About the black belt requirements in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Many factors are involved in this process, ranging from motivational factors to life changes that occur during the 10 years it takes normally to earn a black belt.
In this article we want to offer our points of view on some of the most important conditions to complete the path and on the requirements to access this precious moment.
About the conditions:
Staying in training for ten years on a regular basis, overcoming injuries, illnesses, family and work events is something really difficult and requires a very important passion and determination.
That is why in many cases any of these factors end up causing the abandonment of jiu jitsu.
From our point of view it takes a great passion for learning and for jiu jitsu itself to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that arise during that time.
Most of the people who start the practice of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu just to get fit, or to do a sport activity and who don't find other motivations on their way, end up leaving it when some difficulty arises.
It takes time and personal transformation for jiu jitsu to become an important part of someone's life and for that person to fight all the odds to keep practicing.
From our point of view, the path to the black belt is a path of learning techniques but above all it is a path of self-knowledge and improvement in which our behavior patterns, our anxieties and fears, our beliefs and our philosophy of life are put into consideration and challenged a lot of times.
It is a path in which, despite the differences we have in each of these aspects, we must all learn to be patient, to learn from experience and not from intellect, to overcome our pride and find more solid motivations than graduations to continue. Training despite injuries, demotivation and times of emotional upset.
About the requirements:
It is also a path in which each Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner must come to assume responsibility for their technical and personal growth.
Otherwise there is one of the most important conflicts that cause abandonment and demotivation in many advanced belts.
It is undeniable that we will always need a teacher to teach us the techniques, to help us with our difficulties and to help us build our game.
But it is also very important that each one find motivation to come to class every day, and focus and
dedication to work on their game and to overcome weaknesses.
A lot is said that a black belt is a white belt that did not give up.
There is a lot of reason in that statement but we think that it should be connected with what we pointed out previously.
Teachers must help students to see their limitations and give them adjusted solutions, they must motivate them and be aware of their problems even outside the mat, but they cannot force anyone to come to train.
They cannot neither force students to work those tips and solutions that he has recommended to them.
Thats is why we believe that the path to the black belt is accompanied by that transformation in which each person realizes their own responsibility to improve the aspects that fail.
It must also be accompanied by a transformation regarding the very meaning of ranks and belts, understanding that it is not just about winning and being better than anyone else.
A black belt is also a brown belt that attacks and defends with confidence and conviction based on his experience but is also someone who does not see victory as the only objective of his daily training.
On the other hand, he is someone who is beginning to understand that efficiency and technical improvement depend on principles and not on the number of techniques, and that knowing those principles is an endless journey that is always enjoyable.
He is also a brown belt who adapts to the level of each training partner and puts him in difficulties but also lets him work.
He is a brown belt who gets into difficulties with the black belts and also with the less graduated to continue improving his defense and his escapes, because he understands that they are the fundamentals that will accompany him throughout his life.
Finally, he is someone who must be able to teach, whether he does it or not, and therefore must have learned the basic repertoire of jiujitsu, regardless of his specialization in the group of techniques that make up his game.
A black belt is a brown belt that is willing to continue learning and although this seems like common sense, the truth is that the path to a brown belt is a path of specialization that tends to close the “mind”.
It takes another time to open the mind one more and start looking for the underlying principles.
It takes time to literally become a white belt again but this time to approach the techniques and movements with a different curiosity that seeks the connections, the essential details that make each technique effective regardless of the differences between the people who execute it.
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