#8 The 5 Things I Wish I Knew as a White Belt

(Warning- Explicit Language!) On today’s show JT and Joey look closely at the 5 major things that they wish they knew when they were white belts and share them with you to save you blood, sweat and tears. They discuss what to look out for and how to navigate these pit falls to help make your jiu-jitsu journey easier.
1) Injury 2) Ego.  3) BJJ Jealousy.  4) Over Training.   5) Finding the right Gym.
This part of our BJJ Problems series that was requested by one of our community members. If you would like to request a topic for the Bulletproof Brothers to discuss send your suggestions to  info@bulletproofforbjj.com

Speaker 1: 0:04

Very careful a good martial artist does not become tense, but ready, essentially at this point, the fight is over. So we pretty much flow with the goal who was worthy to be trusted with the secret to limit the spot. Ready ,

Speaker 2: 0:29

Gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast. Now, today we are talking about the five things I wish I knew as a white belt. Uh, this is the common thing that people get partway through their journey. And they’re like, man, I wish I knew that ages ago. And , uh , this is actually a topic that was brought up by one of our Bulletproof fan. And , uh, we’ve got a few things to dig into today. And the first on the list, Joe is injury. So I thought we would, we would go to you with , uh, your, an injury that really informed you in your jujitsu. You, well, I guess when I signed up for Jude’s , no one ever really told me that you are going to get a whole bunch of little, you know, little niggling injuries and then maybe some bigger ones along the way. And so it’s just kind of this unspoken thing that , um, you find out about on your own. And then when you get there, it’s kind of you’re left in the lurch. Cause it’s like, you gotta go find a physiotherapist or you go find a doctor or, you know, someone who can help you fix it. Um, looking back if the coach has said to me, Hey man , uh , this is, this is a pretty full on contact sport chances of, of an injury happening kind of high. So just so you know, if it happens, come and talk to me, I’ve got a good physio in the local area, or, you know, so-and-so who trains with this can help with that. Like just a little bit of outreach kind of before the fact , um, that would have helped a lot. Yeah, definitely. I think itch , even though, obviously we were talking about this the other day , uh , about the kind of jujitsu mental superiority of like, ah , we do jujitsu, we’re smart, most sports. Do we say that? Well, no. I think there’s a thing, which is, Oh , people are digital too . They’re TAF , you know, they’re not, we are not meat heads , but this is actually not true. There’s a very unprofessional approach to the way we approached jujitsu. And like even football clubs have physios that’s right. Right. And , and, and, and most major sporting organizations will have a link to some kind of therapist, even a massage service, anything like that, jujitsu doesn’t and the amount of like bro science, silly, outdated methods, which , uh , you know, like when I , I, I injured my ribs and I had guys like, Oh man, you just got strapped bird . And like, no, if you hurt your ribs, there’s actually nothing you can really do. You’ve got to rest. You gotta rest. Yeah. It’s one those things that put you on hold. But I had three very expert Matt opinions, which had nothing to do with reality. So when I actually did get to say somebody who was like, what are you doing benches around your ribs? Like every time you breathe, you know, your rib cage is going to expand and your ribs going to pop out and you’d have to really take it easy.

Speaker 3: 3:21

I remember , um , with the injury thing. Yeah. You know, it’s , uh , the , the , the thing widgets is like our look, just take it easy, but keep training. Yeah. And it’s like, what the does that even mean in this sport? Because like, are you in a role, you know, the coach and I’ve seen this, I see this play out regularly. Someone’s got an injury. They’ve had some time off, they come back to training coach, like, Hey, gone . Yeah. It’s pretty good. But you know, the injury is still kind of there a little bit. Okay. Just take it easy tonight. And then they take it easy, whatever the that means. And then they’re like, all right , guys, we’re rolling. And they’re like, Hey, injured guy. You’re gonna roll. Um, yeah. I think I’m feeling pretty good. It’s like, okay, just take it easy. And it’s like, the. Does that mean take it easy? Like we all know as soon as you get into a role , it’s, it’s, it’s on, it’s on, right? Like, I mean, maybe it’s not on until the other person tries to set to tap you, then it’s or not , because this is, we’ll go into this later, but this is the ego piece . So yeah. There’s just like, I think coaches turned a blind eye to it as well. And it’s like, I don’t want to acknowledge your injury. We’re all having a good time. Let’s just train. And you know that you can usually get through a session and the pain is masked by the adrenaline adrenaline yet until after it . And then, you know, so it’s just, yeah. The injury thing is really poorly addressed. And I really would’ve liked if someone had said to me, you’re going to need to figure out a system to manage this. And that system looks like a bit of strength and mobility, having some good specialists and health professionals that you can see and people you can go to for advice. Agreed. I think if you’re going to run

Speaker 2: 4:46

Drive , you need a mechanic smart home . You know, we are, we are like, we are reasonably expert at looking after our own rigs, but there are things that are outside our field of knowledge. So then we’ve got to go to someone who is specialized to help us. So I , I’m very lucky that I have friends who are physios and you , you would experience that too .

