Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
Discussions on improving your BJJ, navigating mat-politics and all aspects of the jiu jitsu lifestyle. Multiple weekly episodes for grapplers of any level. Hosted by JT and Joey - Australian jiu jitsu black belts, strength coaches, and creators of Bulletproof For BJJ App. Based out of Sydney, Australia
Bulletproof For BJJ Podcast
What Black Belts Wish You Knew
Do you ever think of things you would tell your younger self? This feeling is one that is shared amongst jiu jitsu practitioners as well. JT & Joey share invaluable insights from their seasoned black belt minds to help YOU along your jiu jitsu journey. If you are a black belt, feel free to add some of your own insights in the comments!
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A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready.
Speaker 2:Essentially, at this point, the fight is over.
Speaker 1:So you pretty much flow with the goal. Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power?
Speaker 2:I'm ready.
Speaker 1:Black Belt Insights what we have learned since becoming Black Belts, which we didn't know before, and this is the kind of stuff that can help you out. These are the things that no one teaches you, and obviously you've got to go there to come back, but we've been there and so, since we've been here, I actually found a bit of a memory. You know how the phone will do that to you. Hey, do you remember this? You're like no, oh shit, huh, I got my black belt like fricking nine years ago. Oh wow, Well, yeah, eight and a half years ago, oh wow, well, it was a trip. It was like me and Lockie, and Lockie had actually bought me this specific Isami belt.
Speaker 2:Ah, that's very nice From.
Speaker 1:Japan, you know. So it wasn't like just some generic, he'd actually made the effort and that actually was very touching. Yeah, I was like fuck to that and um, the thing they always talk about when you get the black belt is like it's only the beginning and, in a lot of ways, like you get there and you're like, fuck, I still there's so much stuff, I don't know. But I feel the things that you learn once you get your black belt are of a it's slightly different. It's not like oh, I learned the perfect guillotine or I learned the perfect uh leg lock. It was fuck, this is a principal understanding I didn't have before. I got it. Now it's like shit, I wish I knew that before.
Speaker 1:What do you got? What was you? What was the biggest one for you? Oh man, I I think the hardest thing for me there's been. Two things have been really hard for me to accept, but now I accept them, I'm better with it. Getting tapped is a good thing for your jiu-jitsu. I used to hate that. I am the worst loser ever. I fucking fume. I refuse to believe that, bro, I can't even tell you. You can't even know the levels of sleepless nights I've had from getting submitted by a variety of people.
Speaker 2:I revel in the idea you love it the rare few times I've caught you. I've been like fuck yes. It's going to be a shit couple of months for JT Tossing and turning.
Speaker 1:But looking at other people, I always try to learn from people better than me, because I'm like you know, as much as I can think I'm smart. There's people far smarter, far better, and I aspire to be like them. And one of those people is Bernardo Faria, like unequivocally one of the best competitors, a great teacher and just a good human Like I meet, you meet Bernardo in person, you're like fuck. I really like Bernardo man, like it's so genuine, his, his whole vibe is.
Speaker 2:It never changes. It's very. It is what it comes across on the internet a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you ask anybody who spent time with him.
Speaker 2:You're like fuck yeah for those that don't know, he's the bjj fanatics guy huge honor for me guys and he plays into it.
Speaker 1:He totally leans in on it and you know, having spent time with him um, earlier in the jiu-jitsu journey and spent time with him not that long ago like 2019, at his academy same guy Hasn't changed, if anything even nicer. He would get tapped by blue belts. He wouldn't give a shit because he was just trying to work on something and people would be like it's crazy. People would almost not speak bad. But what a lot of people don't know is he came to Alliance as a black belt from his previous gym and he got bullied because he's kind of a bit thick, a bit chubby, and they used to call him Porco like pig. They go Porco, porco Like. When he won Pan Ams, he beat Braga Neto in the final. They were chanting Porco, right, but then it's so rough. I think this was like 2010.
