The Path to Blue Belt (a Jiu Jitsu Biography)

In an effort to document my training, I decided to chronicle my journey. As I recently received my blue belt, I thought this would be an appropriate time to log my progress.

Early Stages

I had been putting off training for awhile. It was something I wanted to do for years but never got around to actually starting. I remember my second year in college seeing some people rolling in the open room at the gym, but I never stopped to ask where they trained.

Nevertheless, when I graduated college in June ’06, I finally had a clear opportunity to start up. My cousin Mike came to my graduation dinner and mentioned how he was training a handful of people in a friend’s garage and asked me if I wanted to drop by.

I visited his condo soon after and did some ridiculously difficult workouts that I had never seen before. We were doing interval training that involved body weight exercises, resistance bands, sprints, and bear crawls on the scorching hot tennis court. I still remember how the skin of my palms was peeling off afterwards. The lesson- this was not going to be an easy task at all.

I was headed to Europe for a few weeks, but when I got back he invited me to move in with him and train.

Paulino’s Garage

I started training in early August ’06.

There was a steady group of about 10 people (all beginners minus a few) who were training in Mike Paulino’s garage. We put out mats and held formal class a few days a week. I was an avid watcher of MMA, but I had no idea how little I actually knew until I actually got on the mat.

The first few times, I got my ass kicked by everyone. I still remember when this guy David choked me out with the first cross choke I had seen. Right afterwards, we did a competition where we were split into teams (playground style with team captains), and I was picked last out of everyone!

After a few weeks, I picked up a whole lot of techniques and improved quite a bit. Mike was working with me outside of class and showing me specifics that definitely helped me put it together. I remember one class in particular when all of a sudden I was tapping this guy House (about 180lbs) out a few times in a row. It had never happened like that, but all of a sudden something clicked and I was going wild with armbars. Around that time, I figured out a little about open guard, which was the first step in the evolution of my current game.

I was having serious lifestyle changes. During the mornings (and sometimes nights) I would run around the canyon. After work I would be doing kettlebells or body weight exercises. I was feeling beat up all the time. My body wasn’t used to the stress of jiu jitsu, and training a few times a week took a huge toll on me. After a month or two of this regiment, I bulked up and added a lot of strength that helped the jiu jitsu. I also started eating clean and got obsessed with Muscle Milk.

For awhile, I was in a sort of “no man’s land,” having trouble finding people my level. I had surpassed the lower end beginners that came to train, but I was still below the athletic beasts like Rene and Roger. I was sort of stuck for awhile, messing around with the lesser skilled group and then getting my ass kicked by everyone else.

After awhile, I developed a decent triangle choke and also figured out how to control someone in my guard. This got me past the “stuck” point, but I still had a lot to work on.

One of the things that helped me get a solid foundation were the endless “movement drills” that were worked into class. Although I took it for granted at the time, learning how to move fluidly in jiu jitsu from the beginning was critical in my early development. When I watch new white belts nowadays, I see how awkward they can be and realize how important it was to do thousands of those drills.

One of the classes I vividly remember was when Jay had us do a “race to submission” drill. We had two minutes to tap someone out, and for each second left on the clock, the loser had to do X amount of pushups, situps, or squats. I wasn’t having that, so I decided that I was definitely going to tap out my opponent, Andre, as quickly as possible. I armdragged him right away and took his back with hooks, and sunk the RNC. It was deep and locked in tight, but he wasn’t tapping yet. After about ten seconds I put it on tighter and arched my back and felt his body go limp. I had choked him unconscious! I had never seen this before, so I was definitely freaked out. He was alright after ten minutes, though. Maybe a little dazed, but nothing serious. It was sort of his fault for not tapping, but it definitely took away my “killer instinct” for a few weeks, as I was absolutely afraid of hurting someone again.

I got to a point where I thought I was pretty good for just a few months of training. I ended up moving back home after about three months and had to find a new school.

