to get to the position where you<br>could use your Hammer right so yeah so<br>that's that's that's what it seems like<br>to me as to why people end up going too<br>hard as a phase in white belt it's<br>because they've got like one or two<br>simple simple tools<br>and what are like it's natural what are<br>they supposed to do other than use those<br>tools that they have well I think uh I<br>think sometimes this the first one kind<br>of creeps back in during this third<br>stage um the ignorance the complete<br>ignorance yeah they're like oh I've got<br>a few things now you're we're back level<br>we're back even and I've watched it some<br>of those really good like strong<br>athletic guys they get three or four<br>things like oh wait a minute no we're<br>back even now we've got a kid we've got<br>a guy who's moving in the blue belt<br>teach him a leg lock or two and he<br>thinks he's even with everybody is it is<br>it the same guy yeah for sure right it's<br>pretty easy they right that's an easy<br>understand because and all that is is<br>complete ignorance he he just got a move<br>or two that kind of levels his playing<br>field and and that's just it's just<br>ignorance cuz it's not because then the<br>person he does that to that has that<br>that has a leg locks uh he's in deep<br>deep deep deep deep deep deep deep deep<br>water and he can't he don't know how to<br>breathe in that water yeah you know so<br>it's like uh that you know don't let<br>that complete ignorance really ever kind<br>of creep back in cuz you're going to<br>have during this phase two you're going<br>to have upper<br>belts if they don't say it during your<br>roll and most of the time if you're<br>going too hard they'll say it um oh I<br>don't know about that one I think think<br>most of the time I'm probably being yeah<br>I think that's a little generous after<br>your roll right the most or is that just<br>something holy cow that's something that<br>I do I couldn't I couldn't imagine<br>rolling with somebody and not explaining<br>to them because I I understand it would<br>just be hard like and I kind of got<br>tears when I do it<br>like most of the time from this point<br>right<br>here I kind of can feel and I I know<br>this because I've been around it a while<br>but I can kind of feel maybe on our last<br>podcast we talked about reading the<br>people that you're going with and yeah<br>for sure<br>um from that point I can kind of feel<br>what what's happening and and there's<br>been times where I've done this to give<br>me a good art and they give a hard one<br>I'm like hey hey easy come on now we're<br>doing Jiu-Jitsu like right you know like<br>uh but I guess that's something that's a<br>that's so I wish everybody kind of did<br>stuff I wish people talked more too but<br>um when when you're on the mats<br>sometimes um things get a little bit<br>more uh Primal especially in places that<br>don't have good<br>cultures and you know like you're you're<br>not going to get<br>the smash everything culture in certain<br>types of gyms um like the family<br>oriented gyms right um this is this is<br>the first MMA gym where that didn't have<br>the absolute smash culture um but like<br>visiting MMA gyms you get a lot of Smash<br>culture right I think that's because a<br>lot of our high little guys at our gym<br>are our big Jiu-Jitsu players yeah yeah<br>that's probably it yeah you know so it<br>plays a big role we get we get to kind<br>of carry that Jiu-Jitsu culture around<br>everywhere and really clear we clearly<br>communicate that with hey this is<br>Jiu-Jitsu class yeah you're not coming<br>here to like that's the two classes<br>before that like this is Jiu-Jitsu<br>you're trying to learn the game of<br>Jiu-Jitsu we really promote that so I<br>guess it's hard sometimes some of these<br>conversations we have because man we<br>have a good there's a good culture there<br>as far as and and I I'm not saying that<br>like the majority of all Jiu-Jitsu<br>people don't do things right I would say<br>that generally speaking people want to<br>be friendly they want to like but they<br>might not have the communication toolkit<br>to like correct in real time yeah like I<br>think it's far more common for people to<br>whine about each other after the RS are<br>over so I think because that's easier um<br>people be transparent come on uh like<br>people like they can they can disagree<br>with you you know you can you can I<br>usually have to talk to people because<br>people come to me to wh about people<br>yeah yeah so that's what that's what<br>most people do sense it makes sense yeah<br>that's why I've had to have that<br>conversation a lot of times like me<br>having to have it because somebody's<br>coming like man do you see that I was<br>like yeah I saw it it was that bad<br>they're like yeah like all right but<br>they couldn't really and they're good<br>you know good people they want the<br>better for the guy they just couldn't to<br>because I guess once you slap hands it's<br>like hey it's on yeah you know it kind<br>of hits that little like this is real<br>you know well you like like also when<br>you're approaching it as a professional<br>Chase is a professional