When I found out that my time at blue was up, I felt a huge wave of nostalgia wash over me. I like that mentality because it implies deviating from the superficial chasing of belts, having accountability for your skill-set, and just enough baddassery to appeal to the caveman in me. There is a quote from Royce Gracie that accurately sums up the overarching theme of my focus: A belt only covers two inches of your ass. I was focused on using the absolute least amount of strength as possible. I was focused on using the absolute least amount of energy as possible. I was focused on conceptualizing, constructing, and implementing perfect expression of technique. The object of my focus was something less superficial, less attainable, and less tangible. I just didn’t care what my belt was or if I would ever receive the next belt ranking. So, for whatever reason, I lost the attachment to the need for extraneous validation. When I came back to jits, I was older and had experienced more of life’s challenges. Well, I finally got my blue belt after a year or so, and I still wasn’t worth a damn. When I was a white belt, I couldn’t wait to get my blue belt because, at the time, to me it seemed that I would be finally worth a damn once I got my blue belt. In addition, I just don’t care about belts anymore nearly as much as I did when I was a white belt. I knew I was on the cusp of winning a lot of gold medals and only needed some minor fine tunings before I was going to do some serious damage in the competition scene. I knew that I could go anywhere in the world and hang with the blues without embarrassing myself and my skill-set. After coming back from a 4 year break and feeling like I should have been demoted back to white belt, I finally felt like I grew back into my blue belt. I can no longer relate with that sentiment (not that there is anything wrong with that necessarily). I know these people in person I also read about them online very often. I know of a lot of people who train with the goal in mind of acquiring belt ranks. (I could have picked a timelier phrase there and, perhaps, saved you all that confusion. I can’t hold you back.” Each of those statements said in a cold fuck-your-couch calculating manner. “Do I have to be promoted?” I asked, still befuddled but now much more anxious than anything else. My mind raced, and every roll I had ever partaken in flashed before my eyes (I’m kidding) I began to tune out of the conversation. We started talking about who was going to be promoted and the like when he implied that I was going to get promoted to a BJJ purple belt as well.īefuddled, I anxiously asked, “Wait, you mean I am getting promoted too?” He matter of factly said, “Yes.” As if it was a forgone conclusion. We hold one following the worlds and then another in December. You see, at our academy, we hold promotions twice a year. I was having lunch with my instructor after watching some 7 odd hours of Mundials action when the subject of promotions came up.
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