jaco i'm not sure i agree with your
statements not to pursue belts in jiu-jitsu
it doesn't seem wrong to me to benchmark success using a rise in rank
as a quantifiable measure of success as a person
is working to master their craft any craft it's nice to have markers for
accomplishment and engagement live belts why have belts
if they're not to be strived for or why have them right yeah
and that's actually a little conversation i i had
that as soon as he asked me this this is with brandon you know brandon picked
arithmetic yeah he's he's been around like since day one
in in the game here and we were going back and forth on something he said he
actually sent me this random because he sent me texts about stuff you
know whatever we're doing some projects and and whatnot
and he sent me this random thing well i guess it's random to me it was
random to him maybe he just listened to a podcast
where we were talking about this but he said you know hey
i don't know you know i don't agree with this stuff about belts yeah
and so and by the way brandon is had a goal of doing a hundred burpees
in 10 minutes brandon is in good shape he's an athlete
athletic dude and for some reason he can't do 100
burpees in 10 minutes i don't know where he's at right now
we are publicly calling him out yeah to post his
you know video video no cuts no cuts yeah or maybe he doesn't have to post
the whole thing i take his word for it because he's
owned it a bunch of times he'll put like he'll do a hundred
in oh no i think what he's been doing he's been doing 10 minutes worth
however many he can do he gets like 84.
Yeah so and he'll post it like hey did
84 in 10 minutes was that you can do 10 sets of 10 yeah
10 at one 10 every 30 10 every minute or something
it'd have to be less because actual burpees will take a certain
amount of time yeah yeah yeah no i'm telling you 10 in a minute is not
that hard yeah but plus your rest burpee pull-ups in a minute is harder
yeah but still a good measure so just regular
burpees but back to the conversation i'm going to try that by the way okay so
brandon hit me up and and you know
i understand belts you know and it's because we've said on here like don't
worry about belts don't worry about the belts the belts are going to come
i understand belts and i understand trying to earn a rank and that's cool
but i'm telling you at some point and i think this will
happen to everybody at at some point jiu-jitsu becomes a lot
more than just belts and eventually the
jiu-jitsu itself it completely bypasses what the belts
are and what the belts mean now i could
you could say back to me like well that's because you're a black belt yeah
and so that's why you feel that way because of course they don't matter to
you you're already a black belt so you you know but
the the fact is that that didn't happen to me at black belt
that happened to me at like purple belt i think about midway
of my purple belt time i had no care whatsoever
of what belt color i was this is literally zero
and i just wanted to get better i just wanted to know more i just wanted to
keep training and never even thought about it after that and
like even like degrees on your on your black belt like pete i was
talking to pete roberts the other day and he's like well what degree are you
you know he's a black belt i'm a black belt he's like what degree are you and i
was like i don't know i don't know i got my black belt in
2005.
What does that mean you know what i mean like i don't
have the tape on there with how many degrees i am not that i don't respect it
yeah but i just don't care for me personally
so and and i think that this isn't like he's like brandon talk about you
know to master any craft i think it's the same with any craft that you're
trying to master yeah if you're trying to master the
craft hopefully and eventually the craft
itself becomes more important than the rank that comes with being skilled
at the craft yeah that's what i would hope for that's what
by the way that also makes it a lot easier to keep
pursuing because i don't care but i'm not sitting
there going i hope i get a stripe on my belt today no i don't care if i get to
strike my belt i want to go learn more and guess what's going to propel you
towards more stripes wanting to learn more
yeah wanting more stripes does not propel you towards getting more stripes
what propels you towards getting more stripes and getting advanced in
any craft is getting better at that craft so focus on getting better at the
craft yes sir the belts are going to come yes
sir even your belt's going to come one day
preach it i'm not concerned with belt so we're
glad you're not you ain't got much in your future nonetheless yeah and i think that
this it's like a matter of perspective okay first off you being a black belt
and and thinking that or whatever and be like yeah that's
easy it seems like that's obvious that oh it's easy for you to say because
you're a black belt but at the same time it doesn't kind of go along with that
detachment thing it's like hey i'm not in the game