Speaker 3: 5:05

They’ve become my friends. You befriend them . You get the mates, rates cheaper, mate. I’m there all the time. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:13

Just hanging out with them because you’re so banged up. But , uh , truth is , uh , you need to find a good therapist because they’re not all great. Sometimes you’re gonna go to therapists and they just don’t know what you’re talking about. You at least need to speak to someone who can conceptualize what you’re talking about and relate it back to your rehab process, bringing you back to a level of function. That’s going to get you rolling again. So for me, I feel like that took me a little while, but once you find those people, they’re gold and you need to hang on to them. So that’s the key thing for me. Take away from injuries. Get a good body mechanic consultant part two. What we got, Oh , we’ve got ego ego.

Speaker 3: 5:53

Your ego is not your amigo . No, no. It is not. That’s a good one.

Speaker 2: 5:58

That should be a hashtag.

Speaker 3: 6:00

We’ve actually heard that from , uh, what’s his name? Canaan . Archery. They shout out Canaan . Thanks for watching. Yeah .

Speaker 2: 6:06

Keenan appreciate you, man. I mean , uh, much love , uh,

Speaker 3: 6:10

It’s the , um, you know, like ego is a big one, right ? Where does weight JT, where do you think that ego comes into your experience of jiu-jitsu the most

Speaker 2: 6:20

Being too competitive? So just go into your a game all the time. I’m good at this. I always get sweeps from here. I always tap the guy from here. I’m just going to do this. Not like because we all know that feeling of sucking when we first started jujitsu, but once you’ve been injured for a while and you get a bit of a feel for what works for your body and what you like your game, you go, right. I’m going to cultivate this because no one likes the feeling of being smashed. No one, it doesn’t matter who you are. You want to feel you’re in control. You have knowledge, you have skill and you want that esteem of someone going, man, you’re really good at X, Y, Z, whether or not you’re into internal or external validation. Like we all want to feel like we have a degree of control within this chaos, which is BJJ only problem with that is people tend to do the same thing over and over and over again. And that’s okay from a competitive standpoint, because yes, in competition, you’ve got to have that a game, but really jujitsu is massive. And if your goal is to be a black belt and your goal is to also possibly teach, you do need a slightly broader knowledge base. And really for me , uh , the perfect example of this is when Buren , BOLO got popular. And I just gone back to Brazil my second time. And I was like, I just want to learn this thing. I like it. I was just like, I just want to know it. People are doing the same . I have no idea what’s going on here. I just grabbed the guy who was doing it. And I was like, dude, can you show this to me? Like, can you teach me whatever? I just want to understand what the hell is going on here. Because the thing for me, which I find worse than sucking is not knowing why I’m sucking. I’m okay to suck. If I can comprehend, this is why. And here’s the path out and ego really I’ve seen it hold more people back than even myself, because I, I actually, as a masochist, I’m happy to go to Sakhi spots and hurt there . How about yourself, man, as , as ego effected your G2 or anyone, you know,

Speaker 3: 8:16

It definitely what, you know what you said there rings true for me in a big way. Um, another place where I can see you go playing out is just like how it can affect, you know, my ego’s almost like my perception of myself and how that can affect my training experience. So I can think back to like when I was , um, a blue purple belt training, a lot more intensely and a lot more competitively. And I had, I remember there was another guy shout out to bane , uh, Aaron Bain , who was , uh , we’re a counterpart. And, and he was this, guy’s an animal. He’s the strongest cat I’ve ever rolled with , um, which is arch smear , which is a big call. I know dude, Oh , shame on me. I, and who is this guy? I want to find him and kill him. And he , um, but, but I, I know that like there were times at training where I was like, I don’t want to go into a role with him cause it’s going to be so intense and I might lose that. I would not, we would not train with each other that night. And it was like, looking back, it’s like, well, we could have learned so much by just training with each other. Even if I got tapped, like, you know, 10 times in around , like, it doesn’t matter. There’s things to be learned there. And so, but it really, it was just this kind of thing in my mind and I’m sure he had it as well, where it , you don’t want to go to that place. Cause you know, when you get there, you’re going to be competitive. And you’re like, I don’t want to experience whatever that is, that intensity or that, that low of failure in a training room. So I’m going to avoid it and looking back, you’re like, that’s really silly. You shouldn’t let that affect you. You know? So there has to be an acknowledgement. I don’t think you can fully detach yourself from your ego, but I do think that you want to be as aware of it as you can and be making sort of inroads towards controlling it and not letting it control you as much. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:57

