The Valley

BJJ is cyclical. There are times when you don’t feel like you’re doing anything right. That you’re not improving and that everything is harder than it should be. That’s a valley. Valleys in Jiu-Jitsu are common and important. It’s part of how you build perseverance, and as I’ve said before perseverance is key to grappling success. Usually the end of a Jiu Jitsu valley or plateau seems like an incredible ascent, but just like launching a rocket into space, there’s years of minute details and work for the sixty seconds shown on television. That valley lays the groundwork for better technical understanding. I had a somewhat long weird journey to BJJ black belt with a bunch of plateaus. If you want to join that deceptively small group, it will eventually come down to how stubborn you are and whether you can walk out the door day in and day out and head to the gym until you’re out of that funk. That’s what separates the people who make it to black belt from the people who stop at blue, and it is also something that you can take into the real world.