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The Wait

The wait between promotions can be nerve wracking when you know you’re close, in that you’ve put in the hours on the mat, the time in your current rank, and feel as though you are performing and demonstrating competence on the mats.  It could be a week, a month or a year...you just don’t know.  It’s up to the subjectivity of your professor.  A lot of old school professors don't give any clue, rhyme, or reason for their promotions.  The student has no way of gauging if or when they will earn their belt.  This is terrible for all types of reasons, but also good in some ways.

One of the terrible reasons is the anxiety that builds up in the student who wants to have objective targets and goals for improvement and reward. The good of it is that it teaches someone to let go of that expectation and to play Jiujitsu for the sake of playing Jiujitsu, living in the moment versus pursuing a goal for the future. It also forces the student to have faith in their professor that they will look out for them. This of course can be abused, like holding up someone’s deserved promotion for financial reasons to continue to get more monthly dues and private class money out of them for a few more months to using the reason/excuse of lack of loyalty in clubs with a more cultish atmosphere.

I am not a fan of this system to be honest, but mainly because it runs against my own personality and preference.  I prefer a roadmap with defined milestones.  But maybe this system will force its lesson on me to release my expectation and anxiety and just live in the moment and enjoy jiujitsu.

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