I , I had that experience with Ben Hodgkinson. Shout out you tall lanky molested mother also just got his first Stripe on his black belt. Congrats

Speaker 3: 10:06

Smile . It looks great at the moment. It’s furious.

Speaker 2: 10:08

He even got posted on a Juju to haircuts of jujitsu. Wow. Yeah. If only you’d kept yours, Joey , I know I up. You could have made it. Um, we were very intense competitors through purple that whole year. We fought nine times. I think I’ve only been in once, maybe twice if I’m lucky, but he would always beat me , uh , generally, but we ended up being teammates and it was funny because we would, it was never a light roll . It was always to death. Um, and, and to be honest, Ben would get the better of me until we hit a critical point where I was like, Oh , I’m fitter than him. So I started making it more of a fitness role, less of a jujitsu role because I knew the way for me to win was on my cardio and on my strength and just, just make it a physical battle more than a technical battle. Cause he’s actually more technical than me, but then that I didn’t get the best out of him. Even though I would win some roles, it was kind of bit muted because I didn’t actually beat his jujitsu. And then when I said to him, Hey man, I can help you be stronger. I can help you be fitter and more flexible. He’s like, really? You want to give me that? I’m like, yeah man, because you , you be better than me. Like take it. You know? And then we actually became friends after that because he could see that I was willing to share with him. And, but there were times when we would, you know, when you look to someone to roll , like, Hey man, you’re like kind of give them the what’s up. And they’re like,

Speaker 3: 11:30

Yeah. And you’re like, Oh thank God. They looked away.

Speaker 2: 11:34

You didn’t want to roll them . But you were like, I don’t want to , I don’t want to be the, I want to be the in this situation. But there were times when we were both maybe not feeling it and we’d almost duck each other because of that intensity exam fee go . Yeah , definitely. I think we wasted a good two years of not, not learning from each other. Yeah . And that’s where ego probably held both of us back. But um, 0.3 jujitsu , jealousy comparison. This is where it’s , uh , this is where a big problems. I mean in life in general. Um, but definitely I’ve suffered from jujitsu jealousy. And uh, I think this is a thing that we do it subconsciously where we kind of Mark ourselves against our cohort. Like, Oh , I’ve been training for a year. He’s been training for a year, man, that guy’s got four stripes. I’ve only got two. What’s that about man, this guy just got his purple belt. I kick his all the time. Oh, what’s with her. She’s always submitting everybody, but who she thinks she is, you know, like, and really the issue here is that you’re , you’re not really focusing on your own insufficiencies, which is, what’s really holding you jujitsu back. And the people who Excel are generally working on their deficiencies all of the time to, to improve and they’re chipping away, chipping away, chipping away, constantly improving. And I find that when I looked at others, I’m distracted.

