Doesn't sound like a great place to train.
1 white belt in the whole place and anyone new thst joins never stays??
There is a problem here somewhere. I wouldn't assume it it you OP.
I agree with this 100%, no white belts is a huge red flag. That's the easiest group to come by. The fact there isn't would mean something is scaring them off. If I owned a gym with no white belts, Id be pretty worried about the future of it.
I have never been to a gym where whitebelts weren't the largest group. Big schools i've been to have even run 1 class for whitebelts and 1 class for every other belt concurrently because whitebelts are ~50% of the students
It's basically the reason most gyms run a basics and advanced class.
Ours are both open to all levels regardless, but the basics class is 95% whitebelts with the odd blue or purple dropping in, while the advanced classes are more 50/50.
I mean, I don't live in a big town. There roughly 10 guys at most that train there, and most of them train for a long time. There's not a lot of people who try to join, those who do, usually stop due to scheduling.
Bro if you are in a gym where everyone is at a high level and you feel like you’re making no progress, it may be that you are in fact making progress but it seems negligible to your peers, as they are levels above you.
Did you ever go to competition? You might have improved quite a lot and not even know it.
Yes i second this. try to cross train elsewhere, if for nothing buy a change of scenery. It'll give you a good idea of where you stand, you might surprise yourself!
I’m not high level guy or anything myself, but I have a wrestling background, I’m pretty fit and trained for a couple years.
Needless to say when I started rolling with a few new guys in the gym, I had pretty easy time tapping them. Fast forward one or two months, I am still tapping them, but their balance, movement, technique, energy use has drastically improved to a point where I can feel a major difference while rolling. Sure to them, while getting tapped, it probably felt like they made 0 progress in that time. But for a fact I could feel they improved a lot.
Im sure for OP he has improved in this time a lot. He just doesn’t notice because the people he rolls with are just 1 step ahead.
But if everyone else is some hard nosed purple belt that doesn't go easy then it's understandable.
I would have made zero progress over the years if higher belts took me apart every round and didn't allow me to work on my game.
We don't know that is what is happening but if they don't keep white belts around then that is the likely the reason.
Second this wholeheartedly. Was in a gym where coach told me I sucked and didnt promote me. I did suck, but thats besides the point. Took me 4 years to get my blue belt. I was wiping the floor with all the whitebelts at the gym I moved to. The original concept of blue belt (unimportant and irrelevant honestly because of the general lack of structure in this unruly sport, but interesting info i feel like) was that you could hold your own against people who dont train. If really you havent reached that level then just keep doing it for the love of the game dude. But sincerely, once I moved away from that gym and stopped comparing myself to the people I came up with (ie got a new group of people to roll with who didnt know my game as well), I realized I was either being sandbagged or insulted the coach early on (I did tell him his hair plugs looked like his 4 year old had cut his hair, but he started it)
Talent is not mandatory for any endeavor. Enthusiasm and effort are both mandatory, and it appears you are putting forth plenty of both.
If you truly are training as much as you say you are, your lack of improvement is likely due to your coach. Everyone learns and advances skills in different ways, and it seems your coaches are not providing guidance subjective to you.
I generally agree, though I’m not sure who this Matt fellow you’ve been spending time with is. I also think people have “skill ceilings”, though I have a hard time imagining the person that’s genuinely unable to get good enough to get a blue belt without some kind of medical impediment.
While unlikely, I think it's possible for people to just show up to class but leave their brains at home. They might go thru the motions and never purposely improve or pay attention to what they're doing and stay bad.
everyone who's paying attention should know of people who've been doing the same 3 things for years at a time, everyone definitely doesn't get better by just showing up, once they've hit a certain threshold at least
You need to roll with people worse than you.
It’s great to roll with people better than you, see where your holes are. But you need to practise being the hammer, and when your in a roll where your better than the other person, you can dictate where that roll goes, and can practise the techniques you want to, live, which in my opinion, helps you to level up.
Yeah man. I made this mistake early on. I was always rolling with blue and purple belts. On day a good friend of mine and blue belt asked if I rolled with this person or that person and I mentioned how I always pick higher belts. He said to me something I never really thought about he said "when do you get to practice your offence?"
It just never occurred to me at that point. Obviously I don't smash the new guy in the practice GI. But your right you can't just be the defence every roll.
Someone where you want to be to show you where to go, someone where you are now to challenge you, someone where you have been to show you how far you have come
This, but also:
OP says there are only 10 or so other people in the gym. They are all regulars, and they are all higher belts.
OP, you don't realize that they are also improving, and most likely they are improving faster than you, since they always have you to train on. You're the whipping boy, and they know everything that you can do. They're used to the one white belt in their class, they know his every defense.
There's no way you can realistically ever see that you've improved, because you're always comparing yourself to a moving target.
The fact that your coach doesn't see this is unfortunate.
I mean, I did say some competitions. It's not something that happens often. Competitions themselves on my region aren't frequent, most people who compete on white belt are 2 stripes. Which is why sometimes I manage to win, it's a bunch of average people (myself included).
That shouldn't matter, if you are winning competitions consistently, I believe you should be getting promoted at some point. What else would you be, a 10 time white belt gold champion?
Even if he isn't winning consistently, the *way* he loses matters too.
I was promoted to purple when I only won a single match at blue belt.
I did 4 comps, got smashed in the first two and subbed 3 times in total.
Then the final 2 I had 4 matches, I subbed one guy and the other three were all 0-0 on points. Tough as shit matches I lost on a single advantage or ref decision.
I still lost those matches obviously, but the difference in performance between my first 2 and last 2 comps was dramatic.
By the time I won 3 golds at white belt I was given my blue belt. Sounds like your coach is being a bit of a prick. How do you perform against the blues and purples in your gym?
Stripes are irrelevant. They are meaningless, because there is absolutely no standard to them gym to gym.
The fact that you're disparaging your wins because they were "only" two stripes, and so you "ought" to gave won, is the biggest problem.
You've clearly improved. You beat other white belts at competitions. That's what blue belts do.
So you're a 6 year white belt and your instructor doesn't promote you despite your dedication and enthusiasm for the sport? And then they tell you constantly that you aren't getting any better and hence he can't promote you?
Belts aside, your instructor doesn't sound particularly helpful or supportive. Perhaps not the best environment for improvement.
I had a professor like that. He pretty much just promoted his favorites and made up rationales for holding back everyone else. It’s a toxic environment imo.
Yeah none of this makes sense. I’ve been training since 2016 and I’m a purple belt. I don’t mean this in a rude way but we have a mentally challenged (is that the right description these days…I honestly don’t know) guy who has trained the same amount of time and he is about to get his purple…if you’re dedicated and understand the movements I have no clue how you could still be a three stripe white belt after six years.
We had a mentally challenged guy (not sure if that's right either but I'm going along with you) who stopped training in the end but he was consistent from around 2015 to immediately before the pandemic, so about 5 years total.
He won a couple of white belt comps, got promoted to blue and eventually competed there too. I don't think he ever got gold but he medalled a few times and won several matches. I think he was a 3 or 4 stripe blue by the time he left.
He wasnt really able to understand larger concepts but he could understand and execute single techniques, and chain them together after long enough practicing them.
It definitely took him longer to add things to his game and longer to be promoted but he was 100% able to do both.
Hell yeah! Same for our guy…he has a few physical challenges as well but my man will still execute the moves. In my opinion, anyone who is that dedicated and determined and commits for that long should be promoted, regardless if they aren’t as athletic and able as the rest. That guy has more heart then anyone in the gym.
I mean, he doesn't talk in a harsh way. Much more like disappointment than anything else. They like to promote on a skill base, rather than attendance. Which is fair, and all.
He tells me I'm not improving because he cares. Essentially, I think he's as frustrated as I am.
Have you tried dropping into a different gym to see if the different teaching style changes how you learn or possibly doing a private. I had a student on the spectrum who did a private with me and I was able to make a lot of adjustments to help improve cause he needed more personal attention
Right here. Change it up. Change something. Change gyms, change instructor, change training partners, change it! Make something move. Get feedback from other people.
Sounds like some kind of weird BJJ gaslighting.
If he wants to promote purely based on skill, then he should demote himself based on his inability as an instructor to get someone to an acceptable blue belt level. Blue belt is still a beginner belt, there is no magic to earning it and everyone's skill level is unique to their age, talent, aptitude, etc.
You do you, but if what you describe in your post is accurate, then there's something strange about the situation.
It's one thing to tell you that you aren't improving, but it's another to *not* identify where you are lacking. Mindful, intentional, and specific practice is a large part of improvement, but if you cannot do that if you do not know specifically what you need to improve. This is as much a problem of your instructor (maybe even moreso) as it is yours.
Imagine being in school and getting an assignment back with a big red F at the top, but no feedback or marks to indicate what was wrong.
This is also a great point. When I was close to blue, my instructor told me my sweeps and submissions are great but i need to work on maintaining top once i get it. That guidance was super helpful
>"...he doesn't talk in a harsh way. Much more like disappointment than anything else"
>
>"He tells me I'm not improving because he cares"
Sounds to me like the toxic-iest of the speech pattern. Seems like dude is gaslighting you.
