In this video Luke explains what the general principles are for belt progression in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, BJJ. How long does it take to get to Black? How long on each belt?
Awesome vid. Not many people speak about the realistic expectation of a BB. Im a very new brown and feel like I would be happy to be there as long as possible. A lot of the BBs that I have trained with have had their Belt longer than I have been training for.
Being a semi competitive 3 day a week hobbyist, I’d say it will be a few years for me to see a colour belt. But I like being a white belt and it’s just fun learning.
Don't worry about it big fella, I'm a hobbyist and even though I try to compete like 4-5 times a year, I don't consider myself competitive and I'm still at white since my school doesn't do stripes. Just keep chipping at it and most importantly, enjoy it!
40 year old 9 month White Belt but with my high level Wrestling background, I regularly roll with the purple and brown belts on my weekend open rolls Which is the only time I can make it. More than likely, I will never get a belt promotion unless I sign up for Gracie combatives course and that’s not really my thing. What I do know is that I’ve gone five minute rounds feeling pretty even with those guys. When I roll with other white belts and blues, I can play and allow myself to be put in bad positions to work through it. I’d like to get the black belt someday but at this point, I’m happy just being able to roll and improve my game every chance I get. I love pulling the higher level guys aside and having them show me a position or a move that they may have caught me in or gave me trouble. they are always happy too share the knowledge as long as I don’t use it against them😂
Great video! The belts are definitely something to be proud of. You can look back in time at your hard work and effort. But no they don’t grant you special powers. That comes from hard work, good training and dedication. Way more important than a piece of fabric. If you enjoy sports then BJJ in a Gi can be just as challenging as in no-gi much like Judo is still an actively participated sport. If you win an ibjjf world championship absolute division you can be expedited (should be) to the next level. Much like Judo you can win a black belt rather than grade. Stay humble !
Do you think there is a correlation with lack of structure to belt progression ie lack of goals set with coach, unclear guidelines for ranks, lack of standardisation…and dropout rate? Would it help in a business sense to improve the white belt retention rate? Would that contribute to the sport growing? Thanks for the solid video 🙏
As a martial art, I think BJJ has two hierarchical systems; 1) people ranking each other on their level of the accumulation and expression of skill 2) a predatory ecosystem, who can kill who. As a geriatric blue belt I'd like to delude myself 1) rules but everybody knows where they stand in number 2). Most days in rolling I just hope most of the predators aren't hungry and just want to play with their food.
Good question. No mate. There is pre requisites for what rank can issue another rank. For instance a brown belt can only be given by a black. For degrees it jumps a few ahead.
Personally as a Judo balck and a BJJ purple and being in grappling for over 25 years with the experince of doing grappling from a young age and now starting to feel the affects of aging. I belive that the belts should be awarded agaisnt your personal potetial. So we shouldnt expect a 60 year old to be as proficient as a 25 year old with the same amount of mat time and all else being euqal. they may litrally not be able to do some of the more flexible guards at all, but for their age are and physical ability are they at say 70% of their potential ability? (picked a number out the air to represent black belt) if we are not considering soemones ability agaisnt their potential then it raises the question of what do we compare them agaisnt? surely this then makes the bar for getting a black belt waaaaay harder for smaller people, or women if we expect them to hit the same level of ability. Most people would agree that they wouldnt expect a woman or a small guy to be equal all round perfoamnce to a much larger man. so if we are happy to change the expectations due to size and gender then why not for age, injuries, disabilities etc. all the things that are essentially outside the control of the person doing the sport. in this instace you may have a 70 year old 40kg grandma whos done BJJ for 15 years since 55. could she get destroyed by basically evey fresh white belt male above 60kg on the mat... yes, but could she totally destroy any of the other old ladies and most of the guys at her nursing home...? dam right she could and thats why they would be deserving of a black belt. But to expect her to be able to be competent in every guard considering inverting and doing stuff like that would likley leave her unable to get out of bed for a month is nonsense in my opinion.
Awesome vid. Not many people speak about the realistic expectation of a BB. Im a very new brown and feel like I would be happy to be there as long as possible. A lot of the BBs that I have trained with have had their Belt longer than I have been training for.
