The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - How to Survive as a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) White Belt | PPP78

Episode Date: June 27, 2021

Using the 'Foundational Five' structure to share intent, objectives, organization, resources and communications to help brand new Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) intro students through BJJ White Belts on the cusp of earning their Blue Belt to survive.

The secret of the sport is, while you're the nail, hang in there. Let them hit you until the day you become the hammer. Then you smash them back. That is a quote from Henzo Gracie, Master Henzo Gracie, a very high-level Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, who is the teacher, master, professor for my professor, Tim Manning, at Team Manning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, where I earned my blue belt. And I had the great honor to meet Henzo Gracie this past week, just as jovial and scary, just to the point of the smoothness of his moves and things like that. And in this

episode 78, how to survive as a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu white belt, I wanted to share some notes that I try and share with brand new folks or white belts that I roll with or know in class because one is a 47-year-old father and just an older person with some leadership. It's just good to help. And then you reach some points where you can tell folks have no idea what they're doing. So I just want to give this, whether you're a brand new walking in the door or you're pretty close, you're schooling some blue belts, you're catching them here and there, and you're there, just some things to think about, these foundational five things for surviving as a white belt. These sound through cell phones, hold all sidebar conversations to a minimum, and we will get started with people process progress in three, two, one. Buddy, welcome back to the show. As you recall, I did an episode where I talked about considerations

for achieving the blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. That was episode 62 of this very podcast. So go back and check that out. That was from December of last year. There may be a little bit of crossover because the principles for me in two and a half years in, which in Jiu-Jitsu isn't that long. In other martial arts, it's actually pretty long. But my considerations are some crossover because there's some core

concepts that stick with you, whether you're walking in your first day, or you've been there a couple years like myself or even longer. And so what I'm going to do this time, I did between the slides five, kind of five key things. What I'm going to do is this foundational five, right? I'm going to give you the intent of this. What are some objectives? What is an organization that you need to know when you're getting into jujitsu? What are resources that you should have handy even when you're new or getting into it, you know, a few months in and communications? What are some communications considerations that I think that folks should have, whether they're walking in, like I say, and you're that nail and you're going

to be that nail, you know, unless you come from a strong wrestling background or you happen to have trained before and you're coming back in, but you're still a white belt or something, you're going to be the nail right before you can become the hammer down the road. That's the big part. And I mentioned that in making it to blue belt, you got to accept that and you got to be willing to get through the tough days. So what is my leader's intent? And if we recall those foundational five things that are the principles I've distilled from project management, all hazards, incident management, public safety response, and a few other things is to figure out how to get out of a tough spot, know your leader's intent,

get some objectives. What is your organization? Who's doing what? What resources do you have? People and stuff and facilities and how are you going to communicate. If you can pull those things together in a shared process with people, then you'll be in a pretty good spot. So my leader's intent for this episode and for all of you white belts out there, whether again, you're just stepping into that in your first day, no gi, got a t-shirt and shorts on, or your first time putting on a gi, is to help white belts from the intro class to those on the cusp of blue belt survive the initial BJJ storm. And it is a storm, right? You'll get some folks that are super helpful and nice. You'll get some folks that'll just smash

you. You'll get other white belts and it's a death battle. And I did the same thing. And you have, you know, your gym rivals, as they say, where you just, you roll hard with them every time because it's just a good matchup. But that's my intent, right? Help you weather the storm as white belts, just like we've all had to do. The first objective is, I would say as a white belt, or even before you get that, is to try an introduction class before you commit to a contract. So you should be able to go to a gym or maybe even a couple gyms to get a feel for the people there and try it out. Do they have an intro program or not? What's the atmosphere of

the gym like? Do they treat you well? Do they just smash you? Do they even let you roll at first? Just check it out. The second objective is, and this should be for throughout. So here's the time part. Remember, smart objectives, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based, is to arrive ahead of time for all classes throughout your jiu-jitsu journey. Now, my journey has only taken me to Blue Belt, and I say only, but that's compared to other folks who've been in it for six, seven, eight, 10, 20 years, is be early. Early is on time, on time is late. And that's because if you're early, you can get there, you can get your gi on if you don't wear the whole thing, which I don't drive in the car with my gi. I would also suggest that as just, I wear my pants and I wear a rash guard top and then I have my flip flops on and then I put my top and my belt

