How to Get Your Blue Belt Faster (Without Training More)

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Transcript

Why Blue Belt Feels So Big

SPEAKER_00 0:00

How you can go from a white belt to blue belt faster. That's right. It is the question on every white belt slips. When am I gonna get my blue belt? When am I gonna get my next stride? And it's because it's so important. You bought in, you're into the jujitsu cult. This is you now. You've added it to your Instagram handle. It's your first milestone. It's what it is. And there are actually some things that will help you get there quicker and better, but it's not obvious. And that's why I wanted to have this chat. So this is not about our soon to drop white to blue belt in 16 weeks program.$1,600. That's all it is. No, not at all. This isn't about the money. It's more that some people never get there. I actually I would say the majority. There's a stat that, you know, it's something like almost 80% of people never actually get there. They start jujitsu and they never get to the blue belt. Or people get there and they they quit. You know, this is this is within the culture, it's something that happens. And we don't want that for you. We want you to get there and we want you to stay on the journey. And look, I think that number one, cab off the rank, you need to choose a path. And actually, Lochorn Giles was talking about this the other day on a podcast. He's like, it it is worth your while to just pick a guard or a pass and just do that. Like trying to learn everything, which is exciting. It's cool, it's all new, it's all it's all exciting. Especially when you got the energy, you've got the froth. You're like, fuck, I just want to what was that move on the UFC? What's that banana? Like, what do you do? What did that guy do to that guy? It's awesome, right? But if you don't uh stick to a thing, you actually never really get good, you know. And once you actually do have a good idea of what the hell the thing is, you can you can build off it. And that's that's what Lockman was saying. And I would actually say Lockie is one of the smartest guys in the game, and he's also super humble about his knowledge because it took him, it took him a long guy, long time. I think it took him 14, 15 years to get his black belt, which for most people that's considered to be you know a long stretch.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Especially for someone who has reached the elite level of the game.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

It's not the usual story.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

No, and and he, you know, he and he was competing. As I saw him as a purple belt and a brown belt, competing and traveling, and it wasn't like he was just chilling. And he uh has always had a big impact on me because he's his information is always understated. He never like tells you like you must XYZ. He always seems a little bit like he's unsure of himself, yeah. Which is kind of kind of funny because I know much less uh about jujitsu than uh Lochwan Giles, but I'll tell you exactly what you need to do. But uh no, it's one of those things that choosing he's very Australian, yeah, and it but it also I think is just the nature of his character that he's a little bit like doesn't take himself too seriously and uh is annoyingly autistic, but that makes him very good at jujitsu. Um, you know, he's in the details, but choosing a path. I mean, for you, Joe, you chose a path and you stuck to it. It's far side armbar, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Close guard, fucking setup sweep to this side arm bar. Yeah, no, I absolutely. I mean, it was easier to choose a path back then because there was less shit to do. There's a lot less paths than you know, but but yeah, these days when there's fucking a billion different things going on. Yeah, I think um I absolutely think that's the case. And I I had a chat just with a with one of our longtime program users the other day, shout-out Stevie, who was like, hey man, fucking want to get your take. Uh someone told me, I think we might have you know give floated the idea on another episode of like one pass, one takedown, one, you know? Yeah, sure. And he's like, but I don't and I was like, you know what, bro? I'll tell you what's worked for me. Just do one fucking thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

One thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

And he's like, all right. And then he came back, he's like, hey man, I've been doing one thing and I fucking swept a brown belt last night. Or whatever it was, yeah. But he's like, God give it a good one. Yeah, it's it, but but yeah, I do think choosing one thing is it simplifies the complex.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Yeah, I mean, it's so big, it's so fucking and there's so much information, right? Like there's no rush, it's so it's frustratingly um nebulous. Oh 10-point word score. Joe wins today. Um, no, it's cra it's crazy because yeah, I think it was much easier for us when we first started jujitsu as white belts. Because fuck, what was your choice? Close guard, half guard. That's maybe maybe Delaheva.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Maybe but there was like one move from Delaheiva.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yeah, no one was inverting, like you know, maybe some weird guy was playing open guard, but it just it was so interesting that that made the journey easier, and now you have all this information which you're like, oh, surely you'd learn more, but that makes it harder. You get this kind of analysis paralysis, you're like, Oh, I don't I don't know what to pick. Pick a thing, stick to it, and build from it.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Like it.

