What in the world does Brazilain Jiu-jitsu black belts have to do with baseball? Well, I will tell you.
People often remark about how self-effacing I am about my performance as a fighter. They say”but Cecil, you are a 3rd degree black belt in Brazilian Jiujitsu under a true legend of the art. You have to be uber successful when sparring!” Sure, I have some success, but I also have some crushing failures, and it is those failures that 1) keep me training, and 2) keep me humble.
When you do a fighting methodology that requires you to regularly get matched up against a resisting opponent with opposing will, malevolent intent, and freedom of action, some days you are going to lose. It is a fact of life. And even within what some people view as the highest level of fighting – i.e. black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, there is a hierarchy and sub-levels.
Fortunately belts still mean something in BJJ. Even with its popularity and a bit of watering down, the belts still are meaningful because you cannot hide from performance the way you can in almost all other martial arts or self-defense systems (“I can’t really spar because our art is too deadly” – yeah, sure it is fat man). You have to show you can go, cold and on demand.
Even still, I tell folks that there is a hierarchy with black belts, and the easiest way to understand it is like this. Think of jujitsu black belts as pro baseball players. They are all better than 98% of the population of the world in their ability to play the game, but they are not equal.
There are the minor leagues – A, AA, and AAA, then there are major leaguers, and then of the major leaguers, there are the All Stars. All are pros, but different.
Same as BJJ black belts. The equivalent of the single A and double A ball players are the black belts who are older, who have physical issues (whether from age or other causes), or who have not trained for years and years. For example, we had a student at my academy that got his black belt at 71. Jim was also a smaller and frailer person anyway. Can he roll at the same level as a 35 year old black belt? No way, but it does not take away from his knowledge and the time he has put in, and the fact that against his peer; he can roll at a high level. He is very much a legitimate black belt, but on a slightly separate plane.
Then you have the triple A belts. Guys who are not at the elite level, but can roll against the elite and at least make them work. Maybe, on a really, really great day, they may even catch the elite guy in something (probably not but we can dream!).
The major leaguers are obviously the black belts that are competing all the time, or the guys who are known throughout the community as tough guys to roll against. These are the current main high level players.
And the All Stars? Well, those are the legends and the truly greats and the current dominant competitors. The Roger Gracie’s, the Marcleo Garcias, the Gary Tonon’s , the Megaton Dias’ and the like are the ones that even people only slightly knowledgeable about BJJ tend to know. These are the ones, like a Babe Ruth or a Willie Mays, stand the test of time and leave a lasting mark on the art.
So where do I fit it? Well, I like to compare myself to Crash Davis, Kevin Costner’s character in the movie Bull Durham. He is an aging AAA player who almost made it in the big leagues but didn’t, and now he plays out his career in the minors. Bur while there, he is pretty decent and respected, and more importantly, he is a mentor to the up and coming young players who are destined to be far better than Crash ever was. He teaches them how to be better and more successful and even if he wishes he could have been more, he is fairly content to help the ones who come after. So the comparison for me is that I will contribute much more as a teacher, but when I roll with the major leaguers, I at least make them sweat a tiny bit before they thump me!
I hope this helps people to make sense of the levels of black belt. It is a great achievement (outside of being an okay husband and a better than mediocre Dad, it is my proudest one), and should be respected, but not all of us are walking death machines.