Blue belt blues

[deadshot138]

I had no idea this was a thing but I also stopped doing jiu jitsu when I got my blue belt. Anyone else have this problem? How did you get motivated again?

 

[Adjaar]

How long ago did you stop? I think I was sandbagged a little, due to going to school far away and training at different gyms at home and at school. I was a white belt for 3 and a half years, and I think I got the majority of my blue belt blues during white belt days. I'm assuming blue belt blues stands for the feeling of hitting a plateau in your training.

I just kept training. I love jiu jitsu, and I feel like the plateau is inevitable when you look at all the belt ranks you have to progress through and how little you really are into your journey. I also think that when you know the techniques your training partners use, and they know yours, it can make it seem like your skill isn't growing because of the number of stalemates you are ending up in.

If 'just keep training' isn't what you were looking for, I'd suggest making some goals so you can measure your growth. That could be competing, where you measure your performance over tournaments. It could also be to make sure you vary your training partners, like hitting up open mats at other gyms. I know I hit my plateau when I trained at smaller clubs and I became one of the better practitioners, and I could keep up with higher belts because I knew their game plan from many rolls with them. I now train at a larger club and can get my butt whooped as often as I like, and it helps me measure my development through my rolls with them.

 

[method115]

Stopped for 5 years about 7-8 months after getting my blue and I've been back for 2.5 years now. What motivated me was I lifted weights for 4 days a week and ran on Wednesday. It was getting so boring. I remembered how great of a workout BJJ was and now I do that and only left Tuesday and Thursday.

I also did miss BJJ in general but I remembered having issues lifting and doing BJJ at the same time. So I was hesitant to every try and go back. I didn't want to lose my gains. Looking back now though it was my horrible diet\sleep schedule causing that.

 

[EndlessCritic]

I can only speak about my own experience.

Dunning Kruger hits everyone as a new white belt in BJJ. You vastly overestimate how good you're going to be, and quickly get humbled. Then, being a white belt is fun. You improve rapidly, and start becoming competent with some basic moves.

In my experience, Dunning Kruger hit me twice. When I got my blue belt a decade ago, I genuinely thought I was good. I lacked motivation because I felt I had already learned the most important things. In a way it was sort of true. But in retrospect, I was completely wrong. I knew next to nothing.

Want to avoid the blue belt blues? Stop worrying about your belt colour, stay humble, and focus on continuing to improve. If you think you know everything and that you have nothing else to learn, you will learn nothing else. Stay excited about learning techniques, but stay even more excited about learning new details about the techniques you thought you already knew.

 

[winterbike]

This might be a first, nobody quits at blue.

 

[MrFriendly]

I had no idea this was a thing but I also stopped doing jiu jitsu when I got my blue belt. Anyone else have this problem? How did you get motivated again?

Pretty common, never quit personally. Try switching your focus...example -was subbing everyone at white from guard(all other white belts /any blue close to my size/multiple purples...got blue belt, and suddenly felt like i couldn't do shit , so i switched focus to just hitting sweeps and life eventually made sense again).

That was 4yrs ago , 2 stripe purple and now i make it a point to focus on different aspects quarterly (3mon) all year (passing, escapes,guard retention/recovery, etc).

It'll help you overall, and break up the funk of a daily grind

 

[MrFriendly]

Keep a logbook like youd do for weightlifting...is another thing that helps

 

[deadshot138]

Need to get back into tournaments. I stopped competing and my motivation waned.

 

[Quebec Nick]

Pretty common, never quit personally. Try switching your focus...example -was subbing everyone at white from guard(all other white belts /any blue close to my size/multiple purples...got blue belt, and suddenly felt like i couldn't do shit , so i switched focus to just hitting sweeps and life eventually made sense again).

That was 4yrs ago , 2 stripe purple and now i make it a point to focus on different aspects quarterly (3mon) all year (passing, escapes,guard retention/recovery, etc).

It'll help you overall, and break up the funk of a daily grind

I'm with you on this one, a huge part of your progress in BJJ will be through awareness and focus. If you're aware of why you fail at something, then you can focus on it and find a way to progress.

Having a goal of always winning leads you to get desperate or overhype about yourself and your skills.

