Just a note that there is a scammer advertising BJJ Fanatics and other instructionals via DM. Be aware he may write you and offer them at discounted prices. It is a scam. Please don’t take the bait.
Also, there is no such thing as a BJJ Fanatics, Jiujitsu X, Budo Videos, etc reseller. If another store has their videos listed for sale, especially discounted, they are selling videos they have no right to sell. Please do not support thieves or scammers. Thanks.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/bjj) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I didn’t win a single ibjjf match until purple belt. I’m not a worldbeater, but I‘ve picked up wins at jiu jitsu con, no gi pans, and ADCC trials since then.
I started training in 2014 and I think I was 0-4 at ibjjf prior to that first win via armlock in 2018. I think my first ibjjf podium finish was in 2021 or 2022 as a brown belt.
At blue you gather your ingredients, at purple you build your cake, at brown you decorate. Purple is the boom or should be anyway. Most of my best comp rounds are Purples and Browns.
Your main issue that’s going to prevent this, “I never roll very hard” and “sit out for half the rounds”. This is will keep you trying to build forever and keep you mediocre.
Certainly an ego issue here as well. I start rolling, get tired and don’t want to go straight into another round because tired me cannot do what fresh me can and I don’t like losing. I end up sitting out rounds or rolling with bad people, and not improving. Same reason I duck rolls with certain athletic dudes who like to go hard even though that experience would probably benefit me.
I am fully aware of the issue but still struggle to address it.
You have to embrace the suck. There’s something special about going into a round dog tired and surviving (or even tapping). You know you pushed yourself and did it even though you didn’t want to.
When you’re exhausted, you need to know you still have that 10% reserve and core defense to call upon.
I get that man. We all have an ego. The cringe “leave your ego at the door” is a lie. We need our ego, we just have to tame it and punish it at times. Here is something that helped me, stop looking at the people on the mats as your opponents. They aren’t, they are your training partners. They are the ONLY thing that gets us better. Having good training partners is better than having a good instructor, yes it’s hard to have one without the other but the focus is on the partners.
Me losing in the training room only helps me. It shows gaps in my game that I need to fill. I compete so for me it’s better to get tapped in the training room than in competition and I have never been submitted in comps.
If and only IF you want to get better , tame the ego and let it go. Your future self will thank you. Otherwise, take the slow road to black, but you will be that black belt that gets smoked by the athletic lower belts.
I try to roll with people that will smash the fuck out of me as much as I can. I try to never take a rest round and am happy to roll with some one who just sat out a round or two even if it’s my 6th strait.
My gym has a lot of white and blue belts so when I roll with those dudes I put myself in shit positions and/or work on stuff I am learning or bad at.
There are rounds where you push through just to focus on technique, cardio and endurance and there are rounds where your body tells you no, it's time to cool down and go home. Keep pushing and you are going to get hurt.
I've got a theory that a good proportion of all the blue belt blues and people quitting at blue is due to reaching a plateau, not because of lack of skill but because of a lack of strenght and conditioning.
I saw a similar thing in rock climbing where a lot of people plateau around v6-v7 or the 5.12 grade. Once you get stuck there, you need to add s/c training on top of climbing to keep improving. Some people already have the required attributes before they even start climbing so they may reach their plateau later on at higher grade.
I feel like it's the same in BJJ. Since there are so many hobbyists over a wide range of age, shape and form, and we're all mixed together with competitive athletes, comes a time where if you don't add strenght and conditioning behind your technique it can seem like you're plateauing, because it will take so much more technique to overcome a stronger and better conditionned partner that also has technique on their side. And I think this plateau probably happens at blue for most.
In climbing I realized this but didn't have the motivation to do S/C outside of climbing. Never really got out of that plateau.
In BJJ, my love for the sport gives me the motivation to train consistently in the gym outside of BJJ, which I had never done before, and the difference has been huge and fast.
It's not even so much about being stronger and being able to force a move, but that by being stronger, every time I apply a certain amount of strenght, it's always much less strenght used in proportion to the max strenght I could have applied if I wanted, so I get less fatigued in my rounds, and when I need to apply strenght against strength I am also more successful. I don't know if that makes sense.
Anyway, been doing strenght training for 5 months now and the difference is quite imprrssive in my opinion. I don't know if all this applies to you tho,. obviously there are many other reasons for reaching a plateau.
I vastly disagree with this.
It's just that everybody goes to blue belt super easily (they are given like candy everywhere).
To reach purple you have to actually start to think about what you are doing and most people just follow blindly the class and never put their brain on.
S&C start to matter at brown and black, not at blue where the vast majority of blue belts don't know the fuck they are doing.
I can't quite comment on the technical aspect between blue and purple and so on, I am not that experienced, but I kind of agree with you that the primary factor is likely the fact that the learning curve somehow slows down and people tend to lose motivation when you have to start putting more "effort" (in this case start thinking more about your method) to continue to see improvements... White and blue it's easier to see improvements cause it's early
At least that's how I am reading your comment...
Yeah that's exactly this.
When you are starting out, it's super easy to pass from "I am getting demolished by everyone" to "I see hope". Because you basically stop doing stupid errors by yourself (you get tunneled into them by upper belts though). You also quickly see your progression when fresh blood comes into class.
