WHY IT TAKES SO LONG TO GET A BJJ BLACKBELT

[@rickkan4870]

Training 5 times a week while holding a full time job is admirable

[@theodorewurz8424]

Personally I do 3-4. I could train 5, even with family and job obligations (even though my gym is an hour drive both ways), regardless, I’m getting a little older and if I train 5 days or more in a week I get so sore and mentally drained that my 5th session is usually lack luster. 3-4 is best for me, sometimes 3 is enough, sometimes I need that 4th day. My training sessions are 3 hours each, so I’m getting more mat time than most even in my 3-4 training sessions.

[@joeblow9927]

Pretty sure dis guy never had a job

[@IdontspeakBro.]

Only 5 times a week 😂

[@sepnax]

I started BJJ about 3 months ago. What I noticed was that we would start our lessons with somersaults, which made me dizzy. Then with my luck we would drill some chokes couple times, which made me even more dizzy. And after that finish up the lesson with some 200 pound guy sitting on my stomach during spar. After the lesson my mind was always completely blank, feeling lucky just to be alive. But for the life of me, I couldn't remember any of the techniques. After month or so, I realized that this can't go on like this. So I started looking up positions and techniques from youtube and other places in the internet. Then I tried to applying those during spar. At first with little success. But with every failure I was thinking "why my technique didn't work as I planned? what went wrong?". With that in mind I drilled them more with my girlfriend at home. Then something changed, and I started to make some progress and tap some people out during spars. I'm not saying I'm ready to take on a black belt now, but that I noticed too that you can affect your learning rate, even in a short time span.

[@bighands69]

Most BJJ is not run that well. It does not take into account the beginner and puts too much emphasis on mixed classes. The rolls in BJJ do not make much sense either. I think they come from judo which happens to have a strong stand up component and throws.

[@Docinaplane]

It's been a year since I watched this video. In that time, I have used your advice with my grappling training with success. Thank you!

[@TakedownBreakdown]

I agree 100%. In fact, to me, your own creativity is what makes bjj the most fun and interesting

[@bighands69]

You could say that about any sport.

[@kaistigerboy]

Awesome insight I'm 45 this year and my son started bjj a few months ago I have always trained stand up and over the past 15 years I have been doing a internal style with the same philosophy, my son wants me to train with him as I have always wanted to do bjj so your philosophy has just motivated me to try getting a black belt before I'm over the hill so to speak . Cheers.

[@kitwarchilddale]

kaistigerboy that’s awesome to hear man! Do it brother :)

[@espada9]

I started at 44 I'm 54 and a brown belt and starting BJJ has had more positive impact on my life than anything I've ever done. If you decide to start embrace the healthy diet and function based workouts and you will feel amazing (on the days that you can actually move) lol!

[@joeblow9927]

@@espada9 u get to roll with young girls too

[@arturdurbanov7426]

I agree with Kit on the point of learning the formula over learning an answer to every equation. And in my training the most progress I’ve had was when a guiding principle of the position as a whole was explained to me and cue are explained to develop habits. For example I struggled with the half guard for a long time until a simple cue was explained to me that allowed me to focus on watching only that cue and let my habit part of the brain do the rest. However, where I disagree is the part about drilling, because I think this is a good way to develop habits to respond to a cue when you see it without thinking about. Anyway, met Kit several times over the years during the tournament and he’s an awesome guy and definitely and phenomenal thing to happen to Australian bjj.

[@DaveLowenstein]

Man, that microphone is really in focus :)

[@kitwarchilddale]

Dave Lowenstein lmaoooooo fuck

[@JustinColletti]

Dave Lowenstein It’s also pointing 90 degrees in the wrong direction. You live you learn. Good content though.

[@Blackmage4001]

I am very fortunate that the dojo I practice at has early morning classes, which means I can practice 5 times a week at a minimum by only having to start my day earlier.

[@anthonyfouesnant9112]

You said you would start a podcast after the unknown strength project podcast which was amazing and I'm still listening again time to time and now you are doing your own podcast that's amazing ! Thanks for thinking outside the box relating to the martial art that we loves ! Take care and wish you the best in this new podcast project!

[@kitwarchilddale]

anthony FOUESNANT yes! Thank you! This is the start of it! I’m going to start doing interviews with people too

[@jonathanappiah9745]

@@kitwarchilddale what's your podcast called please?I would like to subscribe.

