BJJ Ranking Requirements

[sk0t]

For all of you who part take in BJJ classes, what are you instructors/associations prmotion requirements...

For example:

White Belt

---getting stripes (what is required)

---then promotion to Blue (what is required)

And then so on throughout the ranks...

I am just curious to know, since there is No unified source for BJJ.

[makosub-wrestling]

not yet a blue belt yet but when it was explained after a meeting with all gracie barr schools work like this: you get a stripe every 25 classes after a hundred classes you can test for your blue and the same pattern for your purple. They did not explain how brown and black, we are a beginner class.

[d16turbohonda]

Wow a hundred classes would take a long time if you went to a school that offerd it only wice a week. It would take like a year to get your blue belt or somthing. Damn!

[sk0t]

A year doesnt really seem that long to me to wait until your blue belt.

[rb]

Blue belt is the thanks for showing up belt. Basically if you come 3-4 times a week, pay attention and get better you should have one in a year or two.

After that, it's going to be about 2 years or more a belt.

There are no tests. You drill, roll, compete and eventually teach a little to demonstrate your skills.

100 classes, I can see for a pretty mediorce blue. There is no way you have enough mat time for a purple after 200 total classes.

[makosub-wrestling]

There are no mediocre belts just teachers and student my teacher got his belts from Rolls and then Carlinios the son of Carlos Gracie, so if that is the system they feel is right it works for me. Also every student is different. If lets say you go to 4 classes a weak and nothing else and I only go to one class but cross train to help my cardio and study moves and counters daily then roll with my brother who is 6'4 250 lbs and I am 5'10 185 lbs, and he knows all my moves because i show him, who is to say I am not better than you. Being a better grapplier is not just skill or Royce and other BJJ guys would still be the best but they are not because the triangle and arm bar are not a secret anymore so now it is about the total of your skill, conditioning, heart, and experience and you can get all those outside of your class but if you add them to your class you will beat higher belts with ease.

[rb]

I'll try to be polite about this, but name droping from either of us would be futile. BJJ is a very young martial art so any black belt will have an impressive lineage.

Unless your classes are 4 hours long, 25 classes a stripe and 100 a belt is really low. By that standard even if you went casually at twice a week you'd be a purple in 2 years +- a couple of months!

When people decide they want to do a grappling martial art they don't realize how tough it is. The dropout rates are enormous . However running a school you need to pay the bills and most of it comes from the numerous lower belts. This is perhaps something that is counted on by instructors -not many will make it up the ranks. Holding them longer in higher ranks doesn't matter because they are the more dedicated ones.

A few comments on your routine. While rolling does take a certain level of fitness, conditioning should never be a big part of the lesson - that is something you do outside of class. Sometimes I do it on my own, sometimes I join with classmates. This keeps it varied and fresh.

I'm glad you are able to drill with your brother who sounds as dedicated as you. However, with respect if you are not even at blue belt level there is defintely a dillution of techniques as you try to teach them. At a club I can drill and be corrected by an instructor which I feel is a more efficient use of my time. Also a club offers many different body types, sizes and strategies. It's refreshing to use all technique on someone that is 80 lbs lighter or to see if you can survive the onslaught of a 300lb man determined to twist your arm off! I'm sure it's similar at your club because in mine I can square off against accomplished wrestlers, judoka, pure bjj and so on - it is different every practice.

As for your final comment - why are you studying bjj? If I want to get better at bjj, I study bjj. If I want to advance faster, I train longer and harder. That kills the components of skill, experience and to a degree conditioning. Heart, either you have it or you don't it's not a skill. The techniques of bjj are no secret as any judoka, jujutsuka would tell you. Even look at ancient pankrationists and you will see the secret bjj techniques. Despite talent, good learners etc, all people good at something have something in common - hard work

[makosub-wrestling]

I never thought you were anything but polite. And The more you train the better you are. My thought were just based on my experienced with wrestliers and those on my bigginers BJJ class and what I have found is that those who just learn from their class and only train in their class can be beat by those who train hard outside of class.