Speaker 3: 12:57

Yeah. I’d agree. I think , um, something that’s, that’s really relevant about this for white belts. People who are early on in the jujitsu journey is that when you start and you know , this is really , um, this is poignant for me because like I got my son, who’s almost three months old. So it’s like, you know, we talk about this, right? Imagine he’s w when he’s one week old, that like a whole day is like a seventh of his life. So a whole day is very long. But as you get older, a day becomes worth less and less. Right? So for us now we’ve had thousands of days, one day , you know , it’s a, it’s a, it’s a blip on the timeline. Um, when you are, you’re like a baby, right? And , and , and a Stripe or training for a couple of weeks is, is, is the equivalent of a day for you. So you start to do two at the same time. There’s a few other people that start at the same time. You’re on this journey together. You get a Stripe, they get us dry. Maybe it happens at the same day. It’s beautiful. You know, you learn techniques together, you kind of counterparts, but for whatever reason, something gets in the way you have to take a couple of weeks off because you catch a cold or, you go on holidays or whatever it is, you come back. And all of a sudden that person’s just jumped up a little bit. Yes. You know, and then maybe for whatever reason more time passes, that person starts to compete more. And you don’t. Cause you’d be , you work on weekends, you know, whatever it is. But because you’re always going back to that orbit , but James and I are the same level and James has now got two stripes. And James is, you know, like you, and what you got to realize is that that’s going to happen like that, that as you get, as this timeline increases, you are just going to fall in and out of alignment with all of these different people. Then there’s, you know, eventually there’s going to be one day when, when you are dominant over someone, who’s a higher belt than you. And you’re like, well, how the do I explain that? Yeah . Right. Like, it’s, it’s just what it like. And , and I think once you get to, I realize this now at Brown belt, cause I’d been Brown belt for a long time, five years or whatever. I realized that like I’ve seen people start jujitsu when I had my Brown belt who now have a Brown belt. Wow. Right. I’ve seen people who were , uh, who we were blue belt at the same time who got their black belt before I got my Brown belt. Wow. Like, and so, you know, if you , if you think about it like that, it’s like you have this kind of thing where we’re on the same level together in the very early days. Once you’ve been in the game for a long time, you just realize you’ve gotta like

Speaker 2: 15:25

That go . Yeah, definitely. And I used to be, when I first started as a white belt, I used to think if you could tap, if you could submit someone who has a higher belt than you, then you were as good as them, which is not true. Like submitting someone can be opportunistic. Like if you’ve got a flying number, like, I, I know a blue belt who has an insane flying Arbor could probably flying armbar pretty much anyone, except I know that he does it. So I just, I just pull my arms in real tight. Um, that doesn’t mean his jujitsu is any good. Like he’s con he’s concept of jiu-jitsu , he’s understanding he’s not high. It’s like a guillotine or a Footlocker. It’s not technical. But I used to think to myself, man, if I can, if I can tap that blue belt, you know, I should be a blue belt, but in truth I have, and this is not a brag. This is just circumstantial. I submitted a black belt world champion, but he was exhausted. He had trained for two hours before I trained with him. And he was rolling with me for a restaurant. And I came in him like health theory . And he just gave it up because he was like, you know, I don’t want to get mom broken. And it doesn’t make me a world champion. Doesn’t make me as good as him. It just means he had enough humility to go. I’m exhausted and okay, fine. But me I’m like so good on the burst and it’s just not true. You’re looking at the coach, like where’s my black belt. Where’s my black belt medallion sign . I need that world championship bullying . No, it’s, it’s ridiculous to think this. And actually what I have learned now is that there are levels to each belt when, so Joey, Joey goes in a competition, you know, he’s a Brown belt and some guys just got his Brown belt. He’s super fresh seated Joe, five years, once that black belt has come from blood and isn’t athletic monster point , and this guy is just like, yeah, man, I’m a Brown belt. Yeah. He’s gonna get eaten alive. You know, there’s a difference there in the same way you get somebody who’s been a black belt for 15 years, you step on the mat and you’re like, Oh , this guy looks kind of old. Like whatever to the old boy, dude will snap you up like that because you have to appreciate people’s commitment to this. Art can be deeper at all levels from white through to the top level belt. As long as you are reaffirming your commitment and your own development. Um, that whole of the comparison is it’s kind of useless because you don’t know what they’re doing. You honestly don’t know all the stuff they’re doing to be as good as they are and what they need to do to get better. Maybe very different to what you need to do to get better. And that’s where I feel the comparison thing. Doesn’t help.

Speaker 3: 18:06

Yeah. That’s right. There’s that great. Quote comparison is the thief of all joy. Yes. And you know, it’s important to use it. It’s , it’s important to compare yourself to yourself. It’s important to compare yourself to training partners, right? Like a simple comparison are . You know , JT swept me with that same swipe three times last week. Okay. Tonight, I’m going to try and shut that sweep down like that. That is a healthy use of comparison, but to come into the training room every time and be like, Oh, there’s so-and-so why are they better ? It’s it’s the wrong way to look at it. What you want to look at is all right, what do I need to do to get better? And , um, you know, you can, you can really also make that argument that if your training partners are pushing you, and if they’re getting better, then you are also getting better. Right. So it’s , it’s like compare, but don’t let that thing get in the way of you having a good time and improving your game. Yeah. Agree .