[@haroutdemirjian8831]

Full time job, 6 days a week bjj 2x a day plus bodybuilding/powerlifting 7 days a week before practice. It’s not easy nor do I enjoy it but it’s a must if I want to succeed. Plus for those struggling, everyone starts from the bottom all you have to do is keep training and one day your hard work will pay off guys don’t give up.

[@kitwarchilddale]

Harout Demirjian well said champ

[@haroutdemirjian8831]

Kit Dale thank you sir! 🙌🏻🙏🏼🥋

[@mritorto1]

what full time do you have that you can train twice a day

[@haroutdemirjian8831]

Marc Ritorto overnight security/bodyguard ig

[@mritorto1]

Ok not a normal office job like the avg guy. Thats why

[@Jenjak]

You can replace the word "BJJ" by anything.

[@archilzhvania6242]

Let's change "BJJ" by "BJ"

[@Jenjak]

@@archilzhvania6242 Noooooo xD

[@BFerreira82]

Little 10 year old Joey, laughing at you in a TKD gym.

[@amybella9714]

the world needs more people like you .. you kick ass , take no bs, dont give a 💩what people say/think, unbelievably smart , and you share your knowledge from your experiences to help others! ♥️🙌🏼 who knew u were such a big deal huh? haha now i see why you have such a big following! well deserved

[@kitwarchilddale]

Amy Bella thank you so much for the kind words! That’s really sweet of you!!!!

[@amybella9714]

Kit Dale youre welcome, anytime! i have no clue about BJJ at alllll but hearing yout talk about this stuff is really interesting

[@SundarBJJ]

Amy Bella tryna get her swerve on.... 😎😀

[@amybella9714]

SundarBJJ 😂not even

[@amybella9714]

SundarBJJ I feel like I wish i never wrote my comment now 😂😂

[@nilss5036]

Nice video Kit. I really like your approach to learning BJJ. Thanks! Osssss

[@TheIrishKiwi84]

Good on ya with the podcast brother you’ll do really well and you’re an interesting bloke !! Observation : you’re gonna need a chiropractor if you keep that posture .

[@jonathanchristian9696]

Great video mate

[@kitwarchilddale]

Satori Awakening thank you

[@aplacetobewithmythoughts7428]

It’s a business Kit. If you have out a black belt every 4 years the students would start their own school

[@bighands69]

In judo it can take from 2 to 4 years to earn a black belt. It would depend on skill and commitment as well.

[@kingsout10]

@BigErn_Mccraken BJJ derived many of its submissions from judo, it has submissions

[@M3Lucky]

@BigErn_Mccraken lmao you know nothing about judo. Judo has throws, chokes, groundwork, pins and submissions. It's actually more of a comprehensive grappling martial art than BJJ. As the person above me said, BJJ came from Judo. The Gracies sucked at Judo throws so only focused on the ground. Also a black belt in Judo is not considered as the same level of mastery as a black belt in BJJ.

[@aplacetobewithmythoughts7428]

M3Lucky If Judo is so effective, where are all the judo MMA fighters. There’s literally only a handful, yet EVERY MMA fighter on earth trains BJJ. BJJ is the greatest art once the fight goes to the ground. Judo is not the most effective martial art in taking people down/not being taken down, which is what it promotes it does. I’m not trying to disrespect judo... but most high level judokas that come into train bjj just tense up and try to hold on on the ground without showing any movement/offence. It’s waaaay to reliant on a tug of war / grips and you can be really good at judo just by being incredibly strong.

[@bighands69]

@BigErn_Mccraken Most BJJ does not award match winning points for takedowns so it means there is no emphasis on the sport for stand up. Wrestling and Judo both have an emphasis on stand up and take down. Judo does have ground work and submissions only more limited than BJJ. BJJ competitors are not going to do that well from a standing position against a wrestler or Judo competitor. BJJ is more effective the ground but its problem is if a wrestler was to get the dominant position by gaining the control of the take down it means trouble for the BJJ competitor.