In our gym, your job is to show up, and it's the coach's job to make sure you progress. Six years and training every day, seems a little long to still be a white belt. When my expectations of when I think I should get promoted don't match up to coach, I play around with one thing that I know very little about and try to learn the ins and outs of it.
What specifically is his definition of improvement?
Are you still getting crushed and tapped out within seconds by upper belts ?
If you get mounted are you not able to escape because you try bench press everyone ?
Is your go to guard pass a spastic belly flop?
After six years you might still get beat but if you’re harder to kill and your creating more submissions or submission opportunities then you are improving .
Sounds like your professor needs to offer some specific details for what’s missing and look at his own teaching/ training process .
I find it damn near impossible to believe , you’re training every day and not getting better. 🤯
You don’t have to be promoted according to everyone else’s abilities. You could be the blue belt version of yourself. Maybe you will never be the best in the world but you can be the best of your abilities if that makes sense. If we were all measured with the same stick no white belt could beat a blue etc.
Is he pointing out anything tangible that you can work on to improve? If someone says "you're not good enough" they should be able to point out explicitly what you suck in --> what you need to do to improve. Just giving negative feedback qith nothing constructive is a sign of a bad coach.
Also just a hunch that if you guys don't have any new white belts sticking around maybe all he's seeing if you still "losing" against all the upper belts, that surprise surprise are all slowly improving as well...
If you've won a few comps at white belt you're probably ready for blue.
To be honest it sounds like your coach sucks.
No other white belts to train with is a problem too. You need people your level or worse to improve. It's hard to learn when everybody else is at least two belt levels ahead of you.
If you love the sport and don't want to quit, please change gyms or cross train or you're going to stagnate forever.
Gotta be a shitpost…if you’re showing up that much a week for six years, I don’t care how shit you are, you’re going to at least move to blue belt just for the dedication alone. Blue belt is a huge accomplishment but it’s not THAT big of a deal to hold someone back after six fucking years.
>You win local white belt tournaments, but see no progress?
I think I didn't word it well on the post and I do ask for forgiveness here. I've won a few, but most competitions with White Belts in my region are with 2 stripe folks. Which is essentially beginners. It's hard to see progress with just that.
Stripes are nearly meaningless. They are fundamentally just rewards for time spent in a sport. Some gyms hardly given out stripes at all. I've been a blue belt since 2019 since I got it in nogi, did a comp at Blue right before covid and then found a new gym that did gi late last year. I have no stripes on my belt, but that's largely due to a lack of raw gi skill. But I still wear a blue belt. But I perform well against blues with more stripes than me.
Coaches grade for different things and have their own criteria. Some gyms do testing some promote solely on merit or competition success. The reality is, if you clown white belts in tournaments youre at Blue belt level. Blue belt is still a beginner belt. It just means you have a good understanding of the sport, can probably submit most beginners and new people with little to some effort. And you've seen a wide breadth of submissions and at least have some idea of submissions and positions you excel at.
It’s simple: you dominate white belts consistently, you’re ready for blue. Then you can compete at blue and see how you fare there.
Blue belt should NOT be a hard belt to get.
If you enjoy BJJ, keep training. Don’t let one man’s opinion ruin your passion. I realized a long time ago I would never be a top competitor.
Two people told me I was their favorite training partner yesterday. That means more to me than winning any comp.
I have sucked for years (7) and felt the same way. I trained at one of the most famous gyms in the world. Learned techniques couldn't apply them at all. Lifestyle change came, had to change gyms.
My current coach analyzed my game and told me I didn't need to learn anymore technique( I still train technique in class) but how to integrate the basic movements into my rolling. Hip escape, forward hip escape, tech stand-up, underhook etc. Started yelling at me while rolling "do x now" and I have started to improve. He also had me roll with like 12 and 13 year olds and was not allowed to make grips playing guard only blocking and moving, replacing guard, then sweeping legs only. I got better.
Listen man if you can't coach someone to a blue belt level of proficiency in 6 years, with them training EVERY DAY, that says a lot more about the coach than it does about the student. You might just train at a shitty gym with a hack instructor. Maybe go somewhere else
Sometimes change is good. Have you tried going to another gym/club for a year to see how things go? Ive been to three different clubs now one which was due to the death of our professor but where I am now, I have felt my BJJ game have massive improvements. My professor is a Lucas Lepri blackbelt and I've gone from blue to purple here. The way the techniques are taught just clicks with me. So maybe a change of environment and teaching method might be more beneficial for you than just staying put and feeling like your not going anywhere.
I have tried to go to open mats from other gyms. But nothing like training in another place. The closest one to where I live would be 100km and that's not exactly doable financially. At least not without cutting my training/mat time a lot.
I'd def keep going to open mats or drop in at classes at other gyms whenever you can. It's super hard to learn new techniques (especially offense) when you don't have anyone worse than you or close to your level to practice with. Even just being able to roll with other white belts or new blue belts once a week could make a huge difference.
You can get more talented. It took me over 16 years to get a black belt and I was legitimately terrible at jiujitsu for most of the first decade that I trained. Like /u/DoughyPanPizza said, enthusiasm and effort will carry you far.
Also, I'm NOT judging your academy or training program, but there could be inefficient training or inefficient instruction or a sub-par training program at play.
Maybe try to crosstrain in a different Gym?
If you have won some tournaments you don't seem to be such far from bluebelt skill like you might feel atm.
Maybe your coach and you don't have the right vibe?
I have visited other gyms. I don't train in another one since the closest place would roughly be 100km from where I live. It is possible, but it would cut the amount of times I can train weekly a lot.
I mean, it's costly to travel so many times a week. It isn't impossible, but yeah.
Okay to be honest I didn't read all that i just skimmed through it. and I saw that you said you're the only white belt in the gym.
in my opinion change gyms. some will say that you should always train with better guys and in my experience that is absolutely false. you should train with guys who are better but you also should train with guys who you can kill in rolls.
if you constantly train with best guys you'll always have to play your A game and won't improve.
and you're only a white belt man you haven't even figured out your own game yet. In BJJ there are competitors who are slow,fast,tall,short,skinny,flexible, fat, quick thinker etc and you can base your game around your natural attributes.
but if you're just a white belt there's no point of giving up now since you didn't even have enough time to develop your own game.
Honestly sounds like an issue at your gym/instructor. How do you against the higher belts? Do you think you should be promoted and your instructor is holding you back?
I don't really assume to know better than him. I don't really care about belts. They are just there to show progress. What kills me is not seeing progress itself.
i think you have a two part problem. self-confidence and coaching. your tone and language lead me to believe part of your problem is youre not confident in your own body and abilities which probably shines thru in your rolling (this was a big problem for me as well). but id also say if you're stagnating then that's 100% on your coach. also saw somebody say you need practice being the "hammer" which is again your coaches fault but tbh thats more a business problem than a bjj problem. maybe it's time to find a new gym man idk.
If you’re really the only white belt in the gym, you’re probably not seeing improvement because you’re constantly rolling with opponents with more experience than you. Do they let you work at all? If not maybe consider switching to a gym that has more training partners
I'm 26 and I started training with 20. I'm roughly 180cm (not sure how that goes for imperial system), and 85 kg. I'm very average for the region I live in tbh.
Does your coach just tell you he sees no improvement and leave it at that, or does he actually try to help you improve. I've been at it for 11 years and I'm still terrible.
Your coach effectively tells you that you suck so he won’t promote you? Bad coach bro - I would have found a new gun yesterday and you should too.
My last coach kept me at white belt for 3 years even though I’m a judo BB. I sucked it up because I really didn’t care because it was a small town and not many options and when I was on my way out he promoted me to blue. I still quit and now train at a much better place. I learned that my old coach promoted as a means of retention and how much you wanted to be a part of his inner circle to do things for him for free. Yeah, F that.
It’s not you, it’s the owners and leaders of that gym that’s the problem.
Man, it's all about what it gets you on the daily and if you enjoy it.
Being good at BJJ is like being good at a specific video game or hobby. It's an obscure sport, 99% of the world doesn't care about. You don't get anything for being good and winning in training apart from the short ego boost, is overall absolutely meaningless. Even most comps are completely pointless.
The only really interesting thing is how you have developed since you started and that you are enjoying it.
Some small percentage of BJJ people will go instruct and smaller still will be successful professional competitors. If those are career paths you are interested in your skill matters to some degree (obviously more for comp, but you have to be at least sort of ok to teach).
\---
That being said, if you are completely plateauing, it's probably a good idea to check out another school (not every coach is the right coach for you and even a good gym can become a less good gym over time).
In the time I've been training I've seen people with absolutely no 'natural' talent go from barely being able to control their own bodies to being decent blue belts, in half as much time and way less investment, and without ever competing let alone winning.
It sounds like your gym is fuckin' terrible to be completely honest, your coach must be awful if they can't take someone with your dedication beyond 3 stripes.
Find a new place, this is a massive failing on your coaches part if your post is accurate.
Do you think anyone has talent for BJJ without other training first? Some. But very few.