Speaker 2: 18:55

And I, I think this , um , leads us into something which is pretty important, which is , um, which is over-training because you want to work harder and there is a myth within jujitsu . It’s not even a myth. I think it’s something which is talked about it’s it’s at main level now, which is pull harder everyday Paul Hart

Speaker 3: 19:15

And some, one of our fans, one of our people that listens and follows Bulletproof said to me the other day, well then what’s, what’s this word that you were at Porada Porada and I was like, you are a white belt aren’t you, Tom will come young man. And that will turn my back on him and walked away.

Speaker 2: 19:33

Just one supplement, just leave you with that. So, Paul, how does actually, if you guys are watching like a sporting event, like a, whatever, it might be footie , baseball, ice hockey, and a fight breaks out, and dudes are just wailing on each other. That is Paul harder. Now har is actually a curse word in Portuguese. It’s kind of like saying, you know. But it actually means like sperm, but it’s just said like poor , wow . Like that’s terrible. Or like empathetically at someone goes, Oh, I crashed my car up . Or

Speaker 3: 20:04

They use it the exact same way we say, man.

Speaker 2: 20:07

But Pahata has taken on this slightly different thing, which is about going, Hey ,

Speaker 3: 20:11

These words are unrelated though, right? Yeah. But

Speaker 2: 20:13

Two different words. It’s two different meanings. But like, just to clarify, cause you might hear the other one you might. And so you, so you understand Paul harder within the jujitsu context or how it’s been popularized is it’s not just like someone brawling, it’s someone going at at jujitsu super hard. Like it doesn’t matter. The grind, the hard work like you broke your wrist, strap it pull harder , like show up every day with a tough mentality and look, it’s it’s, it’s noble in a lot of ways, but in truth, this is where we start to talk about working hard and working smart. Yes, you must work hard. But if you’re getting injured on a regular basis, this is not going to lead to longterm jujitsu development. So when we talk about over-training the flip side of that coin, like technically there’s no such thing , no such thing as over-training, but different people have different tolerance , tolerances for stress. So there is such thing as under recovering, if you’re doing a certain amount of work and you’re not sleeping, your nutrition is poor. You know, you’re not doing any kind of body maintenance, stretching, massage , anything you are cutting short, your journey, like you are railroading yourself into injury. So when we’re talking about this comparison thing, sometimes people get a like, Oh, that guy’s training five days a week. I should train seven. And it’s, that’s not necessarily the case. And this is where Joe actually has come up with the hashtag. Some days pull harder.

Speaker 3: 21:44

Yeah. Look, the , um , some days body it’s, it’s an important aspect of do too . You gotta be able to go hard. You’ve got to be able to fight, bring the aggression and bring the competitive aspect to it sometimes. But if you’re doing that every day , you’re going to burn yourself out. And this is the deal for most of the people I would argue that are listening to this. Most of the people who are training Judah jujitsu , and again, we’ve framed this for like, you know, the things that I wish I knew as a white belt. So you’re a white belt coming into this game. You’re going to turn up to training a few times a week. Your coach is going to be like, Hey man, I want to see you here every day. Like if you can get in here every day , like you’re doing good. And I was talking with a guy this morning. He said, I only trained three times last week. I’m like, dude, I train like two to three times a week every week. Like that. If you could maintain three sessions a week for the rest of your jujitsu career, I think you’re doing all right. Yeah , you’re doing well. But he said, well, I’d like to do four to six. And I said, man, four to six is great. But if you are, this guy is in his late thirties. I’m like, you’re working full time . You go out and party at least a few nights a week. You don’t get as much sleep as you should. Your nutrition is isn’t as good as it should be. Like you’re doing the things that most people out there are doing, like who are living a kind of urban lifestyle. So I’m like, it’s unrealistic of you to think that you can show up and train hard four to six times a week and be able to sustain that. So the flips, you know, the result of that and not the flip side, but the result is that is that all mate always have to take time off because he’s always getting injured. Uh, he’s always burning out, not catching us sleep. So he gets sick, catches a cold, something like that. It’s like, dude, you are over-training or under recovering. Right. So fix one of them either train less and sleep more or like start sleeping more, start eating better. I stopped doing all that in South audit so that you can’t train at that volume. And I think that the , the jujitsu culture is like, just train more, just show up, be on the mat more. And there is an element of like, yeah, showing up even when you’re tired, sometimes showing up is important, but you can’t just keep like flogging that dead horse , uh, expecting to make progress forever. Yes.