[@Nabil1976]

Ihave learned lots from you just watching . Thank you sir. :-)

[@GOLDINARMS]

Model vs system

[@oreocarlton3343]

Its stimuli-reaction vs concept learning

[@tattoodrdoke]

I like your philosophy on learning. My question is how does this approach work for the slow learner, unathletic or uncreative. I have to agree learning because a coach said so is kinda boring. I like the creative space of live sparing is that is the time I'm at my most creative.

[@kaikkimoi]

my thoughts exactly, in my gym our "professor" had this same philosophy, that you dont need to drill just roll, and we had people who had been training 2-4 years and were complete shit, could no sweep anyone or pass guard even if their life depended on it, but then when we started to be dictators about the basics, basic passing, sweeping, submissions and controls etc were drilled in every practice, the level of the average trainee went up in a matter of months. I believe that you have to use your own creativity and brains in jiujitsu, but some people just simply dont have creative mind and eye for all the concepts. I'd say Kits philosophy is very good for purple belts and above, but white and blue (real beginners) it's not the best way to get everyone in a good start!

[@tattoodrdoke]

@@kaikkimoi our team has fundemental classes which all new people and white belts are encouraged to attend. They teach the fundemental of BJJ and this normally gives a very good foundation. There will be first learners who will progress quickly so they will move into the advanced class. When i started there were fundemental classes. You learned as you a mixed belt group and that was that. I do think kids philosophy will work for people who dont struggle to learn.

[@kitwarchilddale]

I’m going to write three replies for the three different questions. First tattoodroke, for the type of person you’re talking about, they would definitely require some sort of extra tutoring. Some students will get it straight away. Some will need to be helped a lot more. And this shouldn’t be an issue for a coach. The problem now is that almost all schools teach as if everyone was creatively retarded. And that’s not at all the case.

[@kitwarchilddale]

kaikkimoi I can’t imagine your teacher was teaching at all like me. I don’t just leave people to free roll lol. Or you would probably end up like those students in your example. My class is split into four sections, separated by Q&A’s. The first is the explanation phase. Where I talk about the position or movement we are going to work on. Then the experiment phase, where students experiment using my concepts or principles that I just taught. I heavily encourage the students to use my concepts but come up with their own application. Then the 3rd phase is the implementation phase. Where I create a specific training revolving around the newly looked at concepts. This allows the student a safe and encouraging exercise that allows them to practice what they have been experimenting with. Then the last is rounds of sparring for the students to work on what ever it is they want to.

[@kitwarchilddale]

tattoodrdoke I’m interested in your interpretation of fundamentals? As mine differ to most. Most view fundamentals as techniques, which is a fallacy. Techniques always change and none are fool proof! The only fool proof aspects of jiu jitsu are the principles. (Body mechanics, leverage) and concepts. All techniques are merely possible answers. That’s all

[@theman2017inc]

Got your black belt in 5 years rather 10 or 15?.. MUCH RESPECT sir 🙏🏾

[@mahdi977]

you can't plan in bjj because of the injuries I was so ambitious then outta nowhere I hurt my knee and now I am on and off training, but before the injury I was training 5 days a week

[@harageilucid4352]

I dont really understand what this meansvto learn through trial and error instead of learning by practicing the techniques you coach shows you. If intuition were better than training then there would be no point in training. Im not arguing here, im sure there is a valid point in whats been said i just dont get what it is. He mentions an “algorithm” for passing the guard.... what does that mean, exactly? If i lock a total beginner in my guard without teachig him the techniques to be safe and to break out, it could take months before he even learns enough to give me a hard time.

[@mmcd8596]

Haragei Lucid Even if you teach that beginner those techniques, they’re not always going to work, because you know a counter to those moves. So, maybe next time they pass your guard, they’re going to be alert for the the sweep/counter that you got them previously.

[@kitwarchilddale]

Haragei Lucid hi! Ok, first of all I would give people a lot more credit than that. It would not take anyone who does not have a learning disability long to figure out ways of opening the guard. You could for sure help him by giving him some principles on opening the guard or concepts. But to teach him techniques may help him in the short run but stunt him in the long run. As instead of relying on creativity and his own experience. He is relying on a technique that he imbedded into his muscle memory. Techniques can be countered easily! But knowing a concept of how to open guard allows you the ability to be more flexible with your application. Meaning you can discover multiple ways to open a guard rather than what techniques you have learned! When you teach someone a technique, it’s like showing them the cover of a book. When they discover one it’s like they wrote the book.