on. I want to get there. You have time to get there, get your wedding ring off, your other stuff, whatever. Put whatever kind of knee braces, ankle braces you need to slip on, like old guys like me need to do and get your gi top on, get your belt on, maybe stretch on your own a little bit. Depending on your class, you may have a warmup. You may not. Um, and, and just get there. Plus you're not late. And if you're new, it's pretty disrespectful. It's overall a disrespectful thing. It's all, it's kind of a joke in jujitsu too, that blue belts, but particularly purple belts, skip the warmup or other higher belts. belts. But if you're new, you need to be there early, right? Don't set the tone that you're late. And then you keep showing up late. And you're the

one that's there to learn. Other folks are there to learn for themselves. The professor's there to help you. But you got to be there on time, show them show that respect. This is a crossover from episode 62. Because, again, it's a throughout the whole two and a half years I've been training, except that you don't know and listen to learn always, right? Don't just listen, because it's the time of the class to pay attention to the professor, and then you can drill and then you can roll, listen and really try and soak it in. And I'll talk about this in communications, but ask questions,

right? Not like what if questions where you're trying to put loopholes, because again, remember, you're new, you really don't know what you don't know. But but true questions. So just accept just just know that you don't know and you could be. And again, these are examples of real jujitsu players that I've trained with a cardiac surgeon, an orthopedic surgeon, a construction worker, a realtor, project manager, student, microbiologist, it doesn't matter how smart you are, how educated, how practical real world educated when it comes to grappling and jujitsu, unless you've done it before, unless again, you've wrestled or some very similar art or sport, you're going to be new. And that's totally fine. That's why you're there, right? That's why we all go. The other thing, and this is another crossover from, you know, the path to blue belt in my eyes is that you need to put in the time outside of class, right? And this is this is true. If you're thinking about signing up, if you just signed up. And what I

mean is, in history, you can Google and find on either Google or YouTube, I guess they're one of the same company now, but you can watch videos, you can read things about the history of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Jiu Jitsu in general that came from Japan, its relationship to Judo, how wrestling got mixed in all this kind of stuff. You can also listen to the second episode of this podcast, where I go into the whole history of ancient grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. A little plug for the show again there, but it's helpful background, I think. Also fitness, right? You don't have to be in shape to start jiu-jitsu, but it certainly helps. The better shape you are before you start, that's good,

but don't wait to get in shape and then start jiu-jitsu, right? You don't have to do that. But as you start jiu-jitsu, you'll realize, one, you'll be exhausted because you're probably going to use a lot of strength. You're going to flood your muscles, right? You're going to build that acid up. You're going to burn them out. Everybody does it.

Then you'll realize, you know what? Maybe going for a walk every now and then if you're not active or doing some high-intensity interval training, some HIIT training, some metabolic conditioning that I've talked about, Metcons or whatever, some kind of outside fitness, right, on the days that you're not training. Give yourself some time to heal between classes or or just physically, you know, mentally and physically, just it's exhausting. But you need to put that in and then terminology, you can, again, on Google and YouTube, there's basic terminology, what positions are, it just helps ahead of time to at least kind of know what those are, or you won't know what they are, I'll say, but to have heard them before, right? Because until you're put in those positions, or you're practicing putting other people in positions, then you'll go, Oh, this is that mount thing. This is half guard, this is that and you'll you'll

learn it more. And you don't have to, you know, totally super study it. But just just familiarity, there's a lot of good resources out there. So that's, you know, that's my objectives that I think are good for any white belt starting, whether you're just stepping in there, you're thinking about going, you've been in there a few months, or maybe you're almost a blue belt, right? You're really rocking the house is if you haven't tried intro class, always be ahead of time, right? At the very latest, ready to go on time, except that you don't know things and just learn, listen to learn, right? Putting the time outside of class in the history of jujitsu in your fitness and in your terminology. What is the organization of Brazilian jujitsu? Not the whole history,

but in general, right? The belts and who typically is wearing what belts. That's the organization that I'm going to share for the white belts out there or folks that may never train that are just interested. So the head of your school is typically a professor, right? Usually a black belt these days, because there's a lot of black belts out there. And for you black belts and folks that have been in this a lot longer than me, certainly if I get something wrong here, let me know. This is my perspective after two and a half years. So would be interested to hear yours at peopleprocessprogressatgmail.com or on Instagram or Twitter. So they're usually the head of the school, right?