Speaker 2: 23:43

And , um , like we’re , we’re all on the page with that. But I think the difficulty is some people are getting measured by attendance. So if they’re trying to find that path way up, they think, Oh, if I train more cultural, love me more art . I can, you know, like I wanna , I want to get my next belt . I want to get my next Stripe. But I guess this is where we come back to the idea of quality that if you go to training and don’t get me wrong, like if you haven’t been three times, do what you can to get to that third session. Definitely. But if you’re trying to do more than that, and you’re not trying to be a world beater in jujitsu, you have to ask yourself like, am I practicing good jujitsu? Like, am I actually, am I just lying on the mat and being, being a jujitsu dummy for people to work on because oftentimes like skill practice and uh, you know, fitness strengths, athletic development are not separated in jujitsu. And yet there are times when you’re tired, you still have to work. But the truth is if you show up and you’re suboptimal , you’re not slept, you’re running late. All these things, you are actually more likely to get hurt and , and this can be a problem. So look , if you’ve done your three sessions, this , this week, guys credit to you, that’s great. If you feel that you can show up and conduct yourself in a healthy way, that’s not going to then. So here’s the deal in the same way we approach strength, training. It , it takes time to get good. And we all know it takes time to get good at jujitsu. If you train five days a week for a month and then don’t train for two months, you’re not progressing. So we must think what is going to get us to our end goal. And consistency is that thing. And I , I think that speaks to what you were talking about. All right , last but not least guys is finding the right gym. So this is the thing, you know, maybe we’ve only ever experienced one BJJ gym or MMA gym. And we just feel blessed because we’ve found it, but it doesn’t mean it’s the right place for you. And I think that jujitsu mentality in general has, has changed at least for the general jujitsu practitioner, which is , uh , you don’t have to stay at the one gym, your whole life. You will move house, you will move States and you still got to stay connected to the thing you love. And , uh, I think, you know, both you and I , Joe have changed Jim’s over time. And, and I think making sure that you find a culture of a gym that you relate to and you feel connected with is important.

Speaker 3: 26:12

Yup . Uh , culture of the gym and also the coach. Yes. The person who runs it. I , um, you know, I liken it to , uh, imagine that you, you just see one coffee shop that you go to and you’re like, I just go there every day and drink their coffee. And you’ve never had a coffee anywhere else before. Yes. And it’s like, man, there’s heaps of other cafes around here, but I come to this one and then maybe some years down the track, someone’s like drags you one of the other ones , you try the coffee. And you’re like, Holy. It’s delicious. Right. You’re why didn’t

Speaker 2: 26:44

I know about this earlier,

Speaker 3: 26:46

These little pastry trades and you know, you’ve got this and yet , so it’s like, you know, it’s not like you want to be shopping around for, to perpetually, but you, you also, you want to understand that not every gym is good. Right. And even if a gym is good, it’s not necessarily a good gym for you because there’s a dynamic between you and a coach. There’s a dynamic between you and your teammates. Um, it’s good to know. What’s , it’s good to know what’s on offer. So I suggest like people often ask me, Hey, I’m moving to a new state. Um, can you recommend someone to go train? And I’m like, yeah, like here’s a couple of places maybe that I know with a friend runs this one and a friend of mine trains at that one, but really you should Google it and you should go and try all the different gyms there , go roll , talk to the coach, see what’s up because you might find one you’re like, that coach is totally gets me, is a total legend. Uh, and also is in a place where they want to like put time into me. Right. Um, so timing is a piece there, I think. Yeah. I think like, not just settling for where you’re at, but , but doing a little bit of research goes a long way. Yeah .

Speaker 2: 27:49

And look, I credit all my age. You do to coaches because I have changed in a number of times. I know this can be frowned on with the whole , uh, Korean chasing. Um, but really it’s not the same as fuel .

Speaker 3: 28:02

Well , Japan, that’s another Portuguese paste terminology for you. It’s basically a train

Speaker 2: 28:06

Trader . So P Korean Shay was a, he was in the Mo he’s a character from a novella and novellas are very big in Brazil. And it’s one of those

Speaker 3: 28:14

Isabella is another Portuguese word , which is a television show.