Some stuff gets better quickly but other takes some time. For an exemple, for the last 3 months I've been working hard on guard passing, so I built myself a little system of what I do for each reactions... I already see an upgrade because now I have a purpose and a plan to pass the guard. Those 3 months have been tactically successful. Now I don't try to get new passes or new strategies, I just focus on those passes to get technically better. That technical phase takes less focus from you but it takes time and repetition. Usually I will watch again the same instructionnals to make sure I don't miss a detail and I will go for another subject for new stuff.

I've been working that way for my guard, my halfguard, my attacks from the top and from the back, my escapes, my guard retention...

How can you get bored of that wonderful sport.

 

[Te Huna Matata]

I kind of went through this but it was mostly due to not being able to train as consistently due to work. I got my blue belt about a year ago and a few months prior, I got a new job where my work schedule and training schedule didn't align. I went from 3-5x a week to 1, sometimes 2 times a week if I was lucky. I felt like I plateaued briefly but focusing on working specific facets of my game helped me improve and get that minor bump in both confidence and skill. I am a wrestler with a solid top game but a comically inept bottom game. I've been working on half guard/knee shield for a few months now and I'm at the point where I can be competitive on the bottom now from

Last night, one of my instructors told me that he'd never seen someone my size successfully pull off something I did in live rolls last night and I finally got my 1st stripe on my belt. Said he was talking with another instructor while I was rolling and it was something like "yeah, that's not going to wo...well shows what I know, I'm just a black belt..."

So in my relatively novice opinion, I think the best thing to do is to focus on adding tools to your arsenal and compartmentalize your game.

 

[No Skill Gap]

Keep a logbook like youd do for weightlifting...is another thing that helps

How many times a week do you train? Goes for anyone in this thread.

Basically my story - not that it matters - is that I got my blue belt around 10-12 years ago. I actually trained and had a yellow belt when I was a kid, stopped, got a blue belt, stopped for around 10-12 years roughly, and started again.

Sucks that I missed so much time, and maybe like OP I lost interest, but I also had "life"...other sports, going to college, and sure a lack of interest obviously otherwise I would have keep doing it.

But right now I kind of fell in love with BJJ / MMA again. I'm only focusing on BJJ right now, and I'm still in my late 20s, very late 20s let's say without doxing myself even though I probably already have. So I guess I'm still young, but I'm almost not 17-24 years old either.

This week I had a relatively heavy lifting session on Monday - deadlifted, then a lot of acessory/core work, neck work. Tuesday - gi class, rolled with a blue, white, brown, purple and was actively trying to go 50-70%, so I would say light to medium intensity roll. And now I am contemplating either going to a no-gi class tonight - Wednesday, or taking off and going Thursday, 2 classes on Fri, and Saturday.

Idk sorry not trying to write an essay here but my cardio isn't up to where it should be, my conditioning is still bad but has improved. I used to have great cardio, but I was also 15-18 years old or something. Whatever I'm going into too much pointless detail....

TLDR-my question was: How many days per week do you train? How many days per week should a late 20s, early 30s guy train? My goal is to get 4-5 sessions minimum of BJJ per week in, but I also am finding it hard to get my no-gi in...which I prefer to gi kind of, on top of lifting which I enjoy and feel like I kind of have to do.

I don't even remember fully but I want to say I trained roughly 2 years as a kid, and 2 years as a teen. 3-4 years for sure, prior to starting back up recently as a blue belt with over a decade off but with much more size/strength and much worse cardio, currently.

My goal is sort of to become a super-sandbagged blue belt and compete, but I also want to compete before I turn 30 which is daunting in itself, lol. Well this might be an essay, so thanks for reading if anyone ever does.

 

[Espurgote]

Well... Blue belt curse is real, I started doing BJJ and Judo in 2004 and got my blue belt in BJJ in 2008 (back then was harder I guess?), and before you ask I was a prodigy back then heheheh in 2009 a tragedy happened to me and I sorta got a bit traumatized and coming back to the mats I would be nervous and start puking, it took me 10 years to get the courage to go back hehehe

 

[MrFriendly]

How many times a week do you train? Goes for anyone in this thread.

Basically my story - not that it matters - is that I got my blue belt around 10-12 years ago. I actually trained and had a yellow belt when I was a kid, stopped, got a blue belt, stopped for around 10-12 years roughly, and started again.

Sucks that I missed so much time, and maybe like OP I lost interest, but I also had "life"...other sports, going to college, and sure a lack of interest obviously otherwise I would have keep doing it.

