Also purple. A different experience for me. I am continually awed by the depth of the art, and the beauty of all the interconnections. My body moves and reacts in increasingly novel ways that I can only find magical.
The magic is still there, now the magic is in the intricacies! At white belt the magic was a technique, at brown belt the magic is a chain, or sequence, with bait and switches, hidden entries, and scramble mechanics!
My experience is the oposite, im learning more at Purple then ay white. The small little details that can make big improvements to your game and many aha moment make purple most fun for me, so far. Starting to transition smotthly from one to another position while keeping control all the time just feels sooo good! At white belt I just got smeshed.... Might differ that I started at 43 and 67KG :).
I got my blue belt shortly after my 69th birthday. I started training at 67. It feels great to b able to complete with guys young enough to be my grandchildren😊
I did my 2nd BJJ comp last Sunday after i started training beginning of this year. I'm 54. Really enjoying the journey. I might be purple belt by the time I get to 69 😀
This is so gangsta. Just started bjj, only making it 1-2 times a week the last couple months. We got some older fellows in the gym and they would all put the hurting on me. You don't know until you know, but, bjj seems like a life long journey. I feel like it'll go well with my mission not to get fat in my 30s
Something a higher belt told me was "you have to grow into each belt", meaning you'll usually get promoted before you feel 100% ready so its normal to take time to get accustomed to your new rank.
As an older guy, I noticed most younger people around me are getting better faster, but what's important is that if day 1 me came walking through the door, I'd destroy him.
Been doing jiu-jitsu since 2003. I’m 40 years old and just recently started rolling again, after a 6 year hiatus. One thing I noticed….at 40, it’s way easier to quite my brain and to focus on technique, breathing, getting into position before I do anything. There is zero rush. I’ve been wearing a blue belt since 2007. Just never found a spot that I could stick to for a long period of time (I’m in the Army and move a lot). At this point, if I get a purple belt that’d be cool….but I like where my brain is right now, as opposed to when I was younger. Zero rush.
Same here. In my 30s now. Picked up training again after a 10 year break. I think my technique is improving much faster than it did in my 20s. Love it.
Congrats on going back. I started in 2001 and I'm in my early 50's. Stay with it, wherever you end up visit schools as a guest. I know some don't like to do that because now it becomes a tournament with the stranger that is visiting lol. The way I look at my age is, I go in and get some exercise. I learn some modern day tech but it's mostly for exercise. It keeps me young and mobile. I use to be a metal chaser and not a belt chaser. Now I train because I still can. Once the injuries catch up, I'll know to slow down or quit. One of the most important things that I do which was mentioned in this vid. Is to take care of your body. Message, stretch, PT etc...Ice baths do wonders. Thank you for your service Sir 👊🏼 🥋
53, Blue belt. White belt for me was survival. Blue belt was defense and escape. Now after 4 years as a blue belt, I'm comfortable in bad positions, I love my single leg X game, and with the experience, I'm okay tapping...
@@TylerSpangler Yes, so close....injury and a surgery. Monday was my first class in 10 months, drilling 3 a week until my doc says I can roll again....but honestly, I'm flow rolling with the ones I trust. So glad to be back. Class in 45 minutes.
Hope you get your purple soon. I'm 54 YO white belt , who started January this year and enjoying the journey so far. Taken part in 2 competitions already.
I am a 54 year old Black Belt and I am ok with tapping also. I only roll once a week now but I go in and roll hard but will tap quicker than i used to. You have to if you want to be able to do this into your 50's.
Got my bb at 38 after 11 years. First year at BB probably the worst of all my years, coming off long C19 gym closure and savage impostor syndrome. Settling into it now 18 months later, finding a new love for the sport, and as you say, refining and re-learning. Feels like prestiging in COD. Also, getting tapped by foaming, hungry, mid-20s purples? Definitely not unheard of! 😅
Interestingly enough, one of my coaches said once he reached black belt, he realized he still didn't know anything. Another one said the day he received his black belt was the day he changed the way he did his arm bars. I love Jiu Jitsu! Even if you've made it to this 'finish line', it's only just beginning for you. I love this never ending sport! There's always room to grow.
thing is, the sport is escalating so fast with the online content that white/blue belts will start practising the most optimal techniques right off the bat, without knowing their body as well as black belts. black belts have personal preference for a reason!
I'm a brown belt mate and what you said is EXACTLY the case. Trying to keep the body intact. I'm 39 been training nearly 10 years. Wherever I train there never seems to a lack of 25 year old hungry blue belts lol
6:05 “you’ll have lower belts frothing at the mouth to submit you” - cuts to ben literally frothing out his mouth. That guy is one of a kind, gonna miss him
0:56 “If you want to be good at anything in life, embarrassment is the cost of admission for mastery.” Where did this gem come from?!? That’s going in my mental encyclopedia now!
Really enjoyed this vid, I recently got my blue belt and felt like I did not deserve it even after every coach saying I do, got more of an understanding now. Thank you
Just received my 4th stripe at white belt today. I totally feel like an imposter. Watching this video helped a lot. I’ve just now realized my survival is actually excellent. I sometimes work too hard for subs and I feel like that’s where I get my imposter syndrome.
@GregLurik Official really?? it took me like a year to get 4 stripes but I also had to get 4 red stripes too, so it took like 2 years to get my new belt, n ive been training for 2 years
Blue belt here. Just got promoted a few months ago, shit is great. Just moved around a bunch so it took 4 1/2 years to get here. Was giving blues imposter syndrome at my last two gyms 🤣
Mine is a familiar story. I started BJJ at 23, trained for a couple years got some injuries (broken rib, sprained ankles, etc.) Took about a 7 year break due to college, work, kids and no time to train. Went back about four years ago trained two years got my blue belt, then stopped when Covid hit because I am an EMT and had to work on the ambulance. Came back about 4 months ago and now continuing on. I def have a different mentality now than in my younger years. It's a marathon not a sprint and I'm in for the long haul. Still train at the same gym and dudes I started with are now OG black belts but they respect the grind.
4 stripe brown belt here. Been told black is coming pretty soon, which is scary. That still seems like the far off, unattainable belt it was when I first started. I’m definitely going to have some imposter syndrome for a while at black.