The professor, the head instructor, they're usually a black belt, usually, you know, a couple of degrees, meaning they have those white stripes on the red part of their belt. That's what when you hear Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu professor, right? Master, like I mentioned, Henzo Gracie is an even higher kind of honor, I think. And, you know, how those interchange with upper belts between me and my school versus who trained my head professor and those kind of things. That I need to learn more about as well. Instructors, usually higher belts, right? Sometimes I've seen a blue belt help teach a kid's class, but typically purple and up. So the purple

belts, purple is considered an advanced belt. And just step back a second, the belts go no belt until you decide to go to sign up, then you are a white belt, right? And then you are a blue belt. And then you're a purple belt. And then you're a brown belt. And then you're a black belt. And they say the average time is 10 years to achieve black belt, the time at each belt in between there, it took me two years to achieve the blue belt. Some people do it faster, maybe they train a lot more, they just are better. Some people take longer, right, if they have to take breaks or something, then another couple years, at least to get your purple. Or again, what are the factors your professor sees, it's completely up to your professor on how you advance,

you put in the work, they look at how you're doing, try and help you out or do help you out, and then they give you the guidance on where you're at. Another couple years to get brown and then black at 10 years. And those timelines can move in there. And other folks, again, there's really good videos out there and many high-level folks that share what's the time at each belt. But there's no prescription, right, that's exact of how long it should take each person. And some folks have curriculum and

some don't. So the instructors I've seen typically that are regularly teaching classes are at least purple belts. And that's for kids classes or adults classes. Purple is like an advanced belt at that point. You've been training for four or five years, right? So a pretty significant amount of time. And remember what that means in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I've been training two and a half years, and I've rolled hundreds and hundreds of times, right? So double that, triple that, quadruple that. Folks that have thousands, it's amazing.

You get repetitions like crazy. So your instructors are picked by your professor. They're asked to do that. They're teaching classes, kids and adults. And the colored belts, like I mentioned, are blue, purple, brown, black. That's after white belt. Your blue belt is the first belt you'll achieve right after the white belt. I mean, the white belt is a huge achievement. You signed up. You said, I'm going to go in there and get after it with some other folks that are trying to choke me or put me in locks and make me quit. I'm going to subjugate my ego. I'm going to listen. I'm going to do all these things. So earning that white belt takes a

lot of courage as well. I will say some folks think, oh, it's just the one you get. Well, sure. But you still have to step in there, right? And then it's up to you to put the time and work and keep showing up to then earn your blue belt. So the hierarchy typically at a school for folks that haven't done that yet, or is you know, the professors in charge of the whole place, there are instructors that teach the various classes, there's other colored belts, and there's other other white belts. And, you know, that's, that's the mix of it for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from what I've seen in a couple of schools that I've trained at. So what resources do I think will help your experience, whether you're just getting into it or not? So when you first start, you're going to try an intro class.

And most places will tell you this, wear a t-shirt and shorts, preferably shorts that don't have pockets because fingers and toes and whatever can get caught when you're wrestling around or even doing drills. Because if you're doing an intro class, you may not roll at all. Some of our folks do. And when I roll with brand new folks, you know, it's more of a here's what this position is. And here's that let them get a feel of it, right? We're not trying to smash those folks and get them out of there. So a t shirt, or kind of a, you know, a technical athletic shirt and some shorts is typically what you start with, right? No pockets. And then when you sign up, and you're like, Yep, this is for me. I like that intro class. This is pretty cool. I like the UFC, whatever it is that gets you to sign up at whatever school you're at, then you're going

to wear a gi and a gi is the uniform you wear. You know, the the pants and the top that fold over and then you tie them with your belt. Kind of the traditional martial arts looking outfit in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and similar in Judo, but they're thick. They're a lot thicker than like a karate or Taekwondo gi because we grab a lot, right? We grab sleeves and collars and really anywhere when your gi is on, but that's the traditional thing. And for me, I train more in the gi than I do no gi. No gi is where you see folks wearing, like grappling with rash guards, real tight shirts, and then kind of just shorts on. So much faster, harder to grab folks' arms when they don't have extra fabric on them.

