Belt Systems need to go away

Snolla

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I've been running into some real assholes who have black belts on lately. I could elaborate on my personal situation but it would be redundant. I find more ego's in the higher ranks in belt systems than I ever saw in my 6 years kickboxing.

A black belt the other day at my BJJ club tried to get me to admit to him that he "is capable of doing anything he wants to me" when the truth is this....

Perhaps sir, you could defeat me in a dual. However, with my training in other arts of the martial variety I'd advise you against it. You sir are a competent BJJ practitioner, but in the words of the great Mike Perry "I am a black belt with these hands."

Look, I don't think I'm that dangerous. I do have years of training in kickboxing/boxing with one full contact bout which leads me to believe that is this 45 year old man who only has grappling tried to "do anything to me"... he might get KTFO ....

That is one example of it, but I don't think the belts do anything good for anyone and should have never been adopted to begin with. The white belt was originally meant to hold a GI on and became black after years of training. Not this multicolored, hand out, club politic based, ego inflating garbage it has become.
 
sounds like someone didn't get the promotion they hoped for
I considered putting an InB4 "people accuse me of being salty about my rank" but I thought it would take at least a few more posts from people to go there :D
 
I don't understand why you're crying about belts when it's clear even without belts the other guy is a much better grappler than you and that's why he could say what he did to you.
 
Wasn't the belt system put in place by Kano Jigoro just for his personal record of his own students?

I hear he adopted the color designations from a swim team?

In any case, belts can be a distraction, if people don't have the maturity and can't get over themselves.

That is why I prefer no gi. They have the colored rash guards but people rarely wear them on a regular.

I just like to train. The skills will become evident through training.
 
I don't understand why you're crying about belts when it's clear even without belts the other guy is a much better grappler than you and that's why he could say what he did to you.

Yep, he is a better grappler. He is a black belt in BJJ and I'm a blue belt in BJJ.
He has no experience in striking whatsoever and I have years of that.
He meant it as in a fight, not a bjj match. He genuinely believes that his black belt in BJJ makes him able to "do whatever he wants" to other grown ass men.
If I have to explain to you the ridiculousness of this statement then I don't know what else to say to you.
 
Wasn't the belt system put in place by Kano Jigoro just for his personal record of his own students?

I hear he adopted the color designations from a swim team?

In any case, belts can be a distraction, if people don't have the maturity and can't get over themselves.

That is why I prefer no gi. They have the colored rash guards but people rarely wear them on a regular.

I just like to train. The skills will become evident through training.

Thank you for being the first to create a real response unlike the other two genius' in the thread so far. It has been bugging me for a few weeks how this black belt has been carrying himself and I did have to speak to the head instructor about it. Some more bullshit happened last night in training. I always felt this way about the belts, but an arrogant black belt has just reminded me of why I feel this way about the belts.
 
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I've been running into some real assholes who have black belts on lately. I could elaborate on my personal situation but it would be redundant. I find more ego's in the higher ranks in belt systems than I ever saw in my 6 years kickboxing.

A black belt the other day at my BJJ club tried to get me to admit to him that he "is capable of doing anything he wants to me" when the truth is this....

Perhaps sir, you could defeat me in a dual. However, with my training in other arts of the martial variety I'd advise you against it. You sir are a competent BJJ practitioner, but in the words of the great Mike Perry "I am a black belt with these hands."

Look, I don't think I'm that dangerous. I do have years of training in kickboxing/boxing with one full contact bout which leads me to believe that is this 45 year old man who only has grappling tried to "do anything to me"... he might get KTFO ....

That is one example of it, but I don't think the belts do anything good for anyone and should have never been adopted to begin with. The white belt was originally meant to hold a GI on and became black after years of training. Not this multicolored, hand out, club politic based, ego inflating garbage it has become.

Call him out and tap him in front of his peers, then hold your head high and be smug to him when ever you see him

either that or just ignore him and focus on yourself and your training
 
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I've been running into some real assholes who have black belts on lately. I could elaborate on my personal situation but it would be redundant. I find more ego's in the higher ranks in belt systems than I ever saw in my 6 years kickboxing.

A black belt the other day at my BJJ club tried to get me to admit to him that he "is capable of doing anything he wants to me" when the truth is this....

Perhaps sir, you could defeat me in a dual. However, with my training in other arts of the martial variety I'd advise you against it. You sir are a competent BJJ practitioner, but in the words of the great Mike Perry "I am a black belt with these hands."

Look, I don't think I'm that dangerous. I do have years of training in kickboxing/boxing with one full contact bout which leads me to believe that is this 45 year old man who only has grappling tried to "do anything to me"... he might get KTFO ....

That is one example of it, but I don't think the belts do anything good for anyone and should have never been adopted to begin with. The white belt was originally meant to hold a GI on and became black after years of training. Not this multicolored, hand out, club politic based, ego inflating garbage it has become.

Oh wow, that's insane.

I've actually seen a black belt choose to wear a white belt in class. He is super humble, and he doesn't too much care for the attention he gets with the blackbelt on. He'd rather just train in his mind. He even asks guys questions to see if he can gain a new perspective from other people. He is also foreign, so I don't know if that plays a part in it. Perhaps his upbringing? Who knows.
 