You'll be fine. I had the imposter syndrome for the past 2 and a half years at black belt. I constantly get wrecked by my dad (coach) and his number one student (1st degree black belt) on the daily. I felt like I didnt deserve my rank. I recently competed and did surprisingly well. It got rid of that feeling of being an imposter. The best way to look at it is your teammates know how you roll. Those rolls are going to be harder than what they are against people you dont know. You're not a 4 stripe brown belt for nothing, and the same can be said when you get your black belt.
I love jiu jitsu, always loved but sometimes bc of money, time or both i never started. This year i decided nothing would stop me and now im a 29y old white belt, started in april. Im getting smashed all the time, being tapped by every kind of move and just cant hold to restart the roll smiling, thinking about what just happened and how fun is this growing process. Got my 1st stripe months ago and couldnt be more proud of myself, the goal is to be a 40y old black belt and i am one stripe closer. Great, video. Subscribed.
Thanks man. Great vid. I should be purple this month. I can't wait to start having some fun. Bluebelt was a rough road with all the crazy whitebelts trying to get me at every corner. All of the injuries and fatigue being in my fourties and trying to train 6 times a week. It will be nice to be able to relax a bit and have some fun.
2:40 "Your coach is still gonna hold you down with one finger." I'm a one-stripe white belt. I rolled with my professor yesterday. My thought process was, "I must be getting better. Because when he's going at 10% speed, 5% strength, and is purposefully handing me openings on a silver platter...I can almost pass his guard."
I just took my fourth class last night. First time I've ever taken any kind of martial art, and you nailed everything I felt in the first minute of the video. Watching this made me feel better though, because I was thinking "I'm never going to remember all this!". Good to know that this is all part of the journey. Thanks for posting this!
As a recent purple belt this video was super helpful! As the level of “imposter syndrome” im going through is incredible. So glad to hear that everyone probably feels like this and I need to cut myself some slack. Thanks Tyler
Man congrats on that purple belt. That’s such an awesome accomplishment! I’m a three stripe blue and coach tells me I’m like.. 6 months away from my purple belt but I still feel like… nah I’m not even close to that. Lmao.
Black belt here, been one for almost a year now. I couldn’t agree with this explanation any more. One of the best, straight to the point views on this subject. Thank you!
I relate to the white belt portion of the this so much. I definitely have always felt that it is my job to survive and learn from each loss. My professor taught us this day one and his further encouragement has kept me motivated enough to keep coming to class thought all my losses every week. I measure my improvement based on how long I can prevent myself this from being submitted. If I last a few seconds longer each time I go against a higher belt then I believe I am improving incrementally.
that's actually my weakness lol. I feel so bad every time I lose to people bigger and higher than me. one of the main reasons guard pulling is what I usually go for, though I'm getting better at single legs doubles! I'm under 15 though so I only have a grey-white belt lmao
I became very good white belt in my gym when the other white belts quit or got promoted. I’m becoming very good blue belt maybe in 2 years because I already understood this process. Without thinking or hesitating, just rolling is the most important part in bjj IMO.😂
I'm currently 16 and have been doing jiu jitsu since i was 6 I'm hoping to get my blue belt soon (one purple belt said to me today "i can't play with you anymore i have to actually try" i take that as a good sign)
And in indonesia we only have a fews blackbelts maybe 1 - 3 ppl at that time, nowaday we have like 10 - 12 bjj blackbelts in indonesia and my coach are still brown belt today
New black belt here, took me 14 years and I’m 40 years old with several injuries the worst being my back. I totally agree that at black it’s when you start to really learn and understand jiu jitsu I honestly feel like I know absolutely nothing about jiu jitsu and hate being this old with a black belt. To all the younger folks stick with it and tap early, also relax on the spazzing out and power lifting strength lol not every roll is a tournament roll, us oldies aren’t rolling to the death. Also I’d say just enjoy the journey and the art, it truly is for me something that I’ll have in my life until I die. It’s a marathon not a sprint. As chris HAUETER once said “It is not about who is good, but who is left.”
I like that phrase at the end. It’s very true it’s about who is left. It’s easy with social media to just see a bunch of monster black belts, but really that’s like 1 in 10,000 that join to even reach the rank.
@@TylerSpangler spot on and being old I’m happy to miss the monsters most days and roll once a fortnight with them hahaha, like you said they are rare anyway.
Say you joined partly for self-defense. How do you rectify that at the end of a dozen years you are now more injured than you would have gotten from being in half-a-dozen streetfights? Paradox, huh?
@@Badge01KenobiI was actually injured from wearing a 10kg vest whilst being a police officer for a decade, the weight on my back caused me many injuries. Also none are due to Jiu Jitsu. I can honestly say that if I didn’t know jiu jitsu I would have worse injures now from my police career.
Jits, I get what he's saying, even though he assumed you were injured from bjj and was wrong. I'm here 7 mos later post injury and surgery, probably couldn't defend myself from a 12 y/o girl. Stay healthy my friends. DISCLAIMER: The above post does not state any factual information regarding 12 y/o girls' fighting abilities. The views and opinions expressed are strictly for entertainment purposes only.
As a white belt, Starting like this channel a lot. I watch the Guillotine video and hit these on several higher white belts and a blue belt. I got compliments from owner and one trainer same night. Promoted the next week. Thanks
Thank you. White belt with just a few classes in and then health and life have been doing a great job at discouraging me. Hearing these videos say a white belt is just supposed to learn to survive helps SO MUCH... Seriously thank you.
It's so funny beeing a white belt that does mma :D. I mostly do muay thai and no gi ground fighting, but when I put on the gi it's a nice switch of pace, but I really don't care about belts when iam on par with a lot of our blue belts, and know that I could also strike, knee or elbow at a lot of times :D. Just do what you love and care so much about rating systems its about enjoying the sport, and finding inner peace.
It's funny that you mention that the blackbelt is the learning belt. I'm a 4th dan (not BJJ) and I have been telling my students for 20 years that the blackbelt means that you have mastered the basics and can really start learning the martial art.
i agree with this. i'm a white belt with 2 stripes and i found that the moment i learned to calm down and just look for opportunities to escape and survive more than for opportunities to submit all the time, i started to do much better. my instructor says the same about his black belt in that it felt like once he got it, it was only then that everything seemed to suddenly click and make sense.