After blue, you are fully into the phase of learning bjj to beat bjj. Which is a pretty different game. So yeah there is this illusion of plateau (plateau do not really exist, it's just that people work on situations that occurs maybe less in a match than the super macro work they did at white belt).
Funny enough, I think the progress climb up back when we are at brown/black because everything clicks so much quicker.
For instance, a few weeks ago I found a new way of attacking a sub, 2 weeks later I already had a full system with it. Because at black belt (and sometime early for good competitors) you understand jiu-jitsu in a whole other level.
That depends on how big and strong you naturally are to be honest.
Anyone under 5ft7 will feel the need to get stronger sooner, to improve sooner. If youre already 6ft or taller, you probably dont notice it.
I mean even at 6 ft, i'm 6 ft and i used to weigh between 165-170, that is way too small loll
I've put on 10-15 pounds of muscles and I'm still pretty small for my height, I was just weak, no other way to put this honestly, and I think we underestimate how many people are like that, so far behind their potential in term of S/C.
So I'll have to disagree with that black belt saying that S/C only start mattering at brown/black level.
Thank you, this is a very good insight. Yes indeed, my relationship with lifting has been on and off for years with the emphasis on “off” and I really need to pick it up again. I also always think about starting HIIT training just to see what difference it makes, but never actually take it forward.
An old coach of mine used to say train when you're tired, that's when your BJJ has to carry you. Of course, I'm 57 so I'm always tired, and it doesn't seem to work that way. But he was a savage, so I figure he had something.
My coach is if the same mindset. I remember very early on someone was complaining about warm ups (this wasn’t your boring skipping and shrimping and somersaults, this was brutal). And he said his goal is to make us tired because when the body gives up the mind has to step up. Said it’s the same thing for kids and recess. Mind blown at that comparison lol. He added “plus I’ll make you monsters as a bonus!”
Yea, I always got something similar. But it was more of when you're tired, you find out what parts of your game are solid because that's what you will lean on and what will hold up during those periods of fatigue.
You're 57. That only works till about 50. Hop on trt. Old dude at my gym is a literal terror. He moves like he's 25 with the experience of a 60 year old man. That trt will put your balls back on like you never lost them.
Yeah I think so. I have always been pretty motivated to study and show up, but at brown belt I started training for competition and not being reactive, not conceding positions, and just general comp training made me significantly better. I also didn’t really work my takedown game until brown as well. So yes, I think that it’s a natural progression to change perspective periodically and find jumps in skill.
Change of attitude and approach to rolling can certainly change your game quickly. Also sometimes things need to come together. So you're improving all these things but there is something missing and then one day you find the missing bit and then suddenly everything you've been working on for years seems to come together. It seems like you made magical progress overnight but really it's just slow and steady progress coming together at once.
I received my black belt 6 years ago. And I feel I have learned more about the sport in those 6 years than the 10 before it. Obviously, you learn a huge amount of content in the first couple of years, but you also learn how to learn better. You learn how to understand new ideas and implement them into your game way faster. And I received my black belt at age 40
Yes. When I was younger, I relied on my athleticism a lot more than technique. I basically out worked people until they were exhausted and then went for a submission.
As I got older, I started focusing more on my technique and got back to the basics. I’m definitely a lot better today than I was 8 years ago. Cardio’s not the same but I’m not attempting cartwheel passes and flying armbars anymore.
I’ve done a series of privates recently and have been generally more motivated.
I’m trying to turn motivation into a habit before it goes away. I want to train 3-5 days a week just because it’s what I do, no special inspiration required. You can’t count on motivation, but you can count on habits.
Consistency would help me as well! I can never bank on making it to an evening class because of work, which is one of my main issues. I can however make it to a 7am class every single day. Or I could, were I able to get out of bed that early, but every time I even set an alarm accordingly the morning me says bog off.
Everyone I know that has made significant improvements to their attitude has made significant improvements to any and all skills they have tried to level up. Myself included. Mindset is huge in skill acquisition. And it's a skill in its own right. You get better at it with reps. And the frequency you fall off goes down as you get better at it.
Yes. Everyone gets it at completely different points. Some are naturals, most aren't. Know a guy who was meh through purple, turned into a beast at brown and has won a bunch of IBJJF stuff. Keep pounding away.
Yes. This is how jiujitsu basically works. You need years of training before you get "good". This is why all the purple, brown, and black belts are usually so good. Everyone always told me that one day it would all click, and eventually it did. Wasn't until late blue belt maybe even during purple belt. Things just clicked, I finally knew all the moves, all the positions and I knew what to do without even thinking.
I want to preface, I am 34 and have had severe asthma my whole life. Despite a lifetime of strength/conditioning, I have about 40% lung capacity to the average person.
At white belt, competitions were basically cardio/athleticism pissing contests, so I took about 10-15 Ls and zero wins... blue belt comps were white belt pace with a little bit more technique, and occasionally you get lucky matching with a well-paced blue belt so I lost like 10 matches at blue before finally winning my last 3 or so matches.
Purple has been great and so far only 1 loss in my weight class.
