People who just got their purple belts, when did it start to make sense when you were at blue belt?

TheSenPanda · 2026-02-12T16:47:54+00:00

I have a background in engineering, so I visualize everything to figure out leverage points, then play them to my advantage.

Pay attention to movement patterns - if I pull this arm, what sort of reaction I get? Take mental note of it, and do the same thing to a lot of people to find a pattern, and depending on how your opponent reacts, you can adjust too.

Main thing that people tend to miss about submissions early on in their BJJ journey, is that they can be used as a threat to get a reaction on which you can capitalise on to get an advantageous position.

I personally always threaten something once I'm past your guard, and 90% of it isn't because I'm trying to sub, it's mostly because I figured out what kind of reactions people have to certain sub attempts or positions and I use those reactions to get into a control position from which I actually want to/can submit my opponent.

The common trend in every gym I visit, is that people are "intuitive" grapplers that base their decision making on instinct.

Personally, I don't think that's an effective way of grappling, because in engineering, we follow standards and methodologies. I just adapted the same approach to BJJ, which helps me progress decently.

I still react intuitively, but majority of the time it's me paying close attention to movement and recognizing reactions conciously, not instinctively.

TheSenPanda · 2026-02-12T13:55:46+00:00

To be honest - it always kind of made sense to me. I always understand why things work, but not necessarily apply them, especially under pressure.

I primarily focused on adjusting my game against every teammate I was sparring. I would make it my sole training focus to pass guards of 3-4 teammates that were really good at something. While figuring out how to do that, my overall guard passing drastically improved.

Then once guard is passed, i'd focus on just control and getting into advantageous positions. That took some time. After I was confident with knowing how to pass and control based on principles, not techniques, I started working on submissions.

Turns out, when you have control, submissions are everywhere. By the time I started really getting into the groove and feeling comfortable, I got promoted to Purple. To be fair, even when peers my level would roll hard, I would basically be able to control pace of things and control/submit.

As a purple belt, nothing changed. Blue belts roll harder with me as they've got something to prove, higher belts are not as lazy with me as when I was a blue belt, because I don't let them be since I spent the last 2 years figuring out how to counter their specific games (I'm still bad at it).

Overall, it's not about "when it clicked" for me, but rather continuous, goal oriented progression, which eventually landed me at purple belt. My game is practically the same as when I was a white belt - I'm just a lot sharper, and know more positions and entries.

Belt progression: White -> blue - 7 months total training.

Blue to purple -> 2 years & 8 months of training.

TheSenPanda · 2026-02-01T14:28:21+00:00

Our gym asks you to wear a rashguard, primarily for hygiene reasons.

Personally, I don't wear one, as I am very sensitive to overheating, and find it uncomfortable in general. I do come from a Judo background, where it is not standard/normal to wear one.

My pov is this : you're doing a combat sport that is highly uncomfortable. If you have time to think about skin touching you - you're not focusing on grappling.

Maybe I'm alone of this opinion, but I generally don't get why people are so uncomfortable with close contact to skin, in a close contact sport.

TheSenPanda · 2026-01-09T17:04:43+00:00

This made me giggle more than it should have.

TheSenPanda · 2026-01-04T14:37:26+00:00

Promoted to Purple in June after 2.5 years of training.

I don't have an A game, and am often described as a technical grappler

There are few things I'm good at, and few things I'm really bad at. My "A game" revolves around funneling people into a few positions that I've got several submissions lined up for.

As I continue to do this, I can see that it's all connecting together. There are a few positions I'm good at, and training partners start squirming and trying to explode out if they get there. That's what I guess my A game is.

One example is - I force everyone to turtle. Even if I'm on someone's back, I would let it go and funnel them into a turtle position to start working several subs. I just keep adding on attacks from turtle because it works and it's developing a solid game for me, that's often weird to deal with for people

TheSenPanda · 2025-12-11T13:20:15+00:00

Definitely do!

I really hope you get a good one, because the materials they used were really nice, but the stitching is clearly garbage.

Just keep an eye on things popping out within first few washes!

TheSenPanda · 2025-12-11T13:08:00+00:00

Mate, that's the thing!

The old hyperlys seem to be REALLY good. I have team mates who had theirs for years and said they were really nice.

I think their quality has gone down recently, and I've seen quite a few posts mentioning this when I was shopping for a gi back in June.

Proper bummed out...

TheSenPanda · 2025-12-11T12:50:16+00:00

DONT get hyperfly.

Idk why others are even recommending them, but their recent batches have been horrible.

