Black Belt Mindset

A third-degree black belt, Mike Martin discusses what he thinks it takes for black belt training. Mike owns Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, in Phoenix, Arizona.

View our blog here.

Watch the video below:

Transcript: Black Belt Mindset

Today's podcast is brought to you by Strongheartacademy.com where no heart is no victory. We are also brought to you by BJJ2go, if you wanna build your game and learn jujitsu, go to BJJ2go.com. Okay. So today I just wanna talk about, um, being a black belt, um, this weekend, last weekend, uh, on the fifth, we did a belt graduation. It's the first one I've done ever. Um, I've always given black belts, like are given belts out during class. Like you're already, uh, we do a black belt test at, at strong heart. Um, you have to have the hours required, then you take your black belt test and then we do a gauntlet. And then after the gauntlet, we, I would give the belt for blue belts and purple belts and brown belts. Um, and then black belts, we've done them during, like Kyle would come out and we'd do a seminar and then we'd do a black belt, like the, a little bit ceremony for the black belts.

Black Belt: Reasoning

Um, and you know, my reasoning was that, um, when you're ready, you're ready and I don't want you to have to wait. You know, some of these schools will do once one graduation a year, twice a year. And I always like bother me. What if, like, you know, you have to go outta town for work that weekend. What if, um, your mother is in the hospital that weekend? You know what, it, it's just not, I didn't never seem fair to do that. So we're gonna start doing 'em quarterly. You will have the option. Um, if you, again, you still have to have the hours, you still have to do the black belt test and you still have to do a gauntlet. Um, and a lot of these schools, you know, they just go, I think you're ready. And then they give you a belt. And then, uh, I don't, I'm not a fan of that. Uh, we always had a test, um, and we'll always continue to have a black belt test.

And, um, so that being said, um, you know, we're gonna continue forward, but I think every three months we're gonna have one of these and see how it goes. It went great this weekend. Um, you know, I gave two black belts out. Um, uh, they were earned, uh, Joseph Westbrook. He's trained with me since the beginning. Uh, he trained bef outta school that I ran for years and we both trained together there. So he's been trained about 15 years. So, you know, it's a long road sometimes. And then Adrian is trained with me. I'm not even quite sure, maybe seven years, six years. Um, but he trains almost every day, sometimes twice a day, uh, sometimes three times a day. And he was my first black belt that was from white to black. The, a lot of the guys that I've given black belts to were, um, were started at blue, or they've trained a little bit somewhere first, you know, I've taken most of my black belts all the way, but, or most of the way, but he was the first one I took all the way from white to black.

And for me, that was a big deal. And, um, and I, I told him like, you're gonna be, you're my expectation's gonna be even higher for you, man, cuz you're gonna have to set the bar now. And um, and I think he did, you know, I, I asked him to do a couple things, fix a couple things, work on a couple things and, and he did that. He applied and, and got it done. And you know, Westbrook has been my friend forever. Um, one of my really good friends and um, um, just I'm happy for both of them. We gave out a number of other black belts too. You know, bunch of people got belts. I saw a bunch of, uh, old students of mine that don't train anymore or train. I have like one guy that trains in another school and it was just good to see him, you know?

Um, it was a good, it was good memories. It was good memories. And I was very appreciative of the whole, the whole day. And it was like a very, um, it was good for me. It was good for my soul. So, um, we'll continue those. And uh, I think everyone enjoyed it and, and liked it and, and we'll go forward and we got some good pictures, uh, Marcel, um, from Marcel visuals, he, uh, does photography and videography and he did a great job and, and I'll post those videos up. And if you ever wanna check him out, it's Marcel visuals.com I believe. Um, and he has his own studio too. You can go to a studio and do professional shot, you know, professional shoot, you know, he does with models all the time. Um, so I'm happy for him too. He's one of my students, I'm just happy that he's doing his passion in life.

And it's so hard. Society is not really built for people wanting to do their passions. It's very built for getting the, getting the machine, be your cog and, uh, and shut your mouth type of thing. So it's, it's hard to do your passion, but I think in the long run, even the struggles, you know, you'll be happier on the journey if you do those type of things. And one of the things during the gauntlet or during the graduation was, uh, Adrian said, uh, he whispered to me, I always knew I was gonna be a black bow. And it was like a kind of a mind blowing epiphany, whatever was like, yeah, like you, you have to believe that you can get there. And man, fortunately, there's a lot of watering down in jujitsu right now. I've seen a lot of guys getting black belts and it's not because it's like less time because I think you can get black belts a lot faster.