there's no reason for me to be striving for any belt right now so i
can be detached i'm not emotionally invested
in the whole situation i can look back and and at the same time understand
when i came up me being focused on belts would not have got me here yeah you know
like you have that clear vision hey that's natural it's a natural thing to
be like a blue belt and i wish i could wear that purple belt
and everyone would know me and respect me as a purple belt and i'll be because
i'm tapping some of the purple belts right now yeah and bro oh
do you do the side note i don't know if you know this but
if if you know the feeling of wanting that purple belt
really bad and i just want that purple belt and your skills
from your pers from your instructor's standpoint don't match purple belt and
promotion time comes along and you're okay this is damn i get my bra and you
don't get that purple belt bring you know how sad you're going to be
real so i i've known people that quit the gym
straight up because they didn't get uh promoted on a certain day
and you know what that is that's really sad
it is it's sad from top to bottom for sure that's a side note but
i guess sad wasn't even the right word well it's sad for them
yes like because if you if you're in that zone where you should be getting
your purple belt at some time maybe this promotion maybe next
promotion maybe some other promotion that means you're dedicated to jiu jitsu
and now you're just going to walk away because you didn't get
the belch yeah that's yeah it's rough and like i said like that state of mind
can really really jam you right easy yeah man true story
and i've heard of people where they didn't get their belt and then maybe
someone else did not maybe straight up other people
did and it was their belt you know like they're mad
super mad to the point where they're vocal about it i tap that guy out why
did he get his belt openly saying that so yeah it'll jam you
up just that whole mindset one thing you know i would say to those
people that might be thinking that way from my perspective and for many
jiu-jitsu instructors the the you're you're advancing and
you're getting promoted based on your potential not based on
your skill level yeah people yeah because you might
be you might not have a lot of potential and so you know what hey man the guy's
you know he can't train he's you know 68 years old and he's been
training for a year and a half he's learned a lot of
knowledge he's here all the time he can't tap out any other blue belts
we're giving him his blue belt because for potential
of him as a 68 year old man that never worked out before and now he's training
jiu jitsu dude that guy's a blue belt yeah um
now the further you go up you know black belt is a little bit more serious
uh so is brown so it's purple but i'm saying
you're getting judged against yourself and that's an extreme example buy
someone else by the way not by yourself you're being judged by
your instructor not yourself yeah that's right that's right
so yeah man and that's the and that's a important thing and what's
what's your to your point everything that we're talking about right now
makes jiu jitsu suck right it makes you feel like it makes it
it'll make you mad it'll make you frustrated it'll make you it'll make it
political and this guy got it i didn't know that's
for me i just don't even like that stuff yeah you know don't even like that stuff
so uh when you're ready your instructor's gonna promote you yeah
until then keep training yeah and and by the way also in your
work skills when you're ready to get promoted you'll
get promoted yeah and if you're not ready you won't or
there's not an opening you won't you know what you do to solve that
don't get frustrated don't get all crazy don't blame the guy that did get
promoted don't undermine him you know what you do keep kicking ass
yeah wait next time it'll be your turn enjoy what you're doing master your
craft yes sir don't let your craft become your master i just said that yeah i think i liked it
yeah and that's what happens right yeah you let the thing control you
instead of you controlling the thing instead of you mastering it it's
starting to master you and getting your head
back but he does make a good point and here's the thing is
that this is a mix of perspectives so where um
or a clashing of perspectives where he's like you know as a person working to
master their craft any craft it's nice to have
markers for accomplishment and engagement it's true yeah and
you know what i actually texted back to him i'm like hey man i know i'm not
normal yeah i'm not normal and all i need is a
rock and a hill yeah that's what i texted him and he
laughed right but so so there are normal people that need
to have like i want a goal i want to see i want to
have a checkpoint and that's okay yeah and that's why guess what there are
belts in jiu jitsu and you can get started i don't we don't
really give a lot of stripes out at victory like me jeff glover dean