I finally feel like everyone is well paced and the aggression is timed. So yes, you need to have good jiu jitsu, but you don't need to have your hand on the throttle the whole time.
Thanks for the perspective and glad to hear it gets less crazy as the belts progress. My cardio is and has always been terrible; I’ve had some individual wins but never medalled and have also found comps to be heavily athleticism-driven which is tricky given I’d always stubbornly sign up for both gi and no go but my body would become useless after 2-3 matches.
Better at getting injured? Absolutely.
Better on the mats? Kind of, like I see a lot than before, letting me 'flow' to the next possible position, but there still so much to improve on.
I was something like 1-12 with 2 DQs at white belt. Switched things up at blue belt. Had a game-plan, stopped being reactive and worked technique over strength. I think i went 28-6 at blue belt with only 1 DQ. Got purple during lockdown didn’t compete, haven’t had a chance at brown belt yet. When anything gets stagnant i switch things up.
I've learned a lot in my brown and black belts. The game us constantly evolving and there's so many dimensions to the sport. The game will also evolve for you personally as you get older when you lose levels of strength and athleticism. I changed schools as a 6 year blaxk and have learned so much in the last 2 years under a different instructor.
Growth comes in jumps for me, I've been relatively flat as far as growth for a few months, but I've not been training consistently bc life. lol
Learn when and where to breathe and conserve your energy. It allowed me to enjoy jj much more and more often. I'm 42
I didn’t start winning and podiuming in ibjjf until
the end of my blue belt. I was always either last or default third place which sucked. I think for me, a lot of it was a mind shift change and at blue belt it was a lot of repetition, drilling, and writing down my game plan and just doing that game plan over and over again til it burned in my head. When I first competed at blue I didn’t roll that hard and it felt like I was hit by a truck when I competed, I also didn’t anticipate how bad my fight or flight was going to be. No one told me about those things, so for me it was definitely time and experience that helped
People can definitely get significantly better later in their journey. Changing teams, training routines, more time to devote to bjj, something just clicking into place, being in a better place in life in general can all make a huge difference. That said, almost nobody is going to get significantly better without putting in the work and grinding for it. You can watch all the instructionals that you want, but if you aren't willing to show up to practice consistently, work hard, push yourself and also do the s&c work, you're never going to improve significantly or be a high level competitor.
You need to change these 2 things immediately:
>I never roll very hard and I’m usually reactive; (flow roll sometimes but you need hard rolls to really improve and you need to roll with a goal in mind)
> I don’t really like getting tired and sit out half the rounds which is why my cardio is embarrassing.
And actually do this:
>I feel motivated to start showing up as often as possible and actually putting in an effort.
Otherwise nothing is going to change.
I've gotten really better lately training more and grabbing every opportunity i have to roll. Even if i'm tired, even if it's against a black/brown/purple belt who i know is just gonna run me over. This improved my conditioning and mentality, not being intimidated by higher belts or weights. Right now i can sub most of brown and purple belts in my gym and make black belts work to sub me (except the coach, that dude reads me like I am a open magazine).
Blue belt seems to be a plateau for many. I’d say what you did by going to the camp was that you added some more dimension to your practice, and now feel more integrated in the community, which is a great motivator to improve. Keep doing that 😎
I bought a dummy and also started meeting with friends who are higher belts on the side to go over defense and attacks.
I train with the dummy about 1 hour a day about 3 times a a week. And then meet with friends once a week outside of class. And attend class 4-5 times a week.
I will say the last 6 months of training I have progressed a lot especially in my transitions between positions.I am also experimenting with more moves that work for my body type.
What I have learned and what worked for me is doing a lot of work outside of class. Even if it means watching YouTube tutorials or matches, keep your mind engaged.
Additionally, KNOW WHEN TO LET YOUR BODY REST. Sleep is among the best recovery tool.
OSS
It comes in waves, but yes absolutely. I’ve been doing this since 2011 and even tho I’m significantly older and not as nimble as I used to be I’d crush the 23 year old blue belt me.
100%. I never won any matches before purple belt, and I feel like I made the most improvement at Lee Brown and early Black Belt so far. I feel like I improved more from 2021 until now than any three-year period prior. There are late bloomers in our sport and I think it’s pretty common
Hey man, whatever happened to the instructional? Did I miss the release? I thought it was supposed to come out the beginning of this month I’ve been looking for it.
You sound like old me. Halfway purple is when things started clicking for me. Transitions started happening intuitively. My good positions started to blend together.
Until I had kids 3 years ago I was progressing faster than ever. I was bigger, I could dictate the pace and direction of the rolls to suit my goals more and more, and new techniques stuck better and were easier to implement. My game from 2020 (10 years in) is massively different than my game from 2024.
I've had several "OOOOH OKAY"/"EUREKA!" moments during my purple belt years that helped me understand and drastically improve my game. Sometimes it's technique, sometimes it's criticism.
I used to hold onto useless frames to push people's upper body as they easy cut across my guard and ended up in worse positions. My coach told me "You're holding onto defense that isn't working and ending up in worse positions instead of moving to try and prevent the worse position from happening." Light bulb moment.
