The color ranking system in BJJ was set to chart the path of progress for practitioners. It’s not meant to be an end in and of itself. Each color has its own merits and responsibilities. But among all the belts, the purple belt stands out as a major milestone in your BJJ journey.
Purple is the color of coming into your own as a BJJ player. It’s the coming of age for everyone serious about their practice. You start to develop your sense of identity and style. This is the time when it all starts to make sense and instead of following instructions blindly, you begin to develop your own style.
So how does your path to the purple belt look like? And what do you need to work on as a purple belt? This article answers these and other questions.
Getting to Purple
You come to purple from blue. Your years wearing the blue belt have been spent learning about the basics of BJJ. You now know the main positions by heart. You’re familiar with a few variations to some of these basic techniques. And you have seen and been part to more than a few competitions.
Of course, getting to purple hasn’t been easy. Not only did you need to detect the patterns, but also connect the movements and know which technique can get you in trouble if you don’t pay attention to the opponent’s intentions. It’s more of anticipating their moves and acting accordingly. That’s when a blue belt starts to get into the mentality of a purple belt.
You also lose some of your tendency to be overly aggressive on the mat. You learn that BJJ at its heart is a self-defense discipline not one meant to be cracking skulls and crushing bones. So you develop the habit of watching and opponent and countering their moves. With practice it becomes automatic.
When you see the connections and patterns that signifies a shift in your thinking and development. You’re no longer looking at the positions in isolation. You can see the patterns and get insights, albeit insignificant ones at this stage, into the techniques. This budding conceptual thinking is what sets you up to be promoted.
Your teacher notices these improvements and they consider you for promotion. It’s when you show initiative learning about combos and set ups that finally awards you the coveted purple belt.
Coming into your Own
Purple means moving horizontally and vertically at varying speeds and paces. By horizontally I mean you’re covering a lot of ground in the technique department. It’s fair to say that the time you spend wearing purple will be used to learn about all the techniques that you’ll be using by the time you earn your black belt.
You don’t limit yourself to just a few guards or positions that you have mastered. You get the urge to get out of your comfort zone and explore other positions that you haven’t considered so far. If for example you have found the butterfly guard not to your liking, you decide to give it another try. If the top positions used to give you a shudder, being a purple belt means you put away your fears and experiment with them.
And then there’s the vertical dive. You expand your horizons and learn to focus on movement. The transition between moves is just as important as getting the technique right. The fluid movement is what sets a mature player from a novice. And the player learns a lot sparring against blue and even white belts. It’s no longer about the outcome, but honing the skills and mastering each move and technique.
As a blue belt, you learned to connect moves and create a combo. Now you learn to pay attention to your rhythm. This is harder than many people think and the best way to learn it is to work with inexperienced students. That’s right. Being a purple belt means you take your first steps in the vast world of teaching other students.
Teaching as a Way to Learn
The best way to separate facts from fiction about a topic is to explain it to someone who doesn’t know anything about it. Assuming the role of a teacher or a mentor is a great responsibility. But its rewards for the teacher are immense. This is why purple belts are encouraged to become teachers. It’s an opportunity to look at the other side of the equation.
Naturally it’s not an easy step to switch roles and start flanking questions from curious beginners and answering with authority. It’s not a role for everyone. And many purple belts balk when they think about it. But it’s an important part of their journey and every player is encouraged to take part.
When you teach a technique or a move, and you watch a beginner get it wrong so many times, it dawns on you that moves are not separate. On their own they don’t lead to much. The real power of the move is in connection to what led to it and what comes after. Every move is like a single link in a chain. And if a chain is as strong as its weakest link, your technique is only as good as the worst move.
Teaching also is the gateway to great insights. Your brain shifts from a receptive mode to assuming a more proactive role where you examine and analyze rather than accept information as it is. This important step is necessary if you are to find your own identity in BJJ. This is the time when it all starts to make sense and you get an idea of what it means to be a BJJ practitioner. It’s not just a few techniques you learn, it’s way more than that.
More Competitions
If teaching beginners isn’t just your cup of tea, then try sparring with white belts. This mismatched competition isn’t for you to show off your skills and act all macho. It’s for you to discover the flaws in your style and help you shed the mentality of the student.
Learning from a teacher has its advantages, but just like watching too much TV, it puts you in a passive mode. Yes, you’re learning and practicing, but your brain is programmed to receive. You’re not in the driver’s seat. You’re sitting comfortably in a back seat and trusting the driver, your teacher, to deliver you safely to your destination.
You need to set that aside and take control for a change. You do that by sparring with low levels. You watch them make mistakes and you realize that maybe there’s another way to approach this top position. It’s also a great opportunity to try out those techniques and guards you’re not comfortable with.
This all leads to getting into more competitions. By now you have enough knowledge to fill multiple books. But it’s the mat that is the real test of your skills. There’s also something about the competitive spirit that taking part in a tournament brings to the table. A tournament is a whole different game than a friendly competition or a training session with your buddies.
Competition brings out the real spirit of BJJ in the player. You dig deep and sometimes you surprise even yourself when you execute a movement with great skill. You’re not following the cue of a teacher. Out on the competition mat, it’s just you against the opponent. And sometimes it’s you against yourself. BJJ is a mental discipline before anything else.
Keep Learning
In BJJ, we remain students no matter what belt color we wear around our waist. And even though you have covered all the techniques you could possibly encounter and a few that you’ll probably never use, there’s still a lot to learn. And the path to learning isn’t limited to classes.
Someone once said that to get really good at BJJ you need to breathe BJJ. This means it becomes part of your life. You dedicate as much time to it as you can afford to spare. If you can go to classes every day, do so. It will make your progress even faster.
Youtube videos become part of your learning process. This is why we always include videos here to stress a point or show in more detail a complex technique. As a purple belt, you’ll be spending more time watching videos teaching you about various techniques and how to execute them elegantly.
It always pays to watch the masters at work. And instructional videos are the best teachers. You can rewind and rewatch them many times over to get the subtle nuances of the move. Unlike a teacher at a class, you have thousands of videos available to you any time of the day or night who will answer your every question and patiently elaborate and detail the answers.
To be a purple belt means your path the black belt is well charted and clear in your mind. You’re in charge of your path and you’re on your way to achieve your goals.