In a conversation on the Lex Fridman Podcast, jiu-jitsu black belt and UFC star Ryan Hall challenged one of the most common assumptions in martial arts: that earning a black belt is primarily about talent, athleticism, or natural ability.
According to Hall, none of those qualities are what ultimately determine who reaches the highest rank. Instead, he believes the deciding factor is persistence.
Hall pointed to a quote from former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge that has shaped his own philosophy.
“Determination, persistence is the only thing that will win in the end,” Hall said. “Not brilliance, not toughness, not education. Having the belief that no matter what happens to me, I will proceed forward and figure out how to make this happen.”
That mindset sounds straightforward, but Hall explained that living it out is anything but easy. He describes jiu-jitsu as a philosophy expressed through physical movement, one that teaches practitioners to flow around resistance instead of meeting it head-on.
Improving requires years of being controlled, submitted, and humbled, often by opponents who are bigger, stronger, and more experienced. When progress feels slow and the discomfort becomes constant, many people simply stop showing up.
For Hall, that is where the real separation happens. The athletes who seem destined for greatness early on are not always the ones who earn a black belt.
He noted that naturally gifted competitors who dominate tournaments at blue belt often struggle later in their journey. Once the competition becomes tougher at brown and black belt, they can lose motivation if winning was their primary reason for training.
By contrast, Hall believes the people who ultimately earn the rank are often those who quietly stay consistent for years. They train a couple of times each week, navigate marriages, children, career changes, injuries, and life’s other responsibilities, yet continue returning to the mats long after the spotlight has moved elsewhere.
Hall also drew an important distinction between being taught and being coached, arguing that the two are often confused.
An instructor, he explained, provides information and techniques. A coach, however, invests in the individual behind the student, understanding when to apply pressure, when to ease off, and how to help that person grow over time.
“A coach is a relationship that gets developed,” Hall said.
Without that relationship, Hall believes many students end up accumulating techniques without ever learning how to think through movement. They become, as he put it, “move collectors,” people who can memorize sequences but never develop a deeper understanding of jiu-jitsu.
Hall’s wife, Jen, who is also a black belt, shared her own experience with nearly walking away from the sport. After tearing her shoulder in 2012, she missed competition for another year and seriously considered quitting.
What ultimately changed her mind was not a motivational speech or a breakthrough performance. Instead, it was reconnecting with training partners, traveling, and rediscovering that she genuinely loved practicing jiu-jitsu for its own sake.
Hall believes that kind of honest self-reflection is something many people never force themselves to confront.