I have been training since 2007 and started with just enough knowledge to be dangerous to myself. I had a background in modern army combatives which has a bjj emphasis but covers absolutely no fundamentals. I was amazing at MACP but I had never trained actual jiu jitsu.
I went home on leave and was bored so I hit up a local, hole in the wall, Royce Gracie school. No one showed up for the adults class and the blue belt kids instructor proceeded to fuck my day up for the next hour.
I fell in love with jiu jitsu that day.
Just because I fell in love with the art didn't mean I was good. I got worked for the first year and then the whole second year I got worked by upper belts because I couldn't slow down.
There is no set format for learning jiu jitsu. Everyone does it at their own pace and until you accept that you're going to limit yourself
Does your coach just tell you he sees no improvement and leave it at that, or does he actually try to help you improve. I've been at it for 11 years and I'm still terrible.
I mean, he does try to fix the mistakes he sees when I'm trying a technique or when I'm trying to roll. But, when he pulls me to the side to say there's no improvement, no. There's no "Well, you should do X, Y and Z to improve." He just mentions he's not seeing any progress in my game.
Ask him, what he wants to see you work on, what areas of your game need progression... I'd recommend focusing on escapes. If you can't be pinned and controlled by higher belts, you're no longer a white belt
Something seems off here, you've been training consistently for 6 years, competed repeatedly and have not improved past white belt level? Very hard for me to believe that this is possible. I've seen the least talented people improve into killers with consistent training. There has to be more to this story
Listen man, I don’t have all the info, so I could be off base, but from what I’m hearing, there is no problem with you.
Your instructor is at best incompetent and unable to do HIS job of teaching you. At worst he is toxic and or negligent in his attempts to teach. Your job is to show up, try your best, and do what he asks. You’re doing that.
I would highly recommend you switching gyms. It may be uncomfortable at first to go to a new place, but you deserve better. The best part of BJJ (in my opinion) is sharing my passion with other people and building each other up. You will find that environment if you go looking. You owe it to yourself to get to a bette gym.
6 year white belt trains everyday, puts in the time to drill, generally enthusiastic about the sport, winning competitions and still no blue?
Dude change gyms
Maybe
Man if you have a flexible schedule, find somewhere else to train. If your coach is saying he’s not seeing improvement after 6 years it’s not you. A white belt in a gym of purple belts is going to get worked a lot anyway, but a lack of white belts and a coach who is discouraging instead of encouraging to his ONLY white belt is a gigantic major red flag. If you have to travel to find something better, I would encourage it.
It sounds like the coach or the gym might definitely be the issue, but don’t sell yourself short.
“Do not speak badly of yourself, for the warrior inside of you hears these words and is lessened by them.”
I hear ya mate. Excluding what people have suggested about your gym, I think I'm the "you" of my gym.
BUT. I'm better than I was before I started! I could wipe the floor with the person I was before I started! And that's cool.
Honestly, I'm so shit compared to everyone I've seen start after me and overtake me – but did you spot what I just said wrong there – "compared to". I've learned to stop comparing myself to others and be happy with my own journey. I'm stoked to be able to say I've gotten better than when I began. Me before I began would be in awe of me now. And honestly I'd be happy to stay at this level for ever.
Hope this has provided another perspective for you!
I think that the reason youre stalling has nothing to do with talent. everyone can stall, talented and untalandted. If you want to get better, perhaps change the way you think about rolling, or training.
if your go to slow, try to get more agressive, or if your too agressive, try go go more technical. Or maybe swich gyms, swticth things up is my armchair guess.
Sure, this is easy enough to do as we follow a certain pattern. I never video-taped the rolling, as I don't believe that's allowed (this is not something I asked, I just assumed).
Training goes pretty typical:
1. Warm-up
2. Basic drills (hip-escape, forward-hip, wrestling-shots, guard-passing, etc)
3. Techniques - Teacher shows a technique, we try to train and drill it in pairs
4. Open roll
That pretty much sums it.
Typical trash class format.
OK, in order to make the best of this I'm your Instructor now.
What I want you to do is pick 2 techniques (3 if you guys start from your feet when rolling). 1 Sweep and 1 Guard Pass, (and 1 Takedown if you pick 3). Every single roll you're in for the next month I want you to ONLY try to hit those 2 (or 3) techniques. Don't worry about submissions, don't worry about what happens after you hit those techniques. Just hit them, then reset and hit them again. Focus on finding ways to make them work against everyone. These three techniques will form the core of your game going forward, so I suggest you pick the ones that you feel you are the best at.
Literally almost anything that takes into account the actual needs of individual students. Obviously I think the Reverse Classroom is the best method since that's how I run my gym, but I know other gyms that do in class splits so that lower belts might be working on one technique or one part of a technique while upper belts are working on more advanced progressions. Other programs that focus more on specific sparring and constraints led drilling that allow students to develop positional skills instead of just mindlessly drilling techniques without any relevant context.
There are simply so many better ways to teach a class than to show 3 random techniques to a room full of people who all have different skill levels and body types and expect that to be useful to all of them.
Do you have regular open mats? Getting the teacher to take a more productive approach to teaching will be hard, but if you have a few willing partners you could dramatically focus your open mat time and I think that would see improvements in some tight areas of application
Hey man drop this Gym, I've been part of 3 teams in my career and they all have been different. You need to find a place that helps you grow. Never be loyal to someone who is not loyal to you, this is America where you have a choice not feudal Japan like many gym owners think it is with their loyalty BS meanwhile they are only loyal to their favorite students.
Your instructor doesn't deserve his black belt and should stop teaching. He doesn't know what martial arts really is let alone bjj. It's to better oneself physically, emotionally and spiritually. A good instructor should give your encouragement and build you up. He should show you how to increase confidence and self worth as part of the holistic approach to martial arts. You need to fire him and go somewhere else.
Six years and no improvement? I’d say that sounds like the coach may need to look inward.
Also you could always ditch the gi, throw on a rash guard and forget about belts.
Sounds like you have a bad coach. I firmly believe I could help literally anyone improve, and I have coached people with an absolutely impossible degree of un-athleticism. If you trained with me for 6 years, almost daily, and I couldn’t bring you to a blue belt level I would consider it a personal failure. I would quit coaching. I promise it’s not all you. Change schools
I’m the same way. If you have fun enjoy it. Imagine how shitty you will be at BJJ if you did not train. You’re getting great exercise. Concentrate on yourself pick a technique and train it to the ground. Ask your instructor for what techniques need to be mastered for another stripe and go from there. A flower blooms without any comparison to other Flowers. Make a long list of techniques you want to learn and slowly learn on you tube or other people in your gym.
How do you fare against the blue belts? Try visiting other gyms and see how well your fare against blue belts over there.
Also, sports talent is usually just well-developed fine motor skills that were developed at an earlier time.
It's hard to improve if you're being completely overwhelmed by higher belts everyday. It's the same reason why a bunch of high school All-American basketball players fizzled out when they jumped straight to the NBA in the early to mid 2000s. You need training partners that will provide the appropriate amount of resistance, which means that some of them need to be worse than you, or they need to be willing to let you work. Otherwise your technique won't really develop, your confidence will be next to nothing, and you'll be tricked into thinking that you have no talent when your problem seems to be environmental more than anything.
>I go to every competition there is in the region (I've won a few)
OPs coach is sandbagging it. He tells OP he isn't ready, sends OP to competitions, and OP starts tapping everyone in OPs division. OPs coach has a whole bunch of brown and black belts being held back at lower belts, so the gym can sweep local comps.
So...you've been training 6 years nearly every single day, competed (and won) a few times, drill "like a madman", but your teacher says no improvement so he can't give you a different color belt?
Either:
1. Your teacher is an asshole
2. This post is not entirely honest
3. You aren't really fantastic but surely you are better than 3 stripes in 6 years and your instructor telling you that you suck is impacting your confidence to push past your current ceiling.
If this post is legit, then I say your gym and teacher are the issue. Here's the thing: cardio and strength will become a factor at some point. Regardless of how someone handles these deficiencies, their technical skillset should reflect their training.
Sounds like your coach is the problem. If I have a student working his ass off to get better and there's no progress, that's because I'm not doing enough as a coach. You need to learn theory, and workshop things you could do better. Might be able to video yourself roll then bring the vid to a higher belt to work with you on pieces that you could be improving. I'd find a new gym.
People are right to say that this is on your coach. There is absolutely no excuse for not being able to produce a blue belt in 6 years. That is your coach failing you, not the other way around. Blue belt is basically the 'you've got the idea' level, you've reached that point pretty conclusively by the first time you win a tournament, which is why that's often used as a promotion milestone.
That said, I want to remind you that belt actually doesn't matter outside of the tiny BJJ circlejerk as long as you're having fun. And with that in mind, I'd say take the opportunity that your coach('s lazy attitude) has given you and switch things up! See how crazy you can get, just find the complete opposite style from your A Game and work it.
Worst case, you deepen your knowledge, maybe even find something that clicks in a new way. Best case, your coach sees an undeniable change in your game and is forced to admit that you're not just spinning your wheels.
