Blue belt is an amazing belt in the journey of one’s Jiu Jitsu path. Blue belt is where you can officially say that you are a Jiu Jitsu person. Blue belt marks the transition from being in awe of the power of Jiu Jitsu to being able to harness and wield a small portion of the art. Blue belt was a great time for me where I was able to stay consistently on the mat and saw my progression as an older hobbyist grow exponentially. I had many milestones at blue belt including competing for the first time including with my son, training through an injury, and other nagging injuries, finding calm under pressure and in bad positions, and getting to a solid defensive and escape capability against others at and even above my skill level. To read more about my origin story and my white belt journey please have a look at these articles:
The Jiu Jitsu Hobbyist’s Origin Story
Reflection on Completing My Jiu Jitsu White Belt Journey
In this article, I will review my journey through blue belt and give some advice on making it through the important blue belt phase of one’s Jiu Jitsu journey.
Beginning Blue Belt
I was promoted to blue belt a few short weeks after tearing my MCL in my knee. I was limited in mobility and explosiveness but was still committed to training as much as I could and around the injury to not aggravate it or increase the healing time. With the knee injury, I was not able to practice much standing techniques or techniques where I was in the top position. As a result, I practiced techniques off my back and allowed my partners to be in advantageous positions and attempt more submissions.
Focusing on defense and submission defense for the first year of blue belt
In my free time away from the mats, I continued to read Jiu Jitsu books, listen to Jiu Jitsu podcasts, and watch Jiu Jitsu instructionals. I found time and time again that beginners in white belt phases and even into blue should focus on defense and submission escapes. The thought was that if you had a solid defensive game you would open up your offensive game not having to worry as much about being submitted or getting back into a dominant position if lost. Admittedly, I focused on the top position and maintained it to submission. I am heavier and stronger than most people at my dojo and I found it easier to rely on strength and size rather than explore bottom positions. The MCL tear forced me to my back and improve in defense.
I took a solid year before I felt I could go near 100% on my knee. Spending a good portion of that on my back defending greatly improved my defensive game. I got better at not getting mounted or back taken and if those got given up, my submission defense from those positions got strong too. I also began to learn how to move my body around my opponent in the bottom position which helped me get more sweeps to dominate positions or to neutral transitional positions.
Another big change was to my ego. I spent a good portion of white belt fighting to the death to not concede a dominant position or explode out of precarious ones like mount or side control. This type of thinking is what lead to my MCL tear in the first place. As a result of spending so much time in the bottom position it started to not bother me at all and my breathing and physical reaction changed from freak out to calm in inferior positions. This change in thought and physical response allowed me to focus on technique made me very hard to submit and confident I could escape to a neutral position or sweep to a dominant position. The MCL tear was rough, but I can honestly say that it improved my Jiu Jitsu by leaps in bounds forcing me to look at the art through a different lens.
Year two at blue belt
Year two was all about consistency. After about a year my knee was in pretty good shape. I was thankful to not have to have surgery to repair it and I was able to train 100% on it. I could still feel the injury there, but it was not severe and I had the confidence to use it as needed. I hit a nice stride in my training making 3 times a week to training on most every week. I also began to branch out and cross-train. I live in a place where the winter roads can get very bad, and on those nights I would stay in my hometown rather than commute the 70 minutes to my regular dojo. It was nice to get new perspectives on techniques and roll with completely different people. I found cross-training to be very helpful in the development of my Jiu-Jitsu. I also took a trip with my family to New York City and got to experience a professional competition class at Marcel Garcia’s Academy. That was another eye-opener for me. You can read about that experience here:
Drop in Review and Experience at Marcelo Garcia Academy New York City
As I continued to train consistently through blue belt overall I took better care of my health. I began lifting more on training days off and generally ate better and with more focus on the impact it would have on my Jiu Jitsu. In my blue belt days, I hit 40 years old and also began working more on recovery and restoration so that I could continue being my best for training and not feel as beat up after. I focused on stretching through yoga, hydrating before and after class, and getting an appropriate amount of sleep. Recovery and body maintenance continues to be a primary focus for me as I continue on the Jiu Jitsu journey. In my late 30s and hitting my 40-year-old birthday, I began to feel in a shape that I haven’t had since my 18-25-year-old self was in the military and working out twice a day.
