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