Tips for Ranking Up

Academy promotions can happen at any time of the year. There’s nothing that dictates when they should occur. Indeed, promotions of single individuals within a jiu-jitsu academy can happen any time. Not everybody will be ready to rank up at the same time.

That being said, there has been a trend toward academies holding organized promotions twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter. As we come into one of the major promotion seasons, you’ll see many of your friends – and, hey, your foes too – ranking up.  

So we thought now would be a good time to give some advice on how to stay on track as far as ranking up goes.

Get. On. The. Mat

There’s really no trick or secret tip to ranking up in jiu-jitsu. Well… unless you’re unlucky enough find yourself at a McDojo, in which case there are probably plenty of ways to rank up without having to put in the work. For the rest of us, advancing in your jiu-jitsu journey is as simple – not easy, mind you – as just showing up.  

Get on the mat. Whether you’re feeling fantastic, or whether you feel like you just got ran over by a car (I said “like”… hopefully you know enough not to train if that is actually the case) or received a dressing down from your mom for forgetting Mother’s Day. You’re never going to feel one hundred percent, physically or mentally, every single day. And if you train only on those days that you feel good, you’re never going to get better. In fact, training on your bad days often teaches you the most, as you’ll find out pretty quickly what you need to work on.

That being said, know the limit between feeling “bad” and feeling “awful”. Don’t train when you’re injured, or when your mental state might put you at greater risk of injury. 

Be Proactive

Just doing class is going to get you there, sooner or later. But if you really want to develop your jiu-jitsu game a lot quicker, you must be proactive about your learning. Here are a few ways to do so:

• Keep a journal – It’s easy to forget what you had just learned in class. Hell, sometimes I forget what the first technique was before the class has even ended. Jotting down some notes will help you keep things “sticky” in your mind.
• Drill – It’s everyone’s most favorite activity (there’s a note of sarcasm in there, in case that wasn’t clear). But if you’re serious about getting better, find yourself a good training partner and schedule some drilling sessions each week. It’s amazing what 10 minutes here and there will do for your jiu-jitsu.
• Study – Gone are the days in which it was frowned upon to practice “something I saw online.” I’m sure some old-school fogies still frown upon it, but they’re also the ones who don’t know how to escape rubber guard. Take some time each week to watch some instructionals from a few of your favorite practitioners.  

Roll Up and Down

We all have a tendency to roll with the same people we roll with all the time. It’s a natural human behavior to tend toward the familiar. We know that person is a safe or an easy roll, and we remain in our comfort zone. That is fine… except when you do it too often.

As I like to tell my students: “growth doesn’t lie in comfort.” It is very important that you’re challenging yourself, often. But you also have to balance that with a good sprinkling of small successes. Which is why you need to roll up and down. Make sure some of your rolls are with a higher belt, or someone whose style or technique puts you on your toes. With that person, you’ll see where your weaknesses are and you’ll get practice escaping bad positions. But also make sure to roll with a few lower belts, too. With these lower belts, focus on executing your technique, and exploring the linkages between various techniques. This will allow you to develop greater confidence in your game and cleaner execution.

Forget About the Belt

The best advice I can give you – and anyone – is to simply forget about the belt. If you associate “ranking up” with a certain belt color, you’re focusing too much about the belt – and all the magical prestige you think it might bestow upon you – and not enough about the journey. 

Have your own vision for what “ranking up” means to you, and use that to guide whether you’re achieving your goals. For example, “I know I’ve reached the next level, when I can pass so-and-so’s guard” or “I managed to get through an entire round with so-and-so without feeling like I was running through mud.” Whatever those small successes are for you, focus on those, not on the belt.

Lastly, never ever, ever, ask about when you’ll get promoted. It’ll happen when it happens. If you’re asking, you’re definitely thinking more about some little scrap of fabric than you are about the journey and personal transformation.