Speaker 2:It's a prerequisite for a Brazilian nickname. It's got to be Savage. It's so Savage.
Speaker 1:And then he beat Shanji in the heavyweight final with the half guard sweep. And actually Favre Gajol had famously said I got this guy in my gym who hits this sweep on everyone, and he had told Shandhi, like this is before they'd even matched up, I got this guy, he's got this sweep. And I think Shandhi was like yeah, whatever, like try and sweep me then and he fucking did, and the thing that anyone I know who's competed against Bernardo said he will fight to the death. This guy fights with a commitment and intensity that a lot of people don't have, but in the gym he's willing to fail, he's willing to get tapped and he doesn't get embarrassed. I saw him get choked out.
Speaker 1:What's the insight? The insight is getting tapped is good for your jujitsu, because that is the learning. Getting tapped is the learning. If you're're not getting tapped, you really don't understand where you suck. And so the thing for me is even though it doesn't sit well with my pride and my ego now that I'm like okay, I got tapped there, what didn't? I know there, I can fix my mistakes so fast now, as opposed to spending months hating joe worthington for getting me with the far side umber.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So the learning has gotten quicker.
Speaker 2:Fuck. And so you, like you are actually. Are you prepared to say on record you are cool with it now? No, fuck no, but I realized the value in it you can see the I learned from it.
Speaker 1:Before I'd just be like nah.
Speaker 2:They got lucky. I still can't shake it. I know it's good for me, but I still can't shake it. Yeah it's, it's difficult, because I mean I care, I care less, which is a different, different thing, but but, but yeah, like it's when you hear about gary tonin, right, it's like he apparently gets tapped a bunch in training and he's said that he's like that's because I'm always working on new shit and learning, and you're like, wow, I should really do more of that failure and learning is just.
Speaker 1:Is this hand in hand? It's just. It can be a very confronting thing to get tapped multiple, multiple times, especially if in your head you're like, but I'm good at this why why, am I sucking, you know?
Speaker 1:but? But going into areas of sucking and and and discovery, yeah, I, I have become a better learner. Not that I want to get tapped, but when I do I'm like, okay, what's the lesson, what's the takeaway? I try to apply that frame. Yeah, how about you, joe? Is there? Uh, is there something that you've learned in the last couple years that the, the you feel as a, since you've got your black belt?
Speaker 2:it's funny when you. I actually can't remember when I got mine, but it's probably been four years or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe, maybe longer, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, a couple of things. Big one is that and this is very generic, but honestly it has to be said Talk to me in the chat GPT.
Speaker 2:You will not be who you thought you were going to be at black belt. You will think that by the time you get to black belt, you will think that by the time you get to black belt, okay, you will have mastered jujitsu. Right, that is, that is your, your illusion. As from white belt all the way up, you're like when I get there, I will fucking know, like I won't be having the problems I'm out fucking all over this shit and, honestly, it was the exact opposite. Oh, all I could identify was more problems with my game, oh, more problems with my jiu-jitsu once I got to black belt. And that, for me, has been a just a really fascinating sort of truth to um to come to terms with well, that's kind of sagely, you know, in a way.
Speaker 1:I mean, maybe this is the thing. Uh, you know, and I think you have very good levels of humility relevant to you, know jujitsu, but like they say, you know, the more you know, the more you realize you do not know. And I think that's the thing. You get the black belt and you're like, oh my God, this thing is so big, because I think, like, relevant to that, when you get to black belt, I believe the people who are on the other side, like the people earlier in the journey, the white belts, are looking at you like you're the master now and they even call you like sensei or master or professor.
Speaker 1:You know like, please please call me bondi joe the natural, just, yeah, one of his many aliases. But I think the challenge there is the expectation are you a black belt? Now you gotta have all the fucking answers now. Well, it's like I don't know. I I'm with you in that way that I feel like I had more questions. I've always had a lot of questions, but coming to black belt, you're like shit. There there's an expectation to have a certain level of mastery, when actually you're like good at a couple things, but shit I'm. This whole world of jujitsu is so, so big, yeah, and do you feel that that's improved your jujitsu now that you've kind of had that?