Enjoy the ride my friend.
i love these lessons, great content 😊
You’re welcome
Being a semi competitive 3 day a week hobbyist, I’d say it will be a few years for me to see a colour belt. But I like being a white belt and it’s just fun learning.
Keep at it mate. The juice is worth the squeeze.
What’s your take on stripes and how many months between them?
Don't worry about it big fella, I'm a hobbyist and even though I try to compete like 4-5 times a year, I don't consider myself competitive and I'm still at white since my school doesn't do stripes. Just keep chipping at it and most importantly, enjoy it!
40 year old 9 month White Belt but with my high level Wrestling background, I regularly roll with the purple and brown belts on my weekend open rolls Which is the only time I can make it. More than likely, I will never get a belt promotion unless I sign up for Gracie combatives course and that’s not really my thing. What I do know is that I’ve gone five minute rounds feeling pretty even with those guys. When I roll with other white belts and blues, I can play and allow myself to be put in bad positions to work through it. I’d like to get the black belt someday but at this point, I’m happy just being able to roll and improve my game every chance I get. I love pulling the higher level guys aside and having them show me a position or a move that they may have caught me in or gave me trouble. they are always happy too share the knowledge as long as I don’t use it against them😂
Great video! The belts are definitely something to be proud of. You can look back in time at your hard work and effort. But no they don’t grant you special powers. That comes from hard work, good training and dedication. Way more important than a piece of fabric. If you enjoy sports then BJJ in a Gi can be just as challenging as in no-gi much like Judo is still an actively participated sport. If you win an ibjjf world championship absolute division you can be expedited (should be) to the next level. Much like Judo you can win a black belt rather than grade. Stay humble !
Absolutely mate.
Do you think there is a correlation with lack of structure to belt progression ie lack of goals set with coach, unclear guidelines for ranks, lack of standardisation…and dropout rate? Would it help in a business sense to improve the white belt retention rate? Would that contribute to the sport growing? Thanks for the solid video 🙏
Great video.
So that was the Brown belt you had at FCC 😲.
Good times.
Cheers mate. Yea sir. Got that belt well over 10 years ago.
Man i’m so excited to get my first stripe one day 🤣
Got my first stripe today😄 coach i feel dangerous 😂😂
As a martial art, I think BJJ has two hierarchical systems; 1) people ranking each other on their level of the accumulation and expression of skill 2) a predatory ecosystem, who can kill who. As a geriatric blue belt I'd like to delude myself 1) rules but everybody knows where they stand in number 2). Most days in rolling I just hope most of the predators aren't hungry and just want to play with their food.
Solid hypothesis mate.
For your 3rd degree will you put the stripe on your belt yourself or will you have someone else do it?
Good question. No mate. There is pre requisites for what rank can issue another rank. For instance a brown belt can only be given by a black. For degrees it jumps a few ahead.
I would have liked if you also actually stole the whiteboard from James. That would have been amazing.
Next time I see him I will.
Personally as a Judo balck and a BJJ purple and being in grappling for over 25 years with the experince of doing grappling from a young age and now starting to feel the affects of aging. I belive that the belts should be awarded agaisnt your personal potetial.
So we shouldnt expect a 60 year old to be as proficient as a 25 year old with the same amount of mat time and all else being euqal. they may litrally not be able to do some of the more flexible guards at all, but for their age are and physical ability are they at say 70% of their potential ability? (picked a number out the air to represent black belt)
if we are not considering soemones ability agaisnt their potential then it raises the question of what do we compare them agaisnt? surely this then makes the bar for getting a black belt waaaaay harder for smaller people, or women if we expect them to hit the same level of ability. Most people would agree that they wouldnt expect a woman or a small guy to be equal all round perfoamnce to a much larger man. so if we are happy to change the expectations due to size and gender then why not for age, injuries, disabilities etc. all the things that are essentially outside the control of the person doing the sport.
in this instace you may have a 70 year old 40kg grandma whos done BJJ for 15 years since 55. could she get destroyed by basically evey fresh white belt male above 60kg on the mat... yes, but could she totally destroy any of the other old ladies and most of the guys at her nursing home...? dam right she could and thats why they would be deserving of a black belt.
But to expect her to be able to be competent in every guard considering inverting and doing stuff like that would likley leave her unable to get out of bed for a month is nonsense in my opinion.