In the Jujitsu world – the journey to Blackbelt is one of the toughest journeys you will ever make. To put it in perspective – more people have climbed Mt. Everest than have achieved a Jujitsu blackbelt! Does that mean the journey to Blackbelt is tougher than climbing Mt. Everest? Probably. It doesnt take 4 – 8 years to climb Mt. Everest. It isnt intense pain every single day on Mt. Everest. People are not beating you up, giving you arm bars, knee bars, heel hooks, chokes, or throwing you to the ground over and over again while climbing Mt. Everest. So it is one tough journey. But, one might say, Everest can kill you, take your fingers, destroy a limb, deprive you of oxygen. We Jujitsuka laugh at that. We do that and more! Have people died doing Jujitsu? Yes. Have people destroyed limbs, fingers, toes, teeth, ears – yes! So again I say – the journey to the Jujitsu Blackbelt is the toughest journey you will take.
In the last 5 years our school has promoted 5 blackbelts. Each of them probably did thousand of pushups, situps, squats, chinups, pullups, miles of running, hours of practice, thousands of hours of randori, newaza, and unrehearsed self defense. They sweated gallons of sweat. Each of them bled. Each of them puked. Each of them received at least one injury which took them out of training for some period of time. Each of them surely wanted to quit at one time or the other. Each of them had many occassions of disappointment and doubt. Each of them went through several rank tests before being eligible to demonstrate 200 Jujitsu techniques and then prove them in contest against several instructors. I am quite sure there were times when each of them thought I – as their instructor – was unfair, pushing them too hard, not giving them enough attention, bat shit crazy, a sadist. Each of them shelled out quite a bit of money and personal time over many years. It was their toughest physical and emotional journey.
As someone who has practiced Jujitsu for well over 3 decades now, I have these words of encouragement for all those on this tough journey. You can do it – if you have the will to do it. And when you do finally complete that grueling blackbelt test and tie that black piece of cloth around your waist – remember – that journey is just starting.
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