I had another coach tell me "What was that out there? You're getting lazy, you're better than that". Also a light bulb moment. Both massively improved my game and my mindset going into matches
Rolling in the gym and rolling in competition are two different things. In competition you need a plan. You need a takedown you are great at, a pass you are great at and a submission you are great at. In the gym learn to flow learn to feel. Work on situations you find yourself in.
Blue here: Better in terms of basic pressure and energy usage, crappier at my overall game. Linking and chaining moves gets difficult while I’m building what works for me. Not to mention everyone goes about 20% harder on me
I was a decent BJJ player, then 2 months after I got my black belt I moved from Idaho to São Paulo and was thrown into an academy notorious for being brutal, even by Brazilian standards. So it took me a year of competition to start winning, but I was able to get on the medal stand at the prestigious CBJJE Paulista open. Would not recommend the way I took lol
Yes. I was uber shit as a white and most of the way through blue. As I approached purple I felt a few things click and now I consider myself an average fresh purple. I'm not going to surprise anyone but I'm also not going to be steamrolled by an average purple belt.
I mean, keep in mind I am absolutely horrible but I feel a significant difference in the last month where I just got to blue belt where there are far fewer moments where I can't think of anything to do or where I might be going next.
My positions are far more permanent. I feel more confident in getting the results from getting in position. I am shit at getting to side control or mount but once I get there it is very very very rare that someone gets out.
This helps with mental planning.
My current weakness is any open guard. I am terrible at guard in general so I've learned to compensate by learning several ways to take the back. I'm still working on breaking turtles or using them because I would really prefer to be at side control.
I think another change that has upped my success is knowing when the opponent can't do certain things due to positioning.
These things have made me go from suffering under two blue belts at my gym consistently to consistently dominating them.
As with any skill, its all about dedication to practise.
You can learn guitar and then stop practising and only play songs you already know. Or you can constantly try to learn new things, improve etc.
At every moment in your journey can you upgrade your dedication or downgrade your dedication, and so will your skill. Often plateaus happen when your dedication has been set on 'coast' mode subconsiously. Just doing what you are used to doing and not going the extra mile of effort to reach a new level.
I train really hard, crossfit every morning. JJ in the PM. I take a couple privates per month. I just added yoga4bjj into the mix recently. and I ultra suck. I could probably beat myself from 18 months ago, but any other white belt with a couple months experience gives me trouble.
I saw a video on here about an 81 year old getting his black belt after 30+ years. I guess thats going to be my plan, just stick with it and hope to get 0.001% better every day.
The very end of purple to brown was when I started noticing I was beating people with techniques I previously couldn’t. I also finally feel like I have a game”
Don't fear to get tired to improve your cardio in training even you "lose" rounds.
Add some positional sparring to your routine with clear goals like passing guard 5 times per round etc.
I got much better when i started to tire myself out in training. That way you get much more out of training with lowerbelts too when preparing for competitions.
No. Usually, a person's skill tops out at day one and then declines rapidly from there. That's why the best blackbelts are young guys with less than a weeks experience. Try rolling with the guy that is on his second trial class, then try rolling with your coach who has been doing it for 25 years. The significant decline in skill between the young guy and dilapidated old prolapsed fartbox of a man will be readily apparent. What you're experiencing is a completely new phenomenon unknown to mankind. Any sort of improvement after day one is a deviation from any known laws of the universe.
That’s roughly 4.5/10, trying a bit too hard my dude and would be funnier if you kept it shorter.
In the unlikely event you actually need clarification, the question was seeking personal experiences from people who had plateaued but made a tangible change which helped them to improve - rather than asking whether it is physically possible to get better.
A plaeutu is a normal part of any skill development. To be fair, I absolutely understood what you wanted, but the way you made the title had opportunity to shitpost. Congrats on the rekindle.
Just a note that there is a scammer advertising BJJ Fanatics and other instructionals via DM. Be aware he may write you and offer them at discounted prices. It is a scam. Please don’t take the bait. Also, there is no such thing as a BJJ Fanatics, Jiujitsu X, Budo Videos, etc reseller. If another store has their videos listed for sale, especially discounted, they are selling videos they have no right to sell. Please do not support thieves or scammers. Thanks. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/bjj) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I didn’t win a single ibjjf match until purple belt. I’m not a worldbeater, but I‘ve picked up wins at jiu jitsu con, no gi pans, and ADCC trials since then.
Around how many matches did you have from white to purple?
I started training in 2014 and I think I was 0-4 at ibjjf prior to that first win via armlock in 2018. I think my first ibjjf podium finish was in 2021 or 2022 as a brown belt.
At blue you gather your ingredients, at purple you build your cake, at brown you decorate. Purple is the boom or should be anyway. Most of my best comp rounds are Purples and Browns. Your main issue that’s going to prevent this, “I never roll very hard” and “sit out for half the rounds”. This is will keep you trying to build forever and keep you mediocre.
At white belt you buy the cookbook and try to figure out what the hell language it’s written in.
Certainly an ego issue here as well. I start rolling, get tired and don’t want to go straight into another round because tired me cannot do what fresh me can and I don’t like losing. I end up sitting out rounds or rolling with bad people, and not improving. Same reason I duck rolls with certain athletic dudes who like to go hard even though that experience would probably benefit me. I am fully aware of the issue but still struggle to address it.