um you're you<br>think about it more than some guy who<br>gets to train once or twice a week once<br>or twice a week he he that's not a lot<br>of time yeah but you<br>can develop this skill be like<br>intentionally<br>to like kind of bring things back and I<br>think it's probably the most important<br>skill you can have and like all of these<br>stages of white belt all of these stages<br>of learning and not just Jiu-Jitsu but<br>any complex skill you're going to have<br>like you know varying amounts of how how<br>much you think you're ignorant how much<br>how much you actually are ignorant and<br>like that's just part of learning a<br>complicated skill and the thing that<br>makes it that's growth yeah that's just<br>growth that's good we want that yeah we<br>want growth and adding in the fact that<br>Jiu-Jitsu is simulated fighting makes it<br>hard for people to<br>relax and like like there's hormones in<br>play there's more ego when it comes to<br>actually getting beat up right yeah yeah<br>it's the most physical thing it's<br>closest thing a lot of people had to a<br>fight and I get that yeah for sure it's<br>yeah it's definitely the closest that<br>most people get yeah like when when you<br>look out which it will prepare you the<br>most for phys if there is a potential<br>chance out in public yeah every other<br>self-defense it is what it is yeah but<br>you you physically need to if you want<br>to prepare self-defense wise you need to<br>physically have hands on hands on you<br>with someone else trying to do something<br>to you to build scaffolding for any<br>self-defense sorry of I'm a little C<br>there like for for sure like like it's a<br>a stress inoculation<br>and when when you get when you get used<br>to dealing with that kind of stress um<br>it becomes easier<br>to to stop returning to the the like the<br>ignorance stage where you just end up<br>yeah for sure you end up going in the<br>going too hard going too soft focusing<br>on winning um and like all of all of the<br>things that kind of prevent you from<br>hitting the right flow to grow right<br>so so the ne the next stage<br>which you know happens that's kind of<br>like parallel to going too hard is going<br>too soft and that's just like the<br>then going too soft is like not really<br>having um a full idea of your own game<br>plan or<br>your maybe one of your techniques has<br>gotten so good you could be soft with it<br>but you're still suck at other things<br>right like it's just it's almost like uh<br>going going too hard is trying to use<br>one or two good tools like don't don't<br>allow me to do don't allow me to do like<br>going through softs don't allow me to do<br>everything like right<br>like I'm yeah to to I think that the<br>root of being too soft is<br>probably um searching for for new tools<br>or trying to apply too many tools and<br>ending up with like decision fatigue or<br>like stuck in in stuck in the middle<br>like you don't really want to try<br>anything I don't I don't know<br>like it's it's that you don't have it's<br>a weird it's a weird it's a weird stage<br>yeah it's it's probably probably I know<br>people that I can give you example but<br>it's hard to describe really um they're<br>just never assertive with anything and<br>they<br>never maybe maybe too soft is just not<br>matching your opponent maybe that's just<br>Bas based on like they're just not not<br>matching an opponent you know cuz<br>someone can't go super intense with you<br>if you're really soft they can't they<br>definitely can yeah but not not much<br>like if you're extra salt like you have<br>to pick it up a little bit to stop them<br>from being yeah I think people dolling<br>right I think I think people that are<br>going too soft often just get ragdoll oh<br>man um but I mean it goes It goes down<br>to the the root of not like matching<br>energy yeah and you and in order to<br>maximally learn you have to ride this<br>this middle line where things are not<br>going so hard or you're not putting in<br>so much effort that you can only think<br>about your hammer and you have to be<br>not uh backing off so much that it stops<br>being like a learning exercise so riding<br>this middle line between and actually<br>hitting like a a flow State like there's<br>this<br>there's this theory of optimal learning<br>and I don't remember what it's actually<br>called but like where you where you're<br>working at something that is at a at a<br>level of difficulty where it's not hard<br>enough that it becomes<br>unpleasant and it's not easy enough that<br>you get bored and it also applies to<br>just how much effort you're doing like<br>like like if you think about it in a<br>very physical term like a jog versus a<br>walk versus a Sprint and the the amount<br>of uh physical and mental effort you<br>want to be going into your Jiu-Jitsu<br>roles is somewhere in the middle because<br>that's where you're able to learn and<br>apply new<br>skills that's what in my opinion that's<br>what flow rolling is yeah no<br>that's I can even back that up kind of<br>uh you laugh every time I go to it but<br>heart rate yeah you know when I'm when I<br>when I aim for flow rolls I can put