Anyone who has been involved in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for a while knows there are peaks, valleys, and plateaus, just like with anything. Actually, most white belts usually start off in a valley; a low, beautiful, fascinating, confounding and frustrating valley. The first few months of BJJ training fuels the soul with an intense desire to fully explore and then get the hell out of that valley. You see the foothills and want to get to the top, oblivious of the entire range lying just beyond. That's what hooks most of us at the beginning.
After a few months you start to get a little more comfortable and may think you've hit a summit (remember the first time you actually tapped someone out?), but it's usually just a hilly plateau, only you're executing your moves on the lost souls who just entered the valley. Eventually, you do get to the first real peak. That's when you start figuring some things out and start giving some of the blue belts a run for their money. Maybe there's even some tournament success in the equation, and that blue belt is so close you can smell it.
You know you're really at a high point when you can look out across the horizon and see how much further there is to go. No more delusions from this point on, you've seen the vastness of the range, or so you think.
You enter the realm of the blue belt and start that foreboding downhill climb required to even think about scaling the next mountain. Sometimes at this point it's hard to remember that you're at a higher elevation than when you started. Sometimes it feels like the pebbles are loose, and you're sliding down into regions you never even intended to explore. Your signature move doesn't work anymore, you're trying new guards you previously never considered, and you're getting smashed. But if you can keep your composure and remember the clarity and resolve you gained from the last time you saw it all in perspective, you keep moving. Some of your buddies desist and follow the creek around the base of the hill, all the way out. They've given up, but you stay, and before you know it, the climb resumes.
And so it goes. The BJJ journey is an ongoing process of constantly redefining your path, your vision, and your goal, adapting to whatever challenges present themselves on the way to the next summit. Sometimes the sky is clear, you're at the top, and the highest mountain you can see in the distance really doesn't look that far away. Sometimes the incline is so gradual you don't even realize you're climbing until you behold a breathtaking view or look back over your shoulder and realize how far you've come. Sometimes you are passed by other travellers with superior equipment, or a more experienced guide, or you wave to a stranger on the opposing face of a cliff and realize there is more than one way up. Sometimes you run ahead and discover a shaded resting place or a fresh water stream, or have to learn the hard way that rushing can lead to a fall. Sometimes you find yourself in a dark canyon of injury, or a thick forest of transition, and it feels like you should just turn back, or like you should have never even started this journey in the first place. Sometimes there is an unexpected storm that obscures your vision and you get off track for a while. Whatever comes, whether you follow in someone else's footsteps, forge a new trail, or even have to double back on occassion, ultimately you just keep moving in the direction you want to go.
I haven't made it to the top of that highest peak yet, the elusive black belt, but I've heard from many black belt professors and amazing BJJ Masters that once you get there, it's as if the sky unfolds, an endless range of mountains and oceans splays out before you and you finally realize that there is no end to the journey. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is endless. Looking behind, you see the grandeur of the path you have taken and watch it dwarfed by the splendor and immensity of what now lies ahead. What you thought was the highest point feels eerily similar to that original valley, only the vegetation, your eyes, and your heart have changed. And so you do what any explorer does who makes it so far. You keep on going.
After a few months you start to get a little more comfortable and may think you've hit a summit (remember the first time you actually tapped someone out?), but it's usually just a hilly plateau, only you're executing your moves on the lost souls who just entered the valley. Eventually, you do get to the first real peak. That's when you start figuring some things out and start giving some of the blue belts a run for their money. Maybe there's even some tournament success in the equation, and that blue belt is so close you can smell it.
You know you're really at a high point when you can look out across the horizon and see how much further there is to go. No more delusions from this point on, you've seen the vastness of the range, or so you think.
You enter the realm of the blue belt and start that foreboding downhill climb required to even think about scaling the next mountain. Sometimes at this point it's hard to remember that you're at a higher elevation than when you started. Sometimes it feels like the pebbles are loose, and you're sliding down into regions you never even intended to explore. Your signature move doesn't work anymore, you're trying new guards you previously never considered, and you're getting smashed. But if you can keep your composure and remember the clarity and resolve you gained from the last time you saw it all in perspective, you keep moving. Some of your buddies desist and follow the creek around the base of the hill, all the way out. They've given up, but you stay, and before you know it, the climb resumes.
And so it goes. The BJJ journey is an ongoing process of constantly redefining your path, your vision, and your goal, adapting to whatever challenges present themselves on the way to the next summit. Sometimes the sky is clear, you're at the top, and the highest mountain you can see in the distance really doesn't look that far away. Sometimes the incline is so gradual you don't even realize you're climbing until you behold a breathtaking view or look back over your shoulder and realize how far you've come. Sometimes you are passed by other travellers with superior equipment, or a more experienced guide, or you wave to a stranger on the opposing face of a cliff and realize there is more than one way up. Sometimes you run ahead and discover a shaded resting place or a fresh water stream, or have to learn the hard way that rushing can lead to a fall. Sometimes you find yourself in a dark canyon of injury, or a thick forest of transition, and it feels like you should just turn back, or like you should have never even started this journey in the first place. Sometimes there is an unexpected storm that obscures your vision and you get off track for a while. Whatever comes, whether you follow in someone else's footsteps, forge a new trail, or even have to double back on occassion, ultimately you just keep moving in the direction you want to go.
I haven't made it to the top of that highest peak yet, the elusive black belt, but I've heard from many black belt professors and amazing BJJ Masters that once you get there, it's as if the sky unfolds, an endless range of mountains and oceans splays out before you and you finally realize that there is no end to the journey. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is endless. Looking behind, you see the grandeur of the path you have taken and watch it dwarfed by the splendor and immensity of what now lies ahead. What you thought was the highest point feels eerily similar to that original valley, only the vegetation, your eyes, and your heart have changed. And so you do what any explorer does who makes it so far. You keep on going.
