Workout #14

So here it is. My first stripe. It's kind of strange. I'm not sure the point of this thing. I've been doing BJJ for about two months now, only one at this particular gym. I'll be going out of town and will train at another gym this week, where I will spar. I've sparred before, and I'm not very good, but I learn a lot from sparring. You need 3 stripes to spar, that's on average 4 months at this gym since it's a Gracie Barra Gym.

I'm not sure if the main professor gave it to me simply b/c I've been attending, or if it's b/c he's seen some skills in me. I told him I'd like to spar and said I spar elsewhere, and so he said I could spar at my 2nd stripe. That's a big deal. I want to be tapped out, I want to learn, and mostly I want to roll. I think that will change my focus entirely on my BJJ. I'm still not sure about a tournament.

I've come to think it's not so bad to give stripes and belts for length/mat time. Of course there is a great variance in the level of abilities. For example. In my gym, there are two purple belts who received them in just 3 years. Others took 5-6 years. There is a brown belt who got his brown belt in 6 years, and others who took nearly 10. For the most part when I ask them, it's a matter of how much they come - mat time. There's age, ability, all of that for tournaments and the like but for those who are older the belts are a matter of showing skill. We have a purple belt that has been training for 3 years, 23 years old in our gym, who took top place at a big tournament - open class including brown belts. He could roll with most older black belts and submit them easily. He's incredible fast, flexible, strong, not a single ounce of fat, and very long limbed. He's also a gym rat and comes 6x/week and spars hard every time. He's only 23 so he recovers fast. We also have another guy, a brown belt who has been doing this for nearly 9 years. He's 50 years old, so started at my age. He said he came more, but now he comes 1 or 2x per week. That's not a lot. Yet he's a brown belt. The purple belt could submit the brown belt in a second, I know lots of blue belts that could submit this older brown belt. The point is this brown belt however, knows a lot about BJJ and has been training, that's why he's a brown belt.

So whether it's just mat time or whether it's skills, for beginners like me it's useful to have some kind of marker. My friend that's really skilled was in this gym for 6 months, won a tournament, and then got a blue belt. However, she had no idea what level she was at. She may be at blue belt for another 3 years, who knows. I like the GB system this way, there is a level you attain once you get enough mat time.

We all have different goals with BJJ. Some fitness, some tournaments, and others some other reasons. I'd like to enter a tournament mostly for the preparation, try to get in a lower weight class. The tournament itself is just icing, and once I've gone past the winning/losing stage (of course we want to win), then it's just a giant learning experience.

The brown belt, the 50 year old, asked me how long I've been doing BJJ and I said about one month here, and a month elsewhere. He was really surprised since I rolled with him and this other blue belt. I said I used to be a high school wrestler, and he said ah, that does make a difference. I'm still not 100% sure how it does, but it does seem to make a difference. Now I want to hit every class and do as much as I can so that I start sparring. I care less what belt I am vs. learning how to spar, and learning how to tap or not be tapped by higher belts just survive. I feel like that's the best way to learn, kind of like sparring in boxing. It's hard to learn how to box without real live spar, and I'm antsy for the same reason for BJJ.