Thank you for being the first to create a real response unlike the other two genius' in the thread so far. It has been bugging me for a few weeks how this black belt has been carrying himself and I did have to speak to the head instructor about it. Some more bullshit happened last night in training. I always felt this way about the belts, but an arrogant black belt has just reminded me of why I feel this way about the belts.

Lol I hear you.

Maybe you should switch academies, and find one that is more your liking? Gym culture is everything man. It may be different than what you're accustomed, but I have loved my experiences with a Ribeiro affiliated gym, and 10th Planet. I don't know if that is a universal thing, but gym culture is everything.

10th Planet guys have always been chill from my experiences. Again, the Ribeiro gym was cool as well, they were too busy shark tanking and getting ready for comps to try and talk crap to people. lol
 
Yep, he is a better grappler. He is a black belt in BJJ and I'm a blue belt in BJJ.
He has no experience in striking whatsoever and I have years of that.
He meant it as in a fight, not a bjj match. He genuinely believes that his black belt in BJJ makes him able to "do whatever he wants" to other grown ass men.
If I have to explain to you the ridiculousness of this statement then I don't know what else to say to you.


Seems a weird thing to come up in a conversation.
Is there any chance you have been the gym idiot and he was calling you out on destroying the new guys or head hunting older practitioners?

Maybe he is just a wanker, but there is usually two sides to a story.

Is it directed at anyone else?
I have seen similar in the past with higher belts giving people a friendly reminder to chill out a bit when they are rolling with certain people?
They either take the hint, get destroyed and learn from it or they quit the sport.

Otherwise just tell him to chill out and don't train with him in the future.
 
Yep, he is a better grappler. He is a black belt in BJJ and I'm a blue belt in BJJ.
He has no experience in striking whatsoever and I have years of that.
He meant it as in a fight, not a bjj match. He genuinely believes that his black belt in BJJ makes him able to "do whatever he wants" to other grown ass men.
If I have to explain to you the ridiculousness of this statement then I don't know what else to say to you.

Unless you wrestled, i would have to agree with him. Both from personal experience and the evidence of the early ufcs. So unless you trained mma, you have one chance to knock him out. Evem with his basic bjj takedowns, you are toast.

That is unless you wreslted/trained mma.
 
My money is on the black belt beating a blue belt who knows how to kick box.
 
Knock him out, make him humble
iron-sheik-gif-5.gif
 
Sounds annoying but I don't think it's the fault of the belt. Like, if you had the same skill differential in wrestling (blue - black) and were in a wrestling gym, this type of person would probably say the same thing...

I don't have a belt in anything as I've almost entirely spent my time in mma gyms, but I think they have a lot of good aspects too. For one, legitimacy of coaching - if I see someone got a black belt from a pretty respectable coach, I don't have to worry too much about his teachings being crap. I bet that's real useful for people who want to open their own gym without necessarily being worlds level competitors.
 
I dont fully agree with this but i do share some experience with the negatives of the system.

Ive seen the effects of a egomaniac using his power to promote people for personal gains.
Nothing to creepy but still some blatant sand bagging for some and the opposite for others.

There was no clear definition of how to get promoted at that place.
Some people lived on the mats and won a shitton of comps without getting a new belt.
Others kissed ass and became the teachers pet and got quicker promotion.
Idk maybe there was money involved but i never saw it.


Its a tough situation, i see some good benefits of having some kind of ranking of skill in the art.
However the hierarky does promote corruption and power struggles for some people who cant handle either being above or below other people.
 
Unless you were doing pro kickboxing and not just cardio kickboxing, 6 years or kickboxing means jack shit. Size and age + your belt will probably weight more vs a blackbelt in a fight. And there’s a really easy way to settle this, “just say to him, “well let’s find out” put on some mma gloves and do some sparring after class.. nothing wrong with that
 
It takes a Dojo/club to make a BB is what a chief instructor told me once. There's BB's who lord over others and BB's who're psyched to shepard the new breed up to the level that you can help train with. I always look out for the prospects that can challenge me and I can kick the shit out of safely.

Sad thing is BJJ can't take it to the ground against mediocre TD defense, so don't sweat it, if you wanted to clean his clock you could in a heart beat.

Of course don't tell him you've trained anything else, because why give away a tactical advantage, just nod in agreement he's tougher than you and one good surprise opening from eating through a straw for three months.
 
I don't particularly care for belts that much. Never had them in wrestling and in Judo it was either national level, experienced, beginner.

I have met my fair share of assholes. Some of them wore a black piece of cloth around there waist, some wore white.

My experience with several (not all by any means) strikers is an ego learning curve. I can remember one guy in particular who would say after every take down "if I could just punch" after I passed his guard "man I need to be able to hit you". I started raising my fist in dominant positions and saying the exact same things. His take down defense was terrible and I have zero striking ability. I put gloves on one guy in particular. We came out, I pulled guard and he immediately tried to punch me, when he did his base was wide and I moved under and swept with xguard. Reality is I outrank him by several BB belt colors (he is a blue) and he could beat the hell out of me on the feet but he was in class to learn judo and bjj.

Moral of the story....the guy may be an ass and you may be too.
 
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