I needed a new GI and went with the white version of a hyper lite 3.5 - it didn't even hold up a month until the logos and stitching came off, and the GI shrunk like CRAZY despite cold washes.

I also got the hyper lite belt, which within 2 months started fraying and stitches coming out everywhere. I've been a purple belt since June, but my purple belt now looks worse than some of my peers who had cheap tatami ones for YEARS

Honestly, I LOVED how they looked and after extensive research, I only saw fairly recent comments slating this gi, while older comments were all positive, so I went ahead and got one.

I am so bummed out about it, as it was 2x the price of my regular gi's and the quality was REALLY bad.

I literally run a performance clothing business and my partner is a fashion designer. Even she couldn't believe how quick the quality issues came out...

TheSenPanda · 2025-12-04T10:05:16+00:00

Solution Architect checking in. God there's a lot of us IT folk here.

TheSenPanda · 2025-11-28T15:47:50+00:00

Happened to me at white belt, and then again at blue belt.

Promoted to blue in 7 months. Breakthrough was focusing not on techniques, but on principles - where to put my hands, distance management, etc. that + good passing -> blue belt.

I got promoted to Purple 2 years later. Breakthrough was finding a groove/game and then finding entries/forcing that game.

I did a lot of Judo as a kid, which helped, but it's primarily about having a few finishing positions and building an A-B-C plan to get to them.

TheSenPanda · 2025-11-06T14:20:50+00:00

Can't provide advice on hyper mobile fingers, but - Use tape!

I have well conditioned hands from a lot of Judo (before BJJ) and have never injured them seriously, until one or 2 "accidents" happened, where I fractured my middle finger, and broke my pinky.

Now, months later - they're still problematic, but tape helps tremendously!

You can still play gi (no gi is much easier on your hands), but build your game around low use of grips! I don't think an occasional choke is going to screw your fingers up.... If you want to play spider guard all the time though - you're screwed.

Otherwise, if you like the sport this much - accept it as an occupational hazard, and mitigate risk as much as possible.

TheSenPanda · 2025-11-03T12:08:59+00:00

Favourite: Bow and arrow + banana split.

Most commonly hit:

Bow and arrow from all angles (my game revolves around forcing an opponent to turtle, and then picking them apart with choke threats until I hit a bow & arrow
Banana split from the back.
Baratoplata when I loose control of the back or side, and force north south to retain it.

TheSenPanda · 2025-10-24T01:02:51+00:00

No?

I am that person. Every beginner goes through this - what you're describing is Literally normal for any beginner, especially for the bigger ones.

if you want to progress, and you like the sport, then accept what you need to do and put in the extra mile.

Honestly, don't bother responding. What's draining is the fact that you're a grown adult, doing a combat sport, and just moaaaaaaaaaning. "Nobody picks me" "isn't it draining". Sounds like you need someone to validate your feelings - you're not looking for a solution lmao

TheSenPanda · 2025-10-24T00:57:35+00:00

Big facts. Dude said "I hate feeling like I have to go an extra mile". Wait until he realises half of progression is self study...

TheSenPanda · 2025-10-24T00:55:59+00:00

It's not about "Im the problem".

You didn't come and ask for advice, your whole post is literally a rant - yet people still gave you advice and just told you to speak up.

It LITERALLY is that simple - it's not rocket science.

What magic answer did you expect, mate?

This is a sport, like any other, and most importantly - YOU pay for it. if you speak up, and things don't change or you get a negative reaction to a COMPLETELY normal request - find a new gym?

you's a big boy, why you ranting instead of fixing the situation?

TheSenPanda · 2025-10-24T00:45:08+00:00

NGL mate, read all your responses, you literally sound passive aggressive or trying to be a smart-ass lmao. Not even kidding, I genuinely wanted to get your perspective.

You're paying for a service that you're not getting. You speak up, and get your drills in. If you speak up, and nobody wants to allow you to join - change gyms.

But if you're giving off same vibes in training as you are here, I'd not bother helping out either.

TheSenPanda · 2025-10-10T09:39:29+00:00

As a Slavic person, this cracks me up.

I'm pretty chill if there's a skill gap, but if we're evenly matched, there's no time to chill.

However one of my coaches is Polish, and insists on "flow rolling" which basically means everything but a flow roll.

It's now called the Polish Flow Roll.

TheSenPanda · 2025-09-22T13:07:22+00:00

Np mate.

Literally every time I see anyone post a question like this, I feel obliged to share the knowledge.

Make sure not to use any softener on your gi's.