Stop Copying The Random Syllabus

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Step one. Now, I'm gonna say something, I don't know if it's controversial, but it's probably different to what you've heard. Let me say that. Don't just do what your coach says, don't just follow the pack. What am I talking about here? When you go to class, just I understand that you're going to class because you want to learn and you're like, Well, I'm trying to fit in, I've just started, I'm a white belt. But just doing what everyone does, which is the rotating roster of just honestly, not necessarily very connected techniques or syllabus, like you're lucky if there is one, um, is really a method for not improving. And this is kind of piggybacks off this idea of um, you know, choosing your own path, is just copying what other people are doing or what's hot right now is the best way for you to not actually get uh a good understanding of what you need to do in a situation. I think this is the thing of like, don't don't get me wrong, I've I've I've been accused of this. I when I did judo um of this guy used to call me Dr. YouTube. He's like, no, Dr. YouTube. Where'd you learn that? And I'm like, oh fucking YouTube, mate. Like he's like, well, you didn't learn that here. And I'm like, yeah, I just fucking ipponed you with it though.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

He was another student there?

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Uh no, he was an instructor, he was an old school instructor, but he would see me watching judo matches on my phone. And so he used to call me Dr. YouTube like that was something bad. And I'm like, Yeah, right. If I'm a white belt and I can ipon you as a black belt by watching a YouTube video, is he 83? The fuck is wrong with me? He was older, but but you know, but I I just I I just wonder like I I'm not being condescending in any way here. If you're someone who loves instructionals and you love learning every technique, that's great. But I think the difficulty is there is a certain level of expectation that you just do what everyone else does. And I actually don't think that is the best way for you to progress faster. I think that's actually in some ways, maybe some people need the slow and steady, but if you're someone who's trying to make progress quicker, I believe that you actually need to kind of start to think for yourself a bit more. Your take on that, Joe?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

I I agree with the idea. I agree with the idea. I can see where in a practical sense it's it could be tough for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

A bit awkward.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Yeah, because you're a why you you're uh you're very early on, and so you just you don't have the confidence to like, well, I I'm gonna make some decisions for myself here because you're just like, what the fuck's going on?

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Yeah, it's chaos, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

So it's it's a bit of that one that in hindsight, you know, sitting where we are now, you can be like, hey brother, you should do it different, you know? Yeah. But I but I but that said, there's also I know like I can think of a bunch of white belts who are totally ready to hear that, right? Like they've been in the game long enough, they're committed enough to it, they think about it enough that they're like that they can take charge of their own kind of you know, their their own sort of direction in a sense. Yeah. Um, of course, under the guidance of their coach or coaches. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I think uh it's it's a tough one, right? I think even just knowing that though is maybe already a small victory for a lot of people. Sure. Knowing that, like, look, you're gonna be exposed to a whole different bunch of techniques, and probably 85 to 90 percent of them won't be relevant for you. Um, and that's okay. Know that you don't have to master all of those. So the things that you naturally feel by like inclined towards, lean into those harder and explore those more and use them more. Yeah, I think even that will help someone to simplify the thing for sure.

Go Against The Gym Current

SPEAKER_00 8:26

And and I guess where I'm going here isn't just the idea of the the learning aspect, it's more the idea of like kind of going against the grain a little bit. So if your gym is like anti-guard or like anti, you know, modern jujitsu, they're like, Oh, we don't do that. That is actually like if you're inclined to do that thing, I think you should still persist. Like, if you're good enough, you you'll get promoted as much as you might, you know, you might have a coach who's like, oh, we don't we don't always do it that way. You know, I think people are under the impression that oh, I get stripes by pleasing the coach. Nah, you I mean, yeah, I'm not saying you want to piss off your coach, but you get stripes from being good. If you smash everybody, it's kind of undeniable, right? Like, I think so. I'll give you a very real example of this. I started in 2008, March of 2008, under Peter DeBean. Close guard, half guard. That's the game, right? Kit Dale came in, I don't know, maybe nine months, a year later, you know, I wasn't quite a bluebelt and I was doing pretty well. And Kit was wrestling and doing judo and doing takedowns. And kind of Peter said, Oh, yeah, you know, we don't kind of do that here. And Kit's like, whatever, I'm here to win, bitch. And and he would drill takedowns and and wrestling, and and kit dominated. I think people people forget about Kit Dale, but really as a white belt, blue belt, purple belt, all the way up to brown belt, was winning so many things.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

