Lessons from 9 years as a BJJ black belt

Reflections on a 17 year career in BJJ

I received my BJJ black belt in June 2015. I was 25 years old. It took me 8 years to go from white to black belt. Kevin Taylor gave me my black belt at Titans MMA in Halifax. He received his black belt directly from legendary BJJ and MMA champion, Renzo Gracie.

The beginning

I started training BJJ in 2007. I was 17 years old in my last year of high school. I had an athletic background of recreational hockey and soccer growing up. Team sports. Martial arts was a new individual experience. I wanted to learn some self defense. I remember my first BJJ class was the weekend before Randy Couture beat Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 74. I was a big UFC fan at the time. I convinced a friend from high school and a coworker to come with me to my first BJJ class. Both quit after a month.

I didn’t have any dreams of being a professional fighter I just wanted to learn some techniques and some day achieve a black belt in a martial art. I actually wanted to try to learn judo but couldn’t find anywhere local to train. I used the yellow pages (phone book) to locate a local BJJ class at a place called Titans MMA in Fairview, Nova Scotia. Titans mainly focused on training mixed martial arts fighters but also had a BJJ class multiple nights a week and on Sundays.

White belt 2007 to 2009

Being a white belt is tough. You lose a lot. Your ego gets checked. There was 0 chance I would ever beat someone more experienced than myself. But I didn’t care about losing I just wanted to get better and one day be a black belt. I was determined and relentless in my pursuit. BJJ is addicting.

The more I trained the better I got and the more I wanted to train. Unlike other sports like football which are more attribute based (speed and strength matter) BJJ is about technique. Your body size and physical ability matters less if your technique is on point. The first 6 months I spent training I was going twice a week for an hour Tuesdays and Thursdays in the beginner classes. After that I was training 3-5 times a week if not more. I felt like I trained for a year before anyone knew my name. Eventually I got to be friends with a few of the more experienced students who were blue belts and also my size (150 pounds) and they encouraged me to train more and to compete.

Blue belt 2009 to 2011

Received from Kevin Taylor on June 17, 2009. The longer you train the better you get but also the more the people around you who started with you will fade away. Injuries and a lack of passion steal a lot of our training partners.

After a year of BJJ training I really got into BJJ competitions. When I started training I didn’t know BJJ competitions were even a thing around Nova Scotia. There were roughly 3 tournaments every year in the province. Now there’s 3 a month. Back then I went to them all, travelled to places like New York and Miami for competitions that I won gold. One of my goals was to compete at the highest level in the sport the IBJJF World Championships in California. I started to get a reputation as one of the better blue belts but I still regularly got beat by more experienced training partners. Occasionally I would beat them.

I earned medals from the IBJJF World Championships in the lightweight division (under 167 pounds). Bronze in 2010 and a silver 2011. I also met BJJ legend/UFC fighter Ryan Hall and spent some time training with him at his academy in Virginia, USA. I used to watch his triangle choke videos when I was a white belt. It was surreal getting to train with a pro in the sport that everyone knew like Ryan.

I also got more into lifting weights/kettlebells  and trying to get physically stronger. Technique wise, I was developing a good triangle choke and I usually seemed to end up on people’s backs going for chokes. Bow and arrow choke was my bread and butter technique.

Purple belt 2011 to 2014

Received from Kevin Taylor on June 9, 2011. Purple belt was the start of many changes and some tough times. Titans gym moved locations from Fairview to Kempt Road. A lot of new students and different programs. I suffered my first serious injury that made me miss months of training and some major tournaments. I was bummed out.

I was a full time university student at Saint Mary’s but I was training BJJ every day. I would arrange my schedule so I could take university classes in the morning, study in the afternoons and then go train BJJ at night. Sometimes we would go in for afternoon drilling sessions. Being given keys to the gym was a big deal.

I taught some private lessons. I taught a beginners class once a week. It wasn’t uncommon for me to lead the advanced classes while my coaches were away. But at this point I still saw myself as a BJJ student. One of the more senior students, but I didn’t see myself as a teacher. Around this time people would ask me if I would ever open a school. I wasn’t sure about that.

At this point around 80% of my training was in the gi. I didn’t like no gi. Back then I would have told you “real” BJJ is in the gi. I trained 5-6 times a week back then and only trained no gi on Friday nights. I did compete no gi but gi was always my main focus. This changed a few years into black belt.

Brown belt 2014 to 2015

Received from Kevin Taylor on February 27, 2014. I thought if you have made it this far you can’t quit now. I had graduated from university but I still was not sure what I wanted to do with the rest of my life to make a living. I graduated with an accounting degree but I didn’t want any of the jobs. Nobody in accounting jobs seemed like they were very happy. I was single, no kids, just trying to figure everything out. All I knew was I wanted to live close to my family and keep training BJJ.

