My Journey to blackbelt... Reposted from facebook (as requested)

[Michael McGuire]

Congrats Cade.

[Will Thaxton]

cool story, congrats!

[Matt Wallace]

That was such a great breakdown of one man's journey. Thanks for sharing that and no shame in being real with your emotion!

[Tony Toffolo]

This is great shit right here.

[FRANK BARCA]

Cade, so well deserved. You inspired me the first time I arrived in LA in 2006. Your approach to the game on the mat and in life reflects so many amazing things about you and I am proud to be your classmate and look forward to more rolling and learning with you next time I am in LA or someday here downunder. You always have time for me and many others, and your shit always works for me too

I appreciate your honest words and heartfelt determination. Like so many of us, we understand many of the feelings and thoughts you have had. Thanks for sharing them with us

[DanielJensen]

Truly inspiring!

[Stone]

Amazing story Cade, as many have already stated, I was moved by your words. Congratulations and good luck on continuing the journey.

[The kza]

thanks for putting in the time to write that

[cade]

Thanks you all so VERY much for the kind words and love. I am truly touched. These last few days have been very surreal...

I wrote this "article" because I have not forgotten where I came from. I can easily close my eyes and remember very clearly my first 3 years of training. I remember my thoughts and feelings very well. As i gained rank in belts I would watch people come in and train. I could read peoples faces and see their frustration and self doubt in some of them. I always seek these people out and train with them. I would have this same formula I would roll with them and do a lot of positioning and not try and tap them unless it was very obviously there. I would let them maneuver around me and I would counter. After the training session I would always have the same conversation. "How long you been training for?" "How do you like it?"

Responses would be "It is hard, I am not very good, its frustrating, I am getting beat up a lot, I am humbled, etc." I would then tell them my story and I always threw in "It took me 2 years to tap my first opponent." Then I would say some thing like "Listen I am happy to help you and will answer any questions you may have." and we would go from there.

On a side note the first question 80% of people seem to have is "How do I start?" or "What should I do when we start sparing?" They don't know the best way to start their free roll. So maybe some coaches out there who are teaching beginners can start incorporating this? To continue this side note I normally tell this person that they have to find what game they want to play. Then from there work their "path." For example I started by butt scooting and then just grabbing my opponents left arm. I did not know what I was doing but I figured most people are right handed and that I would have an easier time controlling that hand/arm. for months I just latched on and saw where it would take me. Slowly arm drags, rolling omaplatas, and sweeps started to emerge.

Anyway back to the point of my reply here. I wanted to write the article so that those people (especially small guys) who are feeling the same things I felt know that it is a normal process. That we can make through.

I also wrote it because I wanted to thank Master Bravo and the others who influenced me. Eddie gets a lot of flak from many branches of the Jiu Jitsu communities. Even I do not agree 100% with his beliefs. However as a teacher Eddie has done what 3 other Brazilians could not. And that was teach me to be a good JJ practitioner. People may get mired in Eddie's philosophies and beliefs but they are missing a very important fact. HE IS AN EXCELLENT TEACHER. This is what frustrates me most on the haters. Fine hate him for whatever reason but they should respect him as a teacher/professor/sensie/master/instructor.

I trained with some black belts and I was always surprised when a student would come up and ask "hey what about __________ technique?" and the instructor would flippantly say "oh that does not work." It would be a technique that I knew for a fact work. I would ask some questions and the black belt would just say "I don't use it. it does not work for me." To me this was silly. I would never tell a student not to use a technique because I did not use it. The thing I like about Eddie is he will readily admit that he does not use it but never bash it an in fact encourage students to learn more about it and teach it to him.

I am just blabbing away here and could do so forever.

Again thank you all for making this very special moment in my life even more special. It is truly a wondrous experience and I can only hope that everyone reading this can do it as well. Being a black belt is going to take a while to get used to. Right now I can be doing anything and suddenly the thoughts pops into my head "whoa I am blackbelt!" It is true the though cam to me last night as I was pooping.. Pretty cool huh?

~Cade

[Matthias Sieber]

Blab more! I can always learn from it and as you've seen you're inspiring a lot of people.

For this deCADE (there's another example for your first name) my goal is to get that "whoa I am black belt" phenomenon while pooping. I like that.