The Life Of Getting Smashed As A Colored Belt

And How To Not Quit In The Process

My martial arts journey began when I took up the sport of boxing. What began as a hobby became an obsession. It made me feel confident as I got more competent working with my personal trainer as he had experience in both amateur boxing and mixed martial arts. Back then, I was going on alcohol filled, nightly bingers of being drunk all the time. I felt like a slob, eating fast food everyday, hanging out with people I had no business being around, getting into terrible, toxic fueled relationships, but looking back in hindsight, It was definitely self inflicted. I wanted to transform my life, and since I grew up watching boxing with the likes of Pacquaio, Mayweather, and Tyson, it was the path for me to get some momentum in the right direction. I then caught myself looking through my trainers Instagram as he was training his clients, holding pads for them in boxing and thought, “how cool would I look if I was the one training.” So one day I decided to get in contact with him and then started my martial arts journey. I then moved to San Diego to take up the art of Muay Thai which I thought was boxing only with elbows and knees. Boy, was I wrong. They were completely 2 different sports from what I knew at the time. As I got more competent at both of them, I made friends along the way with people that have done jiu jitsu from black belts, to hobbyist, and your everyday practitioners. I mainly train martial arts for it’s practicality and self defense knowing that at least if any intense and dangerous situations ever occurred, at the very least, I can hold my own. One aspect I was lacking was being competent at jiu jitsu and grappling just in general. I thought to my self, “if anyone took me to the ground, I would be fucked".” Enter learning jiu jitsu

Fast forwarding to my BJJ journey, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy from what I knew from my early struggles in Muay Thai and Boxing. I pretty much had to start from the very beginning in a completely different domain. When I spoke with my training partners Cody and Jerry on the podcast, we all had the same struggles and continue to do so. That is, getting smashed for a very long time and make small, incremental, progress along the way. When I spoke with Jerry who is currently a blue belt, he had at the time, the dreaded “blue belt blues.” The best way to describe it is that you feel stuck for a very long period of time without making the progress that you expect or think that you deserve. I’m no stranger to that feeling and it sucks. Plain and Simple. It feels like the valley of despair where you get tested of feeling the emotions of you’re never going to be good enough or telling yourself you’re not cut out for this. Cody told me something interesting that gave me a lightbulb moment. Even though you don’t see yourself getting better subjectively at the time, your other training partners, and coaches do. Sometimes, we get so caught up in our own minds that we need feedback from the external world. I would describe it like going to a gym and not seeing results for months even though you've been putting in the work. Other people can see it, but you. We are our harshest critic. Here is the the remedy to choke out that mindset.

Persistency and Consistency. i know, it’s advice you've heard time and time again but just show up, enough said. Everyone has different goals, from the once in a while hobbyist, to everyday partitioners, to fiery competitors. Whatever your own objective may be, just show up and be there even when you don’t feel like it. Don’t lie to yourself and make excuses. That’s the biggest route to self sabotaging and not being able to trust yourself. This is the science. If you show up everyday, even against your own will, there is no possible way you’re not going to get better even if you tried not to. Think about that for a second. Even if you tried to suck, but continued to attend practice you would still get good. That goes with anything that you do in life. Show up when you don’t feel like it, and do what you have to do to go on autopilot mode and stay consistent. Set a time, schedule out when you’re going to go and don’t break that promise. Simple but not easy. It is the only way to get over these humps. Remember that even if you don’t think its working, The work is working on you. You just have to remain patient which is a skill within itself.