Speaker 2:I mean, it has realization yeah, it has improved it, but I think, moreover, it's just given, it's recalibrated my expectations, right, and I don't think that, like if you had to ask me at brown belt, like, hey man, you got three stripes on your brown belt. You're feeling like you're pretty close to mastery. I, I didn't ever even think about that. You know what I mean, because you just your whole journey, you're just trying to improve, right. So you're like I am where, I am trying to get better, and that's the thing.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm sure there's some people out there that maybe zoom out and take a bigger, but it's never been my style and I don't think most people do that. So so then you get to black belt, which just sort of happens, and you're like, and then you realize, fuck, I've had this sort of subconscious impression that by the time I was here, I would have mastered this shit and you know so far from it. You now realize all the things you don't know, like it forces you to reflect on it, right, yeah, because you all of a sudden don't meet your expectation yes you're like I'm not the guy.
Speaker 2:I thought I was going to be right. And then you start talking to other black belts and then over time it gets reinforced to you yeah, this is what almost everyone's going through now. There are, of course, those black belts that get there and are masters there. You know, you would say like the, the Tynan Dalpras potentially, or you know, I mean I don't even know what that guy's, you know he's just a great practitioner, but but you know what I mean? There are people that are truly pretty fucking all knowing by the time they get there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, and I and I think it ain't him. Well, it's different. They say, you know, it's not the what is it, it's not the days and the years, it's the years and the days. It's like, how in depth or how intense has that study been? A guy like Tynan Dalpera has pretty much trained and competed since he was a kid, and it's his whole life. That's what I mean, though, right, there are those people now is pretty much trained and competed since he was a kid, and it's his whole life. Yeah, that's what I mean, though, right, it's quite different.
Speaker 2:There are those people now, and particularly the younger generation, right, yes who have applied a different, a whole different it's been a very different journey to what it's been for guys like us, sure.
Speaker 1:And look, I think, at least for me. I mean, I was always really keen to get better, but for sure I had way more ego and pride before the black belt and have far less since I got it, in the sense that someone goes, oh, you're a black belt. Tynan Dalper is a black belt. You're like, oh, no're a black belt. Tana Delper is a black belt. You're like, oh, no, no, no, that's not the same thing, dude, Like we are not the same. You know as much as I'm always like how do I beat Tana Delper Plot his downfall? There's not a lot of ways that that would ever happen.
Speaker 1:I think an insight for me is I used to write people off. If I didn't like someone in jujitsu like I thought they were a jerk, or I didn't like their online persona or they were fucking rude to me I would just I'd be like fuck them and throw the baby out with the bathwater. I just kind of like burn them. I'd be like, no, they're irrelevant to me. But here's the thing You've got to separate the art from the artist. I have actually learned a ton from people I really don't like or I wouldn't care to hang out with them, but their jiu-jitsu knowledge is incredible and even I've learned a lot from people doing things wrong. If I saw someone doing something stupid, I'd be like fuck, what a fucking idiot. And then I'd just write them off. This used to be my old approach. But now when I see someone doing something grossly wrong, I'm like why are they doing that? Like what is making that person make that mistake? Would I make that mistake? I try to be a bit more curious about why the fuck is that person doing that?
Speaker 1:In the same way, I really, you know I don't like Gordon Ryan as an online persona. I've only ever met him in person once. I didn't really talk to him. I just kind of Gordon cool, you're there, I'm here. I didn't really talk to him. I just kind of Gordon cool, you're there, I'm here, and I just can't agree with his whole approach, with many things he says. But his jiu-jitsu is legit. There is no question of Gordon's knowledge pedigree understanding anything. There's a lot to be learned there. Same thing, danaher. You know the knowledge is crazy, but as to whether or not you'd want to go hang out with the guy, totally different story, and I think that's the thing for me, that I I am less um critical of the person and more um open to the uh the lesson right.