22 right on the cusp of my blue belt. I absolutely love it. I’m training my wrestling, judo, and jits and I’m learning that if I use my strength and athleticism I’m not relying fully on technique. I am slowly implementing my movements at faster paces and applying really good pressure. It’s been exactly one year for me and I’m so happy and excited for the rest! Keep going! Grind! Love it! Enjoy it!
Sounds like you’re the hero we all need. Just some advice.. we don’t need to all know how athletic and strong and amazing you are mate. Martial arts is about humility, not ego.
I got my purple in 2013 quit for 8 years now 40 and it's a different feeling from my younger savage days. Still dogging us old guys doing deep half guard lol
I'm a about to be a 3rd degree Black Belt. So, not only do I have to judge students in determining their promotions (which can be for many reasons) and convince them that they deserve it. I have had imposter syndrome at every belt always trying to give them back. But I'm also a small 50 yr old with 18 yrs of beating my body up. So much that I feel like I'm not as good as I was as a high purple or brown. I can't recover fast enough anymore, I'm not as fast and athletic anymore, and my body just doesn't feel as strong. I have to keep my A game on to not be submitted by my own students. It sucks getting old bc you eventually start the downhill run. Also, that's not how you use "begging the question". (didn't realize my wife was logged into YT)
I'm in kind of a weird situation as a white belt. I'm a 6ft 200lb American living in a rural town in Japan and going to a super small gym (it's the only one in town). I'm having an absolute blast, but I'm also WAY bigger than everyone else. So survival is fairly easy. I've only been at it for a year, so everything is still new, and I don't really have much of an idea of how to develop any kind of an attack, but defense isn't too hard and I think it's largely just because of the size difference.
27, will be brown sometime next year according to my professor. While I didn’t agree with your assessment of white/blue as much… the purple belt description was spot on. 100% accurate.
After getting BB in 2015, I'm fast approaching the age of 40 and I'm quickly finding staying healthy and life commitments are the biggest hurdles. By the time you've spent 10 years on the mat, the mileage adds up. Even if you're diligent like me with your mobility, flexibility and strength/conditioning work. Couple that with getting married recently, I can already see there are times when I will pick work, my wife or commitments with family over jiu-jitsu which was unheard of in the 17 years prior. One other thing that not many people talk about is accepting that the kids coming up who are actively competing will start catching up and taking over. None of us are getting any younger. And if you're like me where you started jiu-jitsu late in life (20 years old for me), I have no doubt these 16 year old purple belts who go to every tournament and cross train wrestling will only get harder to roll with. While it's obvious why these kids will start beating you, it doesn't stop the bruising of your ego given all the years you've put in, only for it come full cycle again. We all have that similar story of our first class where you get handled by a kid and fell in love with the sport. You train hard so that never happens again, get to bb, then have to deal with a new era of kid, only now they have heaps of training partners, great nutrition, information from UA-cam, tiktok and DVDs. When I started we all hoarded a book imported here from the states or had a friend who trained with someone at a judo school somewhere overseas and brings back a new technique. Don't get me started on the steroid problem we have in the sport now. When I started it was just the MMA fighters in the academy who'd juice. Now every kid and his dog walks in sauced off his face. Kudos to the true natty athletes out there.
Good video, as a blue, there’s definitely imposter syndrome and this strange pressure to know all and feel down when you tap now that you’ve been promoted.
One thing I regret about cutting out the gi training is that I stopped knowing where I was at. I just sort of started competing in advanced brackets because of time requirements. Now I have an identity crisis and would be too embarrassed to go back to gi and say I’m a 10 year blue belt!
Life long white belt here. As a white belt currently i do consistently tap out blue and purple belts. Never tapped out a brown or a black belt before unless they were letting me work (quite impossible to tap them out and to even get out of a bad position). I did start when i was 10 and did it for 2 and a half yrs earning a gray belt and then covid came stopped doing it and then picked it up again at 16 and had to start over at white belt. And only do it a couple months out of the yr cause of sports that i do for my school one being wrestling which has helped my jiujitsu. And this summer tho i improved a lot cause of the guidanxe and the internet which is why im now consistentely tapping out blue and purple and white belts that r a lot bigger then me. And i am in the phase where i let people get me into bad postions and i work on my technique from there.
When i got my blue belt i had decent standup (from judo not from bjj), hard to pass guard (for a white belt) and could do some subs from closed guard, but i couldn't do a single sweep. Now after two years sweeps start to work, i have two favourite submissions (armbar and guillotine) but i am trash in so many positions especially with GI, i feel like i should be purple NOGI and white GI. But i can notice my progress and feels good.
I literally just study books and practice with friends. Have managed to out maneuver some wrestlers and bjj students. I feel belts represent what you know, not how good you are.
My greatest consternation as a blue belt is the inconsistency. Sometimes I feel like I hang fairly well, though I still lose, with brownbelts and score more points than purple belts. Other times I struggle with white athletic belts. Some of it has to do with my sleep quality (thanks children) and some of it simply has to do with mindset. However, I think that the primary issue is inconsistent training (again, thanks children.)
I keep hearing Blue Belt in 2 years...where I went, it took nearly 4 years, 5 or 6 days a week for Blue. For test eligibility, by the time the test was finished, and there was the actual "ceremony" it was just over 4 years. I was average, there were some that took longer.
reached my purple couple months ago, been competition non stop in my local bjj community and reaching the top in my area, cant wait to travel around the world and improves my bjj more!
I received my brown belt last March of 2021 and I swear I've never had more injuries at one belt than when I reached brown 😂. But maybe because I'm 38 too 😅... I'm enjoying the journey though.
3 week white belt: I love every second of it and all that fun stuff, but my gym doesn’t allow white belts below “2 stripes” to live roll (only fundy classes… possibly for months), and though I get and 100% respect why and what they’re trying to do it sucks a little because now I’m ‘worried’ about getting those stripes and I feel rushy about it when I know timelines shouldn’t matter at all. The fundy stuff is great, appreciated and very much needed, just wish we had the option to do both. (& for the record, I don’t think I’m good enough to do ANYTHING offensive or productively defensive, but I want to get my ass kicked!) But yes, survival; onward.
