My Second Blue Stripe

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, grading works differently compared to other martial arts, where you start at white belt, grade to yellow, then red, then blue, then pink, then brown, then rainbow, then black, then grey, back to white, then...you get the point. We just have 5 colours to remember, starting with white, then blue, then purple, brown and lastly black. The easiest way to remember this order is to just remember from white to blue, and then imagine what blue would look like when bruised (it becomes purple), then imagine what purple looks like dirty (it gets brown), and lastly, black naturally comes after brown (how it comes naturally don't ask, its just how the world of colours work).

At SPMA (Sinonic Perosh Martial Arts), we have grading every 3 months, in March, June, September and December. So having just started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in January, I have now been through two gradings, one in March, and one, most recently in June. The way our gradings work are, throughout the course of our training, we learn moves, or techniques, whichever description floats your boat, and in the grading we have to show our instructors that we know our techniques.
Below is a picture that shows how it all works.


Six years to go!

So to earn your first blue stripe, you have to show five techniques, which was quite easy, though, at the time, what wasn't easy for me was getting to class on time. During that time, I was undergoing training for my job at Datacom, and everything was fine, because I thought we were getting off training early, because it was our last day. Unfortunately, we didn't finish early, and when you drive back from North Ryde, through 5:30pm traffic, you know you're going to be late, and I was, which I was not happy with, because I didn't want to miss out on grading. Fortunately there was a make-up grading, the following Friday, which I went to, but was also late to because it was at their Concord gym, and I got lost on the way there. So being late, twice, made for a very unhappy instructor who you knew could beat the snot out of you, instead he made me do burpies, which is basically an exercise where you're in a standing position, then drop to the ground in a push up position, do a push up, then jump back up into your standing position before going down again for another burpie. Suffice to say, I had to do around 300 of these, and most people after the first 50 are already dead, but I had to keep doing them, because I was late. In truth, I did around 200+, I skipped out on a few. So with that in mind, I didn't want to be late for my next grading.

And I wasn't, I got there on time, which, as a joke, the instructors found suprising. And this time, instead of five techniques, we had fifteen new techniques to show, fortunately, they were called out for us one by one to do, and fortunately again, I was able to partner up with my brother to do them, which made things easier. And twenty techniques later, I had earnt my second blue stripe which, as I earn more, will get absorbed into my white belt, turning it into a blue belt!

Next grading is in September and we have to show 35 techniques (20+15 new) in under 10 minutes all off the top of our head, and with the semester off, I should have a lot more time to practice and get better, in time for the competitions coming up too. I wonder how I'll stack up compared to others in a real competitive environment. First round loss coming soon?