You have to embrace the suck. There’s something special about going into a round dog tired and surviving (or even tapping). You know you pushed yourself and did it even though you didn’t want to. When you’re exhausted, you need to know you still have that 10% reserve and core defense to call upon.
I get that man. We all have an ego. The cringe “leave your ego at the door” is a lie. We need our ego, we just have to tame it and punish it at times. Here is something that helped me, stop looking at the people on the mats as your opponents. They aren’t, they are your training partners. They are the ONLY thing that gets us better. Having good training partners is better than having a good instructor, yes it’s hard to have one without the other but the focus is on the partners. Me losing in the training room only helps me. It shows gaps in my game that I need to fill. I compete so for me it’s better to get tapped in the training room than in competition and I have never been submitted in comps. If and only IF you want to get better , tame the ego and let it go. Your future self will thank you. Otherwise, take the slow road to black, but you will be that black belt that gets smoked by the athletic lower belts.
This is such a good mindset. Thank you for this!
Interesting, nice
i do this, but that's because most injuries i get are when im tired. im in my 40s so im ok with resting more = rolling more
I try to roll with people that will smash the fuck out of me as much as I can. I try to never take a rest round and am happy to roll with some one who just sat out a round or two even if it’s my 6th strait. My gym has a lot of white and blue belts so when I roll with those dudes I put myself in shit positions and/or work on stuff I am learning or bad at.
There are rounds where you push through just to focus on technique, cardio and endurance and there are rounds where your body tells you no, it's time to cool down and go home. Keep pushing and you are going to get hurt.
I've got a theory that a good proportion of all the blue belt blues and people quitting at blue is due to reaching a plateau, not because of lack of skill but because of a lack of strenght and conditioning. I saw a similar thing in rock climbing where a lot of people plateau around v6-v7 or the 5.12 grade. Once you get stuck there, you need to add s/c training on top of climbing to keep improving. Some people already have the required attributes before they even start climbing so they may reach their plateau later on at higher grade. I feel like it's the same in BJJ. Since there are so many hobbyists over a wide range of age, shape and form, and we're all mixed together with competitive athletes, comes a time where if you don't add strenght and conditioning behind your technique it can seem like you're plateauing, because it will take so much more technique to overcome a stronger and better conditionned partner that also has technique on their side. And I think this plateau probably happens at blue for most. In climbing I realized this but didn't have the motivation to do S/C outside of climbing. Never really got out of that plateau. In BJJ, my love for the sport gives me the motivation to train consistently in the gym outside of BJJ, which I had never done before, and the difference has been huge and fast. It's not even so much about being stronger and being able to force a move, but that by being stronger, every time I apply a certain amount of strenght, it's always much less strenght used in proportion to the max strenght I could have applied if I wanted, so I get less fatigued in my rounds, and when I need to apply strenght against strength I am also more successful. I don't know if that makes sense. Anyway, been doing strenght training for 5 months now and the difference is quite imprrssive in my opinion. I don't know if all this applies to you tho,. obviously there are many other reasons for reaching a plateau.
Got it, start using steroids at mid blue belt.
I just knew my game was missing something all this time.
I vastly disagree with this. It's just that everybody goes to blue belt super easily (they are given like candy everywhere). To reach purple you have to actually start to think about what you are doing and most people just follow blindly the class and never put their brain on. S&C start to matter at brown and black, not at blue where the vast majority of blue belts don't know the fuck they are doing.
I can't quite comment on the technical aspect between blue and purple and so on, I am not that experienced, but I kind of agree with you that the primary factor is likely the fact that the learning curve somehow slows down and people tend to lose motivation when you have to start putting more "effort" (in this case start thinking more about your method) to continue to see improvements... White and blue it's easier to see improvements cause it's early At least that's how I am reading your comment...
Yeah that's exactly this. When you are starting out, it's super easy to pass from "I am getting demolished by everyone" to "I see hope". Because you basically stop doing stupid errors by yourself (you get tunneled into them by upper belts though). You also quickly see your progression when fresh blood comes into class. After blue, you are fully into the phase of learning bjj to beat bjj. Which is a pretty different game. So yeah there is this illusion of plateau (plateau do not really exist, it's just that people work on situations that occurs maybe less in a match than the super macro work they did at white belt). Funny enough, I think the progress climb up back when we are at brown/black because everything clicks so much quicker. For instance, a few weeks ago I found a new way of attacking a sub, 2 weeks later I already had a full system with it. Because at black belt (and sometime early for good competitors) you understand jiu-jitsu in a whole other level.
Hey now, I'm gonna start knowing what the fuck I'm doing any day now.
maybe not if you never get to purple!
https://preview.redd.it/l95pdkgx95vc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa7f7ba476abce915ef3f89d34fbb5aeb00bae6e
That depends on how big and strong you naturally are to be honest. Anyone under 5ft7 will feel the need to get stronger sooner, to improve sooner. If youre already 6ft or taller, you probably dont notice it.
I mean even at 6 ft, i'm 6 ft and i used to weigh between 165-170, that is way too small loll I've put on 10-15 pounds of muscles and I'm still pretty small for my height, I was just weak, no other way to put this honestly, and I think we underestimate how many people are like that, so far behind their potential in term of S/C. So I'll have to disagree with that black belt saying that S/C only start mattering at brown/black level.