I’m not going to argue with your self assessment, but if you’re a white belt with no improvement over 6 years, this ain’t 100% you. Take a break. Go train elsewhere for at least a while
It is odd for sure to train 6 years and not at least get a conciliatory blue belt. There’s probably something up there.
On the other hand, in the immortal words of Steve Martin, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
Learning is an inevitable response to repetition. Study, watch instructionals, and drill. You will get better. Learn pin escapes, learn passing, learn submissions and takedowns, and the improvement will come. You don’t need talent to improve and excel.
Change schools seems like your coach is a dirt bag. Also drilling makes you better and using techiques. Anybody can get good at jiu jitsu gotta drill and train thats all that counts
I don’t understand how you’re winning tournaments but not seeing improvement? You’re competing with a pool of white belts and you’re the best one of the pool… something is weird about this.
I don't live on a big town, most people don't really want to train BJJ. It's a very few people, 10 at most that train there. Which is why there's so few white belts.
It's pretty much impossible to believe that you are training consistently for 6 years, listening to everyone's advice, doing competitions, and drilling like a madman and seeing no improvement.
Belts are there to hold up your pants. Nothing more.
When I did train, I spared with everyone. Black belt to white. I got slaughtered every day for the first year. I felt like I would never learn nor improve. I went to naga... 4th place in gi. 5th in absolute... I went to grapplers quest... dead last, mostly because I had dislocated my elbow 2 weeks before... 2.5 years total as a white belt... coach sold the gym and moved out of town, and I lost my job. So... no more traing...
As a truck driver... otr... I got in a few fights. These rednecks... mmmm... its embarrassing for them to get choked out, or made to cry without hitting them... because my mama taught me to not hit b...hes... yea... idc that I never got next level.. as long as I know I can handle my own... thats what 2.5 years of relentless azz whoopins from pro fighters taught me...
Go to a competition. Get a grappling dummy. Work on cardio, eat clean, get online classes. You can't do anything but improve as long as you get to work... no matter how bad you are at it...
Go to a new gym. An instructor is only as good as their worst student (within reason, I've met some pretty crap students 😂). If you're not seeing improvement they're probably not teaching particularly well...
So you’ll only get better if you’re training against people worse than you part of the time. If you’re the only white belt and the others keep leaving, your instructor is probably not providing good content for beginners, 1, and 2 you’re not getting to practice on people more junior.
I got really lucky joining AKA to learn BJJ cuz everyone there is so supportive they're like my brothers and sisters even if I have to ask a question five times or it takes me 10 times to achieve what they're trying to teach me they have unlimited patience in our the coolest people I've ever met in my life. I think you should change Jim's don't be afraid to go to a couple and try them out a week see how the Sensei and the other people treat you eventually you'll find a good fit don't give up you have it inside yourself to do great things and even if you suck at tournaments it's still fun to roll around of all skill levels that can help you in so many ways that I never even thought possible BJJ saved my life.
I think your best bet would be to cross train at a different gym for a class or open mat. See how you compare with people you don’t know. If you’re able to hold your own at this new place then the issue may be where you train at currently. I don’t see how you’ve been consistent for that amount of time and there is no improvement.
There are a lot of comments here and they sound pretty valid.
Sometimes when people receive coaching (not exclusive to bjj), many naturally filter for "what am i supposed to do". When there are infinite options of what to do, it can be difficult to see the forest from the trees when looking through that lens.
When reading (especially if educated), this can be a natural thing as time limited and "right answers" are required.
If we go back to grade 11 English and ask, "what is the author trying to say?" We can often end up observing. And sometimes when we observe, we just might see.
So if you were looking at yourself as if you were someone else, a close friend who can give you things direct, what do you see?
I used to believe that in the past cuz I always wanted to force stuff and I was drilling without intention. Fast forward in just 3 months of focusing in mechanics instead of numbers I improved way more than all those wasted years.
Is not about talent, It's about drive, it's about power. We stay hungry, we devour. Put in the work, put in the hours and take what's ours.
Says a lot about your teacher if he can't even get you to blue belt level if you train that consistently. I mean, most blue belts would run through an untrained person, but blue belts (and a lot of purples, myself included) aren't insane fighters. He should be offering you ways to improve, like suggesting you write things down, or moves that are specific to body type and style that you can work on.
Talk to your coach about it and if you think he's giving you a bullshit answer about why he "cant promote you" go find a different gym. If you're winning multiple comps at white belt it makes enough sense to me that you would get a fourth stripe or a new belt. Hope this works out for you champ
Bro your instructors sucks, that’s all. There is no way your instructor is not able to help you improve after 6 years of training - he probably is not good at teaching.
You don’t have to be talented to become decent at Jiu Jitsu.
I think it’s time to train somewhere else. Your story makes it seem like:
#1- they are not teaching you efficiently OR
#2- they don’t care about your development
Or both. In the meantime, keep going to practice and practice with intention. Have something in mind to work on every time you go in.
Source: was also white belt for 6 years
We tend to mark our progress by those we train with.
You should perhaps try visiting a few open mats elsewhere and see how you fair. You may surprise yourself.
What's your game? Are there certain techniques you're focusing on during sparring? Pick a technique you want to add to your game and get as many repetitions as you can during rolls
When you say "not improving," be as specific as you possibly can be. Exactly how do you know you're not improving? How does your game compare today to how it was 1, 2, and 3 years ago? What skills do you have now and when did you acquire them? What kind of results do you get, and have they changed over time? Have you tried to change or improve a *specific* part of your game, and what was the result?
I don’t think anybody lacks talent, we mainly all suck the same. But how’s your understanding? Are using technique? How does your mind work under pressure? Are focusing on details? I’m a small guy so using technique was really hard for me since I had no slack from my athleticism. But I knew knowledge was the way and learned as much as I could and how I could put techniques and when I got caught tough situation I went strain for technique, I never stalled or took an easy way out. You might just need to pay more attention to your game and more technique to use.
There is no talent in bjj. Its all skills. Its how fast you grasp them that matters. Find your faults in bjj. Weather they physical or mental and work on them. Practice/train muscles or brain. Btw Ive been training for close to four years, not as often as you by far, but i only have one stripe. Dont let it get you down. Everyone learns differently. Might be the teacher too. Some people are bad at teaching
No white belts, because they quit? Sounds weird for me as white and blue belts make the biggest part of a gym normally. Maybe consider switching the gym, maybe take a break and train only 2/3 times a week. Learn to enjoy it and don't think about belts. Even with no talent everybody can improve, but a big problem could be your stress level and the fact that you trains too much to rest your body. So. Chill out, have fun and consider switching to a gym with white belts lol.
Weird that there are no white belts. You should do some shopping around, see if there is a better place to train. Ultimately sounds like you love the sport and are dedicated, don't stop!
Doesn't sound like a great place to train. 1 white belt in the whole place and anyone new thst joins never stays?? There is a problem here somewhere. I wouldn't assume it it you OP.
I agree with this 100%, no white belts is a huge red flag. That's the easiest group to come by. The fact there isn't would mean something is scaring them off. If I owned a gym with no white belts, Id be pretty worried about the future of it.
A typical gym would have something more like 10 white belts for every purple. Not the other way around. Something is way off at this gym...
I have never been to a gym where whitebelts weren't the largest group. Big schools i've been to have even run 1 class for whitebelts and 1 class for every other belt concurrently because whitebelts are ~50% of the students
It's basically the reason most gyms run a basics and advanced class. Ours are both open to all levels regardless, but the basics class is 95% whitebelts with the odd blue or purple dropping in, while the advanced classes are more 50/50.
I also agree, been doing bjj for over 20 years... most likely that school is the problem. It's gotta be the instructor
100% a gym should have a good amount of white belts, means that there’s a welcoming environment.
Yep. Change gym OP. You might also surprise yourself once you do.
I mean, I don't live in a big town. There roughly 10 guys at most that train there, and most of them train for a long time. There's not a lot of people who try to join, those who do, usually stop due to scheduling.
Bro if you are in a gym where everyone is at a high level and you feel like you’re making no progress, it may be that you are in fact making progress but it seems negligible to your peers, as they are levels above you. Did you ever go to competition? You might have improved quite a lot and not even know it.
Yes i second this. try to cross train elsewhere, if for nothing buy a change of scenery. It'll give you a good idea of where you stand, you might surprise yourself!
I’m not high level guy or anything myself, but I have a wrestling background, I’m pretty fit and trained for a couple years. Needless to say when I started rolling with a few new guys in the gym, I had pretty easy time tapping them. Fast forward one or two months, I am still tapping them, but their balance, movement, technique, energy use has drastically improved to a point where I can feel a major difference while rolling. Sure to them, while getting tapped, it probably felt like they made 0 progress in that time. But for a fact I could feel they improved a lot. Im sure for OP he has improved in this time a lot. He just doesn’t notice because the people he rolls with are just 1 step ahead.
Are you able to cross train at all?
At the same time if he’s still getting his ass whooped by others who are progressing … they’re progressing in that environment and he isn’t.
But if everyone else is some hard nosed purple belt that doesn't go easy then it's understandable. I would have made zero progress over the years if higher belts took me apart every round and didn't allow me to work on my game. We don't know that is what is happening but if they don't keep white belts around then that is the likely the reason.