It was a bit of an enigma in the Australian jujitsu scene during that time.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

He won like weight and absolute in an Australian scene, he win everything. Abu Dhabi Pro, that was like the first tournament to really give money. He won that a bunch. He also was the first Australian to win the Brasileiro as a purple belt. I witnessed that firsthand. That was wild to watch.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

He was he was he was Craig Jones before there was a Craig Jones.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

That's right. He was Craig Jones before the Insta American scene. He was on the cover of magazines. What was the what was Harleck's event called? Uh sub something? No. No, no, no. Uh yeah. But yeah, I mean, uh, he he fought Gary Tonnen at the at that time. And look, that was Tonnen in his prime. So it was kind of unfortunate fucked him up. Yeah, it was kind of unfortunate. But Kit was a force to be reckoned with. And I mean, it's just the nature of him as a guy. He just did whatever he wanted. And he had a very strong Meta Morris. Meta Morris. It was great, actually. Great event. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah. But long story short, the culture in the gym changed when Kit started to win everything. Because Pete was like, Yeah, we should probably do a bit of wrestling. Like, it's one of those things that you can be the change as well. Yeah. So I I think this idea of just not going along with it is important for just being able to stick to your guns. And it's not about pissing off your coach, it's about focusing on getting better.

Kit Dale And Winning Changes Culture

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Now, uh, physical, are you a stiff person who can't touch their toes, shoulder hurts when you lift your arm up, that kind of thing. Are you a fridge? Because we've we've talked about these kind of archetypes, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Fridge and the wet noodle.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

The fridge and the wet noodle, right?

Fix Your Body To Avoid Injury

SPEAKER_01 11:36

So tell Joe, tell people about these archetypes. There's a spectrum at one end of it. You've got the refrigerator, which is tight, stiff, strong. And then at the other end of the spectrum, you've got the wet noodle, flexible, pliable, weak. Now, you can you can sometimes have a bit of both, but most people in a very general sense tend to sit somewhere on that spectrum. Yeah. And so it kind of gives you an idea of where your natural talents are, and then the thing that's going to be harder for you to attain. And ideally, where you're trying to be is sort of somewhere in the middle.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Somewhere in the middle. And and it's it's along the idea, it's along the lines of if you know you have a physical deficiency, do a bit of work on that because that is actually where the most gains are. If you're a big, strong person, but you're really stiff, what will make you way harder to roll is not being stiffer and stronger, it's being flexible.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah, like if you're super strong and you get like 5% stronger, no one notices. Everyone's just like, it doesn't matter, you're just still strong. Yeah. Right? But but yeah, if you all of if you start to get a bit flexible, people are like, what the fuck is with this? Can't fuck this guy.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah, it's like that's the that's the fucking that's the sweet sauce, right? So much harder. In the same way, like uh if someone's really flexible, but then also they're so strong, you can't, you're like, what the fuck can I do here?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Like an Ari.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Yeah, like a fucking Ari to back shut out. I mean, it's just one of those things that um going to working on your deficiency will I think act as an accelerator for everything else. So even whether you be the wet noodle and you're you're kind of weak and you you move well, but you're just getting crushed, or you're the big strong fridge, doing a little bit of the thing you haven't been doing, whether that be a bit more flexibility or doing a bit more strength work, is gonna be a massive unlock for you. And this is the thing that we tend to neglect because we always double down. You know, like we tend to just do more of what we like. So if you love stretching and you already do yoga and stuff like that, you're like, oh, I'll just do my yoga. Okay, cool. But a little bit of lifting is probably gonna be really helpful. And the reason why I say this is when you neglect these things, that's where you tend to break. And injury is what derails people from that journey from white to blue belt. You cop a real fucking serious injury. Stiff, strong people will generally get an injury because of inflexibility, not because of they were too strong. Yeah. And then the same way, like people who are more flexible and maybe not on the stronger side are subject to the forces of a stronger person and can cop an injury that way too.

