#358: From White to Purple: Martial Artist's Milestone

The journey to a purple belt in jiu-jitsu represents far more than just time on the mats—it's about dedication, passion, and finding your path across different training environments. After starting at Travis's in Fort Worth, then training at Marcelo Garcia's, and finally finding my home at Team Silverback, I've reached this significant milestone that sits at the halfway point between white belt beginnings and black belt mastery.

My martial arts journey has become deeply intertwined with my identity as both a comedian and a veteran. The warrior spirit that drives me to master jiu-jitsu, wrestling, and judo techniques complements rather than competes with my comedy career. When you're trying to prevent someone from choking you or throwing you to the ground, your mind can't wander to joke structures or punchlines—you're fully present in the moment. This mental break actually strengthens my comedy by allowing my subconscious to work while my conscious mind focuses elsewhere.

There's profound wisdom in balancing passionate pursuits. Moving between creative endeavors and physical challenges creates a therapeutic rhythm that enhances mental health. Just as weightlifting forces you to focus on not dropping a heavy barbell, martial arts demands complete awareness—except the "weight" is actively trying to submit you! This requirement for total presence functions as a form of moving meditation, temporarily freeing you from the thought patterns that might otherwise dominate your mind. Whether you're a comedian, veteran, or someone seeking balance, finding complementary passions might be the key to thriving in both. Want to discover what martial arts or finding your own balanced passions could do for you? Follow along as I continue sharing insights from both the comedy stage and the training mats.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Earning My Purple Belt
• 1:12 Understanding Jiu-Jitsu Belt Rankings
• 3:32 My All-In Personality
• 5:18 Balancing Passions for Mental Health
• 7:39 Thanks to My Jiu-Jitsu Journey

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You know, I've been trying to think about how to say this like the last two weeks and there's a lot of complications to it, especially to you, the viewer, the audience that might not know what jiu-jitsu is. But basically a couple weeks ago I was honored by getting my purple belt in jiu-jitsu and it's a big milestone for me because I started out training one place, then I went to another place called Marcelo Garcia's world-class people. They're amazing, sweet people, um, but they're. The only problem was the distance. So then I went somewhere else and then I absolutely fell in love with it and they are such sweet, amazing, great people and, um, the skills that I learned from everywhere, from the first place that I went to the second place, that I went to the third place that I went. It's all parts of the journey that helped me to get to where I am today. So, silverback and Travis and Marcelo's this bro.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Now, as far as what's next goes, people don't understand. As far as jiu-jitsu goes, there's five different belts. There's white, blue, purple, brown and black. White belt means you're a rookie, you're just starting out, you don't really know left from right, you don't really know anything. Okay and um, traditionally you can train in the gi, that like karate looking thing you know that looks like pajamas, or you can do it no gi, which just means without for whatever reason. It's just easier to say no gi than without gi. Blue belt means you're an experienced white belt, you know what you're doing, you're no longer a rookie and I'm paraphrasing it's a little more technical than that. Oh, and also, as you're going down the line and the way to getting your next belt, you get periodic. They have ranking days, like once every six months, and you can get a stripe and four stripes. By the time you get that, what would be a fifth stripe? That fifth stripe is actually it's a belt. So yeah, but a white belt is like your brand new. Blue belt is you're an experienced white belt, and I'm paraphrasing. Purple belt means you're in between two places just starting out and getting your black belt, because after that there's only brown and black. Now I can be a lot more technical and speak a lot more on it. After that, again you have brown, which is like one step behind black, and then black right, which means that you're supposed to be good.

Speaker 1: 2:50

The thing about belts that I don't like is that you could be a black belt and basically truly be awful. You could just commit yourself to going. Let's just say you were trained somewhere hypothetically once a week for 20 years, but there's another guy that goes five days a week for one year. There's a very high possibility that one year guy might be better than that 20 year guy of experience, because it's kind of like a lot of other things in life how much you commit yourself is going to show how it's going to reflect in your skill set.

Speaker 1: 3:32

Right, and me, I have a very addictive personality, meaning that is, it doesn't mean necessarily something bad, but that means that when I do something I'm all in, okay, and for comedy I am all in all in all my chips across the board and that poker table right, uh, jujitsu, slash. And I say slash cause there's a lot going on there Wrestling and judo I'm all in as well. Um, because it really truly is a part of my uh and I I don't like the way this sounds cause it makes me sound kind of strange, but too late it's a part of my warrior spirit. You know I'm an army veteran and it's a part of me, plain and simple. So to be able to continue a martial art between judo and wrestling and jujitsu. It helps amplify that warrior inside me. Just by training right, and not just that, you're also training how to annihilate somebody, how to throw them on the ground, choke them out, have your way with them, and, uh, I mean, it's very brutal but it can also be very graceful, right Um? Now for the listener that may not be technically aware for anything. That's why I'm trying to avoid certain terms, but yeah, so that's what that means. That's why it's important that I continue to train this stuff, because it's part of who I am. But it also helps balance me.

Speaker 1: 5:08

I was telling somebody the other day If you just find something it could be the gym or it could be something else, hopefully you're passionate about it, okay. And if not find something, but if you have something that you're passionate about, okay, and you're always thinking about it and then you do something that you're also passionate about, to stop thinking about it, you can really jump between passions. You can go from you know one railroad track to the other railroad track and still go down that parallel line. You can get better at both. The equivalent of what I'm trying to say is that if you have something you care about and you love it, you're doing it. Okay. If you do something else maybe you don't care about it, but it's just something that you do like.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Go to the gym when you can remove your conscious mind from your thoughts, you make your subconscious stronger. So basically I give a mental break to my comedy when I'm doing jujitsu because basically People are trying to throw me on the ground and choke me and do all sorts of stuff Seriously right, and I got to be like fully, well, is close to fully aware of what's going on without thinking about something in the background. That's why, therapeutically, people say gym is, you know, great for your mental health, because it kind of puts you outside of your thoughts. You have a weight above your head. You don't know what to drop. You're focusing on that right Now. Imagine if that weight was trying to attack you. That's why I love martial arts, because to me it is an exercise and I still lift weights okay. But that concept of being able to balance out your thoughts from one thing going on in your life to something else, it's tremendous for your mental health. So yeah, technically I do both of those right Weightlift and train martial arts and just say thank you again to the people that helped make it possible, from the first place that I started, which is this place called Travis's in Fort Worth, texas.

Speaker 1: 7:21

The second place, sweet, amazing people Marcelo Garcia's, specifically Rob Ables, and to current day, silverback Team Silverback, with Hugo and Vic and Eddie and all my teammates. You guys are so amazing and I'm learning judo and wrestling and if I'm lucky enough to get somebody on the ground, I get to do some jujitsu and, uh, everybody helped compile together what I am today. And for all of you, and especially my new team now, thank you so much. I appreciate you. You guys are the best, and everybody that I still connect with at Marcello's and even at Travis's. I still talk to people there. You're part of what makes me what I am today. So, thank you. Y'all. Have a beautiful day. Thank you again for your time. I'm Benja Waldron. Check me out. Peace.