Enjoying the Jiu Jitsu Journey to the Max

About the author: Sam Joseph is a second-degree black belt, head instructor and gym owner.

A common timeframe quoted around earning a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is 8–10 years. When you consider that the adult belt system only has four coloured belts of merit — blue, purple, brown and black — you're staring down an average of two-plus years at every rank. In a world built around instant gratification, with the next episode auto-playing before the credits roll, that's a tough sell. It sheds a lot of light on why so many people walk away from BJJ, or never even step on the mat in the first place. Even for those of us all-in on this lifestyle, the timeline can be challenging. It can have us wondering when our next promotion is coming, or whether our professor is even paying attention to our progress. That misguided focus can quietly suck the joy out of training.

There is a way to sidestep this pitfall and keep positive momentum in your BJJ journey: focus on enjoying the journey itself. Easier said than done — so to make it more concrete, here are some specific things to lock in on and take pleasure in as you walk your BJJ path.

Friendships!

The relationships we form on the mat are among the very best benefits of the BJJ life. Friendships develop with teammates as a matter of course — you train and grow together, day after day. Training partners are with you as you grind through workouts, develop your game, deal with the highs and pick each other up during the lows. It's easy to see how powerful bonds get forged in that environment. You also often find common ground with people on other teams. I came up representing Yamasaki Academy and have many close friends from that great team, and I count people from Alliance, Renzo Gracie, Atos and a long list of smaller independent teams as good friends too. When I look back at my journey, it would be hard to overestimate what those friendships have given me — on the mat and off. Focusing on the relationships you cultivate as you live the BJJ life is a key piece of enjoying the journey.

Tournaments!

Whether you compete or not, tournaments can be events to savour as you live the BJJ life. When you're the one on the mat, emotions run hot — excitement, nervousness, fear, anticipation. That heightened state reminds you that you are ALIVE and serves up a huge dose of fun, whatever the actual result. Even when you're not competing, you can get swept up in the energy and emotion, especially when teammates are putting it on the line. More than one person has told me they find it harder watching a teammate compete than competing themselves.

Sharing the tournament experience with your team has a way of pulling everyone closer together — and it's just plain FUN. Tournaments are also one of the main ways you meet new friends from other teams and academies. Some of my best friends in the sport came from meetings and introductions at and around events. People who have committed to personal growth through jiu jitsu tend to have more in common than not.

Winning, though my overwhelming preference, is surprisingly not the deciding factor in whether I remember a tournament fondly. I've won my share of medals, but right up there with all of them, for me, is the 2012 IBJJF International Masters & Seniors tournament in Brazil. I went to Rio with a group of friends who were also competing and had one of the best vacations of my life. From discovering that daily acai bowls and cutting weight do not mix, to running on the beach at Copacabana, I loved every minute. I lost my first match in my division to a game opponent — and I still came home far from empty-handed, because I still smile every time I think of it.

Many of my favourite BJJ memories are tournament trips. Gold medals or early losses, competing or supporting teammates, a local Sunday day-trip or a long weekend at a big IBJJF event — these stand out as highlights in my personal journey, and I encourage everyone to take the chances tournaments offer.

The Jiu Jitsu Grind!

Learning to appreciate the grind that is training BJJ is KEY to enjoying the journey. Medals come and go, some tournaments are more fun than others, and you can't always train with your best friends — but the constant, the thing you can always count on, is the grind. Day in and day out, you can step on the mat, improve yourself technically and physically, and contribute to other people's improvement at the same time. When you learn to notice and love the small steps and tiny distinctions that consistent training quietly piles into big advances in your BJJ, you find joy in the in-between — the long stretches between the "events" of your jiu jitsu life.

Another reason to embrace the grind is that some of the best laughs and best stories come from inside it. Some of the funniest things that have ever happened to me in BJJ have been on nondescript days in the academy. When my students hang around after class, I have them on the floor laughing with stories from when I was a coloured belt putting in shifts at the Yamasaki HQ — in-house tournament rivalries, locker-room practical jokes, training bloopers. Almost all of them come from days in the grind. When you learn to love the grind, every day on the mat is fun and full of promise.

Promotions!

As I said up top, promotions in BJJ are few and far between. If advancing rank is your main focus, you set yourself up to flame out or, at best, to grudgingly keep training while quietly simmering about your coach's apparent lack of urgency to hand you the next belt. That misguided focus will suck the happiness right out of your jiu jitsu if you let it.

That said, promotions absolutely should be celebrated as part of your BJJ journey. It's often hard to communicate to non-practitioners how much these belts mean to us. How are they supposed to appreciate that it can take one or two years just to get a blue belt? They have almost no way to understand how few people ever even get a purple belt, or how far away a brown belt feels when you're tying on a gi for the first time. And forget about explaining what it feels like to put a BJJ black belt on for the first time — it would be easier to explain a berimbolo to a boxer. These things are hard to convey to outsiders, but those of us who train can understand and appreciate them, and we should take the time to truly enjoy these hard-earned moments. Belt promotions should not be the main target you're working toward, but they should be given the respect they deserve as important and hard-won milestones.

Conclusion

The beauty of the question of how much you enjoy your BJJ journey is that you control the answer by controlling your focus. When you make the conscious choice to turn your mind toward the positive things happening along the way, you give yourself the gift of perspective — and you empower your own ability to find longevity in the BJJ lifestyle and the fulfillment that comes with it. See you on the mat!

Originally published in Jiu Jitsu Style by Sam Joseph. Refreshed for 2026.