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SPEAKER_01 14:21

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Fit In Less And Ask Better Questions

SPEAKER_00 15:26

100%. Now, this is a this is a look, I I think for most people out there, when they are looking at people around them, they will, you know, you you just you make your friends at jujitsu and you go along and you're like, man, I'm just I'm just trying to fit in here and and I'll I'll just I just do what everyone else does and and you don't want to stand out so you don't want to be weird. You know, like human behavior, we we talked about this before, the so social thing of of fitting in, it's actually pretty important, especially if you've just started at a place. You don't want to be the winner. Yeah, don't get ostracized before you've even had a chance to work out if you want to spend some time doing it. But you you're now in jujitsu, you've you're in the cult, you've drunk the Kool-Aid, you're fucking you're all about it, but you are noticing around you that uh maybe you you're not improving, and you're like, oh yeah, I'm I want to be different, but I don't know how. I'm just not I'm not sure what to I'm not I'm not sure how to get better, and I'm just floating along with all the other white belts, right? And you're just going along to fit in. I think don't be afraid to do something different in terms of whether it be get a private lesson, get a personal trainer, do something that is going to change what is going on. Because I think a lot of people feel you follow the mold. Yeah, the the the the fitting in aspect is is a part of jujitsu, no question. Wearing the uniform, flying the flag for the team, that's great. But I feel a lot of people get lost here because it feels good initially to fit in, and then you kind of kind of blend in. You kind of get lost in in the crowd in a way.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Yeah, and you're not well, you're not being proactive about getting what you need from it. Yeah. And you and it's and I think we we're guilty of that in many ways. And you can look at the thing and be like, fuck, that's not how I want it to be.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

And it's like, well, part of that happens to you, but most of it is your is your sort of your your your what's the word? Like you're being complicit in that too.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

You are. And and like, I mean, even for yourself, Joe, even though maybe I don't know because it's early in the morning, but like from a coaching perspective, you know, when you say, Oh, is it like anyone got any questions? You probably do want people, you know, a lot of people like, please don't no one ask a question because I just want to fucking roll. You know what I mean? Like, you know, you can sense it in the room. That's like, or sometimes the instructor's like, any questions? Okay, one, two, all right, yeah, all right, well, it's good. You know, like they don't want a question. I will definitely ask a question. Like, I'm I'm that annoying guy because I don't care about being weird, I'm a fucking weird guy. Fuck it. But for you, Joe. Weird unk. Don't call me unk. We're just the same age. You can't do it to me. You know, it fucking upsets me. You know, I'm sensitive about my age. Uh fucking Bradman. Bradman at our gym, Bradman Houston is the big um uh Bradman, strong name. He's a big guy, but six foot seven, hundred and fucking fifty-four kilos, whatever he is. He calls me Unk and it fucking nuts me, bro. It's so bad. He's probably too accurate. You know, it's like it's results. Just gave me another gray hair. Um mate, you you you would say as a as a coach, you you can respect if a student asks like a legitimate question. I fucking love questions.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Yeah. Oh, I think any coach loves questions. I mean, you gotta be a fucking idiot coach if you don't love questions. Sure. Let's be clear there's there's good questions and there's less good ones.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Hey Joe, what do you think about the carnivore diet? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Sometimes you go and you're like, you that's fucking irrelevant. Yep. Or sometimes you get a good question, but you know what? Now's not the time. Let's talk about that later. Because I do get, you know, I can think of a couple of people who genuinely have good inquiries, but what they've asked is gonna derail the thought process that I'm trying to keep everyone on. Yep. And you know, sometimes with Jits, it's like, hey, we're learning an attack here. We're not talking about the defense because I want you to innate, I want you to work this attack. Yeah. If I go and fucking talk about the defense, it's not gonna work. Right. Right. So let's, let's, let's fucking make it work first. But yeah, a question to a coach tells the coach that it it reinforces that the students are following where we're at and they're and they're thinking about it. Yeah. And so oftentimes you're like, does every have any questions? And people are like, no, you're like, I don't trust you, cunts. I don't think anyone knows what the fuck I just said.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah. You know, but but the question, I think, don't be afraid to be different, is important because when you ask a question, other people might also be thinking about it. Oh, and this is an important thing. We talk about this in terms of you guys sending us questions on the QA. I mean, don't get us wrong. Please message us, sending us a message on Instagram's great, but when you ask that question publicly, that it allows everyone to benefit from it.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Exactly. That's right. Yeah, it it it all I mean, yeah, that QA episodes is a great example of that, right? Um, yeah, so no, I I think questions are huge. And I mean, it doesn't mean you gotta ask questions for questions' sake, but fuck, it's it's good to it's good to, you know, like think about the thing that's happening, and like if there's something that's not clear about that, like probably someone else is also unclear.

