Forever a White Belt

By: Paul Oneid

It’s almost a rite of passage as a young person to participate in martial arts, but if you didn’t you most likely have seen “The Karate Kid”… and if you haven’t may god have mercy on your soul.  In any case, when you begin in martial arts you are a white belt.  You are new and eager to learn.  As you progress through the ranks the color of your belt changes and you accumulate new knowledge and skills.  The school that you attend directly influences this knowledge and the accompanying skills.  The same is true for powerlifting.  The gym and the coaches that you grow up with will influence the way you do things and the philosophies that you follow. 

[wa-wps]

We see it all the time, especially in the social media age we live in – “My way is the best way and your way is stupid because of XYZ.”  People form opinions based on the school that educated them and brought them through the ranks.  Are you ready for this?  Not everything that you don’t understand is stupid!  There, I said it.  Just because what you have done and the philosophies that you have used to get to where you are worked for you, does not mean that everyone who did what you did would also succeed.  In many cases, people who excel do so in spite of the methods they have used.  No matter what, they would have been successful.  That is called genetics.  Those individuals that succeed in spite of their practices do not last long.  Think Bo Jackson, Johnny Manziel, Greg Oden etc. who had an incredible amount of success and then their practice, or lack thereof, prevented them from progressing further. 

The difference between the flash in the pan and the long-term success is multi-facetted, but I believe that one of the biggest factors is ego.  You have had some success and learned some skills.  You’ve accumulated belts and you’ve reached a significant level of success.  As you get stronger, getting stronger gets harder and more taxing on the system; that is a fact.  How do you continue to progress in spite of the uphill battle?  You ignore the color of your belt and revert back to the White Belt mentality.  You set aside your ego and you learn. 

 Anyone who has an opinion will likely lend theirs to you and the people you trust should be carefully chosen, but the key is that you never stop your pursuit of knowledge.  This pursuit should extend beyond your school or your gym.  If you stop learning, you will stop progressing.  Now, I am not saying that you need to stop what you’re doing and turn a complete 180 degrees in another direction.  What I am saying is that you need to take in as much information as you can, assimilate it, filter it and use what you feel will be useful to you.  This is called critical thought.  Being a White belt is all about learning and being a sponge.

Everything works, but only until it doesn’t.  As I said earlier, as you get stronger, getting stronger becomes harder.  At first, gains come quickly because you’re learning.  Your central nervous system is adapting to the movements and you are refining your movement patterns.  Once those neurological gains are maximized, which happens relatively quickly, increased muscle mass becomes the limiting factor in strength gains.  Let’s say you’re training hard, but what if your diet is poor?  Do you know about proper nutrition? Once external load increases, weak points are identified.  Every time you get stronger, new weak points will appear.  Getting stronger long term is dependent on your ability to attack weak points and get out of your comfort zone.  If you always do the same things, you will plateau very quickly.  Keep hammering away at the same things and you’re likely to get injured.  Do you know how to attack weak points or identify them? (Hint 10/20/ Life has a fantastic weak point index)

The take home point from this article is that your ego will always hold you back.  Being too stubborn to seek knowledge and skills is the quickest way to an early exit from this sport.  Ignore the color of your belt and seek out advice from those who are where you want to be.  Over time you will learn what works for you and what doesn’t.  You will accumulate belts from many schools.  One promise that I will make to you is that the more belts you earn, the more you realize that there are so many belts you lack.  Keep your white belt mentality for long term success.