New White Belt? 5 Things to Focus On

So, you just started jiujitsu. You turned up one day and just loved the look of a bunch of sweaty people spinning around on the floor grabbing each other and grunting. I don’t blame you – it’s the greatest sport ever, much better than basketball or football.

Now, the first few months are going to suck. Big time. (At least, in my experience they will.) Not only is everything going to feel alien and unnatural, but also, someone who is much better than you is going to beat you up so effortlessly it’s going to make you question your life choices.

The good news is, if you stick with it, things will improve. The good thing is, if you stay in this sport long enough, you will start to recognise patterns, and you can use those patterns to help those less fortunate than you (ie, white belts.) Without further ado, here are my top 5 tips for white belts!

1) RELAX

The number one advice I give to newbies is to relax. There’s is something especially hilarious about a super tense white belt. Not only is it an incredibly inefficient use of energy, it’s also dangerous, and exhausting – for the white belt. Being super tense makes you tired AND makes it easier for someone to manhandle you, AND causes more injuries. When the coach says relax, they really mean it. Being relaxed doesn’t mean being floppy or useless, it just means don’t push overly hard when trying to do something. Of course, it is difficult not to get all tense when you feel as if you are fighting for you life – a feeling unique to combat sports, where you feel as though you are drowning on dry land – but trust me, when you feel that coming on, check yourself – you are probably extremely tense and need to relax. Relaxing should, conversely, give you room to breathe and possibly plan some kind of escape -or at least allow you to keep going until the timer runs out.

2) LOCK IN YOUR SLEEP, NUTRITION AND WEIGHT TRAINING EARLY ON YOUR JOURNEY

This does not mean you need to turn into Jocko Willink. In fact, he is a terrible example – the man seems to sleep for about 3 hours a night. It means at its most basic level – make sure you are getting enough sleep (jiujitsu is a particularly exhausting sport, that needs a good recovery time), make sure you are not eating junk food, and consider adding weight training to your routine early. Again, all of these can be done on a basic level at first as we don’t want to overload your life in the beginning (that comes later.) But it means – go to bed on time after training, and the day before training. Do not eat junk food or consume alcohol excessively – both of these will make training even less pleasant. And lastly, get yourself strong and get in the habit early. This will make everything easier later on. Coincidentally, these are all good pieces of life advice. I guess it’s true, jiujitsu really does teach you about life! Oh and by the way, lifting weights to be strong does not contradict the advice in part one – you are building your strength in order to just have a healthy body that can stand up to the rigours of jiujitsu training. It doesn’t mean you have to power through every move.

3) WASH YOURSELF AND YOUR GEAR EVERY SINGLE TIME

This should be a no-brainer, and I mentioned it in another article I wrote, but jiujitsu can be a filthy sport rife with skin infections. That means you need to wash your gear every time, without fail, after every training session, the sooner the better. Don’t leave it in the bag to fester overnight, and DO NOT reuse it without washing it. And, don’t be tempted to go home and shower later – if your gym has showers, use them! Bring spare undies, bring soap, bring a towel – bring whatever you need to get clean as soon as you can after training. Skin infections in jiujitsu can be mild, like ringworm, or serious, like Staph, and once they take hold they are a real pain to get rid of.

4) DON’T GET DISCOURAGED

Let me reiterate, the first few months are going to suck, especially as many jiujitsu schools do not have dedicated beginner intake. Usually you are pretty quickly thrown in with people far more experienced than you, and you will experience repeated soul-crushing training sessions where you feel that you are making no progress whatsoever, and everyone is far better than you, and being under side control is the worst thing in the world. But listen – don’t be discouraged. As hard as it is, do not compare yourself to other people, not even the people who started at the same time as you. Their progress does not matter – only yours does. Be better than you were yesterday is the only goal, and even if you fail that, try to be better overall this month or this week, than you were last month, or last week. Comparison is the theft of joy. Don’t get discouraged – higher belts are supposed to beat you up, or be better at you than jiujitsu, that’s why they are higher belts. Don’t get discouraged if someone is stronger than you or a faster learner. Just focus on doing what you are doing correctly and to the best of your abilities. Gradually, you will improve. Also, just hang on until someone more new than you joins up – then you get to beat them up.

5) LISTEN TO YOUR COACH

Do not get distracted early but advanced techniques that you may see on social media or even full instructionals. The best thing for you to do, especially in the beginning, is practice everything shown by your instructor. Jiujitsu teaching, worldwide, has a kind of scattergun approach, especially at the beginning. There are so many different moves, techniques and styles – your job as a white belt is to try them all, and once you have been training for a while, you can begin to discern which ones will work for you and which ones don’t. But in the beginning, you lack the experience and knowledge to discern the useful from the not, so the best idea is simply to do what your coach tells you, as they have direct hands-on experience with you and can give you immediate feedback. What’s more, you will only make things more complicated if you start trying to self-educate. In my experience, it’s only once you have many years of training under your belt that you begin to gain an instinctual understanding of your “game” and what fits into it – and what doesn’t. But in the beginning, try to make everything fit, and don’t be discouraged when it feels like something doesn’t.