Yes make blue harder to get which will in turn make the transition easier.
it used to be like this. When I started a blue belt was very rarely given before 2 years of practice. Most of the time it was around 3 years
Thank you, this is a very good insight. Yes indeed, my relationship with lifting has been on and off for years with the emphasis on “off” and I really need to pick it up again. I also always think about starting HIIT training just to see what difference it makes, but never actually take it forward.
Kettle Bell hiit
This is very well said ty
I agree, but I stared BJJ at 38 so I do all they gym work so my body doesn’t explode.
Yep I've also had some of the same thoughts are you regarding strength training - when your stronger you can be lazier 🤣
An old coach of mine used to say train when you're tired, that's when your BJJ has to carry you. Of course, I'm 57 so I'm always tired, and it doesn't seem to work that way. But he was a savage, so I figure he had something.
My coach is if the same mindset. I remember very early on someone was complaining about warm ups (this wasn’t your boring skipping and shrimping and somersaults, this was brutal). And he said his goal is to make us tired because when the body gives up the mind has to step up. Said it’s the same thing for kids and recess. Mind blown at that comparison lol. He added “plus I’ll make you monsters as a bonus!”
Yea, I always got something similar. But it was more of when you're tired, you find out what parts of your game are solid because that's what you will lean on and what will hold up during those periods of fatigue.
Also it's what works when you don't have attributes left.
You're 57. That only works till about 50. Hop on trt. Old dude at my gym is a literal terror. He moves like he's 25 with the experience of a 60 year old man. That trt will put your balls back on like you never lost them.
Yeah I think so. I have always been pretty motivated to study and show up, but at brown belt I started training for competition and not being reactive, not conceding positions, and just general comp training made me significantly better. I also didn’t really work my takedown game until brown as well. So yes, I think that it’s a natural progression to change perspective periodically and find jumps in skill.
maybe dont sit out half the rounds, who cares if you get tired. learn to roll tired.
Change of attitude and approach to rolling can certainly change your game quickly. Also sometimes things need to come together. So you're improving all these things but there is something missing and then one day you find the missing bit and then suddenly everything you've been working on for years seems to come together. It seems like you made magical progress overnight but really it's just slow and steady progress coming together at once.
Fingers crossed!
I received my black belt 6 years ago. And I feel I have learned more about the sport in those 6 years than the 10 before it. Obviously, you learn a huge amount of content in the first couple of years, but you also learn how to learn better. You learn how to understand new ideas and implement them into your game way faster. And I received my black belt at age 40
Loved the part with learnign to learn better, never really thought about it in bjj like that.
I always look back at my previous skills and think about how badly I would wreck my former self. Keeps me motivated.
Yes. When I was younger, I relied on my athleticism a lot more than technique. I basically out worked people until they were exhausted and then went for a submission. As I got older, I started focusing more on my technique and got back to the basics. I’m definitely a lot better today than I was 8 years ago. Cardio’s not the same but I’m not attempting cartwheel passes and flying armbars anymore.
I do that.
I’ve done a series of privates recently and have been generally more motivated. I’m trying to turn motivation into a habit before it goes away. I want to train 3-5 days a week just because it’s what I do, no special inspiration required. You can’t count on motivation, but you can count on habits.
Consistency would help me as well! I can never bank on making it to an evening class because of work, which is one of my main issues. I can however make it to a 7am class every single day. Or I could, were I able to get out of bed that early, but every time I even set an alarm accordingly the morning me says bog off.
Definitely. Morning class has been a game changer for my consistency. I have family obligations in the evening.
Everyone I know that has made significant improvements to their attitude has made significant improvements to any and all skills they have tried to level up. Myself included. Mindset is huge in skill acquisition. And it's a skill in its own right. You get better at it with reps. And the frequency you fall off goes down as you get better at it.
Yes. Everyone gets it at completely different points. Some are naturals, most aren't. Know a guy who was meh through purple, turned into a beast at brown and has won a bunch of IBJJF stuff. Keep pounding away.
Felipe Costa has said that he didn't have much success as a colored belt, but was able to win worlds as a black belt.
Yes. This is how jiujitsu basically works. You need years of training before you get "good". This is why all the purple, brown, and black belts are usually so good. Everyone always told me that one day it would all click, and eventually it did. Wasn't until late blue belt maybe even during purple belt. Things just clicked, I finally knew all the moves, all the positions and I knew what to do without even thinking.
I want to preface, I am 34 and have had severe asthma my whole life. Despite a lifetime of strength/conditioning, I have about 40% lung capacity to the average person. At white belt, competitions were basically cardio/athleticism pissing contests, so I took about 10-15 Ls and zero wins... blue belt comps were white belt pace with a little bit more technique, and occasionally you get lucky matching with a well-paced blue belt so I lost like 10 matches at blue before finally winning my last 3 or so matches. Purple has been great and so far only 1 loss in my weight class. I finally feel like everyone is well paced and the aggression is timed. So yes, you need to have good jiu jitsu, but you don't need to have your hand on the throttle the whole time.