lister craig james i mean we'll give out like
occasional stripes you know for various reasons but most of the time
it's like oh the guy's ready for his next belt right
let's give it to him yeah and usually the stripes are
that's a subtle thing in my opinion like i've stripes don't
reflect much compared to what belts you know nonetheless i mean
yeah cool back in the day like a four-stroke blue belt
right that guy was the deal i guess but he's saying
you know what and you know what to to degrade what you're saying and what
brandon's saying you know when we do a lot of stripes and
a lot of different colored belts kids right and that's going to be the
point and as a grown-ass adult brandon no as a grown
man you should be like i'm just here to learn yeah well to me
what he's saying doesn't clash with what you're saying in my opinion no
the other thing with brandon is brandon is you know i don't know him that well
but you know we go back and forth a lot he's
a guy that's like metric driven you know like i'm gonna
get this i'm gonna get this i'm gonna get that and that's
awesome that's what makes him successful and in what he does
and the craft that he has mastered very successful
but he likes to have those those measurements
he likes to have metrics to go off and say look i just crushed this this goal
boom done yeah so well yeah and so with belts is gonna be a little bit different
just like with promotions and you know based on skill
so you he says it's nice to have markers and here's the thing it is nice of
course after after when you got your black belt
for you to say i don't care the fact that i got this black belt i don't care
about that at all i don't know if i would believe
it no no you're you'd be correct yeah you'd be correct i was i was stoked
you know it's just a matter of what you're striving for kind of
surprised me too like i wasn't expecting it
right which should tell you something yes i wasn't in there like
tonight's probably gonna be a big night no i like showed up at the gym
and trained or whatever yeah and then all of a sudden it was
special ceremony time and i got the black belch yeah and i was stoked for
sure yeah i was stoked but you know what's
funny is like at the team like people people like i don't know who
heard about it but people like hey man i heard you got your black belt and i was
like yeah yeah but i didn't tell anyone right i wasn't like hey everyone i got
my black belt yeah yeah you know right but you know
you know what you know what belt i cared the most about was my purple belt
yeah when i got my purple belt i was super pumped
yeah at that time it was a big deal yeah getting your purple ball got my purple
ball from fabio santos yeah i wasn't giving away that purple
belt either no broke in the dirt you had to you had to earn that thing
yeah and you know what with and i don't know
because obviously i wasn't there at that time
but i think it's always going to be like that if you get a purple belt that's a
big deal even now it seems like
because there's just so many people now doing jiu jitsu no purple belt
purple belt is a legitimate when you're a purple belt
you will not lose in a fight to a normal person
no in my opinion oh could you get caught with a punch yeah sure
yeah but a normal you know you've got a very high high percentage of
winning a fight against a normal person if you are a purple belt in jiu-jitsu
yeah a good purple belt yeah meaning not someone that just like got a purple belt
for no reason right right you're a real purple jiu
jitsu i mean a purple belt you're rolling like when i roll with the
purple belt it's a good roll you know this is a good roll it's not like oh
this guy's just a purple belt right blue belt most blue belts
you don't have to worry about much of anything
yeah when you're at a higher level yes yes yeah i think i mean you're not
worrying where you're rolling with most blue belts right
i'm worried when i roll with everybody yeah that's just well no no no worried
i don't know i'm just joking yeah i i dig it it's not
saying you're just disrespectful but i'm not saying you're disrespectful
to a blue belt but but realistically you know that
chances are there's no possible way for them to
submit you yeah very small chance yeah the yeah the
skill levels don't matter about slap a triangle on you or
something people grab your arms somewhere
oh yeah uh yeah backing up noah you rolled with noah
he tapped me out oh damn yeah not i mean not like the light but yeah like
within the last year yeah yeah he straightened my arm out real far
yeah i had to go into level nine defense mode
since the emergency escalating oh i went through full and
he surprised me that was the thing you know we're rolling and and
all of a sudden and he's a purple belt that's there you have it there's a
classic example in this in the defense i'm going to give
him i'm going to give him a nickname right now
good noah because he's good and he's very handsome
by the way he's better than you i'll let you judge that one
right he's better than a typical purple belt though oh yeah