my<br>heart rate monitor on and I have to keep<br>it I can keep it around like the 140<br>range and that's kind of where I'm not<br>exerting too much physical Force for<br>what's going on and I'm able it's it's<br>exactly how you described it where it's<br>not too much too much effort too little<br>Focus like it's just right right in the<br>middle um so there is that that is a<br>maybe that's that's what they that's<br>what they're looking for in this stage<br>is that that uh they know they shouldn't<br>be going too hard they don't know what<br>to do yeah right they they don't know<br>what the right thing is right yeah they<br>don't know what the right thing is so<br>they go very opposite right it's not<br>that's not hopefully that person watches<br>it at some<br>point hey but I'm telling you if you fix<br>that you're probably really you're<br>probably getting close to that uh blue<br>belt line right like cuz if you if<br>you've already went through that two<br>soft phase and you're actually learning<br>because you're trying to learn moves and<br>and there's a there's something there's<br>Super Value to learning moves um I guess<br>maybe a little help hit there like if<br>you're in that if that stage is where<br>you're at or if you're like man I just<br>feel like I'm not uh winning anything<br>right now or you know nothing's working<br>like let's start adjusting to to the<br>point and this is where I would find<br>first to the point where you don't win<br>anything but you can kind of just stop<br>everything thing kind of that uh that<br>50/50 Mark I talk about it so much and<br>that's something I try to do with all of<br>our white belts is the 50/50 Mark where<br>like if you're going too soft then<br>you're probably going on a scale of 120<br>and your opponent's probably going 80<br>you know let's let's start working at 40<br>60 45 55 and then trying to get to<br>50/50 so we can uh start adjusting our<br>Tempo and then then that's where we're<br>able to learn everything and that's<br>that's probably where I would live is<br>just trying to do everything 5050<br>yeah to get to get over that hump<br>because you know otherwise you're going<br>too hard you're going too you know too<br>soft so that's super valuable white<br>white belt conversation there right is<br>so I'm going to because you have such a<br>a crush on this idea of the heart rate<br>thing right love it so the heart rate<br>thing love like when you get above a<br>certain heart rate I don't know it it's<br>going to differ based on the person but<br>like if you yeah and your ability to<br>deal with stress under pressure if you<br>if you get too<br>high you start relying on nothing but<br>muscle memory yeah that's the only thing<br>that's going to happen you're not<br>thinking you don't you're not you're<br>just going to be hitting those things<br>that are already trained the idea<br>of matching your pace down to something<br>that's like 140 heartbeat is probably<br>somewhere around a slow jog for somebody<br>yeah right so so like you want to have<br>full control of your brain without any<br>hormones interfering yes and that's kind<br>of that's kind of what we're looking at<br>like we're we're trying to control<br>things to the point where we never shut<br>down our brain for learning that doesn't<br>mean that you don't have hard for<br>learning it's just to learn like I and<br>obviously I would love to compete at<br>that kind of middle middle phase there<br>where I'm not working too but you know<br>that's kind of different that's that's a<br>hard lift for a lot of<br>yeah right that's the goal that's that's<br>like world champion stuff um most likely<br>not world champion level training when<br>you're just for learning man it makes<br>we're we're we're we're optimizing<br>learning the whole white<br>belt in general is learning how to learn<br>a a complex physical sport in an optimal<br>way and that's why like you know white<br>belt can be a little bit and then blue<br>belt like<br>that's where you're having you have a<br>little bit more control over your<br>learning systems you have you you're<br>finding finding a way to get to<br>something that's more flow like and flow<br>like just really means learning<br>optimized in my opinion yeah closer to<br>matching your your partner matching<br>their energy so it's it's kind of uh<br>half effort on both your parts there's<br>something really cool in Jiu-Jitsu where<br>when you you can kind of use your<br>opponent's energy right so right if<br>we're matching it at 5050 then there's<br>got to be some cooperation there you<br>know there's got to be we are we you<br>know we are we're doing what we're doing<br>because of each other MH a little Tagg<br>to<br>mytu We Are Who We Are because of the<br>people that surround us right but that's<br>it right what's happening is is not<br>because of me it's because of both of us<br>yeah so so like we've we like I also f i<br>find this connection interesting so<br>stage one we've got complete ignorance<br>and then we've got something that I I<br>think that stage three is when we is<br>which is going too hard is kind of<br>connected to the complete ignorance<br>thing it's