But right now I kind of fell in love with BJJ / MMA again. I'm only focusing on BJJ right now, and I'm still in my late 20s, very late 20s let's say without doxing myself even though I probably already have. So I guess I'm still young, but I'm almost not 17-24 years old either.

This week I had a relatively heavy lifting session on Monday - deadlifted, then a lot of acessory/core work, neck work. Tuesday - gi class, rolled with a blue, white, brown, purple and was actively trying to go 50-70%, so I would say light to medium intensity roll. And now I am contemplating either going to a no-gi class tonight - Wednesday, or taking off and going Thursday, 2 classes on Fri, and Saturday.

Idk sorry not trying to write an essay here but my cardio isn't up to where it should be, my conditioning is still bad but has improved. I used to have great cardio, but I was also 15-18 years old or something. Whatever I'm going into too much pointless detail....

TLDR-my question was: How many days per week do you train? How many days per week should a late 20s, early 30s guy train? My goal is to get 4-5 sessions minimum of BJJ per week in, but I also am finding it hard to get my no-gi in...which I prefer to gi kind of, on top of lifting which I enjoy and feel like I kind of have to do.

I don't even remember fully but I want to say I trained roughly 2 years as a kid, and 2 years as a teen. 3-4 years for sure, prior to starting back up recently as a blue belt with over a decade off but with much more size/strength and much worse cardio, currently.

My goal is sort of to become a super-sandbagged blue belt and compete, but I also want to compete before I turn 30 which is daunting in itself, lol. Well this might be an essay, so thanks for reading if anyone ever does.

Your post is all over the place bro, but I'll try and answer...

How often do i train? Assuming you mean just bjj... 4-8x's weekly (min. 3 organized practices and 1 open mat) most ive ever done is 39 days straight (leading up to master worlds last year)
And
2 lifting sessions/5cardio sessions weekly

I compete alot and im in a good place career wise that allows me to keep flexible hours.


As far as yourself....bro idk, and there are plenty of bb's wandering this sub who would be more than qualified to answer your question...
I do suggest that you thoroughly express what your goals are before you ask 1 of them , or else you'll likely get "as much as you can" as an answer

 

[No Skill Gap]

Your post is all over the place bro, but I'll try and answer...

How often do i train? Assuming you mean just bjj... 4-8x's weekly (min. 3 organized practices and 1 open mat) most ive ever done is 39 days straight (leading up to master worlds last year)
And
2 lifting sessions/5cardio sessions weekly

I compete alot and im in a good place career wise that allows me to keep flexible hours.


As far as yourself....bro idk, and there are plenty of bb's wandering this sub who would be more than qualified to answer your question...
I do suggest that you thoroughly express what your goals are before you ask 1 of them , or else you'll likely get "as much as you can" as an answer

Yeah I realize it was, but that's the answer I was looking for thanks.

I was just basically wondering how feasible it is to train everyday or 5-6 days a week while still lifting at least 2 days a week. The only other questions I would ask are how old specifically are you and if you use TRT or something, but if that's too personal...no big deal. Like i said your answer was what I was looking for pretty much.

 

[MrFriendly]

Yeah I realize it was, but that's the answer I was looking for thanks.

I was just basically wondering how feasible it is to train everyday or 5-6 days a week while still lifting at least 2 days a week. The only other questions I would ask are how old specifically are you and if you use TRT or something, but if that's too personal...no big deal. Like i said your answer was what I was looking for pretty much.

41/no

5-6 bjj sessions along with 2 lifting sessions is completely doable as long as you stagger intensities during bjj(dont treat every roll like a deathmatch world championship)

 

[No Skill Gap]

41/no

5-6 bjj sessions along with 2 lifting sessions is completely doable as long as you stagger intensities during bjj(dont treat every roll like a deathmatch world championship)

Thanks, yeah I saw some juggernaut training vid with Chad Wesley Smith saying the same, just wanted some real people to reassure. Thank you for the responses. So far into this week i had a heavy lifting session on monday, and trained BJJ on tues and wed. thus far.

Probably the human body not being used to it at first is a big thing too, adaptations after doing it for sure. Thanks again.

 

[GoodbyeBlueSky82]

Yeah I realize it was, but that's the answer I was looking for thanks.

I was just basically wondering how feasible it is to train everyday or 5-6 days a week while still lifting at least 2 days a week. The only other questions I would ask are how old specifically are you and if you use TRT or something, but if that's too personal...no big deal. Like i said your answer was what I was looking for pretty much.