Black Belt: World Titles

Now I would still say, you should ha you know, unless you're winning world titles, I still say it should take six, a minimum of six years, you know, guys are doing it four or five. That's cool. But have you won any of the world titles? You know, the Kyle got in three, but he was winning world titles after world title, after world title, after world title, doing open divisions. Like, yeah, man, like you gotta give that guy a black belt, but like there's guys getting black belts that I just don't, I don't know that I personally would give them a black belt and maybe my standards are a little high and none of my guys have won titles or anything, but like they have the years in the experience in, and they have the battles in and, um, they've helped others. They've done the things that I feel like are required to be a black belt.

And um, to me, like you almost have to be a, a kind of a crazy person. You have to be super dedicated in order to do it. And you have to really want it. You can't, can't be like a, a hobby. You know, you just, you could be a hobby, no problem. But if you wanna be a black woman, it's gotta be a little bit more than that. It's like your way of life. Um, and I think it's just hard to be a black belt without that. And you can, you can for sure, but it's harder. And I, I highly recommend going all in if that's what you wanna do, if you want to be a black belt. And that doesn't mean you have to, again, doesn't mean you have the world win world titles, but definitely if you wanna win world titles, you have to be all in.

You cannot be a toe in you can't be lukewarm. You gotta be red hot for it. And you gotta love it. You gotta love that grind. And if you don't love the grind, I think it's really hard to get to that to the end. And it's not the end, but like it's the first end. I would say, it's the first end, the first major milestone and that blue belt's kind of a milestone too, cuz you're start like, okay, I think I understand the basics now, but black belt means like you've mastered the basics. In my opinion, you have mastery of the basics. Uh, we went to a seminar. I won't say who, not that long ago. And I saw some black ball Sarah and they were like, they didn't know what da Heva was. Da Heva is so old. <laugh> it's not like this new fancy thing, man.

Like you should know how to play daily. Heva even if it's not your game to play, you should know what it is. He's like, you don't know what it is. How, how are you a black belt? I don't understand. You know, some of that could be not. And these guys, cuz these guys were new black belts, but some of that could be like, you're so old that you never train. You know, it was new back then and 20 years ago. But uh, you're not, you know, you don't play it. But sometimes these guys like they stop learning when they're black are like, ah, I know everything I need and maybe that's true. But like anytime you're in an industry and you quit learning, the industry passes, you buy, uh, jujitsu is no different, you know, jujitsu is constantly changing and there are certain areas I think I'm behind that.

I need to work on, but I try to work on stuff. I really do. Um, age. Isn't the factor that stops me from learning. That's that's um, a limiting mindset that I don't like. And I don't think you should have that as a black belt. It's like, oh I'm a black belt. I'm done learning. No, not really man. Or it could be, but it shouldn't be, that's uh, not a good way to think about or do it. And you could definitely quit after black belt. I mean, it's a, it's a big accomplishment for sure. But like I'm so in, I so love jujitsu that I can't imagine quitting. It's like, uh, marriage, you know that you love someone, you don't, why would you do quit? You know, unless you're physically cannot do it. But even then man, I would be around it. I would be pointing and I would be around and I would still study.

I would be watching Jiu Jitsu and you gotta have that love, man. I just think you gotta have that love to get to the end. You can't make a black belt without a love of it. And uh, you know, I've heard some people lately saying there should be no belts, you know, we should just compete. Whoever's the best wins. And I've, I mean, you know, in wrestling that happens, but there's definitely levels to this. And to say there's not levels is weird because even in basketball, I'm a big basketball fan. Like the difference between high school basketball and college basketball and then the NBA basketball and then the NBA champions or all stars. Those are all levels, man. And those aren't belts per se, but those are definitely levels. You know, you, you, most high school kids will get destroyed by college and most college kids would get destroyed by, um, by NBA players.

So it's it's for me, it's like the same concept, even junior high, junior high to high school. Now some of that is like physical growth, but it's also knowledge and skill set too. I mean that those come with time and hours put in and it just takes the hours and, and Ji's just no different. And uh, so that's how I look at those kind of belts almost is like, um, depth of knowledge and depth of application and skill. Um, and if you just don't have that, just think it is a, uh, it's slows down the, and even like college, you know, you can get a bachelor's, but you can get a master's or you can get a PhD in so many fields that you wouldn't under. Didn't think you can get a PhD in, but you can get a PhD in a lot of things.

