The Power of the White Belt
When you are a higher belt, you automatically inherit a coaching position from a white belt's point of view; after all, you know more than they do so it makes sense. It's common to have people that just started training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to be a bit (or very) reckless. I remember when I was a 4 stripe blue belt, I use to think that I couldn't benefit at all from training BJJ with white belts. A few experiences that left me with black eyes, tweaked neck, jammed fingers, random elbows to the face, etc., left me with a sour taste and the wrong mindset.
Communication
Do not associate a white belt's inability to do things on the mat with their ability to rationalize something you are trying to tell them. Moreover, they are probably black belts outside the mat on something that you are a white belt on, hence, take the time to get to know them and I'm sure you can pick up a new thing here and there from them. Now, back to the grind on training Jiu-Jitsu... If you are an upper belt and have not caught an elbow or knee to the face, then you are only training with more experienced BJJ practitioners, and even then you can still catch these beautiful bony structures in your face. It is important to tell the new guy to slow down, learn the movement, relax and breathe but frankly, sometimes it just doesn't work. If you come across this type of person, just put them on your rolling blacklist (we'll touch base on the backlist on a later post) and move on.
Let 'em be
Recently, I was rolling with a white belt friend of mine. I thought it would be a good idea to start playing Squid guard on her and so I did. The Squid is a very tricky guard to pass. A few months ago, I lost the Denver open semi-finals to another friend of mine who trains at ATOS. He put me in the Squid guard and swept me... the match ended 2-0. Long story longer, it was a Friday night when I tried this guard on my white belt friend to see what her reaction would be. At the time, the only thing I knew about the Squid was how to get to that position from closed guard. After I wrapped the lapel around my shin, under-hooked her leg and re-grip the lapel, I had my position locked. Somehow, someway, my friend started to escape... It probably took her a couple of minutes, but she finally managed to undo the Squid and improve her position. Now listen, before this happened, I had watched my Denver match, youtube videos and put a lot of thought of coming up with an escape from the Squid. That Friday night was a catalyst for me. Maybe the reason why she figured out a way to escape the Squid was because I didn't know how to retain the Squid guard, understood the concepts that go behind the scenes of this new guard or froze because I was in awe that with about a year worth of training, she figured out a way to escape a modern guard on the spot. The whole escape from the Squid wasn't clean and by that I mean there were some holes that needed to be filled, but it definitely laid the foundation for a nice pass. Thanks to my white belt friend, I can now confidently hit this pass if someone throws the Squid on me.
A few days ago, I was seeing two black belts train and one of them said, "check this out, I have seen a lot of people start doing this with the lapel", BAM!!, it was the Squid guard. After they ended their training session, I showed him the pass that I recently learned from the Squid just to hear what a black belt's feedback was. His exact words after I showed him were, "man I was trying to figure out a way out of this mess the other day but couldn't come up with anything, thanks brother.".
Conclusion
Communicate with white belts and explain to them, patiently, things that you have learned from experience that if you were to go back to your white belt era, you would have wished that someone else could have taught you that; however, there are times I believe as a higher belt, you should show your patience and experience by being quiet and letting a white belt be a white belt. If you are lucky, like I was, they can figure out a solution that even black belts have been looking for.
Shout out to all the white belts out there - Jiu-Jitsu wouldn't be without you - keep grinding, the journey is worth it!
Communication
Do not associate a white belt's inability to do things on the mat with their ability to rationalize something you are trying to tell them. Moreover, they are probably black belts outside the mat on something that you are a white belt on, hence, take the time to get to know them and I'm sure you can pick up a new thing here and there from them. Now, back to the grind on training Jiu-Jitsu... If you are an upper belt and have not caught an elbow or knee to the face, then you are only training with more experienced BJJ practitioners, and even then you can still catch these beautiful bony structures in your face. It is important to tell the new guy to slow down, learn the movement, relax and breathe but frankly, sometimes it just doesn't work. If you come across this type of person, just put them on your rolling blacklist (we'll touch base on the backlist on a later post) and move on.
Let 'em be
Recently, I was rolling with a white belt friend of mine. I thought it would be a good idea to start playing Squid guard on her and so I did. The Squid is a very tricky guard to pass. A few months ago, I lost the Denver open semi-finals to another friend of mine who trains at ATOS. He put me in the Squid guard and swept me... the match ended 2-0. Long story longer, it was a Friday night when I tried this guard on my white belt friend to see what her reaction would be. At the time, the only thing I knew about the Squid was how to get to that position from closed guard. After I wrapped the lapel around my shin, under-hooked her leg and re-grip the lapel, I had my position locked. Somehow, someway, my friend started to escape... It probably took her a couple of minutes, but she finally managed to undo the Squid and improve her position. Now listen, before this happened, I had watched my Denver match, youtube videos and put a lot of thought of coming up with an escape from the Squid. That Friday night was a catalyst for me. Maybe the reason why she figured out a way to escape the Squid was because I didn't know how to retain the Squid guard, understood the concepts that go behind the scenes of this new guard or froze because I was in awe that with about a year worth of training, she figured out a way to escape a modern guard on the spot. The whole escape from the Squid wasn't clean and by that I mean there were some holes that needed to be filled, but it definitely laid the foundation for a nice pass. Thanks to my white belt friend, I can now confidently hit this pass if someone throws the Squid on me.
A few days ago, I was seeing two black belts train and one of them said, "check this out, I have seen a lot of people start doing this with the lapel", BAM!!, it was the Squid guard. After they ended their training session, I showed him the pass that I recently learned from the Squid just to hear what a black belt's feedback was. His exact words after I showed him were, "man I was trying to figure out a way out of this mess the other day but couldn't come up with anything, thanks brother.".
Conclusion
Communicate with white belts and explain to them, patiently, things that you have learned from experience that if you were to go back to your white belt era, you would have wished that someone else could have taught you that; however, there are times I believe as a higher belt, you should show your patience and experience by being quiet and letting a white belt be a white belt. If you are lucky, like I was, they can figure out a solution that even black belts have been looking for.
Shout out to all the white belts out there - Jiu-Jitsu wouldn't be without you - keep grinding, the journey is worth it!
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