Slightly over a week ago, the most amazing thing happened in this 3 year jiujitsu journey I embarked on 3 years ago! I was awarded my blue belt by 10th Planet black belt, Nathan Orchard.
Nathan is a black belt under Master Eddie Bravo who is the founder of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu. He has nearly 15 years of experience in wrestling and kickboxing. He is also one of the world’s top few jiujitsu athletes!
You guys can imagine the emotions that totally blew me away when he called me out of the whole class.
“It’s nothing to brag about!” Some of you might think.
For those who are in the circuit, you would know that achieving the blue belt from white belt is one of the hardest part in jiu jitsu.
All the more as I don’t live in the States, I hail from a tiny city state known as Singapore in Asia. I was exposed to jiujitsu and more specifically, grappling; which is the No Gi form of jiu Jitsu. I don’t have a permanent gym, due to work commitments and the fees to officially join a gym is pretty on the high side in Singapore, with little focus on the No Gi aspect of the sport.
Relying only on YouTube videos, attending open mats and observation of how other people perform techniques, spar and fight; it was a tough 3 years! Especially when you don’t have a belonging in any gyms, people are hesitant and wary to teach you. We’re also typically not well looked upon as without proper instruction, it is hard to actually get good at anything.
I’m what most people would call a Ronin - 浪人, someone who wanders around with a single goal in their mind. In my case, to really try to learn, perfect and achieve my goal of improving my jiujitsu.
4 months since starting Jiu Jitsu, I found out about a 10th Planet gym right here in South East Asia, in the middle of a tiny island off of Thailand called Koh Tao, personally I call it a paradise with beautiful beaches, food, drinks and of course, diving! In case you didn’t know, Koh Tao is a single location which hosts a whole beach stretch of dive schools and also one of the cheapest to get dive certified.
I reached out to the gym and within 3 days, embarked on a 7 day trip out there to learn with the 2 resident 10th planet jiu jitsu practitioners there. Luke and Victor; became my mentors since then and I would head out there whenever I can afford it to learn. It is also from there that I learnt about Nathan Orchard having a camp on paradise a couple of months later. Needless to say, in a few months’ time, I found myself taking the 4 hour ferry ride out there again.
It has been 3 camps in about 2 years and each time I head home with tons of knowledge, improvement and new goals.
It is also this 3rd one which THE man himself awarded me the blue belt, make no mistake, as a Ronin, to be awarded this by Nathan Orchard is a huge deal, at least to me!
According to the man, he had absolutely no plans before he left the States that he was going to promote anyone so no actual belt was present so he gave me his rashguard in replacement!
Of course, getting fed celebratory shots all round by these crazy folks til I KO-ed was a thing bound to happen! Hahaha!