I don’t mean for this blog to be all serious. And I promise that after I catch up with past 8 months and we start getting into the daily grind, all the JJ’isms will be more spread out. It is important though, for me at least, to take a step back to appreciate what I have learned. I suspect most new(er) white belts will have had a similar experience.
I was very fortunate to have been introduced to new family this year. My new cousin on my wife’s side is a BJJ fanatic and purple belt. He told me this was the time to master the art of survival. Just survive. Now this seemed like setting bar pretty low, and I think in any other discipline, maybe that holds true. But in (Ok, let me get this out before we go any further. I typically write with near perfect grammar. Pretty good grammar. I am suspending this habit for the sake of flow and ease of expression. Otherwise, I would drive myself nuts. Yes, I am aware you never start a sentence with But.)
Ok, where were we? Survival. I was saying that in JJ, especially for new students, survival is everything. It took a few months for me to really appreciate this position of survive equals thrive. On the face of it, if I said I just want you to survive, you may begin to think about ways to cover up, turtle, or simply to do absolutely anything to not get choked or made into Stretch Armstrong. This could not be further from the truth. For me, the biggest lesson of survival was recognizing the patterns of moves that lead up to the many (many) times I tapped. Very basic patterns. I still f**** them up today, but the important thing is I am starting to recognize a few of them. More importantly, I am looking for new ones. Coach talks a lot about twilight. The ‘nether’ of sorts between moves. The place where your counter move exists. You never get there if you just cover up. You only prolong your ignorance. (You see what I did there with the whole life lesson.)
Enjoy your day! Oh, and here is a funny clip with Joe Rogan talking about choking the shit out of your teammates. You have to love this guy. It speaks well to this post, because as a white belt, you are on the receiving end most all days.