But the gi is the first piece of clothing that you'll need. Sometimes when you sign up at a school, you'll get one with your membership fee. Other times you just need to buy one. There's tons of good companies out there. I'll share the ones that I've used. Sanibel, I have at first, yeah, I bought myself. Toro or Cage Side is the one that I got when I signed up when I started in Richmond a few years ago. Killer Beag Gee is what I wear for my team Manon. That's who makes that one. I think that's the only makers that I have actually. But there's so many more out there. There's there's tons of makers origin main Fuji Hayabasa, like tons of them. So Google a gee, if you're starting. And again, you're just starting brand

new. So you may sign up and you may decide a month or two later that it's not for you. That was one of the things I talked about in making it a blue belt is realizing, you know what, this isn't for me. Get one that's cheap, right? Sandoval makes pretty, and I don't mean in quality, so Sandoval, and I'm not getting anything from them for this, pretty good quality gi, and it's not that expensive. So if you decide you don't like it and you're like, I'm out, that's it, or you get injured or whatever it is, then you didn't lose a lot of money on a two, three, $400 gi. Some of the gis out there are really nice, but really expensive. So gi, that's the next kind of thing that you'll get when you get signed up. Learn how to tie your belt. So this is a resource. You'll have a belt that comes with your gi, your white Your white belt, look at a video, ask other people how to tie it. Don't be the new white belt that shows up with your

ends of your knot, uh, going up and down, kind of sticking out this jumble. Um, there's super easy ways to tie your belt. It's there's plenty of resources that show how to do this. Um, and it really one, it's just good, right? It's good practice to know how to tie it because when you're rolling around and you're, you know, ground fighting, grappling, and jujitsu, belts come off, they come untied. So being able to tie it up real quick, you know, whether you go to another segment of the class or class is over, for whatever reason, it's just good to do. So before you, once you get your game, you're going to class, learn how to tie your belt ahead of time. And if you don't have access to watch it on YouTube or something, ask people in the class.

Ask other blue belts or purple belts, folks that have tied it for a while, other white belts that seem pretty squared away, and let them help you. With a lot of sports, athletic tape is a really good thing to have. With Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, it's also great. I use it every day that I train. I tape up my ankle. This kind of pops every now and then the ligament there. Um, but also for your hands, your, your grip, especially when you're new, you're going to squeeze the crap out of everyone and you're going to try and use all your muscles and your hands are going to take a beating. So your knees and the top of your feet from that burn. So the tape, when you get those burns, when you build up calluses or blisters on

your hands will help cover those. No athletic tape that I've seen. And again, I'm relatively new in the sport after a couple years has survived getting really sweaty and grappling folks. But I have with hand finger tape a few times, but when you have it like on your feet, or if you put it on like you would normally, if you're not going to get sweaty, it comes off pretty easy. So you'll learn how to wrap things a little better with athletic tape, but get a roll, you can buy a tube of them or three or four packs from like CVS pharmacy, Walgreens, order them online, whatever. It's just good to have athletic tape. It's always good to have have a water bottle. A lot of places have water fountains, maybe they have little cups or something, but it's good to have your own water. Dehydration is a huge thing. You will sweat probably more unless you're getting after it

regularly exercising or you do the sauna a lot, but you're wearing a piece of clothing in the gi that's pretty heavy and you're in there working really hard and your gi will feel like you went swimming some days. You're just sweating so much. So imagine that all that fluid's coming out of your body. It's not working on your, you know, your system. And so you need to have my water bottle as a leader, recommend drinking at least one of those throughout class, obviously ahead of time and after class and throughout the day, that's kind of that, that fitness prep is hydration for jujitsu. So definitely have your own water ball. I think it's well worth it. They're super cheap. There's so many different kinds of them out there, whether the metal ones, Yetis or, you know, the plastic ones or whatever, they're pretty easy to get. The other piece that