Speaker 2: 28:20

Sorry guys. We’re just hybrid Portuguese and English now . I mean , what like , okay, Google it, sorry. It’s sorry. Google of all questions . If you don’t know what to tell her , no velour is, that’s fine. I’m happy for you to stay ignorant on this, but stay with me. It’s a TV show in Brazil, which is like days of our lives, but it’s a big deal. And this show is very famous and he was the big trader Korean Che . So this term was taken on through jujitsu , which is like, Oh, you betrayed your family because like, it’s also like this possessiveness of like, we own you, but we live in Australia. It’s a first world society. It’s a consumer society. If the summarize , like if the Shogun dies the summer, I don’t all get themselves in on it . It’s like, if you’re gym shuts , you’ve got to find a new gym. You move house, you get some kids, you got to find the gym that you can train at because you still want to do jujitsu . And that’s the most important thing I started at Peter domains . Maybe that was a good gym to start it . Maybe it wasn’t. But that was my only option. And I’ll be honest at the time was one of the best gyms, but was it the best way to learn? Not necessarily. And I love Peter to bean shout up here to bean his OJI , if it wasn’t for him. And also John will , we wouldn’t have had to do two in Victoria the way we did so respect on that. But one of Peter’s students, Dan turbine, what , as a Brown belt set up his own gym in South Jalong . And every , I would only train with Dan once a week because he was such a legend. I would go the way such a long and I’d be like, Whoa, this guy taught me five new things. I’d go to training at pizza , but I got beat up and it was hard rolls , but I found, I just wasn’t learning. And, and because Pete had a big gym full of lots of guys, he actually kind of didn’t care whether or not you got it or not. It’s like, if you’re tough, you say, if you’re not walk on, he didn’t care. Whereas Dan, he had a tiny Jimmy I’d like 10 students. He was so invested. He really wanted to teach. And he put a lot of time and energy in explaining these concepts. And ultimately that’s what led me to change gyms . And it wasn’t out of convenience. I still had to travel an hour and 15 minutes to get there and 15 minutes to get back. But I was actually learning more jujitsu, which is what I gave a care about. And so that’s, that’s what led me to a situation. And I had to make that choice. And it was a hard choice because all my friends rap , my home gym, which was in St. Kilda.

Speaker 3: 30:33

It’s always a hard choice if you leave a gym. Yeah. It’s tough. Right. But the way you got to look at it is, well, it’s kind of like being in a relationship and not to say that your , where you’re at with your Jimmy’s necessarily chute relationship, but it’s just maybe one that’s not ideal. So it’s like, do you, for the sake of not having one kind of awkward conversation and saying a few awkward goodbyes, is it worth like sacrificing your digital game or your ability to enjoy this thing? I know I trained a gym for a long time that I just wasn’t enjoying. And if I had have stayed at that gym or rather if I hadn’t have left their gym , um, I probably never would have , um, progressed beyond where I’m at, you know, beyond my fresh Brown belt. So I think that’s a really important thing is to understand that, yeah , there’s going to be people that try and convince you to do otherwise, but it is in your best interest and your development to have a look around and try a place . If you feel like, man , maybe I could be getting more from this than I am.

Speaker 2: 31:28

Yeah. And look, the comparison I make is this guys, if you go to a gym and have barbells and dumbbells and I have all this stuff and you go, Oh, I really want to do some deadlifts . That’s not allowed. We don’t do deadlifts here, but I’m paying a membership and it’s something I want to learn now. I mean, we’ve got a guy who kind of teaches it , but we don’t, we’re not allowing it . We don’t promote that here. It’s the wrong gym for you. Like, it’s just, it’s simply, you didn’t get what you came for. And it’s so important guys, because your life is short. Your time is short and your time in jujitsu will be shortened up relative to your connection, to your digital family, your instructor, and your ability to progress. And if from the outset that you know, they’re not interested in helping you get there and you don’t feel connected to the place you do need to, you do need to look around there . We have it,

Speaker 3: 32:22

Five things I wish I knew as a white belt. Very

Speaker 2: 32:24

Good. All right . My friends, thank you very much for tuning in. We appreciate all of you. Now, if you would like to reach out to us and have any suggestions as topics for this podcast, please hit us up on Instagram at Bulletproof for BJJ. Also, if you’re interested in more of the training that we do in terms of getting stronger, getting more flexible, go to our website, which is www.bulletproofforbjj.com . Yeah .

Speaker 3: 32:50

There’s a free trial for the program. You get one week free, but you can also use the code Bulletproof ten one zero, and you get 10% off price of the , of the subscription. Awesome. Thank you. [inaudible] .