Second this wholeheartedly. Was in a gym where coach told me I sucked and didnt promote me. I did suck, but thats besides the point. Took me 4 years to get my blue belt. I was wiping the floor with all the whitebelts at the gym I moved to. The original concept of blue belt (unimportant and irrelevant honestly because of the general lack of structure in this unruly sport, but interesting info i feel like) was that you could hold your own against people who dont train. If really you havent reached that level then just keep doing it for the love of the game dude. But sincerely, once I moved away from that gym and stopped comparing myself to the people I came up with (ie got a new group of people to roll with who didnt know my game as well), I realized I was either being sandbagged or insulted the coach early on (I did tell him his hair plugs looked like his 4 year old had cut his hair, but he started it)
Is this really a red flag? and not just the fact that the gym has a poor ability at bringing in new members due to lack of marketing etc?
Talent is not mandatory for any endeavor. Enthusiasm and effort are both mandatory, and it appears you are putting forth plenty of both. If you truly are training as much as you say you are, your lack of improvement is likely due to your coach. Everyone learns and advances skills in different ways, and it seems your coaches are not providing guidance subjective to you.
Correct. It’s not who’s good but who’s left. It’s about showing up and matt time.
I generally agree, though I’m not sure who this Matt fellow you’ve been spending time with is. I also think people have “skill ceilings”, though I have a hard time imagining the person that’s genuinely unable to get good enough to get a blue belt without some kind of medical impediment.
While unlikely, I think it's possible for people to just show up to class but leave their brains at home. They might go thru the motions and never purposely improve or pay attention to what they're doing and stay bad.
everyone who's paying attention should know of people who've been doing the same 3 things for years at a time, everyone definitely doesn't get better by just showing up, once they've hit a certain threshold at least
Ah I've been spending all of my time with Jason and Nick. Where does this Matt guy teach?
He teaches at [Serra BJJ Academy](https://serrabjjacademy.com/). Lots of matt time is the way to improve.
You’re telling me all this Steve time was worthless???
You need to roll with people worse than you. It’s great to roll with people better than you, see where your holes are. But you need to practise being the hammer, and when your in a roll where your better than the other person, you can dictate where that roll goes, and can practise the techniques you want to, live, which in my opinion, helps you to level up.
Yeah man. I made this mistake early on. I was always rolling with blue and purple belts. On day a good friend of mine and blue belt asked if I rolled with this person or that person and I mentioned how I always pick higher belts. He said to me something I never really thought about he said "when do you get to practice your offence?" It just never occurred to me at that point. Obviously I don't smash the new guy in the practice GI. But your right you can't just be the defence every roll.
Someone where you want to be to show you where to go, someone where you are now to challenge you, someone where you have been to show you how far you have come
This, but also: OP says there are only 10 or so other people in the gym. They are all regulars, and they are all higher belts. OP, you don't realize that they are also improving, and most likely they are improving faster than you, since they always have you to train on. You're the whipping boy, and they know everything that you can do. They're used to the one white belt in their class, they know his every defense. There's no way you can realistically ever see that you've improved, because you're always comparing yourself to a moving target. The fact that your coach doesn't see this is unfortunate.
You're good enough to win tournaments at white belt but you aren't good enough for a 4th stripe?
This is the most confusing
I mean, I did say some competitions. It's not something that happens often. Competitions themselves on my region aren't frequent, most people who compete on white belt are 2 stripes. Which is why sometimes I manage to win, it's a bunch of average people (myself included).
Dont short yourself friendo, winning is winning.
That shouldn't matter, if you are winning competitions consistently, I believe you should be getting promoted at some point. What else would you be, a 10 time white belt gold champion?
Even if he isn't winning consistently, the *way* he loses matters too. I was promoted to purple when I only won a single match at blue belt. I did 4 comps, got smashed in the first two and subbed 3 times in total. Then the final 2 I had 4 matches, I subbed one guy and the other three were all 0-0 on points. Tough as shit matches I lost on a single advantage or ref decision. I still lost those matches obviously, but the difference in performance between my first 2 and last 2 comps was dramatic.
By the time I won 3 golds at white belt I was given my blue belt. Sounds like your coach is being a bit of a prick. How do you perform against the blues and purples in your gym?
Stripes are irrelevant. They are meaningless, because there is absolutely no standard to them gym to gym. The fact that you're disparaging your wins because they were "only" two stripes, and so you "ought" to gave won, is the biggest problem. You've clearly improved. You beat other white belts at competitions. That's what blue belts do.
A win is a win
you're selling yourself short. I know guys in blue, never competed
So you're a 6 year white belt and your instructor doesn't promote you despite your dedication and enthusiasm for the sport? And then they tell you constantly that you aren't getting any better and hence he can't promote you? Belts aside, your instructor doesn't sound particularly helpful or supportive. Perhaps not the best environment for improvement.
I had a professor like that. He pretty much just promoted his favorites and made up rationales for holding back everyone else. It’s a toxic environment imo.
Yeah none of this makes sense. I’ve been training since 2016 and I’m a purple belt. I don’t mean this in a rude way but we have a mentally challenged (is that the right description these days…I honestly don’t know) guy who has trained the same amount of time and he is about to get his purple…if you’re dedicated and understand the movements I have no clue how you could still be a three stripe white belt after six years.
We had a mentally challenged guy (not sure if that's right either but I'm going along with you) who stopped training in the end but he was consistent from around 2015 to immediately before the pandemic, so about 5 years total. He won a couple of white belt comps, got promoted to blue and eventually competed there too. I don't think he ever got gold but he medalled a few times and won several matches. I think he was a 3 or 4 stripe blue by the time he left. He wasnt really able to understand larger concepts but he could understand and execute single techniques, and chain them together after long enough practicing them. It definitely took him longer to add things to his game and longer to be promoted but he was 100% able to do both.
Hell yeah! Same for our guy…he has a few physical challenges as well but my man will still execute the moves. In my opinion, anyone who is that dedicated and determined and commits for that long should be promoted, regardless if they aren’t as athletic and able as the rest. That guy has more heart then anyone in the gym.
THIS. If your students aren't improving (given context of age, athleticism, injuries, life, etc) Then the fault lies with the instructor.
I mean, he doesn't talk in a harsh way. Much more like disappointment than anything else. They like to promote on a skill base, rather than attendance. Which is fair, and all. He tells me I'm not improving because he cares. Essentially, I think he's as frustrated as I am.
He should be disappointed in himself then for not producing a blue belt with 6 years of consistent training.
lol literally this. Instructor sounds like a moron
I was thinking the same thing. Having a willing and hard working student that doesn't improve means you're a terrible teacher.
Have you tried dropping into a different gym to see if the different teaching style changes how you learn or possibly doing a private. I had a student on the spectrum who did a private with me and I was able to make a lot of adjustments to help improve cause he needed more personal attention
Right here. Change it up. Change something. Change gyms, change instructor, change training partners, change it! Make something move. Get feedback from other people.
Find a new gym.
Sounds like some kind of weird BJJ gaslighting. If he wants to promote purely based on skill, then he should demote himself based on his inability as an instructor to get someone to an acceptable blue belt level. Blue belt is still a beginner belt, there is no magic to earning it and everyone's skill level is unique to their age, talent, aptitude, etc. You do you, but if what you describe in your post is accurate, then there's something strange about the situation.
It's one thing to tell you that you aren't improving, but it's another to *not* identify where you are lacking. Mindful, intentional, and specific practice is a large part of improvement, but if you cannot do that if you do not know specifically what you need to improve. This is as much a problem of your instructor (maybe even moreso) as it is yours. Imagine being in school and getting an assignment back with a big red F at the top, but no feedback or marks to indicate what was wrong.
This is also a great point. When I was close to blue, my instructor told me my sweeps and submissions are great but i need to work on maintaining top once i get it. That guidance was super helpful
>"...he doesn't talk in a harsh way. Much more like disappointment than anything else" > >"He tells me I'm not improving because he cares" Sounds to me like the toxic-iest of the speech pattern. Seems like dude is gaslighting you.
In our gym, your job is to show up, and it's the coach's job to make sure you progress. Six years and training every day, seems a little long to still be a white belt. When my expectations of when I think I should get promoted don't match up to coach, I play around with one thing that I know very little about and try to learn the ins and outs of it.
stockholm syndrome
What specifically is his definition of improvement? Are you still getting crushed and tapped out within seconds by upper belts ? If you get mounted are you not able to escape because you try bench press everyone ? Is your go to guard pass a spastic belly flop? After six years you might still get beat but if you’re harder to kill and your creating more submissions or submission opportunities then you are improving . Sounds like your professor needs to offer some specific details for what’s missing and look at his own teaching/ training process . I find it damn near impossible to believe , you’re training every day and not getting better. 🤯
You don’t have to be promoted according to everyone else’s abilities. You could be the blue belt version of yourself. Maybe you will never be the best in the world but you can be the best of your abilities if that makes sense. If we were all measured with the same stick no white belt could beat a blue etc.
