I feel like I’ve only chiseled off a cup full of ice cubes in my jiu jitsu journey so far lol. There is an endless amount of information and detail that will constantly change as time passes and as man transcends.

At the end of the day the belt is used to just tie up the Gi/Kimono. The color of the belt represents how much time one has generally spent refining their techniques, positioning and overall “game strategy”. When I say game I’m referring to sport jiu jitsu. Jiu jitsu is and was developed for self defense purposes. But there’s a lot of “just” Jiu jitsu out there that wouldn’t be recommend for a real life street fight situation. Jiu jitsu is designed for ground control, choke submissions and joint locks. There is no striking in Jiu jitsu which makes it one of the most unique and in my opinion takes more wisdom to defeat your “opponent”. Imagine playing chess but with your body. As a white belt you are a pawn. Blue belt you start to develop the rooks. Purple adds the knights, Brown adds the bishops, and once you’re a black belt then you’ve got the moves of a Queen.

After a little over a year of training I got promoted to blue belt by John Piper who is the head Black belt coach at Charlotte Jiu Jitsu Academy in Charlotte, NC. He is an excellent instructor and provides both Gi and no-gi glasses which I like because I enjoying training the differences. Gi is a bit slower because of all the friction from the Gi’s and handles you can grab to better control and even submit someone. No-gi is a fast paced more of a wrestling style type of submission grappling.

As a blue belt I am no longer a novice but still have so much to learn and apply.  If anything, my confidence and more so my competence has improved the most.

I feel like I’m not the only one when I think my mind is running no-stop with silly daydreams and situations that 99.99% of the time will never happen lol..

But when I go into jiu jitsu…

It all goes away. For that time on the mats I am in the present moment. I’m not thinking about bills and what I’m going to do later or etc.. All that matters is what’s in front of me. And what’s so cool about jiu jitsu is that you have this other person in front of you. Who’s just like you.. who deals with the same mindless thoughts. And during that roll you are both playing a game. The name of the game is who can submit who. Who can make the other person give up (tap out). It’s pretty deep actually. When you feel a submission locked in then you better “tap” out.. which lets your opponent/partner know to STOP and let go so no one gets hurt. It’s humbling to tap over and over and over and over lol. I’ve probably tapped hundreds and hundreds of times and will continue as long as I train jiu jitsu.

I started Jiu jitsu in San Antonio de Pereira Colombia. Have been able to train in South Florida, Thailand and my home state of North Carolina. I really want to go to Brazil which is where the heart of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is. Next big trip?

I’m so glad I found Jiu jitsu. My only regret is that I didn’t start when I was ten lol. It’s an awesome workout, mind/body game,  great community, humbling and I’ve meet some wonderful people by and through Jiu jitsu. I hope to do it for the rest of my life and If I’m lucky enough to have kids they are going to be little jiu jitsu ninjas lol 🙂

Thanks for reading,

David