I would highly recommend is a mouthpiece. And it's funny, there's there's sports and there's hobbies that some folks have. And, you know, in this hobby, in the sport that I partake in jujitsu, there's notes in the bathroom that ask people to clean up their own blood. Well, it's a violent sport and nosebleeds and lip busting and stuff like that happens. Um, so if you get need in the chin or elbow or head, but it, or whatever you want to have a mouthpiece, there are tons of great ones out there. I've used Cage Side Fighting. They're really good. And a mouthpiece, the gist of it is, right, you put it in really hot water, it's soft, you put it in your mouth, you bite down on it for like 30 seconds or a minute,

whatever the directions say. And then you put that in cold water and then it's form fitted. I also have another mouthpiece that is really a minimalist that's made by Sisu, S-I-S-U. It's a super thin piece of rubber and it's the Sisu AeroGuard. It comes flat. Then you do the same process I mentioned. You bite it, you fold it up over your teeth. It almost feels like what I imagine. My wife has this Invisalign that mold right to your teeth, but it works really good. I've definitely taken some shots when I've had this in. It's not as spongy as CageSide or some of the other traditional ones, but it works really good. I like it. Also, I tend to gag on the mouthpiece even though I've cut it short, not over my teeth when I get tired. The last thing I want is this mouthpiece in my mouth, but this Sisu one I really like, so one I'm using now. Again, for white belts, once you get signed up, you

get that gi, you know you're in at least for a bit or for the long haul, right? Set your mind right. Make sure you get that gi, learn how to tie that belt. You've got some athletic tape, you have a mouthpiece and you're hydrating, you got your water bottle. That's a pretty good way to start. Another piece of gear is flip-flops. So coming to and from the gym, it's way easier to pop on flip-flops or off some sort of shoe like that. No shoes on the mat. Remember, that's what I do. It's just easier.

You don't have to untie your shoes. Plus, then you don't have stinky shoes from being in sneakers or something. So, you know, hygiene is key. What about communications? So as a new white belt and good communication is good for any belt or any person in any sport is to really be open with your professors, instructors and your classmates, right? If you don't understand something, you didn't, you didn't know the rules, or you don't know what this move is, when you're doing warm ups, just ask, right? You don't have to sit there. And again, a lot of this episode is

from people that I've seen, we're doing warm warmups and we start doing shrimping down the mat or alligators or something. And it's their first day. And it's up to us who've been there a bit. We're folks that know what those are to help those folks, not just let them stand there and look and go, I have no idea what this is. Help them out. Help folks out when we're trying to figure out this scooting backwards kind of on my side thing that you'll see has relevance to escape positions or,

you know, just getting warmed up. So, you know, don't be afraid to ask questions, you're there to learn, right and get better and learn this jujitsu and benefit from it in all these different ways. So don't be shy. And for those of you out there that have been training, whether it's, you know, a little bit less than me or longer than me or way longer than me, we know it's up to us to kind of help them out. So I think just we as current practitioners can help these folks that are just coming through the door. Tap early and often. If you don't know and you're going to sign up or you've already signed up or you've been training, tapping out is when you say, I don't want my shoulder to explode, so please stop that. And you tap someone a couple times, three times on themselves or on the mat really

loud. You say tap, tap, tap. Or they're choking you before you go unconscious, like, right, because the end result is you get something broken, or you go to sleep, the go to sleep is not probably as bad as, you know, breaking something, they're having something broken. But you need to know when to tap. So if something's uncomfortable, you don't like it, you want to stop tap, right, you're going to tap hundreds, probably thousands of times. As you go through jujitsu timeline, I know I have to both upper and lower belts like it happens. So that's part of the sport. The good thing is, you're not out on the street where you're trying to tap out because someone's, you know, punching you in the face. You're in the gym where it's safe and you learn from it.

This comes back to ego. Don't not tap out because you think you shouldn't and you think you should get through it. That's when people get hurt, right? Tapping is a form of communication that lets your training partner know that's it. Let's reset from whatever position you are standing, sitting one up, one down, whatever you're doing that says I've had enough. That's it. And, and you know what, maybe ask them how they got you, right? So it's a great way to learn instant feedback, instant after action report, let folks know you are new. And I have this written down. And then in parentheses, I have written, they will already know. Why is that when we do the warmups and you clearly don't know how to shrimp or what that even means, or you're rolling in an intro class and you just kind of freeze up and lay there for whatever reason.