Speaker 2:I think that's been a big change for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, since being a black belt. So I've been trying to learn more. Even though I'm doing jiu-jitsu less, I'm still keen to learn. I still want to get whatever I can. So if it's something real valuable from somebody I don't love, I'm still keen to get the knowledge. Ladies and gentlemen, you know me, I am a big energy guy. How, ladies and gentlemen? You know me, I am a big energy guy. How do I get that big energy? I get it by staying hydrated. Also caffeine, but the key thing is you need the perfect mix of sodium, potassium and magnesium. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the perfect blend of electrolytes which keeps the water in your muscles so you get energy to roll and choke people. Now today's sponsor, sodi, brings you that perfect blend, and when you go to sodicomau and use the code BULLETPROOF15, you get 15% off. That way you can stay hydrated and have big energy for jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 2:Well, it's good sometimes that break right like, like you know, you haven't been doing much of late. Sometimes that's a really good time to reset and you sort of recalibrate your approach, don't you? Yeah, you're like, well, fuck, hang on. What do I actually want out of this now? Because I can't. It's not just doing what I always used to do, which was going and smash and hopefully win most of my rounds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're like oh no, I've actually got to evolve that yeah um yeah, I, um, but yeah, I mean you've changed a couple things since you've got your black belt, like you've mentioned things to me. I've gone oh, that's different, like the online learning piece, and yeah, I have things around that I have, well, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I I think, I think, having that realization about my jiu-jitsu and then think, actually, sitting and thinking about, like, who do I like, who do I actually want to be, like what, what kind of black belt do I want to be?
Speaker 2:And there was a, there was a part of me that was like very accepting of it, because I'm like I can still hold my own with most other black belts that I train with. Yes, right, don't get me wrong, there's plenty of back belts I've rolled with that. Just fucking walk over me, right. But but you know, with training counts, I'm like, yeah, I can, I can do the thing. And so I'm like that's good enough. But I was like, no, that doesn't quite meet my expectation. And so being sort of thrust into a bit of coaching advantage over that forced me then to reflect on what I actually do in jujitsu and I realized, fuck, I don't actually know how to articulate what I do, I just do it. And so the coaching thing was like, well, let's figure out how to articulate it to teach it to someone else, and that became really good for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so once I started applying this sort of this lens of like let's become a bit more deliberate and a bit more intentional, it started to make my training more deliberate, more deliberate and more intentional, and I started to get better results because I'm now doing something on purpose, right, nice, rather than just fucking shooting from the hip yeah and so, while you know if I'm really honest, I'm not that guy to a T right, really what I liked is to just show up and rip in and have a good couple of rounds.
Speaker 2:I have found like a new kind of enjoyment and, through that more deliberate approach of learning jiu-jitsu, that's been really good for me. So you know, and in that way it's made me a lot more open to other grapplers who are not black belts, right, that know some shit that I don't. And being like, hey, can you teach me that, whereas I don't think that was even a consideration for me before I actually remember talking with. Do you remember Eric?
Speaker 1:Eric Mastro oh yeah, yeah, he's a legend.
Speaker 2:I mean, he's a black belt at garage jiu-jitsu, that's right yeah, and I remember he got he was one of the first sort of of our of my counterparts to get his black belt and he and I was asking him about it, like how's it been? And he's like, man, I'm actually really happy. This sounds really silly for me to say now, but he's like I'm like super happy to like learn from purple belts and stuff, right, and I was like, oh wow, that's cool. Now this sounds absurd because where we are now in jujitsu there's nothing novel about that.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:There's purple belts that have trained at new wave or B team that come back and run seminars, because they've got this knowledge right? Sure, but back then, in the kind of old sphere of jiu-jitsu, that wasn't the thing you would only learn from a black belt or a master that's exactly right or a world champion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it's just funny reflecting on that and being like, yeah, totally. But I get his point whereby you start to realize, and similar to your first insight, was that anyone can teach you things Like there's value in, in everywhere. If you're looking for, it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you, if you're open to the lesson, it is there in front of you. I got um, I got, I got one more and I think this is part of the evolution of jujitsu and there's many different reference points to this and like, maybe it's only come to me now well, not now, but like in the last couple of years as a black belt, but it was forming over time, which is, like you, you shouldn't really allow your coach's limits to be your limits and this isn't. You know, we're all limited in our scope of learning and our lifestyle and what we can do, because if you run a gym, you got to be there, you got to run that gym. It would be very difficult for you to travel around the world and compete and do all that unless you've got a counterpart who can hold it down for you to do that.