My gym is doing a white belt tournament. I trained today with a bunch of blue belts and a purple belt and just felt like the gap was so huge - point me off signing up
2 stripe white belt here. That survival bit hit hard lmao. I noticed when I first started I used to think I didn't have a good body type for bottom guards (6'1'' with most of the length in my legs). 20 months in and all of a sudden my de la riva feels just as natural as breathing. If I've got more and more revelations like that all throughout my career then I know picking this up will have been the best decision I've ever made.
The same thing happened to me with my half guard and butterfly guard. At first i was like this does not feel right but after 7 months of training they feel so natural
Firstly, I am sitting watching this video in the same shirt as you. Haha. Secondly, major imposter syndrome here. Just got my blue belt. Feel like I know nothing still and should be so much better to be here. Just trying to convince myself that it is only the second belt level, not the final one. I don't have to know everything, and be able to beat everyone (especially as a woman in a gym nearly completely filled with men). But I just have to keep working and finding my 'speciality'.
As a 39 yo purple belt (2 mos now)....I'm not sure I've earned it. I went the whole time a few times with white belts. Younger and stronger blue belts routinely beat me
Hey Tyler did you ever consider rolling with some daisy fresh ? Maybe Andrew Wiltse or some one else thats from the original crew? That would be a cool vid
Man I just hope my body can last the test of time 😂 Im the injured one 🤕 but ill still keep dragging myself to class, taping toes and strapping knees 😭 cause im addicted to this 🥋
My favorite submissions 1 triangle choke 2 armbar and straight armbar 3 buggy choke 😅 Favorite takedowns 1 uchi mata 2 double leg/ morote gari 3 ouchi gari 4 ippon seoi nage 5 fire man’s carry/ kata guruma with leg grab 6 soto maki komi 7 ura nage/ suplex 8 single leg( i like single legs but there really really boring) 9 ashi guruma ( dont do this takedown often because i am smoll boy) Belt rank 4 stripe white belt (kids) I can submit allot of higher belt ranks like grey, yellow and sometimes orange belts. I cant submit green belts but the only green belt is a 16 year old is 1,70m and is jacked af Belt ranking for kids is white grey yellow orange green blue purple brown black
White belt here, love rolling with bigger guys with higher belts. Growing up I had a older hyper aggressive wrestling brother, I’m good at stalling the enevitable and am able to roll and hold my own against blue belts and sometimes sub them.
This video is spot on, I got my brown a few months back and have hated ever since... lmfao, easy rolls are a thing of the past, death match city. I can see how one gets to the black belt after surviving this level. Purple was the easiest....the good ole days. :(
I got my blue belt recently. I have judo background and I was training Jiu Jitsu for 7-8 months. Couple tournaments to show your skills to professor and boom 💥 you are a blue belt
If white belts are mostly or always simply surviving/on defense, is that going to serve them well in self defense when knowing when to gain control would be of high utility ?
Just got my blue belt one week ago. I'm just trying to enjoy the journey and push myself more, but also trying not to care if I get tapped by a high school wrestler/white belt.
What do mean by, after a couple years you can finally “move around”? I’ve been doing BJJ for about a year and feel like I can move around just fine. Even get a sub once in a blue moon. I can get back or mount on higher belts, but keeping it afterwards is another story.
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I had the most fun at white belt. It felt like I was learning magic others didn’t know. Purple is still fun, but the ‘magic’ is gone.
Also purple. A different experience for me. I am continually awed by the depth of the art, and the beauty of all the interconnections. My body moves and reacts in increasingly novel ways that I can only find magical.
I definitely felt that white belt magic, then learned the dark arts of the guillotine
As a purple myself, being able to do almost whatever to you want to most white belts is pretty fuckin fun
The magic is still there, now the magic is in the intricacies! At white belt the magic was a technique, at brown belt the magic is a chain, or sequence, with bait and switches, hidden entries, and scramble mechanics!
My experience is the oposite, im learning more at Purple then ay white. The small little details that can make big improvements to your game and many aha moment make purple most fun for me, so far. Starting to transition smotthly from one to another position while keeping control all the time just feels sooo good! At white belt I just got smeshed.... Might differ that I started at 43 and 67KG :).
I got my blue belt shortly after my 69th birthday. I started training at 67. It feels great to b able to complete with guys young enough to be my grandchildren😊
OSS!
I did my 2nd BJJ comp last Sunday after i started training beginning of this year. I'm 54. Really enjoying the journey. I might be purple belt by the time I get to 69 😀
How is your fingers from the grips, arthritis? Back and neck pains?
This is so gangsta. Just started bjj, only making it 1-2 times a week the last couple months. We got some older fellows in the gym and they would all put the hurting on me. You don't know until you know, but, bjj seems like a life long journey. I feel like it'll go well with my mission not to get fat in my 30s
That’s inspiring. I’m 54 and just got my second stripe on my white belt
Got my purple belt Saturday after 5 years of training. One of my biggest accomplishments in my life.
Congratulations on getting your purple belt 🤙
@@MrGhostface85 thank you 🙏
Something a higher belt told me was "you have to grow into each belt", meaning you'll usually get promoted before you feel 100% ready so its normal to take time to get accustomed to your new rank.
That’s actually great advice 👏
Thats stupid. You should earn it instead
This makes total sense. It's more of a mental toll than physical. The coach has to feel that your ready for what's coming.
that's exactly right lol, especially when you get promoted to a new belt from a white belt because of competitions.
Got told the exact same thing. Great advice and it’s good to know most people feel that way
As an older guy, I noticed most younger people around me are getting better faster, but what's important is that if day 1 me came walking through the door, I'd destroy him.
We learn from UA-cam now
Been doing jiu-jitsu since 2003. I’m 40 years old and just recently started rolling again, after a 6 year hiatus. One thing I noticed….at 40, it’s way easier to quite my brain and to focus on technique, breathing, getting into position before I do anything. There is zero rush. I’ve been wearing a blue belt since 2007. Just never found a spot that I could stick to for a long period of time (I’m in the Army and move a lot). At this point, if I get a purple belt that’d be cool….but I like where my brain is right now, as opposed to when I was younger. Zero rush.