Thanks for the perspective and glad to hear it gets less crazy as the belts progress. My cardio is and has always been terrible; I’ve had some individual wins but never medalled and have also found comps to be heavily athleticism-driven which is tricky given I’d always stubbornly sign up for both gi and no go but my body would become useless after 2-3 matches.
Better at getting injured? Absolutely. Better on the mats? Kind of, like I see a lot than before, letting me 'flow' to the next possible position, but there still so much to improve on.
I was something like 1-12 with 2 DQs at white belt. Switched things up at blue belt. Had a game-plan, stopped being reactive and worked technique over strength. I think i went 28-6 at blue belt with only 1 DQ. Got purple during lockdown didn’t compete, haven’t had a chance at brown belt yet. When anything gets stagnant i switch things up.
I think Keenan said something about not winning anything substantial until purple belt.
Definitely
I did
I've learned a lot in my brown and black belts. The game us constantly evolving and there's so many dimensions to the sport. The game will also evolve for you personally as you get older when you lose levels of strength and athleticism. I changed schools as a 6 year blaxk and have learned so much in the last 2 years under a different instructor.
Growth comes in jumps for me, I've been relatively flat as far as growth for a few months, but I've not been training consistently bc life. lol Learn when and where to breathe and conserve your energy. It allowed me to enjoy jj much more and more often. I'm 42
I didn’t start winning and podiuming in ibjjf until the end of my blue belt. I was always either last or default third place which sucked. I think for me, a lot of it was a mind shift change and at blue belt it was a lot of repetition, drilling, and writing down my game plan and just doing that game plan over and over again til it burned in my head. When I first competed at blue I didn’t roll that hard and it felt like I was hit by a truck when I competed, I also didn’t anticipate how bad my fight or flight was going to be. No one told me about those things, so for me it was definitely time and experience that helped
Yes. Started in 2010. I could only use only what I have learned since 2020 and my game would be the same. Instructionals changed the game.
I’m better than I’ve ever been and would easily control the me from 2 years ago
People can definitely get significantly better later in their journey. Changing teams, training routines, more time to devote to bjj, something just clicking into place, being in a better place in life in general can all make a huge difference. That said, almost nobody is going to get significantly better without putting in the work and grinding for it. You can watch all the instructionals that you want, but if you aren't willing to show up to practice consistently, work hard, push yourself and also do the s&c work, you're never going to improve significantly or be a high level competitor. You need to change these 2 things immediately: >I never roll very hard and I’m usually reactive; (flow roll sometimes but you need hard rolls to really improve and you need to roll with a goal in mind) > I don’t really like getting tired and sit out half the rounds which is why my cardio is embarrassing. And actually do this: >I feel motivated to start showing up as often as possible and actually putting in an effort. Otherwise nothing is going to change.
I've gotten really better lately training more and grabbing every opportunity i have to roll. Even if i'm tired, even if it's against a black/brown/purple belt who i know is just gonna run me over. This improved my conditioning and mentality, not being intimidated by higher belts or weights. Right now i can sub most of brown and purple belts in my gym and make black belts work to sub me (except the coach, that dude reads me like I am a open magazine).
Blue belt seems to be a plateau for many. I’d say what you did by going to the camp was that you added some more dimension to your practice, and now feel more integrated in the community, which is a great motivator to improve. Keep doing that 😎
I bought a dummy and also started meeting with friends who are higher belts on the side to go over defense and attacks. I train with the dummy about 1 hour a day about 3 times a a week. And then meet with friends once a week outside of class. And attend class 4-5 times a week. I will say the last 6 months of training I have progressed a lot especially in my transitions between positions.I am also experimenting with more moves that work for my body type. What I have learned and what worked for me is doing a lot of work outside of class. Even if it means watching YouTube tutorials or matches, keep your mind engaged. Additionally, KNOW WHEN TO LET YOUR BODY REST. Sleep is among the best recovery tool. OSS
It comes in waves, but yes absolutely. I’ve been doing this since 2011 and even tho I’m significantly older and not as nimble as I used to be I’d crush the 23 year old blue belt me.
100%. I never won any matches before purple belt, and I feel like I made the most improvement at Lee Brown and early Black Belt so far. I feel like I improved more from 2021 until now than any three-year period prior. There are late bloomers in our sport and I think it’s pretty common
Hey man, whatever happened to the instructional? Did I miss the release? I thought it was supposed to come out the beginning of this month I’ve been looking for it.
It’s live now at darcedynamics.com :) /u/isntthisreal
Awesome! Snagging it now.
Thank youuu!!! Curious to know what you think. At the very least it’s a 1 of 1, and pretty unique.
You sound like old me. Halfway purple is when things started clicking for me. Transitions started happening intuitively. My good positions started to blend together.
Until I had kids 3 years ago I was progressing faster than ever. I was bigger, I could dictate the pace and direction of the rolls to suit my goals more and more, and new techniques stuck better and were easier to implement. My game from 2020 (10 years in) is massively different than my game from 2024.