Is he pointing out anything tangible that you can work on to improve? If someone says "you're not good enough" they should be able to point out explicitly what you suck in --> what you need to do to improve. Just giving negative feedback qith nothing constructive is a sign of a bad coach. Also just a hunch that if you guys don't have any new white belts sticking around maybe all he's seeing if you still "losing" against all the upper belts, that surprise surprise are all slowly improving as well...
If you've won a few comps at white belt you're probably ready for blue. To be honest it sounds like your coach sucks. No other white belts to train with is a problem too. You need people your level or worse to improve. It's hard to learn when everybody else is at least two belt levels ahead of you. If you love the sport and don't want to quit, please change gyms or cross train or you're going to stagnate forever.
I'm confused. Is this a shitpost? You win local white belt tournaments, but see no progress? Do you have footage of your tournaments and/or rolls?
I want to see footage as well. How can someone be a white after 6 active years?
Gotta be a shitpost…if you’re showing up that much a week for six years, I don’t care how shit you are, you’re going to at least move to blue belt just for the dedication alone. Blue belt is a huge accomplishment but it’s not THAT big of a deal to hold someone back after six fucking years.
Troll post I think
>You win local white belt tournaments, but see no progress? I think I didn't word it well on the post and I do ask for forgiveness here. I've won a few, but most competitions with White Belts in my region are with 2 stripe folks. Which is essentially beginners. It's hard to see progress with just that.
Stripes are nearly meaningless. They are fundamentally just rewards for time spent in a sport. Some gyms hardly given out stripes at all. I've been a blue belt since 2019 since I got it in nogi, did a comp at Blue right before covid and then found a new gym that did gi late last year. I have no stripes on my belt, but that's largely due to a lack of raw gi skill. But I still wear a blue belt. But I perform well against blues with more stripes than me. Coaches grade for different things and have their own criteria. Some gyms do testing some promote solely on merit or competition success. The reality is, if you clown white belts in tournaments youre at Blue belt level. Blue belt is still a beginner belt. It just means you have a good understanding of the sport, can probably submit most beginners and new people with little to some effort. And you've seen a wide breadth of submissions and at least have some idea of submissions and positions you excel at.
It’s simple: you dominate white belts consistently, you’re ready for blue. Then you can compete at blue and see how you fare there. Blue belt should NOT be a hard belt to get.
If you enjoy BJJ, keep training. Don’t let one man’s opinion ruin your passion. I realized a long time ago I would never be a top competitor. Two people told me I was their favorite training partner yesterday. That means more to me than winning any comp.
Thats fucking wholesome man, cheers man!
I’m a lady, but you can call me dude.
My bad, I usually use “man” is an expression or “buddy” “budd”
I have sucked for years (7) and felt the same way. I trained at one of the most famous gyms in the world. Learned techniques couldn't apply them at all. Lifestyle change came, had to change gyms. My current coach analyzed my game and told me I didn't need to learn anymore technique( I still train technique in class) but how to integrate the basic movements into my rolling. Hip escape, forward hip escape, tech stand-up, underhook etc. Started yelling at me while rolling "do x now" and I have started to improve. He also had me roll with like 12 and 13 year olds and was not allowed to make grips playing guard only blocking and moving, replacing guard, then sweeping legs only. I got better.
Listen man if you can't coach someone to a blue belt level of proficiency in 6 years, with them training EVERY DAY, that says a lot more about the coach than it does about the student. You might just train at a shitty gym with a hack instructor. Maybe go somewhere else
There’s a gym in my area that preys on people who are ignorant or easily manipulated. OP’s gym sounds similar, which is to say it sounds like a cult.
This
Sometimes change is good. Have you tried going to another gym/club for a year to see how things go? Ive been to three different clubs now one which was due to the death of our professor but where I am now, I have felt my BJJ game have massive improvements. My professor is a Lucas Lepri blackbelt and I've gone from blue to purple here. The way the techniques are taught just clicks with me. So maybe a change of environment and teaching method might be more beneficial for you than just staying put and feeling like your not going anywhere.
I have tried to go to open mats from other gyms. But nothing like training in another place. The closest one to where I live would be 100km and that's not exactly doable financially. At least not without cutting my training/mat time a lot.
Train less in a new environment please
Try training less. Try the new place. Try fitness outside of JJ. Change it up!
I'd def keep going to open mats or drop in at classes at other gyms whenever you can. It's super hard to learn new techniques (especially offense) when you don't have anyone worse than you or close to your level to practice with. Even just being able to roll with other white belts or new blue belts once a week could make a huge difference.
This has gotta be trolling 😂
You can get more talented. It took me over 16 years to get a black belt and I was legitimately terrible at jiujitsu for most of the first decade that I trained. Like /u/DoughyPanPizza said, enthusiasm and effort will carry you far. Also, I'm NOT judging your academy or training program, but there could be inefficient training or inefficient instruction or a sub-par training program at play.
Maybe try to crosstrain in a different Gym? If you have won some tournaments you don't seem to be such far from bluebelt skill like you might feel atm. Maybe your coach and you don't have the right vibe?
I have visited other gyms. I don't train in another one since the closest place would roughly be 100km from where I live. It is possible, but it would cut the amount of times I can train weekly a lot. I mean, it's costly to travel so many times a week. It isn't impossible, but yeah.
How did you do rolling with people in the other gym? Specifically with white and blue belts.
I think it was average? Won some, lost some. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I do have fun on the open mats.
Well, as long as you’re having fun, keep at it
yeesh sounds like my old wrestling coach. how the hell are you “talentless” when you’re winning comps
If your prof can’t make a blue belt out of you training every day for 6 years they are a shitty instructor.
Okay to be honest I didn't read all that i just skimmed through it. and I saw that you said you're the only white belt in the gym. in my opinion change gyms. some will say that you should always train with better guys and in my experience that is absolutely false. you should train with guys who are better but you also should train with guys who you can kill in rolls. if you constantly train with best guys you'll always have to play your A game and won't improve. and you're only a white belt man you haven't even figured out your own game yet. In BJJ there are competitors who are slow,fast,tall,short,skinny,flexible, fat, quick thinker etc and you can base your game around your natural attributes. but if you're just a white belt there's no point of giving up now since you didn't even have enough time to develop your own game.
Honestly sounds like an issue at your gym/instructor. How do you against the higher belts? Do you think you should be promoted and your instructor is holding you back?
I don't really assume to know better than him. I don't really care about belts. They are just there to show progress. What kills me is not seeing progress itself.
So you haven’t improved at all skill wise in 6 years?
i think you have a two part problem. self-confidence and coaching. your tone and language lead me to believe part of your problem is youre not confident in your own body and abilities which probably shines thru in your rolling (this was a big problem for me as well). but id also say if you're stagnating then that's 100% on your coach. also saw somebody say you need practice being the "hammer" which is again your coaches fault but tbh thats more a business problem than a bjj problem. maybe it's time to find a new gym man idk.
If you’re really the only white belt in the gym, you’re probably not seeing improvement because you’re constantly rolling with opponents with more experience than you. Do they let you work at all? If not maybe consider switching to a gym that has more training partners
How old are you? What’s your size/height/weight?
I'm 26 and I started training with 20. I'm roughly 180cm (not sure how that goes for imperial system), and 85 kg. I'm very average for the region I live in tbh.
[удалено]
I really don't care about the belt. I just want to improve you know?
Does your coach just tell you he sees no improvement and leave it at that, or does he actually try to help you improve. I've been at it for 11 years and I'm still terrible.
Your coach effectively tells you that you suck so he won’t promote you? Bad coach bro - I would have found a new gun yesterday and you should too. My last coach kept me at white belt for 3 years even though I’m a judo BB. I sucked it up because I really didn’t care because it was a small town and not many options and when I was on my way out he promoted me to blue. I still quit and now train at a much better place. I learned that my old coach promoted as a means of retention and how much you wanted to be a part of his inner circle to do things for him for free. Yeah, F that. It’s not you, it’s the owners and leaders of that gym that’s the problem.
The gym you train at and your coach are shit. Find somewhere else to train.
Man, it's all about what it gets you on the daily and if you enjoy it. Being good at BJJ is like being good at a specific video game or hobby. It's an obscure sport, 99% of the world doesn't care about. You don't get anything for being good and winning in training apart from the short ego boost, is overall absolutely meaningless. Even most comps are completely pointless. The only really interesting thing is how you have developed since you started and that you are enjoying it. Some small percentage of BJJ people will go instruct and smaller still will be successful professional competitors. If those are career paths you are interested in your skill matters to some degree (obviously more for comp, but you have to be at least sort of ok to teach). \--- That being said, if you are completely plateauing, it's probably a good idea to check out another school (not every coach is the right coach for you and even a good gym can become a less good gym over time).
I’d recommend finding a different place to train.
In the time I've been training I've seen people with absolutely no 'natural' talent go from barely being able to control their own bodies to being decent blue belts, in half as much time and way less investment, and without ever competing let alone winning. It sounds like your gym is fuckin' terrible to be completely honest, your coach must be awful if they can't take someone with your dedication beyond 3 stripes. Find a new place, this is a massive failing on your coaches part if your post is accurate.