yeah yeah but nonetheless to your point that's exactly your point though
if you have a purple belt you're you're not you're not you don't have many holes
no maybe some timing things maybe some you
know whatever you're good yeah he's a classic example yeah noah's a
good purple belt watch out but yeah you don't
pursue that you know what noah asked me all the time when do i get my brown belt
no i'm just kidding no he doesn't care yeah he's the type of
dude that's like hey i'll just sit around and tap everyone out maybe
one day they're gonna be about maybe they won't don't care
i'm gonna keep crushing it yeah and that's how and so tapping out echo
charles yeah i know bro what's up did you give
him your brown belt once you got tapped out by him
i wanted this actually you know what's cool when you get tapped out by a lower
belt it's like guess what jiu-jitsu works
they should be able to wear your belt for the rest of the day
for the rest of your life yourself no jiu-jitsu works
if you do a jiu-jitsu move against me i'm going to tap out to it yeah like
that's the way it works you know i might try the defense but the
jiu-jitsu works yes sir i mean we just saw roger
gracie hodger gracie against buchech yeah and people were a
little bit freaked out i was like yeah jiu-jitsu works
yeah you know you get that choke on buchet
buchets is it an animal a savage yes but get that ghee collar
sunken choke and you got you got hodger gracie
x amount of times world champion can you imagine his grip strength or you rolled
with him yes yeah grip strength how was his grip strength
it was really good but and i'm not to go into a whole thing
about hodges game but he has this thing where this is weird if
you don't know the depths of jiu jitsu but he has
this feeling that he has all bases covered so he's not necessarily his game
isn't to out hustle you it's not to out speed you
and it's not out strength you for sure but it's like he it's like he has this
whole base like all his bases in the jiu jitsu situation they're all
covered yeah so he'll do this thing that and he was
trying to do but you know she's really really good
he'll grab one sleeve with the opposite hand he'll grab the elbow and he'll just
from closed guard by the way and he'll pull and he'll just wind up on your back
and there's nothing you can do about it all your little defenses he's got those
comforts no problem and it's just this thing that it just
it's a it's like this eventuality that you have no
defense for that's how it feels his whole game yeah so yet i mean it's crazy
that he was able to bring that same game to someone like buchesha yeah he
was crazy as a beast yeah he's a beast yeah it's just crazy
but yeah that's how nonetheless back to the point
don't pursue the belt that's not the pursuit the pursuit is getting better
the belts will come when the belt comes to the to to um
brandon's point when the belt comes that is nice and to me when you get your belt
from your instructor not from yourself yeah when you get well you can't get
them if you're yourself but if you're the guy who's getting mad
if you're the guy that's getting mad and because you think you should have got
your belt you're thinking you're getting your belt
from yourself that's what you're thinking uh
in your head yes yes exactly right so so forget i am ready
yeah i'm ready exactly it's not up to you it's not up to you you can tap out
all the black belts it's still not up to you it's up to your
instructor anyway when you get your purple belt brown belt
black belt yeah that's bro i would say this happens
more times than not if you're a blue belt you're rolling
you're getting good you're learning a lot when you get a purple
purple belt that's going to empower you so much to be like now my standard just
mentally is higher now i'm a purple belt now that's my minimum
standard right now well a purple belt is full on in the
game yeah yeah for sure you you can't really be
super casual and get a purple belt right i'm saying
whether you're casual or not yeah i'm saying it is empowering and it is
you you're gonna have a lot of pride with that well i wouldn't say
empowering i would say it puts you um it it raises the bar on you yeah
like once you're wearing a purple ball you can't beat you know you now you're
like i can't tap these blue belts anymore you might but i'm saying
yeah same thing to me tomato tomatoes raises the bar yeah
what did you say it raises your standards yeah of rolling like my own
basically exactly what you said yeah like the car is raised yeah i gotta
represent yes you know all this stuff it's like it comes with a sense of pride
so yes it's a huge it's a deal and that's why
also when you're a blue belt enjoy being a blue belt you can take
more risks you can get tapped out doesn't matter you
let it flow yeah let it flow 100 but yeah when you get that belt yeah be
be happy be prideful post it on facebook and you know thank your training
partners all that stuff but don't just pursue the belt man it'll
jam you up big time