like you're you're you're<br>you've you filled up the cup and there's<br>no room for something else right now so<br>you're not in a learning mode when<br>you're in stage one and stage<br>three so complete ignorance going too<br>hard very very well connected and then<br>when you know that you don't know<br>and you often are going to be going too<br>soft and you're in this like um<br>knowledge<br>accumulation but without the focused<br>learning that actually builds the<br>physical skills and Pathways so like<br>you're you're going to be like depending<br>on where you are you're you're just<br>you're going to be moving between these<br>things kind of and it's not like very<br>sequential you're going to be you're<br>going to be popping around and that's<br>okay that's that's this would be like<br>Seasons like these are seasons of a<br>seasons of a white belt like it's just<br>things that are going to happen they're<br>going to come because and I guess man<br>it's probably seasons of Jiu-Jitsu but I<br>know we're we're talking specifically a<br>couple of the issues that you're going<br>to have as a white Bel just it's so much<br>bigger and easier to see when you're in<br>the beginning yeah but the I think the<br>same things happen it just looks<br>different as you progress but that's it<br>right Cycles that's funny even thought<br>about it like that but it's Cycles<br>bigger cycles and bigger Cycles like it<br>usually happens around that brown belt<br>time for for for that where they're like<br>oh I know I know everything and they get<br>into a room with a set of black belts<br>it's real black belts and it's like oh<br>wait a minute I know nothing yeah or<br>they get promoted I've heard a lot of<br>black belts that get promoted to black<br>belt and they get to go to that<br>promotion ceremony it's all black belts<br>and and they're like oh wait a minute<br>why do I have did y'all give me a white<br>belt today if I been put back you know<br>and I<br>that's yeah it's a complete ignorance he<br>man I've got it and it's like oh wait a<br>minute [ __ ] yeah I don't got it so yeah<br>probably that's funny I thought about it<br>like that but yeah it's just Seasons<br>you're seasons of learning and it's not<br>just Jiu-Jitsu it's just kind complex<br>complex learning complex skills you're<br>going you're going to be like moving<br>through these things um but anyway so we<br>have uh this next stage which is like<br>pre- blue belt<br>right the pre like like this this is<br>this is something don't you dare not say<br>it the pre blue belt Blues<br>Blues sorry yeah you had to say you free<br>blue belt Blues there we go you feel<br>better yeah I do I do cuz I you know I<br>got a buddy who's in that right<br>now yeah so what what do you like this<br>is something that chase chase wrote down<br>so I'm going to let him lead this one I<br>really no uh it's it's where you you've<br>kind of man you've been working hard you<br>do a lot of Jiu-Jitsu now you know<br>you've kind of<br>got you're over the excited phase and<br>now you're like no Jiu-Jitsu is what I<br>like to do man I've got things that I'm<br>good at and then now everything I learn<br>I can get good at and I can build<br>everything and man I'm tapping out all<br>the white belts I I get a blue belt<br>every now and<br>again man I chase I even I even get I<br>even get a purple belt I could even get<br>a purple belt out maybe once or<br>twice usually I just kind of listen and<br>a couple weeks later he'll come back and<br>be like man that purple belt got me<br>seven<br>times yeah they're like okay buddy hey<br>then he he's back in on ignorance and<br>now now we're getting closer to the blue<br>belt but he he gets so sad because he's<br>just like man everybody else got listen<br>I tap he got his I'm sorry that I do it<br>his boys I can't wait to tell him to<br>listen can't I've know him I've known<br>him so long I can't uh yeah I can't not<br>not saying his voice but that I want to<br>laugh every time I try to say it but<br>he's like man I tap out that blue belt I<br>tapped him five times the other day and<br>he just got his blue belt I'm like wait<br>does this blue belt me no no no but and<br>I can't say I'm like yeah I know man I<br>know I get it I get it but the pre- blue<br>belt blues and all it does is in this<br>phase you kind of go back through a<br>couple of them like he he's stuck<br>between going too hard or going too soft<br>yeah that's definitely and I've watched<br>it he's like but man if I if I don't go<br>if I don't go that hard and they almost<br>hurt me he's said cuz now they're<br>getting me I'm like yeah I get that but<br>so it's such he's in a hard spot now<br>yeah he's kind of in that middle and<br>it's Blue Bell Blues cuz there's not<br>really<br>a man it's hard you just keep going<br>through the the cycle he don't listen to<br>the listen to the 50/50 yeah he keeps<br>pushing back hard letting up hard<br>pushing back hard letting up hard and<br>it's not you push and you push until you<br>oh wait a minute I won that MH okay oh I<br>lost that oh I oh oh now I'm stopping<br>everything and now we learn 5050 and he<br>could bump that bump that's going to<br>have