My pre-teen son continued to train with me and I continued to help my professor with the kids’ classes. This was a good experience for me. I got to spend time with my son seeing his progression, I got to learn basic techniques, and I got to practice teaching and coaching techniques to kids. I found that coaching in the kid’s class is very rewarding. Breaking down technique step by step helped me understand moves better for my use and improved my skill in teaching which heaped as beginner adults started to ask me to explain techniques to them. If you want to get better at Jiu Jitsu, try teaching a kids’ class.
Competing for the first time at blue belt
Towards the end of my second year at blue belt, I was in good shape compared to previous recent years, training consistently as a hobbyist and having achieved two stripes on my blue belt. A competition very close to me was scheduled and I began to consider entering. I had never considered competing much as I was doing Jiu Jitsu primarily for fitness, self-defense, and for the fun of learning. I am also the breadwinner for my family and felt competition could be a risk for injury. At the same time, I wanted to test my technique and make sure I was learning and progressing in the martial art appropriately. My goal was to compete at every belt level beyond white. My son was also interested in competing too, so I decided to try it out. You can read a breakdown of our first competition here:
40-Year-Old Blue Belt Competes in Jiu Jitsu Tournament for the First Time
11-Year-Old White Belt Does 1st Jiu Jitsu Tournament with Blue Belt Dad
The competition provided a great experience for me. I competed in a blue belt master/seniors no gi absolute, a gi age/weight division, and a gi blue belt absolute. I lost my first match in no gi absolute but took home golds in my two gi divisions. Competing was an eye-opener for me. In my first match, I experienced an adrenaline dump and I lost to a purple belt narrowly by points. That was the first time I experienced an adrenalin dump and something I will need to work on minimizing in the future. Also, I was surprised by the intensity of the matches and it was good to feel another going all out to win. By the end of the competition I was spent and it took a few days for me to recover. Another awesome point of the competition was getting to see my son compete and win one of his divisions. We had many kids at the tournament and I got to coach many of them including all of my son’s matches. Coaching Jiu Jitsu was a new experience for me and was an awesome experience to see Jiu Jitsu from another lens and try to influence it from the sidelines. I enjoyed coaching and watching the kids more than winning matches myself.
Promotion to Purple Belt
About a week after the competition my professor awarded me a purple belt during one of the classes. I was surprised by the promotion and very thankful for the achievement. I feel that the purple belt is a tough rank to achieve and the majority of beginners never make it to purple. As I look to the future I’m going to continue focusing on longevity so that I can continue to consistently train and remain major injury free. I also am going to work on solidifying my core game from the core positions. I plan to deep dive into single topics until I have a strong understanding of the position, entries, and responses before moving on to another topic. During purple, I want to have 2 solid takedowns, a solid passing sequence game, a primary solid guard system, and 2-3 solid submissions from dominant positions. I also plan on continuing to develop my coaching and teaching skills so that as I progress in the art I’m able to give back to others that may want to learn the techniques I know.
A summary of the steps I took to form a solid blue belt foundation
- Learned to remain calm under pressure
- Harnessed my ego
- Focused primarily on defense and escape
- Learned and implemented recovery and preparation skills (hydration, yoga, sleep, outside of BJJ fitness)
- Began coaching the kids’ class
- Competed for the first time
- Coached others at a competition
- Cross-trained at other gyms
- And most importantly showed up and remained consistent
Advice to blue belts
I think my best advice to not just blue belts, but to all practitioners is just to show up and be consistent. Mat time will progress you in the right direction. In addition to showing you up, you need to create the right things that will help you have the ability to show up. For me that included involving my son in the hobby, having open communication with my wife on when I would be training and how much, and taking care of myself so that I could stay on the mats injury-wise. For me, it did take a somewhat major injury for me to check my ego and calm myself down in rolls. Since that change, I’ve enjoyed Jiu Jitsu even more and have had fewer injuries and quicker recovery times. Physicality is important to Jiu Jitsu performance, but a solid technique often trumps physical attributes in Jiu Jitsu. If you can make this transition early I think your Jiu Jitsu game will exponentially improve and physical attributes are the icing on the cake. At blue belt, I suggest looking at what barriers are the bottlenecks to consistent training and then working on improving them one at a time until you have nothing holding you back from getting that mat time.