Same here. In my 30s now. Picked up training again after a 10 year break. I think my technique is improving much faster than it did in my 20s. Love it.
Congrats on going back. I started in 2001 and I'm in my early 50's. Stay with it, wherever you end up visit schools as a guest. I know some don't like to do that because now it becomes a tournament with the stranger that is visiting lol. The way I look at my age is, I go in and get some exercise. I learn some modern day tech but it's mostly for exercise. It keeps me young and mobile. I use to be a metal chaser and not a belt chaser. Now I train because I still can. Once the injuries catch up, I'll know to slow down or quit. One of the most important things that I do which was mentioned in this vid. Is to take care of your body. Message, stretch, PT etc...Ice baths do wonders. Thank you for your service Sir 👊🏼 🥋
53, Blue belt. White belt for me was survival. Blue belt was defense and escape. Now after 4 years as a blue belt, I'm comfortable in bad positions, I love my single leg X game, and with the experience, I'm okay tapping...
4 years! You’re just about to get that purple
@@TylerSpangler Yes, so close....injury and a surgery. Monday was my first class in 10 months, drilling 3 a week until my doc says I can roll again....but honestly, I'm flow rolling with the ones I trust. So glad to be back. Class in 45 minutes.
I feel your pain, brother.
Hope you get your purple soon. I'm 54 YO white belt , who started January this year and enjoying the journey so far. Taken part in 2 competitions already.
I am a 54 year old Black Belt and I am ok with tapping also. I only roll once a week now but I go in and roll hard but will tap quicker than i used to. You have to if you want to be able to do this into your 50's.
Got my bb at 38 after 11 years. First year at BB probably the worst of all my years, coming off long C19 gym closure and savage impostor syndrome. Settling into it now 18 months later, finding a new love for the sport, and as you say, refining and re-learning. Feels like prestiging in COD. Also, getting tapped by foaming, hungry, mid-20s purples? Definitely not unheard of! 😅
I had to double check that this wasn’t my comment and that I just forgot making it! 😂
Interestingly enough, one of my coaches said once he reached black belt, he realized he still didn't know anything. Another one said the day he received his black belt was the day he changed the way he did his arm bars. I love Jiu Jitsu! Even if you've made it to this 'finish line', it's only just beginning for you. I love this never ending sport! There's always room to grow.
thing is, the sport is escalating so fast with the online content that white/blue belts will start practising the most optimal techniques right off the bat, without knowing their body as well as black belts. black belts have personal preference for a reason!
🤙🏾
I'm a brown belt mate and what you said is EXACTLY the case. Trying to keep the body intact. I'm 39 been training nearly 10 years. Wherever I train there never seems to a lack of 25 year old hungry blue belts lol
Don't forget us hungry 40 year old 4-stripe white belts 😂
"Black belt is a great place to start learning jiu jitsu."-Master Pedro Sauer
6:05 “you’ll have lower belts frothing at the mouth to submit you” - cuts to ben literally frothing out his mouth.
That guy is one of a kind, gonna miss him
0:56 “If you want to be good at anything in life, embarrassment is the cost of admission for mastery.”
Where did this gem come from?!? That’s going in my mental encyclopedia now!
I believe it is Denzel Washington who I heard this from. I love collecting mental quotes too!
Really enjoyed this vid, I recently got my blue belt and felt like I did not deserve it even after every coach saying I do, got more of an understanding now. Thank you
Just received my 4th stripe at white belt today. I totally feel like an imposter. Watching this video helped a lot. I’ve just now realized my survival is actually excellent. I sometimes work too hard for subs and I feel like that’s where I get my imposter syndrome.
White belt here, got my first stripe last Sunday and the only thing in my head was: "I got the stripe, now i got to work to really deserve it"
Realize you’re still a white belt and you won’t feel like imposter anymore
Just got my 2nd stripe so I feel you haha
@GregLurik Official really?? it took me like a year to get 4 stripes but I also had to get 4 red stripes too, so it took like 2 years to get my new belt, n ive been training for 2 years
Blue belt here. Just got promoted a few months ago, shit is great. Just moved around a bunch so it took 4 1/2 years to get here. Was giving blues imposter syndrome at my last two gyms 🤣
Congrats on the blue belt amigo
Mine is a familiar story. I started BJJ at 23, trained for a couple years got some injuries (broken rib, sprained ankles, etc.) Took about a 7 year break due to college, work, kids and no time to train. Went back about four years ago trained two years got my blue belt, then stopped when Covid hit because I am an EMT and had to work on the ambulance. Came back about 4 months ago and now continuing on. I def have a different mentality now than in my younger years. It's a marathon not a sprint and I'm in for the long haul. Still train at the same gym and dudes I started with are now OG black belts but they respect the grind.
How do you maintain going to training consistently with shift schedules?
4 stripe brown belt here. Been told black is coming pretty soon, which is scary. That still seems like the far off, unattainable belt it was when I first started. I’m definitely going to have some imposter syndrome for a while at black.
You'll be fine. I had the imposter syndrome for the past 2 and a half years at black belt. I constantly get wrecked by my dad (coach) and his number one student (1st degree black belt) on the daily. I felt like I didnt deserve my rank. I recently competed and did surprisingly well. It got rid of that feeling of being an imposter. The best way to look at it is your teammates know how you roll. Those rolls are going to be harder than what they are against people you dont know. You're not a 4 stripe brown belt for nothing, and the same can be said when you get your black belt.
@@bradleymaddox7127 thanks, brother! I appreciate the encouragement.
I love jiu jitsu, always loved but sometimes bc of money, time or both i never started. This year i decided nothing would stop me and now im a 29y old white belt, started in april. Im getting smashed all the time, being tapped by every kind of move and just cant hold to restart the roll smiling, thinking about what just happened and how fun is this growing process. Got my 1st stripe months ago and couldnt be more proud of myself, the goal is to be a 40y old black belt and i am one stripe closer. Great, video. Subscribed.
This channel is just gold. Love the jokes and comedy that’s interwoven in the delivery 😂
Thanks man. Great vid. I should be purple this month. I can't wait to start having some fun. Bluebelt was a rough road with all the crazy whitebelts trying to get me at every corner. All of the injuries and fatigue being in my fourties and trying to train 6 times a week. It will be nice to be able to relax a bit and have some fun.