to be a talk one day just in<br>general every time like it's not like<br>he's always too hard too soft when he<br>rides the middle line he's really good<br>man really good yeah but it's hard to<br>find that you know yeah you got to find<br>that um so that's the the pre- blue belt<br>blue yeah you'll get them it's okay just<br>keep working it's Jiu-Jitsu is such a<br>long journey like what's I got I asked<br>him and and and he laughed because I<br>always give him these type of uh things<br>but I was like man I was like<br>okay how long's it going to take you to<br>get your black belt and he was like<br>probably 10 years I okay 10 years from<br>now he's like yeah probably because I've<br>been doing it he's like maybe maybe nine<br>I was like okay what's three more months<br>on nine years yeah and he's like man you<br>always do that like I know I've done it<br>since I met you in high school I've done<br>it since you were waiting on my car like<br>it's okay like if you're committed to it<br>like it's okay like you're you're it's<br>going to be fine just keep doing it just<br>wait until you experience be okay don't<br>listen to a lot of country music don't<br>drink a lot of alcohol cuz it will add<br>up he he's he's told me about stories<br>that they end up on a job site and<br>there's a in the back room and all the<br>guys don't believe him so he has to tap<br>them all out but it makes him feel<br>better that's the blue belt blues that<br>no no blue belt Blues are different he's<br>a pre- blue belt Blues yeah the pre I'm<br>sorry the pre blue belt Blues sorry yeah<br>but I thought that I could group it<br>because he's he's want he longing for<br>he's longing for his blue belt yeah he<br>wants it so like he it's funny yeah and<br>then and then you get there and then you<br>season for several years you you're and<br>and all you're doing is the same stages<br>but faster yeah it's crazy and then but<br>then this like I feel like white belt is<br>building the knowledge base and learning<br>how to learn yeah and learning man I<br>think a lot of us learning those like<br>understanding that you're going to go<br>through Cycles like yeah I remember you<br>talked about a like man I'm just I'm<br>holding on to things and like oh well we<br>got to break that cycle it's okay it's a<br>it's a cycle it's a season we got to<br>break it just like everything else is<br>constant moving that's you're going to<br>have there's going to be a point like<br>hey man quit letting if somebody ask you<br>to tap them out man tap them out like<br>quit being too soft like that's too too<br>soft you know we're going to go through<br>that I'm in it right I I'm breaking out<br>of too soft right now in my Jiu-Jitsu<br>where I'm at people better watch<br>out I've been allowing people in<br>competition for years to yeah so yeah<br>so yeah I kind of so so to me the<br>very end of white belt and where people<br>should be<br>like aiming this whole time is figuring<br>out how to play the G play the game like<br>the complete game um like you you you<br>start understanding where to find these<br>uh Teeter points and it'll it'll change<br>based on who you're going with and<br>that's a skill too like oh yeah<br>moderating moderating what you do<br>playing in someone else's realm so if<br>someone's a really good guard player<br>then and you're like like somewhere<br>comparable in guard passing then you you<br>play that game with them and if someone<br>else is better at something else and<br>you're pretty well paired there then you<br>go to something<br>else right so so finding a way to find<br>flow with all of your different training<br>partners and and the the there's a<br>recent crop of blue belts that happened<br>at our gym and I swear to God the the<br>the reason they got it is because they<br>started playing they got to they got to<br>the playing stage yeah cuz they wern't<br>holding they wern't trying to stop stuff<br>anymore they wern't trying to free they<br>wouldn't you know they wouldn't trying<br>to go too soft trying to go too hard<br>they mhm they they found they found and<br>maintained their ability to flow and<br>play and I think that's why they got<br>promoted like that was that was found<br>that and it's several several weeks in a<br>row and after like people were talking<br>about it yeah they had the ability to<br>keep it up cuz you'll find it you're<br>you're going to you'll find it when they<br>be like oh man that was it but that that<br>could be partnered so I have an ability<br>when I roll with people to give to allow<br>them to play the game yeah help it helps<br>them to get to that state so that they<br>know it it exists yeah right for sure<br>that's the coolest thing like uh the the<br>white belt we talked about earlier<br>before we went on um every now and again<br>because of they're going too hard every<br>now and again we've talked about mad<br>enforcers and stuff before but I I had<br>to grab the white belt and I had to kind<br>of get on to him a little bit like and I<br>don't really smash people when I do that<br>I because if people that are going too<br>hard they give you the energy to do<br>everything so it's like he looked