Officially hit blue belt blues

Not always, but the times that it does is so satisfying. I'm looking forward to the days of having a couple of decades of experience in BJJ.

 

Experience vs athleticism is like technique vs athleticism. It can help you...to a point. You have to be that much more experienced or technical than the strong young person to overcome them with much lower physical attributes.

That said, good class last night...and I caught our best purple for the first time. Well, more like he tried something and end up getting his arm locked behind him in the hammer lock position and I was happy to keep it cranked that way Not a legit sub, but I'll take it.

 

So… brag post but relevant to the thread. 7 weeks after feeling like I wasn’t going anywhere, things have slowly gotten better. My technique and my flow have steadily improved and my game is starting to come together. Last night was one of those classes where everything goes right. <brag> I subbed a brown belt twice and dominated another the entire roll coming close to finishing a couple of times</brag>. Now to be fair the first guy is probably ~60 and coming back from an Achilles injury and the second and had just gotten done doing tabata before we rolled, but those are big and strong guys who usually crush me so I’ll take it any day. I’m sure things will settle and go back to normal soon enough but it’s nice to see I’m moving in the right direction.

 

I think any sort of victory you can claim inside your head is a good thing, it keeps the motivation and confidence up.
I'm only at white belt and have had my first stripe for a few months, nothing had been coming for me though. I wasn't even getting close to any submissions and was starting to feel disillusioned. A few sessions ago I managed to take a 3 stripes back and finish (More due to his mistake than anything). Since then it's like everything has clicked together in my head. Instead of just trying to stay alive and eventually being overrun, I'm giving the opponent something to think about back and starting to get success.
Totally got the bug now, just wish my old bones would let me train more than twice a week.

 

Training

Training 3-4x a week will eventually get you over the plateau. One thing to remember is that it will take longer and longer to improve the more you train. We experience the greatest amount of progress as a white belt because we know nothing, we can only improve. Now, if you want to get over the plateau faster absolutely start studying jiu-jitsu. Drill more, look at your weak points and address those. Make your strong points stronger. If you like to train then focus on enjoying your time on the mat. If you commit to train consistently you will make it over this hump.

 

I know the feeling. I actually wrote about it in a blog post. (Mod edit: Sorry, we don't allow links back to personal blogs. Southpaw.)

I basically found that once I quit putting all of this enormous amount of pressure on myself, I really started enjoying BJJ so much more.

 

I'd actually read that article a while back. I'm fine now...until next time. Plateaus happen at all levels. It's an endless roller coaster ride but for now I actually feel pretty good about my game. It's going to change in the near future though. I'm in the process of dropping weight. Started at 230 down 6lbs and goal is 205-210. I still will be bigger than most but the weight loss is going to allow me to play a different offensive game. Defensively I'll have to adjust to having less weight to base out with, too. We'll see what happens.

 

Good for you bro. I wish you much success. As for me, I'm just enjoying the ride. I'm actually competing in Korea this Sunday, so we'll see how that goes.

 

One day you do well against a brown, the next you tap to a white belt. Weeeeeeee!

 

Congratz! on the blue belt! hopefully some day I will post the same thing until then... back to this book...