Speaker 1:The best people I have seen over time go and train at lots of different gyms. They are from their gym, they represent their gym, their coach, whatever, but they'll go train at Atos or they'll go train at, you know, new Wave or wherever they can go, um, or they'll go to different gyms to accumulate different perspectives and they kind of synthesize it for themselves and you know, lachlan Giles is a really good example of that and and I think anyone who's done really well in life and in learning and in jujitsu they move out of their hometown right, like there's an element of that you crave more, you learn to the maximum what you have. But then there's folks who, for example, they might just go no, this is our style. Our style of jiu-jitsu is this we don't do that and I've never really understood why people would block knowledge and really what that person is saying is I'm not prepared to learn that, I don't want to learn that, I'm not prepared to grow in that way.
Speaker 2:Or I'm not prepared to risk exposing myself. There's a vulnerability in going out of your circle, right yeah?
Speaker 1:but maybe they just don't have the financial ability or the freedom of time or the you know, not everyone is fucking joseph chen like young, free and capable to just train anywhere, everywhere, with everyone right to do that and and and obviously there are some folks who are blessed and they, they can it together. And then there's some folks who just sacrifice everything for this thing which is jujitsu and they commit all their finances and their life to the thing and for the best part, that's what people who want to be the best do. But the reason why I say don't let your coach's limitations be yours. I'm not saying this as a critique of coaches. I'm saying that there is a mistake we make, that we think our coach is the all-knowing oracle.
Speaker 1:And when you're, it's like when you're a kid and you think your parents are like I know everything. And then you grow up and you're like, nah, they did the best they could with what they had and it was good enough for you to get to where you are. But once you're a fucking adult, you're like, well, I got to do it for me, I got to learn for me. Maybe they made some mistakes. I'm not going to make those mistakes, whatever it might be.
Speaker 2:Mom send me a meatloaf recipe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, meatloaf Mom. Fuck what's she doing. I never know what she's doing. Died in a hang gliding accident.
Speaker 2:What a fucking idiot so savage.
Speaker 1:If you get the reference. Good, if you know, you know, um, um. I think the thing is that I've had a lot of different coaches like I've been very lucky, and some people might say, oh, you've changed gyms too many times. Ah, blah, blah, people don't like that, but each time I've learned different lessons, personally and jujitsu-wise, from those different coaches and I still carry all those lessons with me and I think that makes me better in terms of understanding jujitsu, because I didn't just stay in the one spot. I got to a point where I'm like I'm not learning anymore, I have to change, and I think this is it was in my subconscious. I was sitting there and now that you know, since I've got my black belt and since I've looked at other black belts the best ones and what they do they just keep fucking learning. And it doesn't mean they changed gyms. They might go do judo or wrestling and they're just finding different ways to become better grapplers or better people. And you're like that's, that's great. That willingness to suck again, learn again, it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2:You know, I think Gordon Ryan really had a good point when he made this critique about the sort of the elite of jiu-jitsu just like relying on a game that they developed years ago, right, you know. And he was like these guys have been doing the same shit that got them to black belt and it's still winning at the top level and they're just doing the same thing. And, uh, he really smashed that, right, because he just did fucking walk through everyone and, um, you know, and I I share the same views with you about him as a, as a whatever, but I was like that's a really good point. And so there's a thing there like a common thread in terms of that really chasing evolution forever. And it doesn't always have to be necessarily your jiu-jitsu technique, right, it might be. Now I'm working on my habits outside of jiu-jitsu so that I can show up and still be healthy and strong all that shit right.
