Maturity in BJJ /// By: Vincent Inoncillo
In jiu-jitsu there are levels of responsibility and growth that mature with each practitioner throughout their journey. It's a growth that can be compared with the road from childhood to adulthood. This maturity exists at every belt, but not all are the same. Belt or age doesn't necessarily reflect how mature someone is, but how far they've come along in their journey. Maturity in jiu-jitsu takes a conscious effort to convey at all belt levels as it does in the world off the mats. Each belt has its own reference to one's path to adulthood.
Photo cred: James Manibusan /// Instagram: @the_james
First we will talk about the white belt. Like a young child that's in preschool or going into kindergarten, the white belt is new to the world. In the first years of school we learn the basics that will help us later on in life like the alphabet, basic reading, counting, recognizing colors and shapes. As a white belt we learn about bridging, hip escapes, opening the guard, passing the guard and other basics of the like. These fundamentals will mold our growth in jiu-jitsu. Mastering the fundamentals will allow your path forward to be a lot smoother in transition with each stripe or belt promotion.
Like a young one's early years in elementary school, a new jiu-jitsu student is excited and nervous at the same time. They are eager to learn and sometimes eager to display their knowledge on the mat. This comes from prior experience practicing some moves that a friend may have showed them or from a video from YouTube, before actually enrolling in an academy. This is a common thing nowadays and is completely normal. As we have mentioned in previous posts, everyone learns at a different rate. Some practitioners have the capacity to catch onto the concepts of jiu-jitsu faster than others while others may take a little bit more time by asking questions and practice a little more.
Occasionally there will be the student with potential, but doesn't wasn't to take the time to ask questions so they may improve on their areas of opportunity. On the flipside to that there is a proactive student that learns some things, but in the process of their journey they have a frustration in them that they take out on their training partners by being rough. That is called ego. It's an underlying trait within everyone. Some to better themselves through humility and learning while others use it as a benchmark for their own personal goals and benefit.
As a white belt the journey should be exciting and arduous at the same time. A good portion of time will be spent on the bottom getting smashed and submitted by more experienced training partners. During this time would it would be ideal to work on escaping tough positions such as side mount, the mount and back control. Tapping often to submissions is recommended too. Ego sometimes gets in the way during this phase. White belts shouldn't focus on toughing out submissions being applied to them, but rather learn to defend and escape. This is the phase where knowledge of different techniques are gathered. Having an ego can delay progress at times and carry over even when getting promoted up to blue belt.
Not everybody displays this type of ego on the mat. However, it does exist and exists in similar and different forms at each belt. We've known or still know someone that fits this description. It's inevitable we will run into someone like this during our journey. The best thing to do is be a good human, good teammate and good training partner with this person. Teammates help us get better at jiu-jitsu and we help them.