I didn’t really see much opportunity to make money in BJJ at this point. The gym owners that I knew did it for the passion, they didn’t make any money. They had other jobs to make a living. I made some money through private lessons but it was inconsistent.

I didn’t compete as much through purple and brown after 2013. I had moved away from home with a few friends was trying to establish myself, and learn how to pay bills. Tournament trips took a backseat but I still competed occasionally and loved BJJ more than ever.

Black belt 2015 to current day 2024

Received from Kevin Taylor June 3, 2015. It felt like the end of the road in some ways and the start of a new one. I was no longer what they call a “developing BJJ student”, now I was going to be looked at as a leader. Looking back I was still so young I don’t think it sunk in at the time.

People treat you a little differently on the mats when they see a black belt. It’s a sign of respect. A black belt shows the dedication to the art you practice. People usually expect more of you and think you have all the answers. Sometimes I used to feel like it was a target on my back. I didn’t usually mind that as I always have had a competitive nature.

What I have done since

A split from Titans happened at the end of 2018. It happens. Basically every major BJJ gym came from the split of another BJJ gym. In my case the BJJ team at Titans was developing its own identity and some wanted to move away from MMA into a space with just BJJ. I felt pretty torn. A lot of my friends and training partners seemed ready to leave. A few of the more senior students were committed to staying.

I wanted to train at both places and I did for a few months. But it became too much and I settled at Halifax BJJ. At the time of opening I was the only black belt at Halifax BJJ. I would get up at 4:30am to go teach a BJJ morning class, then immediately go work my 9-5, then walk across town to my car and drive home. I was driving 2-3 hours a day.

COVID happened and honestly it caused a lot of tribalism within the gym. Each individual training bubble/group developed its own identity with its own dedicated coach. Around this time my focus started to shift more toward teaching.

I was always happy to teach when someone asked me. But Titans didn’t have a lot of different instructors to teach BJJ classes. At Halifax BJJ being around so many other people who were also teaching made me want to push myself. At the start I went to everyone’s class that I could at Halifax BJJ. I was the only black belt but I wanted to be a good teammate. I found the other coaches all did things a little differently in their classes than I did.

I felt like I had a knack for coaching and really wanted my teaching ability to be at a black belt level too. I wanted to be the best BJJ coach. Not everybody is a good teacher, it’s a different skillset than BJJ. You have to put effort in and learn how to teach and present information. I’m still working on it.

I had access to a lot of information from the best BJJ coaches in the world, I stayed current with the BJJ world, I taught a lot of classes, I kept notes on all my classes and students to track progress. People started to become passionate about taking my classes. I went from teaching 3-4 people in the morning classes to 20+ and even sometimes 30 people in a 6am BJJ class.

I had kids and things changed more. I want to be able to tell my kids to fight for what they believe in and to do what is right. The situation I was in it felt like the right thing to leave.

I won’t get too much into the details. But I will say is that things change in life. Sometimes unexpectedly. It wasn’t my passion anymore to be there. BJJ was growing and I felt like I owed it to myself to build something with my own name on it. I started my own BJJ academy, Presley BJJ out of my garage in Wellington, Nova Scotia.

I have been teaching and training exclusively at Presley BJJ ever since. I started with adult BJJ classes and have now expanded to teaching kids ages 6+ and more recently toddlers ages 2+. I also offer weekly yoga classes. It’s really grown to include the local community which is really awesome.

What’s next?

I will continue to grow Presley BJJ. It’s my main passion in life outside of my family. I want to have a dedicated team that is developing good BJJ skills. Students who are confident in defense and offence. BJJ gave me so much in my life I feel like the only thing to do is to try and give back by being the best coach, gym owner, and black belt that I can be. I hope to train with you all someday.

What about gi?

Oh yeah. A few factors changed my perspective to go from a “gi guy” to a “no gi guy”. One is the way the sport is trending. I always stay current with the most recent matches and best athletes. I noticed around 2020 that most of the events were no gi. Anytime there was a tournament for money it was no gi. Any time UFC produced a grappling event it was no gi. All the best athletes in the world started to favour no gi over gi.

From the POV of a business owner. The gi can be a barrier to entry. People think martial arts are weird. Sometimes they are. But trying to convince someone to put a big heavy robe on and then learn to tie a belt will look at it like “that’s weird” or “that doesn’t make any sense”.

No gi is easier to join. You just need a t-shirt and shorts to get started. It’s also easier to have success faster in no gi because you don’t have to deal with the gi grips. There’s not as many techniques involved with no gi. Less cost involved to get started. I only offer 1 gi class a week and I think about changing it to no gi often.

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