What Does It Mean to Be a Black Belt?
We have reached the final installment of this series: the black belt. The black belt carries a lot of weight for many reasons, some more obvious than others. In the obvious camp, you have the fact that it takes a lot of time and effort to attain the status of black belt. Therefore, people should not take this achievement lightly. It is an indication of your diligence, your commitment, and your tenacity. From the perspective of skill, being a black belt means that you have a certain level of mastery over the fundamentals of jiu-jitsu. Some might even say that black belts are expert at jiu-jitsu, though many black belts may personally be too humble to make that claim.
The less obvious answers that Rick Ellis of The Art of Skill explores in the above video are a bit more subjective. While Rick is clear that he can’t speak for all black belts, and that he’s expressing a personal opinion, he explains that being a black belt means that you have developed grit and that you have fully developed a special kind of awareness known as proprioception.
What Is Grit?
Football fans may hear this word and think of Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions, largely because Campbell has made “grit” the team’s defining characteristic. However, grit is not just reserved for football players. Grit is something that is developed after experiencing failure and defeat. It’s the ability to get up after being knocked down again and again until you’ve accomplished what you set out to accomplish.
There are synonyms for grit that have been used throughout this series: tenacity, dedication, and determination. However, grit is an unbreakable spirit, and every black belt should have that because they have spent at least a decade working tirelessly on their jiu-jitsu, even though it has often meant getting their ego ripped to shreds. It is not just physically exhausting. Jiu-jitsu is emotionally and intellectually exhausting. To persevere despite these challenges and to be able to defer gratification for months or years as you work towards a goal takes grit.
If you’re a black belt, you may not be unbeatable, but you have an unbreakable spirit.
Full Awareness
Rick also notes that black belts should have physical mastery over their bodies. If you are a black belt, you should be able to move fluidly and precisely. You should have excellent balance. You should also have developed a high degree of isometric strength, which is the ability to hold a static position for a long period of time.
Additionally, black belts should feel extremely comfortable in their body and have a heightened sense of proprioception. Proprioception refers to your ability to sense your body’s position and movements in space. Having this heightened sense means that you not only can sense each limb without seeing it, but that you know exactly what it is doing, its vulnerabilities, and its potential defensive or offensive value at any given time during a fight. This developed sense of awareness comes from years of training and allows for quicker and more exact movements that elude lower belts.
Efficiency Is the Focus of Black Belt
Once you get to the level of black belt, your jiu-jitsu journey is not over. In fact, many people will say that becoming a black belt is when you gain a full appreciation of just how vast jiu-jitsu really is as a martial art. However, that vastness is often contained within extremely minute movements and subtle adjustments to technique. As small as these modifications may seem, they are the key to making your jiu-jitsu more efficient and allowing you to maintain your level of efficacy while minimizing effort.
For Rick, efficiency really defines the black belt. By the time you become a black belt, the process of refinement should be extremely specific and targeted, and you should be looking to shave off impurities and to fill progressively smaller holes in your game. As is so common with expertise, the more you improve, the more you realize how much there is to know and how much more you need to improve to feel as though you’ve perfected your technique. This effort to achieve perfection through the idealized marriage of efficiency and effectiveness is what the black belt can spend a lifetime trying to achieve.
The Responsibility of the Black Belt
Some black belts recognize that they can take an active role in mentoring lighter belts, and many black belts also go on to become instructors. Then again, many black belts are content to focus on improving their game and have no interest in being a leader.
As Rick notes, this isn’t always a choice for black belts. The darker your belt gets, the more other people in the gym will look up to you. This is especially true for black belts. In addition to noticing you and admiring your work ethic or your style, they will also observe how you overcome challenges. They’ll pay attention to how you conduct yourself when you defeat an opponent or you get tapped.
Even if you decide not to mentor anyone or to teach a class, you will be an inspiration to others in your gym, which means you will influence the behavior of others with your actions. This is a shared responsibility among the instructor and the black belts within any given gym. They get to create the gym’s culture and to pass it along to the next generation of fighters.