I'll take a stab at this since it sounds like you want some specifics and are curious of what is feasible. I'm in my late 30's, blue belt, not great conditioning and have never been athletic so maybe I can be a good reference point. For me, a heavier week might look like this:
Monday: Morning BJJ for 1 hour, mostly drilling and roll a couple rounds. Evening BJJ competition class, 1.5 hours, positional rolling, regular rolling. I'm absolutely spent afterwards, its kind of my "embrace the suck" kind of day.
Tuesday: No BJJ. Lift weights on lunch break. Mostly back / chest / shoulder stuff like pull ups, rows, chest press.
Wednesday: Morning BJJ for 1 hour, mostly drilling and roll a couple rounds.
Thursday: Possibly lift weights on lunch break. Usually some leg press, core stuff. Its a crappy office gym so no squats. Evening BJJ , 1 to 1.5 hours with some rolling.
Friday: BJJ open mat for 1 or 1.5 hours.
Saturday - Sunday: I generally take weekends off and rest, but if I missed a BJJ class above then I might do a Saturday open mat also, or hit the real gym near my house on Sunday to lift. That is x2 of lifting and x5 BJJ sessions, even if some days were doubled up.

Some caveats or background: When I started BJJ, I needed a day of recovery in between so 3x per week was my max and I didn't lift weights, was actually worried I'd get injured if I tried to do both but have found that not to be the case if I am paying attention to how I feel. A good nights sleep is essential, like 7-8 hours - I head to bed by 10:30 pm, almost no exceptions. I'm not too strict on diet, but I make sure my diet is real food - meats, veggies, eggs, nuts, some fruit. I do whey protein shakes after lifting and after the more taxing BJJ classes, 5g of creatine monohydrate daily, good multi vitamin, some other supplements that rotate. I have done testosterone injections since mine was somewhat low when it was checked last year, but it is not some miracle thing like some act like it is. Cleaning up diet and getting good sleep will take you further than bumping T levels alone, in my experience, and I actually was increasing my training before messing with TRT.

 

[KikoJones]

The Blue Belt Blues never really hit me. I never hit a plateau then but as a Purple Belt, it's really been bad. I almost completely walked away if it weren't for my coach and team mates hounding me to come back. The longest I was able to stay away was 3 weeks and I was truly enjoying being pain free.
I got to tell you, being a Purple belt sucks especially when you're 53. The Blue belts want to prove a point and the Browns/Blacks want to keep you humble.

What helps getting out of ruts is to focus on ONE technique.

 

[Matsukaze]

The Blue Belt Blues never really hit me. I never hit a plateau them but as a Purple Belt, it's really been bad. I almost completely walked away if it weren't for my coach and team mates hounding me to come back. The longest I was able to stay away was 3 weeks and I was truly enjoying being pain free.
I got to tell you, being a Purple belt sucks especially when you're 53. The Blue belts want to prove a point and the Browns/Blacks want to keep you humble.

What helps getting out of ruts is to focus on ONE technique.

Great point..... this is my current state. I'm knocking on 50 and also a purple belt who's really close to brown. I am on the smaller side as well and it takes me several days to get over a training session. Sometimes the pain is so bad I can hardly walk the next day. You get so accustomed to the pain that when I miss a week or two I forget whats it like to be pain free LOL

 

[Chungungo]

I can only speak about my own experience.

Dunning Kruger hits everyone as a new white belt in BJJ. You vastly overestimate how good you're going to be, and quickly get humbled. Then, being a white belt is fun. You improve rapidly, and start becoming competent with some basic moves.

In my experience, Dunning Kruger hit me twice. When I got my blue belt a decade ago, I genuinely thought I was good. I lacked motivation because I felt I had already learned the most important things. In a way it was sort of true. But in retrospect, I was completely wrong. I knew next to nothing.

Want to avoid the blue belt blues? Stop worrying about your belt colour, stay humble, and focus on continuing to improve. If you think you know everything and that you have nothing else to learn, you will learn nothing else. Stay excited about learning techniques, but stay even more excited about learning new details about the techniques you thought you already knew.

Totally, I still don´t get much about this phrase but I stopped BJJ for 8 years and now being a blue betl I don´t have a desire to stop, maybe I´m a little bit too classical for these days XD.