You’re Supposed to Be Bad at First
What Jiu Jitsu Taught Me About Learning Anything
You automatically become a white belt when you start something for the first time. It’s not necessarily earned, but it does require you to make a decision to begin.
My whole life, I’ve loved learning new skills. I’ve been a “white belt” many times—with multiple instruments, learning to cook, and getting into creative skills like woodworking. But it wasn’t until I started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu just before my 25th birthday that I truly understood what it meant to be a white belt.
The White Belt Experience
I had the urge to train jiu jitsu for months before I actually started. I was nervous because I was used to learning new skills on my own or with just a teacher. This is one of the few skills that is impossible to learn by yourself. When I first began, I knew nothing, and I presented that fact to a gym full of people. I looked silly trying to imitate even the most basic movements and techniques. On top of that, many of the classes had “upper belts”—the purple, brown, and black belts—who had been training anywhere from five years to decades. Rarely does a true beginner get the opportunity to practice a new skill alongside—and sometimes directly against—experts.
This environment instantly provides an essential dichotomy to the fresh white belt: it is both humbling and inspiring. Humbling because I was being crushed, round after round, by the advanced techniques of people I would ordinarily consider physically smaller and weaker than myself. Inspiring because I could see the progression of skill from the blue belts to the purple belts, and then to the brown and black belts. It showed that even though I was at the bottom of the mountain, consistent time, effort, and attendance would lead to progression. Most people get frustrated when starting a new skill because, naturally, they are not good at it. The jiu jitsu environment gives the sense of hope required to see past the harsh truth that I am currently terrible at this new skill while reminding me that I am on the right path.
Jiu Jitsu Creates the Optimal Learning Environment
There are five major pillars of rapid skill development: growth mindset, tight feedback loops, application in context, consistency, and stakes. Jiu jitsu inherently possesses all of these by its nature. Growth mindset is seeing the potential for improvement and understanding that failure is a part of learning. Upper belts instill a growth mindset in lower belts. Feedback loops are naturally fast. Advanced partners are quick to correct errors in technique while drilling, and live rolls are a good way to test your techniques. If you are making mistakes during a roll, you will learn that immediately. Rolling also allows you to practice your new techniques in context with legitimate stakes. Jiu jitsu is unique among martial arts because sparring can safely and regularly be done at near full intensity with the mutual agreement to respect a tap. This provides the emotional and physical stimulus needed for the brain to rapidly encode the techniques being learned. Finally, the jiu jitsu community encourages consistency. Once you become acquainted with the coaches and regulars at the gym, you have social pressure and an urge to train regularly. So far in my life of pursuing skills, I have not found a practice that presents all of the drivers of rapid learning, in their entirety, like jiu jitsu does.
Meta-Lessons from the Mat
Like starting any new skill, jiu jitsu will give you a new framework from which to view the everyday events of life. Every new pursuit provides substance for analogies that increase your understanding of other aspects of life, but some of the meta-lessons of jiu jitsu are uniquely valuable:
Panicking never helps. When you are in a bad situation, take a breath, remain calm, and allow yourself a second to think clearly.
Efficiency is a skill. The best-executed technique uses the minimal effort necessary to be effective.
Do not try to force things. Learn to recognize patterns and see what opportunities are available to capitalize on. If you try to force something, you will expend unnecessary energy and miss opportunities that were right in front of you.
White Belts in Anything
The experience of the white belt is universal—it is not unique to jiu jitsu, but I understood it the most through that context. A white belt is a beginner. They are terrible at the skill they have chosen to pursue, but that is exactly where they are supposed to be. Being a white belt is embracing a growth mindset and realizing that the gap between where you are and where you want to be is bridged by time and consistent effort. Look to the “upper belts” in whatever skill you are pursuing for feedback and inspiration.
Stay humble and realize that you are standing at the base of a mountain. In jiu jitsu, 90% of people quit while a white belt. The difference between those who succeed and those who quit is not talent—but tolerance for the discomfort of being bad. Embrace it. That’s how you climb. The journey is long, but many people have made it up the trail—and so can you.
