5 Lessons You Should Have Learned at White Belt

Processing my white belt trauma.

2016 NAGA Oregon White Belt Champion — Not my proudest title, but my first 😅

White belt was the hardest belt to have.

I came into Jiu-Jitsu with the ego of an untested 17-year-old from the suburbs. I had a hunger to be “the best” (I didn’t know what that meant), and a misplaced sense of competitive angst because someone jokingly told me on my first day of training that I could fight in the UFC.

I didn’t know they were joking. I just wanted to be good and I just wanted to scrap.

It’s been a long journey from “white-belt-who-wanted-to-face-punch” to where I am now — studying “ecological dynamics” so I can learn to coach better and trying to invent leg locks on the side.

I also didn’t learn everything the right way at white belt.

I got my black belt from a great coach, but I got my blue belt elsewhere. I bounced around a lot. I didn’t really do Jiu-Jitsu the way most people do it.

I was pretty much all-in from the start, trying to be as competitive as possible.

Today, we’re talking about 5 lessons that most people should have learned at white belt — but rarely do.