Gracie Barra

I trained at Gracie Barra for a week and decided that I would like to make it my school. The atmosphere was a lot friendlier than the other school I visited, and the fact that they trained mainly gi was a definite plus. The class was run a lot more formally, and I appreciated the opportunity to continue my training.

The first thing that became very obvious to me was the difference in the set of moves that they were all using vs. what Mike had been teaching me in San Diego. Everyone kept doing this side control escape that involved throwing the legs over the head into an upside down guard, which I didn’t have experience with. My game was a lot looser and speed-based- with toriani passes, knee on stomach, etc. After awhile, I settled into the GB style that Ricardo was teaching while still retaining much of my original base.

Rolling with different people that actually had different styles was refreshing after rolling with the same 3 people every day. After awhile, you start to pick up peoples’ tendencies and figure out how to stop them. This isn’t necessarily bad, but I benefited from having a greater variety at a bigger school. I was catching people in moves that they hadn’t seen before, and vice versa.

I started to visualize jiu jitsu in my head during my spare time. Although this sounds strange, it helped me greatly during class. I would replay what happened in class and realize critical mistakes I made, and then later I’d come up with a solution in my head. Also, I’d sometimes “drill” moves in my head, nearly feeling how the move should feel and how it should be performed correctly. My concentration went up immensely, and I was improving more than ever.

One thing that greatly improved my game was the “guard drill,” where we would line up on the wall and drill from someone’s guard. On the bottom, your objective was to sweep or submit. If you were on the bottom and swept or submitted your opponent, you stayed in. On top, your objective was to pass. If you got your guard passed, you got replaced by the person who passed. This position and situation-specific training allowed me to focus on the most important aspect of BJJ- passing the guard and defending the guard. After some time with this, my guard jumped up a few notches.

After a few months at Gracie Barra, my defense got a lot better. I was still going down to San Diego maybe once or twice a month, and I felt like I was progressing steadily when I rolled with people with my new skills developed at GB. My cardio was getting ridiculous. I developed an attacking guard, a sort of “machine gun” rapid fire of successive attacks that was meant to eventually trap an opponent in a submission. This worked well at this level, but a few months later I had to revamp my game. However, it gave me an excellent base and allowed me to attack submissions from the guard with Bibiano Fernandes-like speed (my precision just had to be tuned).

One philosophical dilemma that I encountered was my focus on submissions over position and defense. Mike told me that I was on the path to becoming a good blue or purple belt, but veering off course of becoming a good black belt. What that meant was my game was too one-sided. I was focused on the flashy and ego-driven impulse to tap out as many people and as high-ranking people as possible. I had to change it up soon and start to work on my defense and positional dominance.

Pan Ams

The first tournament I entered in happened to be the largest of the year. I was definitely anxious about it- I prepared a written, detailed, step-by-step gameplan of what I would do in every situation. Needless to say, once I got on the mat and the adrenaline started pumping, it went out the window!

I entered into the wrong weight class (gave up 13lbs) and was clearly outmatched in the opening round. I mounted a successful offensive series that ended in a near-triangle choke, but my opponent escaped and passed my guard. After that, it was pretty much over, as I got outscored on points and wasn’t able to do much of anything once my guard was passed. This was a sobering defeat, but it exposed a critical flaw in my game- the need to develop my guard passing defense as well as my side control escapes. Also, the ability to register in the correct weight class next time. lol.

The game became bigger than just GB. It was no longer just me against the handful of people that I got matched up against during practice- I had to consider myself in the larger game of Jiu Jitsu as a whole.

Right after Pan Ams, I trained harder than ever. I was in class up to three times a day- almost as many times as my instructor! I was refocused and recharged- doing outside conditioning, working hard in class, and beginning to work on my mental gameplan even more.

Undisputed Training

I visited the Undisputed training center to roll with Mike, and got a chance to also roll with Baret Yoshida. I had never rolled with a black belt that was close to my size, as my coach Ricardo has a completely different game that is adapted to his body and physical attributes.