he<br>like man did I just walk into that I'm<br>like yeah you did he's like did I just<br>give that to you yeah you did yeah you<br>know but like that uh when he got done<br>he was just like man that<br>that I Ain never felt anything like that<br>yeah you know cuz it was just it's<br>different like I I played the game with<br>him and I kind of showed him that hey<br>you can do this like it can be really<br>easy like uh and he was kind of before<br>so it yeah like once they somebody will<br>somebody will show you how to play the<br>game yeah hopefully you listen to the<br>50/50 and try to find it I know it<br>sounds crazy but yeah I think that that<br>people people who end up being upper<br>belts in Jiu-Jitsu and don't you know<br>end up dropping out are the people who<br>turn it into something that is more of a<br>game so that they can they can play it<br>I love playing games you know exactly um<br>it's fun so do you have any like uh<br>closing remarks or um pieces of advice<br>for any PE any of the people who are<br>white belts that are trying to like<br>speed their way through these these<br>phases or or if not speeding then at<br>least like progressing right yeah I mean<br>well being comfortable the stages you're<br>an understanding no I guess it' just be<br>summon It All U right like it's just a<br>phase it's just the phase you're going<br>through um you know just kind of<br>recognize that's the first stage in<br>everything any any program you know it's<br>recognizing oh wait a minute okay I'm<br>going too hard right now oh wait a<br>minute like I'm going too soft or you<br>know oh wait no I I I don't know<br>anything like some of those just<br>precursors like you go into it like that<br>we can you know cut the curves and it's<br>it's just that it's just uh not staying<br>in these stages too long not or these<br>Seasons too long not letting the season<br>be too long long like uh I I know I know<br>a Jiu-Jitsu player um and and I'll let<br>you know my goal is to help them<br>progress but they are stuck in the going<br>too hard phase with people that they are<br>better then and they will not progress<br>maybe a 10 years now they haven't<br>progressed because when they go with<br>somebody that they're better then they<br>still go too hard um and they haven't<br>they don't try things they don't they're<br>not trying to find that flow where they<br>can play the game they could play the<br>game with some people but that's why<br>they haven't progressed um you know so<br>let's let's just understand and he<br>doesn't understand he's in that face he<br>doesn't but it's when he goes with<br>somebody that's lesser than him he is<br>too<br>soft when he goes with somebody better<br>than him or or he's it's like you can't<br>he can't find the middle he can't he's<br>either going too hard with everybody<br>he's like man I'm letting everybody do<br>everything to me now I'm like that's not<br>yeah you're going too soft now we talked<br>about it in yours and uh Chris's game<br>though a little bit like that middle<br>ground like we got to find the middle<br>ground and then we're really going to<br>start learning but it happens everywhere<br>right it's not but yeah that's uh that's<br>why he hadn't progressed is because he<br>can't find<br>that that flow that middle ground that<br>ability to give what you take kind of<br>equally um yeah I guess that's a close<br>yeah I mean that's I I agree with that<br>being aware of the stages is going to<br>help for sure<br>um understanding where you're at and<br>then making adjustments based on where<br>you're at is going to speed things up<br>you'll go through the cycles faster and<br>learn how to find flow play the game<br>maximize learning that's the whole point<br>of white belt is learning how to learn<br>so you know if you just keep an eye on<br>that and you're you build like<br>self-awareness and communication skills<br>with your training partners then that's<br>just that's going to be what pushes the<br>needle forward like you don't have to<br>think about it in terms of you know days<br>weeks months years but like Seasons<br>cycles and just trying to like maximize<br>your ability to play maximize your<br>ability to learn and you know if you're<br>when you're competing then it's maybe<br>it's time to rely on those those muscle<br>memory connections but when you're<br>training you should should be looking at<br>finding flow I know I like people are<br>always like let's just flow bro right<br>and that's like a a thing um but I think<br>that a lot of people who say that don't<br>understand it no so just just try you'll<br>you'll feel it it'll click when you're<br>you're when you're moving constantly<br>eventually you're going to figure out oh<br>this is what flow is yeah you just have<br>to be open to it and try try to maximize<br>your ability to learn<br>so anyway so this was the fourth episode<br>of the jiu-jitsu Junction podcast so if<br>you have any comments or questions then<br>we would love to hear them you can do it<br>in the in the YouTube comments below and<br>you know anywhere else you can find this<br>podcast so uh thank you for watching and<br>we'll see you next time