The gifts of being a Beginner at Jiu-Jitsu
Belt promotions, Winning, and Pressure
A gift the beginner has is having no expectations on their performance by the teacher and other students.
They are expected to and should welcome mistakes, losing and tapping.
As a student acquires seniority, they may feel increased pressure to perform or ‘represent’ the level they are at.
These pressures are either self imposed or placed on them by others out of insecurity.
Those who don’t feel such pressures are either monks who have overcome the very notion of pressure itself or have just accepted that they cannot become great at Jiu-Jitsu.
They have chosen apathy over reaching the ultimate of heights within the martial art and themselves and have set their expectations accordingly.
The truth is that everyone can become exceptional.
It’s the mindset of the individual that leads one towards greatness.
To reach the top 1% in Jiu Jitsu, all that is required is desire and desperation to arrive there.
The teacher and the students themselves do not know what they will be naturally good at.
Should a beginner not seek the immediate gratification of winning and instead see this short period as an opportunity to experiment to discover their natural talents, it will be a period of immense benefit.
Beginner Mind
The beginner has one of the greatest gifts that few, if any, of the higher belts still possess: Beginner mind.
A mind which has not been conditioned by the belief of what works and doesn’t work.
A mind which hasn’t conditioned itself with the belief of what you are good at or not good at and has the unbounded willingness to experiment and learn as much as possible without discounting anything.
While a beginner is constantly confronted with all the things they do not know, this jewel is worth more than all the knowledge they will ever possess.
As a beginner continues training, they develop likes and dislikes, interests and content they become averse to, and as they continue on in this way.
Should they achieve a blue belt and beyond, they may find themselves stripping this beautiful art down further and further until it exists inside a small box of limitation.
Turning the infinite to the finite extinguishes the fun out of learning, and the student reaches plateaus and likely grows increasingly disinterested and frustrated by the pressure they put on themselves to perform.
While Jiu-Jitsu does become more fun the better you are at it, enjoy your time as a beginner for few, if any, ever arrive back to this mindset.