[@harageilucid4352]

I see what youre saying now. You do seem to have an innovative approach to teaching. I hope i can stop by your gym some day. Thanks for the reply!

[@unKnownExperiencer]

I think you could boil it down to how he says it's more important to know WHY you're doing what you're doing instead of learning ways HOW to do it. So rather than saying okay here's being in someone's guard, and we're going to work on 3 or 4 techniques for getting out of it - you might also teach the mechanics and physiology behind what you're doing. Once you really understand that, you can apply it to a wider array of intuitive techniques to get into a better position. Movement is after all an intuitive process.

[@kitwarchilddale]

Hunter Woltz j👌🏻👌🏻

[@tededo]

Another huge issue among the students who are, indeed as you observe, slow learners of the art: the rough and tough rite of passage to learn by getting smashed by better guys. Rener Gracie the lost of about 10 000 students in about a decade or so, thats bad for any buisness of this kind, especially when he noticed why ? New comers cant learn under high intense pressure, and this has been proven to be the worst way to learn, cause under maximum level of volume, no one can learn well, its like asking an amateur weightlifter to train his barbell snatch before the O games, by warming up with 150 kilo barbells, He'll break his body, injure himself, and mentally be defeated, but thats what BJJ instructors do. This year, I made progress at a pace that outclasse my last decade in grappling. Our new instructor imposes us to first train with lower belts, then intermed students, and later when possible with upperbelts. That way our body and mind has time to acclimate and recognize patterns so necessary to the evolution of our game. If I'd know this instructor a decade ago, I would have been a black belt by now, undeniably.

[@uahoeandabeeetch]

Wow this dude unknowingly predicted rise of ecological jiujitsu. Props!

What is a conservative cost of lessons from White to Black belt - only tuition alone, not including seminars, patches, et cetera ?

[@kitwarchilddale]

FujianXiamen Guo as in general? Everyone charges differently man

[@armandocepeda7533]

14k

[@GnomeMet]

Where can we listen to your podcast?

[@libbymccartney3848]

Nice kit

[@konstantinos-antoniosbme-m6472]

Brother, brother in God and Bjj, that you are talking about is my biggest problem! I am 202 m and 137 kg...and I lost 10 f@cking years in bullshits of other semilearned senseis... I have to start over in order to learn and doing things right. Right to me, to be useful to me, and have a logical path!

[@chrisbarnhart3143]

This makes sense but how do I find a bjj school that trains that way? I just started bjj and I'm finding myself saying/asking 'that's awesome but why did I do that?'

[@brandonkain9231]

Kit....so wouldnt this be sequence training that you are referring too..when u brought up the math it made me think sequence..

[@kitwarchilddale]

Brandon Kain I’m not following! Can you elaborate?

[@JFLOJUDO]

That’s not how the SM7B should be positioned

[@kitwarchilddale]

J. Flo Video Productions rookie error! Someone told me since this video! Now the podcast sound is much better

[@TwinEspi]

I liked the video and commentary. Big fan here. I earned my blue approximately 2 years ago. I train 2-3 days a week. I recently switched schools due to moving from the Midwest and now I’m on the east coast. I competed 4 times last year. 4 times this year. Grappling industries 4 times and IBJJF once and few local tournaments. I’ sprained my knee at an open mat at my club here in Virginia almost 3 weeks ago. So no training since. My question is how good am I and how can I tell? I racked up 4 golds, silver, and 3 bronze in these last 2 years and I feel like training in the gi maybe stunting my growth because I don’t really train leg locks and hardly ever attend no gi class. Lets say I buy your online material and drill and train like mad. Will my new instructor notice and promote me sooner than later or should I focus on getting better quicker with your advice?

[@kitwarchilddale]

Angelo Espinal my methods of training are a little different! For example you won’t get techniques to drill! What I’ll do is teach you how to change the way you look at jiu jitsu. And understand it on a whole new level. Move away from it being a dance routine and more into an expression of yourself. Where you use problem solving and innovation to build a wealth of knowledge! If that’s what interests you then you should check out the art of learning jiu jitsu at www.kitdaletraining.com

[@ArmanKaliev]

What is trylo neuro??

[@kitwarchilddale]

Arman Kaliev I’m sorry I’m not following

[@leinilyu]

Kit, you could be an outlier and a special case. The question is: are you able to replicate your experience and produce multiple blackbelts and world class competitors in under 4 years?