Let us know if you got heart break expecting to get your belt or if you got a Merry Christmas lol
@@minayaru6723i received my purple belt and I didn't even cry!!!
2:40 "Your coach is still gonna hold you down with one finger." I'm a one-stripe white belt. I rolled with my professor yesterday. My thought process was, "I must be getting better. Because when he's going at 10% speed, 5% strength, and is purposefully handing me openings on a silver platter...I can almost pass his guard."
I just took my fourth class last night. First time I've ever taken any kind of martial art, and you nailed everything I felt in the first minute of the video. Watching this made me feel better though, because I was thinking "I'm never going to remember all this!". Good to know that this is all part of the journey. Thanks for posting this!
"A black belt is just a white belt that never stopped coming to class and improving." - Alex, my Danzan Ryu Sensei
As a recent purple belt this video was super helpful! As the level of “imposter syndrome” im going through is incredible.
So glad to hear that everyone probably feels like this and I need to cut myself some slack.
Thanks Tyler
No problem mate! You’re doing great!
Man congrats on that purple belt. That’s such an awesome accomplishment! I’m a three stripe blue and coach tells me I’m like.. 6 months away from my purple belt but I still feel like… nah I’m not even close to that. Lmao.
Black belt here, been one for almost a year now. I couldn’t agree with this explanation any more. One of the best, straight to the point views on this subject. Thank you!
43 old Brown Belt here. Great break down! My goal each day is to roll in a way that I can come back and roll tomorrow. Awesome content.
im a kid who cant have adult belts but the adults call me "the kid purple belt" because i beat up blue belts and because ive been doing it 5 years
I relate to the white belt portion of the this so much. I definitely have always felt that it is my job to survive and learn from each loss. My professor taught us this day one and his further encouragement has kept me motivated enough to keep coming to class thought all my losses every week. I measure my improvement based on how long I can prevent myself this from being submitted. If I last a few seconds longer each time I go against a higher belt then I believe I am improving incrementally.
that's actually my weakness lol. I feel so bad every time I lose to people bigger and higher than me. one of the main reasons guard pulling is what I usually go for, though I'm getting better at single legs doubles! I'm under 15 though so I only have a grey-white belt lmao
@@gracievee2 keep up on your training and you will be a beast. I'm 35 and the guys that started young are extremely fast with great technical skills.
Thanks so much for this. I just got my Blue belt one month ago, and I’m still wondering why the hell my coach gave me the thing 😂
You tapped less than a white belt would 😅😅😀😀
@@TylerSpangler lol just surviving
I became very good white belt in my gym when the other white belts quit or got promoted.
I’m becoming very good blue belt maybe in 2 years because I already understood this process.
Without thinking or hesitating,
just rolling is the most important part in bjj IMO.😂
Rolling is my favorite way to get better!
Disagree. Drilling is the most important part in my opinion.
@@chrissugg6781 yep, I love the old saying drillers make killers
I'm currently 16 and have been doing jiu jitsu since i was 6 I'm hoping to get my blue belt soon (one purple belt said to me today "i can't play with you anymore i have to actually try" i take that as a good sign)
start learning bjj: 2012
promoted to blue: dec 2018
2020 off due pandemic :(
promoted to purple: dec 2022
Why were you a white belt for so long for?
First time i train bjj my coach was blue belt
And in indonesia we only have a fews blackbelts maybe 1 - 3 ppl at that time, nowaday we have like 10 - 12 bjj blackbelts in indonesia and my coach are still brown belt today
New black belt here, took me 14 years and I’m 40 years old with several injuries the worst being my back. I totally agree that at black it’s when you start to really learn and understand jiu jitsu I honestly feel like I know absolutely nothing about jiu jitsu and hate being this old with a black belt. To all the younger folks stick with it and tap early, also relax on the spazzing out and power lifting strength lol not every roll is a tournament roll, us oldies aren’t rolling to the death. Also I’d say just enjoy the journey and the art, it truly is for me something that I’ll have in my life until I die. It’s a marathon not a sprint. As chris HAUETER once said “It is not about who is good, but who is left.”
I like that phrase at the end. It’s very true it’s about who is left. It’s easy with social media to just see a bunch of monster black belts, but really that’s like 1 in 10,000 that join to even reach the rank.
@@TylerSpangler spot on and being old I’m happy to miss the monsters most days and roll once a fortnight with them hahaha, like you said they are rare anyway.
Say you joined partly for self-defense. How do you rectify that at the end of a dozen years you are now more injured than you would have gotten from being in half-a-dozen streetfights? Paradox, huh?
@@Badge01KenobiI was actually injured from wearing a 10kg vest whilst being a police officer for a decade, the weight on my back caused me many injuries. Also none are due to Jiu Jitsu. I can honestly say that if I didn’t know jiu jitsu I would have worse injures now from my police career.
Jits, I get what he's saying, even though he assumed you were injured from bjj and was wrong. I'm here 7 mos later post injury and surgery, probably couldn't defend myself from a 12 y/o girl. Stay healthy my friends.
DISCLAIMER: The above post does not state any factual information regarding 12 y/o girls' fighting abilities. The views and opinions expressed are strictly for entertainment purposes only.
As a white belt, Starting like this channel a lot. I watch the Guillotine video and hit these on several higher white belts and a blue belt. I got compliments from owner and one trainer same night. Promoted the next week. Thanks
Can you be a noob at every belt? Asking for a friend 😏
This is a great video. One of the best videos I’ve listened to on this specific topic.
I'm really digging this new more in depth effort to videos, if the old ones were great, these are getting great!
Got my blue belt this past weekend feels amazing
Thank you. White belt with just a few classes in and then health and life have been doing a great job at discouraging me. Hearing these videos say a white belt is just supposed to learn to survive helps SO MUCH... Seriously thank you.
This video made me feel so much better not only am I a new purple belt, but I also just started at a new gym and the imposter syndrome is real.
Hope you adjust quickly to the new gym!
Embarrassment is the cost of admission to mastery, so true.
It's so funny beeing a white belt that does mma :D. I mostly do muay thai and no gi ground fighting, but when I put on the gi it's a nice switch of pace, but I really don't care about belts when iam on par with a lot of our blue belts, and know that I could also strike, knee or elbow at a lot of times :D. Just do what you love and care so much about rating systems its about enjoying the sport, and finding inner peace.
