A belt rank for me is a set of goals, techniques and struggle.

It’s too bad in the rest of our life, there are no belt ranks. When I write a paper for school, I don’t get stripes on my belt. The video-game-playing kid in me wishes that I would be “awarded” a blue hat or something like that for a semester of writing a paper for school. I would gladly wear it and write a post about it.

When we were in high school we used to play a lot of MMORPG together. Many of the friends we made at that time were people from Aruba that also plays the same video game. Now in college we train and compete a lot in BJJ. For us we can relate one with the other.

One of the most exciting things in BJJ is seeing people who you train with or are friends with get promoted, whether it be a stripe or a new belt color. It’s the same feeling as you or a friend leveling up in a video game. You put in the hours together to achieve another level.

The most interesting and one of the most important one for me in BJJ is the promotion from white belt to blue belt, Because this is the time when you realize that this is going to be a long journey. Right to the point when your receive your blue belt you will still believe that you’re ready to sky rocket to the next level of amazing skills. Until reality beats you down that it takes a lot longer than you think. That mastery of this art takes a very long time. There won’t be any fireworks, treasures or beautiful women cheering you on like in some video games. It’s just a long daily grind filled with simple pleasures of improving your skills, helping others, making friends and overcoming challenges just like in MMOs.

But one of the reason I like promotion is what I like about video games, challenges. New belt, new level. Whether it’s me getting a new belt and have to compete a level higher or sparring with a newly promoted teammate or friend.

Let us know what you think.