So it's like, those are levels, you know, you can consider those like belts almost because, um, it's the mastery of the subject and you're trying to master get a level of mastery of the subject. And I in, I always heard, you know, calling someone master I'm like, I don't like that cuz I feel like you never really master anything, but you definitely have a certain level of mastery of something. Um, but the master is like, I know everything there is to it in my mind and it's just like not possible <laugh> and that's the beauty of logistic. Cause it can keep me motivated and not bored because there's always something new and there's always little adjustments. I don't wanna say micro adjustments, but there's micro adjustments that you can make for sure at a higher level to make you better. And uh, I think that's an awesome journey and um, it was cool to see their families there and support them at the graduation and um, and it went great.

I think it went great. So I definitely wanna continue these and March is funny because um, I got my black belt in 2009, um, on March 24th. So this month will be my black belt, um, anniversary and I I'm coming. I should be getting my fourth Stripe pretty soon. I got meet up with Kyle somehow and get that done. And uh, it's also the month I started to Jitsu. So it was like March 1st ish. Uh, like it was the first week of March in 2000, the year 2000. So I've been at this for 22 years and um, there's times where I've been tired and getting burned out, but I've never dropped jujitsu. I never not trained jujitsu. Uh, the longest I ever took off jujitsu 22 years was two months for a shoulder injury, uh, surgery, I should say. And that was not, I was supposed to do nine months.

Um, but that's just like my love for this. And man, I feel like sometimes I get confused that people don't have the same love with me, which is delusional on my part. But um, you know, that's a super projection, but I think you have to have the same love to get to that end. And it can't be like, this is something I do now. It could be, this is something I do that helps me be straight and narrow and keep me motivated and goal setting. That's true. Um, and it could be like a utility for you even more than a passion. So the utility of it is, is important. You know, I make people write out certain questions I ask when they do their black belt test, they gimme a sheet that I want you to fill out. And um, somebody, she wrote out a thing and she said, you know, one of the things that J's done for me is that it gives me excuse to tell my friends that I can't go out tonight and ha and party.

And I was like, yeah, it does. And, and this did the same thing when I first started. Cause I started at, when I was 20, you know, I was 21. Um, and then when I turned 21, you know, you, you can go out and, and go to try to pick up girls and you're going to bars and things like that. But like in the middle of the week, that's not healthy. And then you can't do that when you're getting you can, but you shouldn't be doing that when you're getting older, you know, you got years in. And like I thought that was a great thing that she said that was like, it gives me this excuse not to go out. And again, that, that would be like the utility of it. Um, this week, one of my students said, Hey, it's my two year anniversary of being sober.

And I, we look, I looked down the line and there was four other people in the line that I didn't say anything, but I know that that they've been, uh, they have a sober way of life as well. And you know, they had their struggles and I think jujitsu's also helped them with that journey. You know? So there's five people in this line of maybe there was a smaller class, like 12 people. So five outta 12 had, are, have used and maybe are using jujitsu as a vehicle to stay clean and sober and do something positive with your time because everyone has time and you gotta, you're gonna fill it no matter what. Even if you sleep all day, it's filling your time with sleep and you might as well do something positive with it. And it can give you an excuse to be positive.

Like, oh man, I gotta do jujitsu. I can't go out tonight. Sorry. And I think the non Jitsu people are like, think, look at you. Like what, why are you rolling around with a bunch of people, but they don't, you know, they don't understand it and they're not in that place in their life where they're ready to make a change. They just wanna party party, party, party. And I get it. It's, it's fun, but there's consequences to that. So, um, and to say that there's no consequences, Jitsu, for sure there's gonna be injuries, but I went over that in the past too, man. Like you get older, there's always injuries. Our body breaks down, no matter what you did, lack of exercise will break your body down. So at least you're gonna have good stories and you'll be in shape in between, in between the injuries.

But, um, I'd rather play those prices than the liver damage or whatever your, uh, fun choice is that you do. That's gonna wear that body down. So, um, yeah, these are just kind of reflections over the weekend and, and of the graduation that we had and I'll put some pictures up, um, you know, Marcel took some great pictures and, and uh, I'll figure out how to get everyone's pictures. We took a picture of everyone getting their belt. So I'll try to do that for you guys and, and get those out for you. Um, sometime this week. Um, some of you, I, I, I text, but it's just too many people to send via text and, and, um, their com I can't know how much I can compress these pictures too. So I'll get those out. I appreciate everyone showing up to for the graduation and, and, um, supporting the people that got, uh, new belts and leveled up. And, um, it was just a great experience overall. So it was a short one today. I just wanted to share that with you guys and hope you guys have a great weekend. Peace.

Black Belt Training starts here.