It's funny that you mention that the blackbelt is the learning belt. I'm a 4th dan (not BJJ) and I have been telling my students for 20 years that the blackbelt means that you have mastered the basics and can really start learning the martial art.
I see your shelf bro, that’s a strong flex. Like that Sub-Zero
You should see the other detolf! That one has more Mezco and some Yamaguchi
i agree with this. i'm a white belt with 2 stripes and i found that the moment i learned to calm down and just look for opportunities to escape and survive more than for opportunities to submit all the time, i started to do much better. my instructor says the same about his black belt in that it felt like once he got it, it was only then that everything seemed to suddenly click and make sense.
22 right on the cusp of my blue belt. I absolutely love it. I’m training my wrestling, judo, and jits and I’m learning that if I use my strength and athleticism I’m not relying fully on technique. I am slowly implementing my movements at faster paces and applying really good pressure. It’s been exactly one year for me and I’m so happy and excited for the rest! Keep going! Grind! Love it! Enjoy it!
Sounds like you’re the hero we all need. Just some advice.. we don’t need to all know how athletic and strong and amazing you are mate. Martial arts is about humility, not ego.
I got my purple in 2013 quit for 8 years now 40 and it's a different feeling from my younger savage days. Still dogging us old guys doing deep half guard lol
I’m glad you’re keeping the deep half trend alive 😅😅
I'm a about to be a 3rd degree Black Belt. So, not only do I have to judge students in determining their promotions (which can be for many reasons) and convince them that they deserve it. I have had imposter syndrome at every belt always trying to give them back. But I'm also a small 50 yr old with 18 yrs of beating my body up. So much that I feel like I'm not as good as I was as a high purple or brown. I can't recover fast enough anymore, I'm not as fast and athletic anymore, and my body just doesn't feel as strong. I have to keep my A game on to not be submitted by my own students. It sucks getting old bc you eventually start the downhill run. Also, that's not how you use "begging the question". (didn't realize my wife was logged into YT)
Just got my purple belt. So excited yet nervous for this new chapter.
I'm in kind of a weird situation as a white belt. I'm a 6ft 200lb American living in a rural town in Japan and going to a super small gym (it's the only one in town). I'm having an absolute blast, but I'm also WAY bigger than everyone else. So survival is fairly easy. I've only been at it for a year, so everything is still new, and I don't really have much of an idea of how to develop any kind of an attack, but defense isn't too hard and I think it's largely just because of the size difference.
27, will be brown sometime next year according to my professor. While I didn’t agree with your assessment of white/blue as much… the purple belt description was spot on. 100% accurate.
I am a three stripe black belt. I am learning more now than ever. I have much more learning ahead of me.
"your coach is still gonna hold you down with one finger"
THE ACCURACY MY GOD
My blue is my black. The purple wall is un assailable. The end.
love you tyler your the reason i got in jiu jitsu also video idea analyzing my fans tournaments
Actually that is a pretty good idea. If they have decent video skills it could do well
@@TylerSpangler thanks man if you plan on making the video please respond cause I'm a white belt very aggressive and would love to send in a video
After getting BB in 2015, I'm fast approaching the age of 40 and I'm quickly finding staying healthy and life commitments are the biggest hurdles.
By the time you've spent 10 years on the mat, the mileage adds up. Even if you're diligent like me with your mobility, flexibility and strength/conditioning work.
Couple that with getting married recently, I can already see there are times when I will pick work, my wife or commitments with family over jiu-jitsu which was unheard of in the 17 years prior.
One other thing that not many people talk about is accepting that the kids coming up who are actively competing will start catching up and taking over. None of us are getting any younger. And if you're like me where you started jiu-jitsu late in life (20 years old for me), I have no doubt these 16 year old purple belts who go to every tournament and cross train wrestling will only get harder to roll with. While it's obvious why these kids will start beating you, it doesn't stop the bruising of your ego given all the years you've put in, only for it come full cycle again. We all have that similar story of our first class where you get handled by a kid and fell in love with the sport. You train hard so that never happens again, get to bb, then have to deal with a new era of kid, only now they have heaps of training partners, great nutrition, information from UA-cam, tiktok and DVDs. When I started we all hoarded a book imported here from the states or had a friend who trained with someone at a judo school somewhere overseas and brings back a new technique.
Don't get me started on the steroid problem we have in the sport now. When I started it was just the MMA fighters in the academy who'd juice. Now every kid and his dog walks in sauced off his face. Kudos to the true natty athletes out there.
Good video, as a blue, there’s definitely imposter syndrome and this strange pressure to know all and feel down when you tap now that you’ve been promoted.
One thing I regret about cutting out the gi training is that I stopped knowing where I was at. I just sort of started competing in advanced brackets because of time requirements. Now I have an identity crisis and would be too embarrassed to go back to gi and say I’m a 10 year blue belt!
Oh man, at @4:19 I felt that. Matches are pretty scarce unless you do the higher level ones
Life long white belt here. As a white belt currently i do consistently tap out blue and purple belts. Never tapped out a brown or a black belt before unless they were letting me work (quite impossible to tap them out and to even get out of a bad position). I did start when i was 10 and did it for 2 and a half yrs earning a gray belt and then covid came stopped doing it and then picked it up again at 16 and had to start over at white belt. And only do it a couple months out of the yr cause of sports that i do for my school one being wrestling which has helped my jiujitsu. And this summer tho i improved a lot cause of the guidanxe and the internet which is why im now consistentely tapping out blue and purple and white belts that r a lot bigger then me. And i am in the phase where i let people get me into bad postions and i work on my technique from there.
that first guy had zero sprawl in his blood.
When i got my blue belt i had decent standup (from judo not from bjj), hard to pass guard (for a white belt) and could do some subs from closed guard, but i couldn't do a single sweep.
Now after two years sweeps start to work, i have two favourite submissions (armbar and guillotine) but i am trash in so many positions especially with GI, i feel like i should be purple NOGI and white GI.
But i can notice my progress and feels good.
"Embarrassment is the cost of admission to mastery". I love that. I'm going to steal this for my students.