Or you're going like you're trying to win the UFC just on pure strength, but you don't really know the moves and you're almost headbutt me in the face. We know you're new. It's cool. I'm going to talk to you. Other folks are going to talk to you. But if someone doesn't know, just tell them, hey, this is my second class. I don't know what I'm doing. Cool. No problem. My instant feedback is great. Let's just try this. Just try and get around my legs. When I clearly see someone who's

like, oh my God, this person's on me. I can't get them off. I'm like, hey, do these things. Put your frames up and help out. That's a great communication. One part of jujitsu, at least from the time I've been in it, is knowing what you don't know, right? Or being open to the fact that you don't know a lot of stuff. And so when you're in an uncomfortable position with another human who is putting their weight on you, it sucks, right? So our job, who have trained longer than you, is to welcome you in. Your job is to give us feedback, right? And for us to pay attention. Don't feel like you have to get in a death battle, right? With another new person or another white belt or another any belt, really. Because at the end of the day, it's not going to be as fun for you. You're probably not going to win. And then

people won't want to train with you. So go in there, chill out, realize you're not battling for any sort of championship, anything, right? You're there to learn and you're going to lose and it's all good. So I hope, um, if you're brand new or you're a white belt that's pushing through and you're starting to tap blues or give, you know, them trouble that this is helpful, right? Helps you get through it, that you're making sure that you've tried that intro class. You you've learned people at the school. You're going to arrive ahead of time. You're accepting. You don't know. You're going to put in the time to learn some jujitsu history, stay in shape, right? Start getting in shape, exercise, and learn some terminology. You know, the professors, the head of your school, there's instructors, typically higher belts, purple and above purple, brown, black, usually

of the belts. There's white, blue, purple, brown, and black, black a few years between each of those this this isn't like other martial arts where you can advance you know three four belts in a year it's not going to happen make sure you get some you know your athletic gear when you're trying that intro a t-shirt and shorts no pockets you're going to get a gi recommend not getting a super expensive one right out of the gate make sure you know how to tie your belt, have some athletic tape, a mouthpiece and a water bottle flip flops also handy. Be open with your professor, instructors and teammates. Great people do jujitsu from all walks of life. And the bond of going through extremely hard stuff with them will make some good friends and really opens up communication. Nothing breaks the ice like putting someone in

guard, which means, hey, welcome to class new person, I'm gonna lay on my back and wrap my legs around your waist. And right, it looks like a sexual position. And it's, it's a position, a key one that you can do some, some damage from. So nothing breaks the ice like that. Nothing starts conversations better. Make sure you're tapping early and often, if you're new, right? Don't get hurt your first week, month, whatever, because you didn't want to tap because you felt like you shouldn't have. You're not a pro fighter, right? Unless you were a pro fighter. And even then this isn't necessarily for you because you're probably not a white belt. And let folks know that you're new, right? There's nothing wrong with it. It opens up doors to, you know, maybe

folks go a little easier or to be a little more forgiving. But in general, if you're at a good school, people aren't looking to hurt you and get you out of there, right? Your teammates, nor your professor, nor anybody else. Now, that doesn't mean you're not going to go home sore. You're not going to have a bloody nose every now and then. You're not going to have burn on your chin from getting choked. That's 100% going to happen at some point.

But when folks know you're new, they know it's an intro class, they'll work with you, they'll welcome you in, and then you can do that when you start building up toward blue belt or blue belt or purple or up in the ranks of jiu-jitsu.

So I hope for all the folks that are thinking about starting, give it a shot. I hope the folks that are just getting into jiu-jitsu, welcome. It's pretty awesome. I look forward to growing way more with the folks that I train with. I know I do every time I've trained with them. I am appreciating the growth of the show that all of you have helped me with. Please reach out people process, progress.com people, process, progress at gmail.com as well. We have a Facebook page of the same name and Instagram account. Thank you

all so much. I hope you all are staying safe out there. I hope you're washing your hands and I wish you all Godspeed.