[@kitwarchilddale]

Leinil Francis Yu easily

[@mritorto1]

5x a week is still alot

[@kitwarchilddale]

Marc Ritorto i say at most! And that’s not a lot in proffesional terms

[@Styxorcist]

I think I get what you mean but your articulation may just be weird. Learning through trial and error is a long winded approach as well but per the same example you gave, if you have a teacher that gives you the formula, you can use that to actively solve whatever problem you have to address. That is what I think you mean by trial and error. I may be wrong about that interpretation but maybe you could inform me better.

[@kitwarchilddale]

Imperial X your question is a little hard to follow. Can you re word that?

[@kyleg4d]

Hi Kit, I like your approach to learning, but as you know, most academy's would be run the same way, ie. warm up, drilling, sparring. Can't we still find value in learning the techniques while drilling them if we are focusing on the underlying principles and concepts that make each technique work?

[@kitwarchilddale]

Kyle G yes! But in my opinion you don’t want to pre-shape techniques. You want the movement to be organic! Drilling would take away from that and make it pre shaped making you predictable!

[@sjeffiesjeff]

This analogy would make a lot more sense if math also relied on muscle memory and was time constrained to the extreme degree BJJ sparring/competition is.

[@kitwarchilddale]

Frenk van Vlissingen math does! You have a short period of time to work out equations. The quicker you are at running the formulas the better you will do.

[@kenwu7]

My math teacher only gives me 6 minutes per equation, and i get points for working towards finishing my work. on exam day i only need to finish, no points for work shown. 😉

[@kungfujoe2136]

how come wresteling is still better than bjj?

[@kitwarchilddale]

kungfujoe more enjoyable

[@kungfujoe2136]

@@kitwarchilddale did you come from wrestling? (in europ judo the biggest grapling art done a little of that and i love trowing ppl)

[@kitwarchilddale]

kungfujoe no! I started wrestling a couple years ago and I love it

[@Brascobadboy]

Nice

[@andrewrai5752]

This is exact problem I have with BJJ teachers, put your leg here, put your arm here etc etc

[@kitwarchilddale]

Andrew Rai yep

[@humble_integrity]

that's actually not true. just because you have a formula, doesn't mean you can work out all the equations. some problems are very tough and require a leap in logic or creative thinking to arrive at an answer. in fact some problems have meaningless solutions whereas others have no solutions. I don't know how true this is with regards to jiu jitsu but math does have a very strange side to it which is rarely discussed.

[@DJRUBOSS]

Simple answer to this one. It takes so long to be a blackbelt because most gyms are full of meatheads and thugs (even the coach sometimes may be included in this category), who go all blast on each other (especially against lighter guys). The result of this is that people get injured and tired. Rolling should not be the most important thing at a gym.

[@kitwarchilddale]

Bodhi N hmmm I don’t know if I agree with you on this! I’ve trained all around the world. And jiu jitsu is definitely not a thuggish sport! Maybe 2% of the people I’ve rolled with would fit that category. You may have jiu found a very bad spot to train. In saying that, free rolling is very important! In saying that there is a difference between competition rounds, and just Norway ones. But I don’t suggest people roll to lose. But also not roll like it’s the mundials

[@Brascobadboy]

That’s incorrect

[@IrvinLep]

Great principles, but in practice the way we learn is mostly out of our hands unless we find an instructor that uses trial and error. Plus there is a tradition of being hyper conservatives in belt promotions in jiu jitsu, and again it's not up to you. The fastest system in a regular gym would probably be to take as much privates as possible and ask the instructor to give you little hints on the right path out of a situation instead of teaching the whole technique

[@kitwarchilddale]

Rippiripper it is a tough situation! But you can do what I did! Just humour coaches. Don’t be disrespectful. But go back to what you were doing in the first place! As for belts. Well that’s not really the focus. It’s progression that I want. Not belts. Belts are just a bonus

[@sandsmine]

gradings in judo and bjj are a double edged sword. in bjj its subjective on the teachers part. and being there is no curriculum the grade does not transfer in other bjj schools. in judo, judo players promote themselves, some theory but the most part winning a set amount of fights at a grading. the down side of this players can strength their way through the belts without much technique or understanding. in bjj its how good a player is at picking up and retaining corrioggraphy. like a dancer who can watch a routine once and then perform the dance. not as easy as its sounds

[@noeno17]

Full-time job? What full-time job do you have, Kitten Dale??