6:04 caught me off guard and made me snort laugh lol
I literally just study books and practice with friends. Have managed to out maneuver some wrestlers and bjj students. I feel belts represent what you know, not how good you are.
Good point
nice video! tomorrow are the promotions in my gym! i trained super hard this year!!! hope to be worthy of the brown belt! oss!!!!
Great vid. And are those Mortal Kombat figures in the display shelf?
Awesome 🤙
My greatest consternation as a blue belt is the inconsistency. Sometimes I feel like I hang fairly well, though I still lose, with brownbelts and score more points than purple belts.
Other times I struggle with white athletic belts.
Some of it has to do with my sleep quality (thanks children) and some of it simply has to do with mindset.
However, I think that the primary issue is inconsistent training (again, thanks children.)
Blue to purple, the darks arts of the wrist lock came into play 💜😏
Best video I've seen on this (and I've seen a lot 😂)
I keep hearing Blue Belt in 2 years...where I went, it took nearly 4 years, 5 or 6 days a week for Blue. For test eligibility, by the time the test was finished, and there was the actual "ceremony" it was just over 4 years. I was average, there were some that took longer.
reached my purple couple months ago, been competition non stop in my local bjj community and reaching the top in my area, cant wait to travel around the world and improves my bjj more!
I’ve been a bb for 3 years. I still feel like I mess things up and don’t perform how I want.
It’s a wild roller coaster!
I received my brown belt last March of 2021 and I swear I've never had more injuries at one belt than when I reached brown 😂. But maybe because I'm 38 too 😅... I'm enjoying the journey though.
3 week white belt: I love every second of it and all that fun stuff, but my gym doesn’t allow white belts below “2 stripes” to live roll (only fundy classes… possibly for months), and though I get and 100% respect why and what they’re trying to do it sucks a little because now I’m ‘worried’ about getting those stripes and I feel rushy about it when I know timelines shouldn’t matter at all.
The fundy stuff is great, appreciated and very much needed, just wish we had the option to do both. (& for the record, I don’t think I’m good enough to do ANYTHING offensive or productively defensive, but I want to get my ass kicked!)
But yes, survival; onward.
My gym is doing a white belt tournament. I trained today with a bunch of blue belts and a purple belt and just felt like the gap was so huge - point me off signing up
2 stripe white belt here. That survival bit hit hard lmao.
I noticed when I first started I used to think I didn't have a good body type for bottom guards (6'1'' with most of the length in my legs). 20 months in and all of a sudden my de la riva feels just as natural as breathing.
If I've got more and more revelations like that all throughout my career then I know picking this up will have been the best decision I've ever made.
The same thing happened to me with my half guard and butterfly guard. At first i was like this does not feel right but after 7 months of training they feel so natural
Firstly, I am sitting watching this video in the same shirt as you. Haha.
Secondly, major imposter syndrome here. Just got my blue belt. Feel like I know nothing still and should be so much better to be here. Just trying to convince myself that it is only the second belt level, not the final one. I don't have to know everything, and be able to beat everyone (especially as a woman in a gym nearly completely filled with men). But I just have to keep working and finding my 'speciality'.
As a 39 yo purple belt (2 mos now)....I'm not sure I've earned it. I went the whole time a few times with white belts. Younger and stronger blue belts routinely beat me
Hey Tyler did you ever consider rolling with some daisy fresh ? Maybe Andrew Wiltse or some one else thats from the original crew? That would be a cool vid
Man I just hope my body can last the test of time 😂 Im the injured one 🤕 but ill still keep dragging myself to class, taping toes and strapping knees 😭 cause im addicted to this 🥋
You’ll get there! I wish I fixed some of my body, but I too love doing it too much.
Still a white belt (3 stripes), having lots of fun getting beat up, surviving, and occasionally succeeding!
Glad you’re enjoying the journey!
Best part of this video was reading "comment as: Americanthanos" love it
8 months in white belt no stripes but i love it cant wait to get my first stripe
My favorite submissions
1 triangle choke
2 armbar and straight armbar
3 buggy choke 😅
Favorite takedowns
1 uchi mata
2 double leg/ morote gari
3 ouchi gari
4 ippon seoi nage
5 fire man’s carry/ kata guruma with leg grab
6 soto maki komi
7 ura nage/ suplex
8 single leg( i like single legs but there really really boring)
9 ashi guruma ( dont do this takedown often because i am smoll boy)
Belt rank 4 stripe white belt (kids)
I can submit allot of higher belt ranks like grey, yellow and sometimes orange belts. I cant submit green belts but the only green belt is a 16 year old is 1,70m and is jacked af
Belt ranking for kids is white grey yellow orange green blue purple brown black
White belt here, love rolling with bigger guys with higher belts. Growing up I had a older hyper aggressive wrestling brother, I’m good at stalling the enevitable and am able to roll and hold my own against blue belts and sometimes sub them.
If your Jiu Jitsu journey resembles this… change gyms, the coach is slack.
as a current white belt, having a very strong defense is a must. don't worry much about chokes and subs. work on your defense.
I love the prospect of just surviving until you can get your blue belt 😂
This makes me feel way better about my current blue belt blues lol gotta keep pushing
This video is spot on, I got my brown a few months back and have hated ever since... lmfao, easy rolls are a thing of the past, death match city. I can see how one gets to the black belt after surviving this level. Purple was the easiest....the good ole days. :(
TYLER JUST GOT MY BLUE BELT! DEFEATING THE ODDS FROM FALSE ACCUSATIONS AND LONG COVID!
Criminally underrated channel
Always love to hear this!
Great stuff as always, thank you for this :)
I got my blue belt recently. I have judo background and I was training Jiu Jitsu for 7-8 months. Couple tournaments to show your skills to professor and boom 💥 you are a blue belt
If white belts are mostly or always simply surviving/on defense, is that going to serve them well in self defense when knowing when to gain control would be of high utility ?
Just got my blue belt one week ago. I'm just trying to enjoy the journey and push myself more, but also trying not to care if I get tapped by a high school wrestler/white belt.
What do mean by, after a couple years you can finally “move around”? I’ve been doing BJJ for about a year and feel like I can move around just fine. Even get a sub once in a blue moon. I can get back or mount on higher belts, but keeping it afterwards is another story.