Why Your Jiu Jitsu is Not Improving
Posted by Fanatics Authors on
Work Hard, And Check Your Ego...
Typically speaking, a white belt with three or four stripes should be able to tap a brand new white belt or one with a stripe or two. Same as blue belts are able to tap white belts, purples tap blue, brown taps purple, and black belts can tap brown belts. This is a generalization of course because things like age, weight, athleticism and prior martial arts training will affect this but generally speaking we can safely assume that people of the same weight and age will follow the above.
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Keeping the above in mind, if you are a three or four stripe white belt and you find yourself getting thrown around, pinned and tapped by people who only have one stripe or none it may not be that they are just really good, but that you focus too much on winning and not on learning and trying new techniques you learn in class. Watch the white belts rolls, you will see rivalries form between two people without them even noticing at first. Rivalries with your teammates is not necessarily a bad thing, it can cause two individuals to push each other to new heights, same as ego is not necessarily a bad thing either. Ego is what causes you to wake up and want to learn more about Jiu Jitsu and get better at it, ego is a detriment to your training when you are unwilling to tap or are trying to hurt people to feed your ego.
So if you are finding yourself getting beaten by people who you really should be able to hang with, look at your training. Are you trying the techniques your instructor is teaching you? Or, are you too obsessed with beating your teammate that you are not willing to try anything new? If you attempt the new material you are learning in class it most likely will not work at first, nor will it work the second time. This can be disheartening and because of that you see people who are incapable of evolving their game because their ego prevents them from leaving the comfort zone of what they already know, they are unwilling to take a “loss” in the gym because their ego simply will not let it. Do not be that person who is unwilling to lose in the gym. The gym is our laboratory, you test new ideas and concepts there with the goal of making these things work but with the mindset that it is ok if it fails because you can just try it again, this is not a tournament or fight, do not take a healthy gym rivalry and make it into something that one person will start to resent.
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So if you are a white belt (or any belt for this matter) and you feel you are being beaten by people that you should probably be able to train competitively with, if not tapping them, take a long look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are letting your ego get in the way of your progress. It is not easy to self critique sometimes, but learning to be honest with yourself is what will help your Jiu Jitsu and allow you to evolve your game the way it should be.
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