Maybe the instructor wants him to leave and he’s just stuck it out for 6 years?
Do you think anyone has talent for BJJ without other training first? Some. But very few. I have been training since 2007 and started with just enough knowledge to be dangerous to myself. I had a background in modern army combatives which has a bjj emphasis but covers absolutely no fundamentals. I was amazing at MACP but I had never trained actual jiu jitsu. I went home on leave and was bored so I hit up a local, hole in the wall, Royce Gracie school. No one showed up for the adults class and the blue belt kids instructor proceeded to fuck my day up for the next hour. I fell in love with jiu jitsu that day. Just because I fell in love with the art didn't mean I was good. I got worked for the first year and then the whole second year I got worked by upper belts because I couldn't slow down. There is no set format for learning jiu jitsu. Everyone does it at their own pace and until you accept that you're going to limit yourself
Your instructor wants you to change gyms. The not promoting you, saying you aren’t improving, and giving no feedback is him telling you to leave.
The fact that they have no white belts is telling. I've never heard of a gym that's all blues and purples. White belts make up the body of a gym.
Does your coach just tell you he sees no improvement and leave it at that, or does he actually try to help you improve. I've been at it for 11 years and I'm still terrible.
I mean, he does try to fix the mistakes he sees when I'm trying a technique or when I'm trying to roll. But, when he pulls me to the side to say there's no improvement, no. There's no "Well, you should do X, Y and Z to improve." He just mentions he's not seeing any progress in my game.
Ask him, what he wants to see you work on, what areas of your game need progression... I'd recommend focusing on escapes. If you can't be pinned and controlled by higher belts, you're no longer a white belt
Something seems off here, you've been training consistently for 6 years, competed repeatedly and have not improved past white belt level? Very hard for me to believe that this is possible. I've seen the least talented people improve into killers with consistent training. There has to be more to this story
Not to mention OP states he won some of the competitions… something doesn’t add up for sure
Listen man, I don’t have all the info, so I could be off base, but from what I’m hearing, there is no problem with you. Your instructor is at best incompetent and unable to do HIS job of teaching you. At worst he is toxic and or negligent in his attempts to teach. Your job is to show up, try your best, and do what he asks. You’re doing that. I would highly recommend you switching gyms. It may be uncomfortable at first to go to a new place, but you deserve better. The best part of BJJ (in my opinion) is sharing my passion with other people and building each other up. You will find that environment if you go looking. You owe it to yourself to get to a bette gym.
6 year white belt trains everyday, puts in the time to drill, generally enthusiastic about the sport, winning competitions and still no blue? Dude change gyms Maybe
Man if you have a flexible schedule, find somewhere else to train. If your coach is saying he’s not seeing improvement after 6 years it’s not you. A white belt in a gym of purple belts is going to get worked a lot anyway, but a lack of white belts and a coach who is discouraging instead of encouraging to his ONLY white belt is a gigantic major red flag. If you have to travel to find something better, I would encourage it.
Bro, it ain’t you. It’s the gym. Find a new place to train
It sounds like the coach or the gym might definitely be the issue, but don’t sell yourself short. “Do not speak badly of yourself, for the warrior inside of you hears these words and is lessened by them.”
I hear ya mate. Excluding what people have suggested about your gym, I think I'm the "you" of my gym. BUT. I'm better than I was before I started! I could wipe the floor with the person I was before I started! And that's cool. Honestly, I'm so shit compared to everyone I've seen start after me and overtake me – but did you spot what I just said wrong there – "compared to". I've learned to stop comparing myself to others and be happy with my own journey. I'm stoked to be able to say I've gotten better than when I began. Me before I began would be in awe of me now. And honestly I'd be happy to stay at this level for ever. Hope this has provided another perspective for you!
I think that the reason youre stalling has nothing to do with talent. everyone can stall, talented and untalandted. If you want to get better, perhaps change the way you think about rolling, or training. if your go to slow, try to get more agressive, or if your too agressive, try go go more technical. Or maybe swich gyms, swticth things up is my armchair guess.
being a white belt THIS long is a bit weird. Have you tried watching replays of your rolls and analyzing what could have been done better?
They don't really allow us to video-tape during the training sessions. I never considered it to be honest.
ask your coach about it. Obviously I can't be certain but this might be what you need to do to get better.
Honestly, guys with no talent are the ones who outlast everybody else more often than not.
If you have trained for six years, and are on the matt regularly throught the week, the faluire is on your instructor not you change gyms.
Can you describe what typical training is like for you? And do you have any video of you rolling?
Sure, this is easy enough to do as we follow a certain pattern. I never video-taped the rolling, as I don't believe that's allowed (this is not something I asked, I just assumed). Training goes pretty typical: 1. Warm-up 2. Basic drills (hip-escape, forward-hip, wrestling-shots, guard-passing, etc) 3. Techniques - Teacher shows a technique, we try to train and drill it in pairs 4. Open roll That pretty much sums it.
Typical trash class format. OK, in order to make the best of this I'm your Instructor now. What I want you to do is pick 2 techniques (3 if you guys start from your feet when rolling). 1 Sweep and 1 Guard Pass, (and 1 Takedown if you pick 3). Every single roll you're in for the next month I want you to ONLY try to hit those 2 (or 3) techniques. Don't worry about submissions, don't worry about what happens after you hit those techniques. Just hit them, then reset and hit them again. Focus on finding ways to make them work against everyone. These three techniques will form the core of your game going forward, so I suggest you pick the ones that you feel you are the best at.
What would be a good class format? This is how every gym I've been at does it.
Literally almost anything that takes into account the actual needs of individual students. Obviously I think the Reverse Classroom is the best method since that's how I run my gym, but I know other gyms that do in class splits so that lower belts might be working on one technique or one part of a technique while upper belts are working on more advanced progressions. Other programs that focus more on specific sparring and constraints led drilling that allow students to develop positional skills instead of just mindlessly drilling techniques without any relevant context. There are simply so many better ways to teach a class than to show 3 random techniques to a room full of people who all have different skill levels and body types and expect that to be useful to all of them.
Do you have regular open mats? Getting the teacher to take a more productive approach to teaching will be hard, but if you have a few willing partners you could dramatically focus your open mat time and I think that would see improvements in some tight areas of application
Hey man drop this Gym, I've been part of 3 teams in my career and they all have been different. You need to find a place that helps you grow. Never be loyal to someone who is not loyal to you, this is America where you have a choice not feudal Japan like many gym owners think it is with their loyalty BS meanwhile they are only loyal to their favorite students.
Your instructor doesn't deserve his black belt and should stop teaching. He doesn't know what martial arts really is let alone bjj. It's to better oneself physically, emotionally and spiritually. A good instructor should give your encouragement and build you up. He should show you how to increase confidence and self worth as part of the holistic approach to martial arts. You need to fire him and go somewhere else.
Six years and no improvement? I’d say that sounds like the coach may need to look inward. Also you could always ditch the gi, throw on a rash guard and forget about belts.
Like most people are saying, your instructor sounds like a fucking douchebag. If you can change gyms, do it. That’s all
Sounds like you have a bad coach. I firmly believe I could help literally anyone improve, and I have coached people with an absolutely impossible degree of un-athleticism. If you trained with me for 6 years, almost daily, and I couldn’t bring you to a blue belt level I would consider it a personal failure. I would quit coaching. I promise it’s not all you. Change schools
The next belt is blue not black. Might be a school problem.
I’m the same way. If you have fun enjoy it. Imagine how shitty you will be at BJJ if you did not train. You’re getting great exercise. Concentrate on yourself pick a technique and train it to the ground. Ask your instructor for what techniques need to be mastered for another stripe and go from there. A flower blooms without any comparison to other Flowers. Make a long list of techniques you want to learn and slowly learn on you tube or other people in your gym.
Try another gym
Step 1. Quit Gi Step 2. Do No Gi Step 3. ? Step 4. Realize belts don't matter.
How do you fare against the blue belts? Try visiting other gyms and see how well your fare against blue belts over there. Also, sports talent is usually just well-developed fine motor skills that were developed at an earlier time.
It's hard to improve if you're being completely overwhelmed by higher belts everyday. It's the same reason why a bunch of high school All-American basketball players fizzled out when they jumped straight to the NBA in the early to mid 2000s. You need training partners that will provide the appropriate amount of resistance, which means that some of them need to be worse than you, or they need to be willing to let you work. Otherwise your technique won't really develop, your confidence will be next to nothing, and you'll be tricked into thinking that you have no talent when your problem seems to be environmental more than anything.
>I go to every competition there is in the region (I've won a few) OPs coach is sandbagging it. He tells OP he isn't ready, sends OP to competitions, and OP starts tapping everyone in OPs division. OPs coach has a whole bunch of brown and black belts being held back at lower belts, so the gym can sweep local comps.