[@JosueHernandez-nj9bc]

Male model

[@joeblow9927]

In some other video I'm sure dis guy said he never had full time job

[@successfulinternetpsycholo7685]

I dont understand this. Trial and error means practice i.e. rolling / sparring etc. It is normal in every field to first learn the theory and then try to do the stuff practically. This is the tried and tested proven method of developing your skillset in any field. Now if you never read the theory and just went through it via trial and error you will eventually find a way but this process will be slow (because you are discarding the knowledge accumulated over many many years by people that should give you a head start) and there is definitely a danger that you will develop bad habits and technique which might become impossible to undo. The theory is to teach you the correct technique it is not the be all or end all and might not work for all but works for most.

[@kitwarchilddale]

Successful Internet Psychologist I think you are confusing what I said with something else! What I do is teach the “theory” but that is far different from teaching the “technique” I give my students a formula for what they’re trying to achieve. So that they can use trial and error along with the formula to develop their own techniques. Which is harder at the start! But eventuates in the student having a large amount of theoretical knowledge through their own experience!

[@successfulinternetpsycholo7685]

@@kitwarchilddale Sorry for confusing things. Can you give me an example or do you have any videos where you demonstrate this. What I am keen to understand is what the formula is and how you apply it. Is this universal i.e. some fundamentals on top of which they build their techniques based on their physical and mental attributes or can the formula itself be different from student to student and this is something you work out with your students? Really keen to understand this. By the way I 100% agree with your general point i.e. the structure in a typical bjj class is not really that good. It's warm ups, drills with a bit of theory and then just sparring. The drills we do are just repetitions i.e. low resistance. We find that in sparring if we try the drill it never works for us. What I think there should be more of are full intensity situational based drills e.g. start from side control. Guy at the top is practicing technique to maintain side control and the guy at the bottom is practicing different techniques of getting out of side control. If he gets out you start again and after x amount of time doing that the guys switch. You could do this with any number of positions. I personally find this very, very focused and useful but we rarely ever do it.

[@kitwarchilddale]

Successful Internet Psychologist watch my video on how to structure a jiu jitsu class! I speak about all of this! I think you will enjoy it

[@successfulinternetpsycholo7685]

@@kitwarchilddale Just saw it :). It is exactly what I was looking for and much more. It makes complete sense to me. Problem is in my situation (where it is a typical bjj school setup) how I follow this approach. I guess when I spar I put myself in the positions I want to focus on and then via trial and error find counters to them that would be effective. Or I do sessions outside of the classes.

[@kitwarchilddale]

Successful Internet Psychologist yes! I will also do a video about this for you!

[@Romios_]

most of them theygive it for emotional reasons...or they like or dislike someone...i ve seen maaanyy people with skills and knowledge and the jealous teacher doesnt give it! Also seen maaany nobodys who dont have skills and knowledge and get it........Maybe in your case they respected your effort

[@kitwarchilddale]

Ρωμηός i won worlds blue, then purple, then silver at brown! That’s why I was graded

[@jesusthroughmary]

"only 5 times a week"

[@ananda_miaoyin]

Why the hell are you sitting like that? I thought you were going to sing to me! It is my birthday, after all. Jui jitsu is dynamic. The boss will give you the belt when you are ready...and after you rep it a thousand times and then some. Seriously though, you are a singer. I can tell. Sweep him and mount him, then hit that C5, tenor brother! Don´t deny your true calling.

[@kitwarchilddale]

Ananda Mañana lolol

[@fatboySRK]

The answer it easy; because it's Hard.

[@paulbot8565]

"only training 5 times a week" bruh

[@kitwarchilddale]

more like 2 times these days

[@marlonscloud]

Beeeepp

[@IdontspeakBro.]

Why can’t I learn to leave my abusive girlfriend who gives me 2 black eyes every second week.

[@oldmillennial6872]

Because we can't al be BJ Penn. That's why.

[@mpforeverunlimited]

Bj penn isnt special, he trained twice a day for three years. If anyone does that then they'll be a blackbelt quickly.