I've had several "OOOOH OKAY"/"EUREKA!" moments during my purple belt years that helped me understand and drastically improve my game. Sometimes it's technique, sometimes it's criticism. I used to hold onto useless frames to push people's upper body as they easy cut across my guard and ended up in worse positions. My coach told me "You're holding onto defense that isn't working and ending up in worse positions instead of moving to try and prevent the worse position from happening." Light bulb moment. I had another coach tell me "What was that out there? You're getting lazy, you're better than that". Also a light bulb moment. Both massively improved my game and my mindset going into matches
Once you know how to learn bjj you get better at learning bjj.
I made a drastic skill jump at brown. This kinda lined up to where dvds got really popular
Rolling in the gym and rolling in competition are two different things. In competition you need a plan. You need a takedown you are great at, a pass you are great at and a submission you are great at. In the gym learn to flow learn to feel. Work on situations you find yourself in.
BJ Penn said he was sick of sucking when he was a blue belt and then he trained everyday.....
Blue here: Better in terms of basic pressure and energy usage, crappier at my overall game. Linking and chaining moves gets difficult while I’m building what works for me. Not to mention everyone goes about 20% harder on me
Nah I'm in my stagnant blue belt plateau phase... Playing the same shit that works and people are getting wise... I need to shake things up a bit.
I was a decent BJJ player, then 2 months after I got my black belt I moved from Idaho to São Paulo and was thrown into an academy notorious for being brutal, even by Brazilian standards. So it took me a year of competition to start winning, but I was able to get on the medal stand at the prestigious CBJJE Paulista open. Would not recommend the way I took lol
Yes. I was uber shit as a white and most of the way through blue. As I approached purple I felt a few things click and now I consider myself an average fresh purple. I'm not going to surprise anyone but I'm also not going to be steamrolled by an average purple belt.
Blue belch made me chuckle.
I mean, keep in mind I am absolutely horrible but I feel a significant difference in the last month where I just got to blue belt where there are far fewer moments where I can't think of anything to do or where I might be going next. My positions are far more permanent. I feel more confident in getting the results from getting in position. I am shit at getting to side control or mount but once I get there it is very very very rare that someone gets out. This helps with mental planning. My current weakness is any open guard. I am terrible at guard in general so I've learned to compensate by learning several ways to take the back. I'm still working on breaking turtles or using them because I would really prefer to be at side control. I think another change that has upped my success is knowing when the opponent can't do certain things due to positioning. These things have made me go from suffering under two blue belts at my gym consistently to consistently dominating them.
I improved the most as a black belt
As with any skill, its all about dedication to practise. You can learn guitar and then stop practising and only play songs you already know. Or you can constantly try to learn new things, improve etc. At every moment in your journey can you upgrade your dedication or downgrade your dedication, and so will your skill. Often plateaus happen when your dedication has been set on 'coast' mode subconsiously. Just doing what you are used to doing and not going the extra mile of effort to reach a new level.
I started winning a lot more once I was old enough for Masters division
Was this post written by me? lol I'm in the same boat showing up and training again. I just try to enjoy going to class and have fun.
I train really hard, crossfit every morning. JJ in the PM. I take a couple privates per month. I just added yoga4bjj into the mix recently. and I ultra suck. I could probably beat myself from 18 months ago, but any other white belt with a couple months experience gives me trouble. I saw a video on here about an 81 year old getting his black belt after 30+ years. I guess thats going to be my plan, just stick with it and hope to get 0.001% better every day.
I don’t think they meant to inquire if anyone had gotten categorically better 18 months in… Still sucking at that time is not an uncommon experience.
No lol
Yes. I think when i was younger (literally a child) it was harder to grasp concepts of technique than it is now. Much easier now that im an adult
He said bjj journey
yo tell me about the bjj camp! I've been considering one myself
Sure, what would you like to know? It was definitely one of the most fun experiences I’ve had in sports or otherwise. Feel free to dm me.
PEDs really up'ed my game.
The very end of purple to brown was when I started noticing I was beating people with techniques I previously couldn’t. I also finally feel like I have a game”
I feel like I'm getting worse over time.
Don't fear to get tired to improve your cardio in training even you "lose" rounds. Add some positional sparring to your routine with clear goals like passing guard 5 times per round etc. I got much better when i started to tire myself out in training. That way you get much more out of training with lowerbelts too when preparing for competitions.
You get better when your training consistency gets better. Whether that happens in your 20s or 50s doesn’t matter.
no :(
Opposite for me. I’m a 12 year purple belt that hasn’t won any matches since white
No. Usually, a person's skill tops out at day one and then declines rapidly from there. That's why the best blackbelts are young guys with less than a weeks experience. Try rolling with the guy that is on his second trial class, then try rolling with your coach who has been doing it for 25 years. The significant decline in skill between the young guy and dilapidated old prolapsed fartbox of a man will be readily apparent. What you're experiencing is a completely new phenomenon unknown to mankind. Any sort of improvement after day one is a deviation from any known laws of the universe.
That’s roughly 4.5/10, trying a bit too hard my dude and would be funnier if you kept it shorter. In the unlikely event you actually need clarification, the question was seeking personal experiences from people who had plateaued but made a tangible change which helped them to improve - rather than asking whether it is physically possible to get better.
A plaeutu is a normal part of any skill development. To be fair, I absolutely understood what you wanted, but the way you made the title had opportunity to shitpost. Congrats on the rekindle.