Art Imitates Life

While I didn’t think this, if I did think that receiving my blue belt in jiu-jitsu was the end to anything I would be sadly mistaken. I’m going to go ahead and say I don’t get why anyone goes through the trouble of earning a blue belt in jiu-jitsu and then decides to quit going to class. Of course, life happens and things come up so I’m not talking about those people. I’m talking about people who actively choose to stop going after blue belt, they could go to class, and just decided not to go. I’ve read somewhere that earning your blue belt is the equivalent of knowing who you are as a jiu-jitsu artist. So imagine if that applied to real life: you finally figure out your purpose, who you are as a person, then you just don’t do any of it. It’s unlocking a door and then just walking away from the door without walking through it. That’s crazy. 

Why am I rambling about this? If I figured out what I am in earning my blue belt it would be that I’m a big dude and I like smashing people. I like passing their guard, getting in sidecontrol, putting my shoulder in their face, making them make a mistake, and then submitting them. Maybe go to mount and then submit. There is SO much to learn just in those couple of sentences alone. So much to clean up. The main purpose is once someone is in my side control the only way they should escape it is if I’m submitting them or mounting them or taking their back, the latter two of which should end in submission. I also need to work on submissions and pressure from ALL of those positions. See what I mean? How could I stop when I’m just figuring out all of what I DON’T know? Believe it or not, none of this is my main point.

As much as learning what you are, it can be reasoned that attaining a blue belt and advancing it means learning what you are not. I’m not good (at many things, but in this particular case) from the bottom position. In side control, I’m confident. In someone’s side control, I am not. In someone’s mount, same thing. This isn’t an issue as much if I’m against someone smaller or with less rank. It is an enormous problem with someone my size or someone more advanced than I am, which a lot of people are. I just feel stuck! I know how to defend but I’m not moving enough to stop my opponent’s advance or get out of the control in an adequate amount of time, especially against advanced opponents, and the inevitable result is a tap preceded by my arm being moved into some grotesque angle or getting my back taken. Either outcome is unacceptable.

I asked for advice about this and was told: try something. Figure it out. The absolute worst that can happen is that you get tapped. This…wasn’t the answer I wanted. I wanted structure. I wanted solutions that have been tried and tested and that I can pull from and man did I just get a rush of art imitating life.

I consider myself a practical guy. When I give an opinion it’s often prefaced but it’s also not given unless I’ve read or researched valid information. I do this for several reasons: I don’t want to sound like a dumbass, I want to be someone who is known for saying believable stuff (and in today’s age that means more than ever), I want to know that the words I say have validity. So when I’m told to just put myself out there in the wild and just WAG (wild ass guess) it, man does it put me out of my comfort zone. I know I’m not alone in saying I don’t like to be put outside my comfort zone.

That’s what jiujitsu is all about, though. Your job is to put someone outside of their comfort zone. You learn by being put outside of yours, dealing with that, learning to get of that bad situation and transitioning back to a position that is advantageous to your own. In order to become better at the art I’ve chosen I’m going to have to get better at my life that I’ve chosen. 

That’s enough mind opening for me, today! Sometimes I start these things without a clear idea of where I’m going to finish and I’ll admit, I kinda wowed myself today.