I don't know how, but I have emerged from one of the most grueling experiences of my life.
Today was my blue belt test, along with 12 of my jiu-jitsu brothers (one couldn't make it due to injury). As I have mentioned before, many schools have their own way of doing belt promotions. Our instructor chooses to test us with the basic self-defense knowledge necessary to survive a wide array of very common attacks in the real world. He started doing this when he realized that students would be getting all the way up to purple belt without any basic knowledge of self-defense. Sure, they could wreck your world in a jiu-jitsu vs. jiu-jitsu fight, but when you mix in punches, kicks, knees, elbows, headlocks, and all manner of likely street scenarios, they were at a loss.
I can't share with you exactly what transpired, as most of the Gracie fundamentals are kept somewhat secret. But I can tell you how I almost passed out/puked/crapped my gi pants. We started by pairing up and going over a range of standing and ground techniques back and forth until the upper belts were satisfied that we knew the basics. Next, they send an upper belt at us with MMA gloves to simulate someone actually assaulting us. The upper belts have to erase their minds of jiu-jitsu for this portion and we have to use what we know to subdue them. We cycled through 3 or 4 each and that was the end of it.
Or so we thought...
The test itself really wasn't that bad. We were worked pretty hard, but not much more than a competition class or good open mat. By this time, the test sequences and techniques were drilled into our skulls. The simulations aren't terrible either when you consider that they don't know jiu-jitsu and you do. However, our academy has a little tradition after the blue belt promotion. We knew it was coming. We just thought they wouldn't do it directly after the test because they hadn't before.
Just like promotions, every gym and school may have their own way doing an initiation ritual. Some send you down a line of upper belts who give you a good lashing from their belt as you walk by. Others might have everybody in the room give you a gnarly hip throw. We, and many others, do a something we call "shark bait".
Shark bait is when everyone from the black belts down to blues wail on us pretty much until we can't even move. This being such a large promotion, they split us into two groups. The first group of bigger guys were murdered first. We could hear their cries for mercy from our end of the mat. The smaller group that I was in got to do intense warm up drills for the whole round. This is after going all out on the test for around 90 minutes. Again, we didn't think they'd shark bait us today. I've seen it before when they wait a week and then give them an aggressive 30-45 minutes of pain.
Then we switched. A lot of the upper belts wanted a piece of me. It's all kind of a haze really. As I was tapping to one move, another was being set up by someone else. I remember a lot of knee on belly, a lot of armbars, and gassing out with about a minute left. It was clear that I was close to exhaustion and the let me breath for a bit. My friend Nick wasn't so lucky. He submitted to the trash can and let out a healthy blast of sports drink.
Then we switched again. I couldn't even do a push up from my knees at this point. But as I looked around, neither could anyone else really. The urge to puke was overwhelming. My trust in the other end was fading as well. My brothers and I continued to lift ourselves off the mat as best we could.
We switched again, for one last 5 minute kill session. While the intent was still there, the upper belts knew we didn't have much left. They still gave us a proper murdering, but they also started to give us some space to work. Amazingly, sheer instinct took over for a few split seconds and we were able to pull off some moves here and there. Then they went back to the slaughter.
The buzzer rang and it was finally over. I don't think a single one of us could get back to our feet under our own free will. We lined back up against the wall and our instructor gave us a long winded speech on what it means to get to blue belt. I can't recall any of it. He called us up one by one to tie our new belts and it was official.
I'm 31 years old, and I've never worked this hard for anything in my life. And there's still so much more to learn!
My BJJ friends, tell me about your blue belt promotion in the comments.
Oss!