Needless to say, I was blown away by the possibilities that were opened up to me while rolling with Baret. I got my back taken in so many ways, it was ridiculous. I remember getting swept over and getting my back taken and having a lightbulb click in my head as I was getting my ass kicked, thinking “wooooow, I didn’t even know that was possible.”

After this, I started working on attacking the back, and developed a new game based off of attacking the turtle position. I got pretty good at attacking the back, and it became my main strategy when rolling – as I could actually dominate someone that was larger and stronger than me with minimal effort.

I also started to seriously work on X-Guard, and learned a few entries and sweeps that would become part of my normal repertoire.

Best of the West

My second tournament went a lot better than Pan Ams. I won my first tournament match with a pretty nice arm bar from the guard, but then lost my second match on points.

In retrospect, I could have won if I had been paying attention to the point system, but I was hellbent on getting a submission victory and was unable to secure it before time expired. Definitely a good experience, though.

One thing that I did notice was how strong I felt compared to people my same size, as I am used to being outweighed by at least 20-30 lbs (often a whole lot more).


After the tournament, rolling at GB was like nothing. The intensity level was night and day, and I felt like everyone else was a lot more manageable.

Mundials

I had a few months until Mundials in August, but I ultimately didn’t end up competing. Nonetheless, I was training like a maniac during the summer- back to the grind of a few times a day (with outside conditioning as well). I was swimming, doing endless repetitions of body weight exercises, and doing everything I could to get myself in top shape. One thing that I kept telling myself was that if I was training with the intention of becoming world champion, I would become a beast regardless of what happened.

I hit the mats HARD and refined my game as much as possible. I returned to SD to train and refreshed myself on the fundamentals and continued to work on those things at GB. I started working on standup, as that was something that I hadn’t gotten too much experience with until this point. My game jumped up a couple notches. My open guard was becoming very formidable.

Grappling Gameplan, the blog, the videos

Post-Mundials, my schedule changed and I wouldn’t be able to train as much. I had to compensate by working on other areas of my game. I started listening to Lloyd Irvin’s Grappling Gameplan on the car ride to class, and it inspired me to start keeping tabs on my training a lot more comprehensively. By developing my mental game, I am able to gain a significant advantage over those who take it for granted or neglect it altogether.

I started blogging again after every class (intheguard.blogspot.com), and it allowed me to focus on specific areas of my game that I wanted to work on. I evaluated how each session went, and ruminated on what I needed to fix. I must say that this exercise has helped me improve more than anything before. Attending class every day for weeks can become one continuous blur, but by keeping track of everything explicitly, I am now able to break it down into the most important details and help myself to zone in on my development.

I also started watching video of BJJ events- looking at players like Jacare, Leo Vieira, Marcelo Garcia, and a handful of others with styles or aspects of their game that I try to emulate. This has also helped me immensely, as I am able to recognize specific situations during matches and figure out how the world champions react- rewinding and rewatching until it fully sinks in. It also puts BJJ in a different context- I am able to step back and see the larger picture and put it together in a way that I wasn’t able to before.

I feel like I’ve improved in the past month more than I’ve improved in the past 6 months due to my renewed focus. I feel like the game is expanding so much more, and my understanding of it is actually getting a lot better.

Blue
I rolled with Mike at UCSD a week or two before I got my blue belt, and I felt like a completely different person on the mat. While I’m nowhere near his level, I was at least able to defend myself and try to mount an offense instead of getting smashed and destroyed like it always had been.

Now that I’m a blue belt, I feel like I’m sort of starting over in a lot of ways. I have come quite a long way from the days in the garage, but I still have so far to go. It’s been the most rewarding experience of my life, and I hope to continue to train for many years to come.

Time to get back on the mats!

Extra special thanks-
Mike Cusi, Ricardo Guimaraes, the original BJJ crew at Paulino’s, and my GB training partners.