Purple People Eaters

On Tuesday night this week one of our assistant instructors, an excellent training partner, good mate and fellow blogger at UnderhookIndustries graded to purple belt. His promotion has been coming for quite a while and as our head black belt instructor from Advance Brisbane said, all belt promotions in Jiu-Jitsu should be over due by the time you receive it.

The grading stuck with the tradition of our ironman style continuous hard wrestling. He was in the middle fighting off fresh guys for 60mins!! Amazing he didn't pass out. Not only did he not pass out, he was still pulling off beautiful jiu-jitsu techniques right up to the final roll against a Black Belt.
In my roll with him he had already faced 4 or 5 of our top white belts and I was the first blue belt to punish him. There is a very different feel in the gym grading night. It's almost that nervous kind of energy that you get at competitions. We are expected to really push the person grading no matter how tired they are. It is almost the only time that I go full tilt at my team mates in the gym. It's a weird feeling, kind of like fighting with your own brother. I felt bad pushing him so hard while he was clearly starting to wear out and feel the intense aussie heat but I did what I hope he will do to me when or if I ever grade to the next belt. Make me earn it.

With only one small break to run outside and have a chuck, he pulled through the best I have seen any one who has been through an AdvanceSC belt grading. He's the first purple belt to be graded to that level at AdvanceSC  and in my opinion he sets an excellent example of what an advance purple belt should be like.

In Australia, especially out side of the major cities, purple belts are few and far between. So much so that it is the rank of most BJJ gym owners and instructors in those areas. As time goes on though the rank of all the dedicated guys is getting higher and higher. When I first started 2 years ago, I thought purple belt was an unattainable goal for my self, because of the level those dudes are at and the dedication required to get there. But BJJ gets in your blood and becomes a passion and before you know it that distant level of ability doesn't look so far away. My mate the Purple People Eater gives me so much inspiration that I'm now sure I can reach my own BJJ goals. Congrats again MiniJitsu!!!
C u on the mat,
Rex