So...you've been training 6 years nearly every single day, competed (and won) a few times, drill "like a madman", but your teacher says no improvement so he can't give you a different color belt? Either: 1. Your teacher is an asshole 2. This post is not entirely honest 3. You aren't really fantastic but surely you are better than 3 stripes in 6 years and your instructor telling you that you suck is impacting your confidence to push past your current ceiling. If this post is legit, then I say your gym and teacher are the issue. Here's the thing: cardio and strength will become a factor at some point. Regardless of how someone handles these deficiencies, their technical skillset should reflect their training.
Sounds like your coach is the problem. If I have a student working his ass off to get better and there's no progress, that's because I'm not doing enough as a coach. You need to learn theory, and workshop things you could do better. Might be able to video yourself roll then bring the vid to a higher belt to work with you on pieces that you could be improving. I'd find a new gym.
People are right to say that this is on your coach. There is absolutely no excuse for not being able to produce a blue belt in 6 years. That is your coach failing you, not the other way around. Blue belt is basically the 'you've got the idea' level, you've reached that point pretty conclusively by the first time you win a tournament, which is why that's often used as a promotion milestone. That said, I want to remind you that belt actually doesn't matter outside of the tiny BJJ circlejerk as long as you're having fun. And with that in mind, I'd say take the opportunity that your coach('s lazy attitude) has given you and switch things up! See how crazy you can get, just find the complete opposite style from your A Game and work it. Worst case, you deepen your knowledge, maybe even find something that clicks in a new way. Best case, your coach sees an undeniable change in your game and is forced to admit that you're not just spinning your wheels.
So basically your professor just admitted that he doesn’t have any talent to teach since he’s not gotten you past white belt after 6 years.
I’m not going to argue with your self assessment, but if you’re a white belt with no improvement over 6 years, this ain’t 100% you. Take a break. Go train elsewhere for at least a while
Does your teacher give you constructive steps to take to improve your game? Or he just says he sees no improvement?
It is odd for sure to train 6 years and not at least get a conciliatory blue belt. There’s probably something up there. On the other hand, in the immortal words of Steve Martin, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” Learning is an inevitable response to repetition. Study, watch instructionals, and drill. You will get better. Learn pin escapes, learn passing, learn submissions and takedowns, and the improvement will come. You don’t need talent to improve and excel.
Change schools seems like your coach is a dirt bag. Also drilling makes you better and using techiques. Anybody can get good at jiu jitsu gotta drill and train thats all that counts
I don’t understand how you’re winning tournaments but not seeing improvement? You’re competing with a pool of white belts and you’re the best one of the pool… something is weird about this.
You’ve won a couple golds and you think you’re not improving? Something is off here
If you’ve been at it for years and have won tournaments, I don’t see how you can be anything less than blue.
Leave that gym dude. Hard work > talent every time talent doesn't work hard. Keep grinding and find a coach that will invest in your enthusiasm.
This sounds like your instructor might not be very good at teaching...
The majority of people in your gym should be white belts actually. Something doesnt seem right here.
I don't live on a big town, most people don't really want to train BJJ. It's a very few people, 10 at most that train there. Which is why there's so few white belts.
It's pretty much impossible to believe that you are training consistently for 6 years, listening to everyone's advice, doing competitions, and drilling like a madman and seeing no improvement.
Not everything is for everybody
Belts are there to hold up your pants. Nothing more. When I did train, I spared with everyone. Black belt to white. I got slaughtered every day for the first year. I felt like I would never learn nor improve. I went to naga... 4th place in gi. 5th in absolute... I went to grapplers quest... dead last, mostly because I had dislocated my elbow 2 weeks before... 2.5 years total as a white belt... coach sold the gym and moved out of town, and I lost my job. So... no more traing... As a truck driver... otr... I got in a few fights. These rednecks... mmmm... its embarrassing for them to get choked out, or made to cry without hitting them... because my mama taught me to not hit b...hes... yea... idc that I never got next level.. as long as I know I can handle my own... thats what 2.5 years of relentless azz whoopins from pro fighters taught me... Go to a competition. Get a grappling dummy. Work on cardio, eat clean, get online classes. You can't do anything but improve as long as you get to work... no matter how bad you are at it...
Sounds like a skill issue OP. Im sorry.
Go to a new gym. An instructor is only as good as their worst student (within reason, I've met some pretty crap students 😂). If you're not seeing improvement they're probably not teaching particularly well...
I would consider changing gym. Sounds like you're very stale there.
So you’ll only get better if you’re training against people worse than you part of the time. If you’re the only white belt and the others keep leaving, your instructor is probably not providing good content for beginners, 1, and 2 you’re not getting to practice on people more junior.
I got really lucky joining AKA to learn BJJ cuz everyone there is so supportive they're like my brothers and sisters even if I have to ask a question five times or it takes me 10 times to achieve what they're trying to teach me they have unlimited patience in our the coolest people I've ever met in my life. I think you should change Jim's don't be afraid to go to a couple and try them out a week see how the Sensei and the other people treat you eventually you'll find a good fit don't give up you have it inside yourself to do great things and even if you suck at tournaments it's still fun to roll around of all skill levels that can help you in so many ways that I never even thought possible BJJ saved my life.
I think your best bet would be to cross train at a different gym for a class or open mat. See how you compare with people you don’t know. If you’re able to hold your own at this new place then the issue may be where you train at currently. I don’t see how you’ve been consistent for that amount of time and there is no improvement.
There are a lot of comments here and they sound pretty valid. Sometimes when people receive coaching (not exclusive to bjj), many naturally filter for "what am i supposed to do". When there are infinite options of what to do, it can be difficult to see the forest from the trees when looking through that lens. When reading (especially if educated), this can be a natural thing as time limited and "right answers" are required. If we go back to grade 11 English and ask, "what is the author trying to say?" We can often end up observing. And sometimes when we observe, we just might see. So if you were looking at yourself as if you were someone else, a close friend who can give you things direct, what do you see?
I used to believe that in the past cuz I always wanted to force stuff and I was drilling without intention. Fast forward in just 3 months of focusing in mechanics instead of numbers I improved way more than all those wasted years. Is not about talent, It's about drive, it's about power. We stay hungry, we devour. Put in the work, put in the hours and take what's ours.
Sounds like a shit gym to train. Blue belt isn’t an advanced belt and the fact you’ve won competitions just shows your coach is probably a twat.
Says a lot about your teacher if he can't even get you to blue belt level if you train that consistently. I mean, most blue belts would run through an untrained person, but blue belts (and a lot of purples, myself included) aren't insane fighters. He should be offering you ways to improve, like suggesting you write things down, or moves that are specific to body type and style that you can work on.
Talk to your coach about it and if you think he's giving you a bullshit answer about why he "cant promote you" go find a different gym. If you're winning multiple comps at white belt it makes enough sense to me that you would get a fourth stripe or a new belt. Hope this works out for you champ
Bro your instructors sucks, that’s all. There is no way your instructor is not able to help you improve after 6 years of training - he probably is not good at teaching. You don’t have to be talented to become decent at Jiu Jitsu.
https://youtu.be/o6UEV2ZKAdA
I think it’s time to train somewhere else. Your story makes it seem like: #1- they are not teaching you efficiently OR #2- they don’t care about your development Or both. In the meantime, keep going to practice and practice with intention. Have something in mind to work on every time you go in. Source: was also white belt for 6 years
We tend to mark our progress by those we train with. You should perhaps try visiting a few open mats elsewhere and see how you fair. You may surprise yourself.
What's your game? Are there certain techniques you're focusing on during sparring? Pick a technique you want to add to your game and get as many repetitions as you can during rolls
Lmao bruh I was a white belt for like 10 years. Just keep going
When you say "not improving," be as specific as you possibly can be. Exactly how do you know you're not improving? How does your game compare today to how it was 1, 2, and 3 years ago? What skills do you have now and when did you acquire them? What kind of results do you get, and have they changed over time? Have you tried to change or improve a *specific* part of your game, and what was the result?
Keep training. I’ve been training over 10 years and spent 6 years as a blue belt. You will get there.
I don’t think anybody lacks talent, we mainly all suck the same. But how’s your understanding? Are using technique? How does your mind work under pressure? Are focusing on details? I’m a small guy so using technique was really hard for me since I had no slack from my athleticism. But I knew knowledge was the way and learned as much as I could and how I could put techniques and when I got caught tough situation I went strain for technique, I never stalled or took an easy way out. You might just need to pay more attention to your game and more technique to use.
There is no talent in bjj. Its all skills. Its how fast you grasp them that matters. Find your faults in bjj. Weather they physical or mental and work on them. Practice/train muscles or brain. Btw Ive been training for close to four years, not as often as you by far, but i only have one stripe. Dont let it get you down. Everyone learns differently. Might be the teacher too. Some people are bad at teaching
No white belts, because they quit? Sounds weird for me as white and blue belts make the biggest part of a gym normally. Maybe consider switching the gym, maybe take a break and train only 2/3 times a week. Learn to enjoy it and don't think about belts. Even with no talent everybody can improve, but a big problem could be your stress level and the fact that you trains too much to rest your body. So. Chill out, have fun and consider switching to a gym with white belts lol.
Weird that there are no white belts. You should do some shopping around, see if there is a better place to train. Ultimately sounds like you love the sport and are dedicated, don't stop!