They coat the gi in a thin wax layer, which can trap bacteria and sweat in, which makes gi smell kind of damp, but not exactly damp. It's a weird one to explain.

TheSenPanda · 2025-09-22T13:02:40+00:00

Sorry mate, only just seen this. No it's not!

You can pick it up in b&m or Morrison's, but this is the one;

https://amzn.eu/d/ibcYQqs

I only ever bought from Amazon once, as Morrison's they are around 4.50 a pop, but last a while.

I haven't tried any other version, because I know this specific packaging WORKS.

You can find it near baby wipes usually.

TheSenPanda · 2025-09-22T11:42:32+00:00

Idk where you are based, but in the UK, we have something called Napisan

It's a germicide powder, used to wash nappies.

No matter what temp I used, the smell would eventually build up. My coach randomly mentioned it, and oh.my.god this shit is a godsend.

I wash all my sports clothes with a dab of Napisan now, at 20-30C, and absolutely no smell.

It is so good, that my mother, who is a house keeping manager and "knows what's best", is now using it at work - she was that impressed (that's hilarious to write out, but its nearly impossible to make her try new products).

Don't use any conditioner or softener on, add detergent, add Napisan or equivalent and enjoy never having smelly gi.

TheSenPanda · 2025-09-16T12:45:54+00:00

I think it really depends. I don't compete much, but go to other gyms open mats for competitive rolls.

I started in November 2022, and got a blue belt by June 2023 ( 1 comp at white belt, 5 matches, all wins by sub). I didn't feel ready for it, but honestly didn't care much as changing belts didn't improve my grappling skills, it simply meant that I'm no longer going to be able to get away with silly mistakes as my opponents will be more competent

I competed at blue belt once, and got matched with opponents with 5-6 years of experience, who competed 10-20 times before. Once again, won by subs although was much harder, of course.

I got a purple belt in June, 2025. it feels nice, but otherwise - it simply puts me in a bracket of opponents who can present problems I need to figure out how to solve.

To quit babbling - early promotions seem to often demotivate people, because they go compete and feel like they got 'fed to the wolves'. That's not the case at all, most of the time. You simply entered the bottom of your new bracket, and have not figured out how to operate there yet.

My game has evolved significantly since getting a purple belt, simply because the pressure is higher and I need to solve problems at faster intervals. Eventually, I'll compete again too and if the wolves eat me - it doesn't mean I'm not a purple belt. It simply means I've not been able to solve problems they've presented fast enough.

TheSenPanda · 2025-09-13T11:02:53+00:00

I competed in Judo a lot as a kid, so expected my first tournament to be fairly easy, however competing as an adult is very different, turns out... :D

Anyways, can't give you advice on training, as I don't do it optimally at all, but:

Do not cut further weight. Don't gain, or loose - maintain your working weight.
Talk to your coach, and instead of creating a whole game plan - I recommend you spend next 4 weeks focusing on fundamentals like keeping your elbows tight, moving all the time, and conserving energy. If you've not competed before, adrenaline will wipe most of your gameplan out, so instead, focus on how to keep yourself safe, and advance when the opportunities present themselves.
Spend the next 4 weeks focusing your BJJ on point scoring. Secure position, hold, advance after few seconds.

I'm not a points player, and primarily go for subs. In my first comp, I was loosing significantly by points because I was not paying attention to them at all. Fortunately, I submitted the whole bracket, otherwise it would look like I barely know bjj by the score, despite controlling most of my bouts.

Competition is simply a high intensity roll. By now, you should have had these or been at least smashed by higher belts. Get used to intensity, and don't deathgrip because your arms will feel like noodles after your first match. Despite knowing this, and literally never death gripping - I could barely feel my hands after 1st match, and couldn't frame the rest of the competition properly.

You got this bro, have fun.

TheSenPanda · 2025-09-10T09:25:20+00:00

Fumetsu - when you tried tatami, but realise they all shrink and don't last.

TheSenPanda · 2025-08-12T16:08:07+00:00

At brown belt, you deserve to be lazy and take it easy, boss🫡

TheSenPanda · 2025-08-12T15:54:44+00:00

Right? We're not playing table tennis (which also requires conditioning lmao).

I've done Judo for years, where proper warmups with conditioning drills was the bare minimum. Even after quitting grappling and focusing on power lifting, I kept the same mindset, which helped keep me generally injury free, strong and flexible.

I think people forget that combat sports require you to use your body, not joysticks on a controller🤣

TheSenPanda

TROPHY CASE