Speaker 2:That was actually my last insight, which I'll add um which ties into that, and that was that it's kind of I don't know if you've ever heard, you would have heard chris howter, the american guy, saying that the people that made it to black belt, the people that keep it, show up right keep showing up.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, or keep showing up and you'll get to black belt uh, there's a few phrases I think he's like it's not who's the best, it's who's left.
Speaker 2:Who's left right yeah? Now survivorship bias yeah and exactly, and people have criticized that, but I do. I do largely agree with that statement, dude, it's entirely true for the stats just to support this.
Speaker 1:80 of people who start jujitsu. Don't make it past blue belt, right? Yeah, that's fucking wild. Yeah, how many people have tried jujitsu and just didn't continue? Yeah, we don't know, because we're still in the bubble, we're still deep in the culture. We're like, wow, those people don't they don't exist.
Speaker 2:We haven't taken up bouldering yet no well sometimes recreationally but yeah, yeah, they're not here anymore but so the um, the like, what I think is really paramount on that idea and of course, this doesn't apply to the younger generation, to the like, to the J-Rods or the Micah Garland Vials or this sort of this young generation that we see now, but I think that this speaks to people who pick it up in adulthood. Sure, and I think that that's going to be a forever thing. Right, it is. There's always going to be mature age people starting jujitsu, but it forever thing. Right, there's always going to be mature age people starting jiu-jitsu. Um, but it's the people who are able to continue that make it to black belt?
Speaker 2:yeah, and most people will have something that makes them unable to do so, whether that's like a mental thing, or it's a physical thing, like an injury, right, or just their. Their lifestyle is a shambles family yeah, right, it just makes.
Speaker 2:It makes it the thing of like, oh, I'm fucking just going to go to the gym and forget about jiu-jitsu. Yeah, but there's a second layer off the back of that and that is that. And you see this now. You see, a lot of people make it to black belt and they're really just crawling over the finish line. Yeah, because they've endured so much damage in the lead up to getting their black belt that by the time they get there, they're like, oh, fucking, thank God, I can retire. Yeah, and so you know, that is totally fine, right? For some people, that's the place that they wanted to get to, and so be it. It's a huge achievement, it's massive. And no one says you've got to go on, right? No, but it's also something to consider of, like, what could I be doing better so that, as I go down this path, I'm not sacrificing other aspects of my health? Stay in the game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And the interesting thing I this actually comes from a, an interview from a famous graffiti artist and he was saying that, like you know, it's it's a, it's a metaphor for life. But he was saying you know that there's a race, we're all part of this race, and when you're in the race you try to stay at the front of the line and he's like sometimes you need to take a break and so you step out of the race and the race just goes on without you and you try to come back in and then there's all these new people in the race and no one knows who you are. And then you have to fight so fucking hard to get to the front of the line again and he's like but what you realize is, as soon as you're no longer racing, it doesn't matter and the race will continue. And he was talking about trying to get famous and be successful as an artist and all this, and the same is true of jujitsu. But this idea of just being able to stay in it as long as you can, to enjoy it for as long as you can, there's a big difference between being forced out and choosing to be like okay, I can step away, because that's a terrible feeling when whether it's a knee injury or a new job or something just in life happens and you can no longer do the thing you love Not. I've done what I wanted. Here I'm moving on. That's a completely different feeling and I think that's what we're getting at.
Speaker 1:Good chat man insights from the Black Belt minds. Now, some of you out there, black Belts, hearing this, you probably have different insights. Please let us know in the comments. I think this is a very relevant thing that once you've done something for a long time, you do come to conclusions that you just wouldn't have had earlier in the journey. So we appreciate you guys. Thanks for staying to the end. We know it's only about 20% of y'all, but while you're there, give us a like, give us a subscribe. We appreciate you all.