Show Up Early For Hidden Lessons

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Yeah. And I think that just makes the group better. So I think by being it takes courage to be different and and and stand out a bit, but that will help everyone else. And last but not least, this is going to be slightly different for y'all. And I know this can be difficult because many people, when they first start jujitsu, they've got their family, they've got bloody social lives, they've got plenty of stuff going on. But what you will find is as you get deeper into the jiu-jitsu obsession, you start to shape your life around it. But this is for most people who show up 10 minutes early. Now, this isn't just about do your warm-up, like do your prep, do your mobility. It's not just about that. This is about organizing your life, which means you're putting priority on jujitsu. And this has a kind of this is like speaking to Joe, had mentioned this before, about having a practice, bringing a certain level of intent and kind of not so much identity, but like a level of care and effort to make sure you're there so you can be present. Like because you've had a chance to like not think about work and Think about where you are and get ready and and maybe talk to someone about some jujitsu and then you um your brain is more receptive, you know, and then there's a value in that. But I believe the showing up early piece isn't and obviously things come up, and it's better to get there than not get there. So look, you know, everyone's late every now and again, but if you have the habit of being 10 minutes early, also you might witness some shit. I have found this before. This is something I share with you guys. I showed up an hour early to a seminar, uh, Robert Drysdale seminar, and he was just sitting there on his phone. I ended up getting a fucking private lesson with Robert Drysdale and um Tiago Stefanudi, who is the kind of connection at Absolute MMA. And I basically got a whole seminar to myself because he he just started talking to us and talking about MMA and and all kinds of things, and he just started like showing shit.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

And I was like, he's on a podcast just last week. I heard, and he's going, I did this seminar back in Melbourne in the day. This annoying guy. I'm just trying to catch a break. By the time we got to sound, I was fucking cooked, brother.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

No, well, I honestly I felt a bit because he's he's a he's a big human, you know. And I I felt a bit like self-conscious now, probably he was cool, he was chill. But uh, but then he just he just decided he was gonna start teaching what he was talking about, and I fucking got the benefit of that. It was awesome. And I I think sometimes what we underestimate is that even though you think, ah, it's just 10 minutes, what the fuck is 10 minutes? You being there opens up possibility for better jujitsu. That's what I'm saying. What's your take on that, Joe?

SPEAKER_01 23:41

Yeah, no, I I actually need to avail that advice myself because I'm chronically late, it's which is very interesting. It only started sometime in my like late 20s. But do you think that there was a time when that wasn't the case? Yeah, I used to be early for everything, right? Right, right. I used to, you know, like back in the before mobile phones, sure. Cuns are like, what? You were alive back then?

SPEAKER_00 24:02

How old are you?

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Sorry, unk. But I used to be fucking early all the time. Sure. Which was just a dumb thing back then because we fucking polite state of time. You said that time, you gotta be there. Can't text each other, can't let them know, yeah. Um, but yeah, I've gotten real bad at it. So and and and I do, I do like fundamentally when you're late, it puts you in a in a kind of not negative, but it puts you in a different headspace. And there's a bit of hustle there and it's a bit of chaos internally. Yeah, and it just means you're not kind of you're not calm and you're not mindful about the thing. So it can open you up to an opportunity like with Drysdale, as you mentioned, but it can even just open you up to being a bit more intentional about what you're doing today because you've actually got like a bit of mental space, you know, you're calm before you before you start.

The Five Steps Recap

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'm a big fan of that. I gotta do it. Yeah. So there it is, folks. That is the five you need. For sure. You're out there, you're a white belt, you're hustling hard. Take these five steps, and you will get to blue belt much quicker.