Getting Promoted in BJJ too quickly :(

Very true. Beating up on blues is fun sometimes but it gets old. A thing that another brown belt and I do is to pick a specific submission for each other that is only thing we can use that night. If you can only get left arm omoplatas then it forces you to be creative with setups.

The ridiculous YouTube videos and gym stories with white and blue belts submitting black belts can't be taken seriously. If the lower belt does the setup correctly then I'll tap even if I can get out. That's all you are seeing in those situations.

Will be stealing this for next week. I love it. Go-Go or nothing......
 
In Japan, you can earn your BB via batsugun which requires to win 3 matches in a row .
Judo BB are not earned via technical exam .
That would be the 1st dan only (since in Japan there is no other belts but white and then directly 1st dan).
To win 2nd dan, you need to win against 10 guys, who have 1st dan.
To win 3rd dan, you need 10 wins against 2nd dan guys.
What that means, is that you are going against seasoned competitors at that point.
And yes, you always have a technical exam, which is the kata test.
Judo and Sambo have maybe the best grading systems out there- based on results only.
 
In NZ, they started to do batsugun after a major competition.
I think you have to win 6 in a row unlike kodokan which I think is just 3.
 
Yeah belts are a real weird thing in BJJ and they're so different gym to gym.

Honestly it sounds like your coach is promoting a little fast but that's his prerogative.

My coach promotes slow. He's super legit. some people would even accuse him of sandbagging but it's not that he just wants each belt to mean a certain thing. He's promoted a couple of guys to Brown but as far as I know he's never promoted anyone to Black. Academy just opened 2 years ago. but he's got very high standards for black belt as well, he laughs at a lot of black belts.

going back to your coach I do think it's kind of a strange thing that if you just keep showing up you're going to get black belt after 7 years. just doesn't seem right. My first coach train for 10 years straight, and was an instructor for probably six or seven of those years, and was doing very well against high level black belts in the gym and in competition. Didn't matter. He was directly under Relson and with Relson, back then anyway, you are just going to do 10 years before your black belt.

I don't necessarily agree with any one of these cases. You have guys like caio terra and BJ Penn and kit Dale who managed to become world class in 4 years or less. I don't see how you don't give those guys a black belt.

I'm currently at my academy there are two guys that are white belts that I feel absolutely should be blue belts. My coach is reluctant to promote them because they've both been training less than a year. I think that's more of a testament to his coaching and the system he's developed. people come in from other academies for open mats and these guys are smashing some of the blues and hanging with purples. one of them can catch me in footlocks sometimes if I screw around and start playing footsie with him lol.

In conclusion belts are gay


the comparisons with old school ways arent that great tho. There is so much more info and knowledge available to practitioners today that they can advance at a rate people simply couldnt even 10-15-20 years ago.

People act like blues are worse now than back then but i HIGHLY doubt that. Infact the best blues now could probably run shop in competition against higher belts of yesteryear.
 
I started at a new club a few months ago. I was told they had gradings every 6 months. You pay your $50, attend the grading, get your stripe or belt. At that rate it will take at least 2.5 years and $250 to go from one belt to the next. No faster because you can only get one stripe at a time. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’m not crazy about paying for a piece of tape on my belt. I kinda like it the way it is at some other clubs where the instructor might say at the end of class, “Hey, give yourself a stripe, you’ve been looking good.”
 
I think you have to win 6 in a row unlike kodokan which I think is just 3.
Depends on the grade- 2nd dan is 10.
Direct Kodokan tournaments even have once a year promotion, where you can get as many dans as you want, if you are capable to beat 6 guys in a raw (6 1st dans, to get 2nd dan promotion), then continue with 6 guys, 2nd dan, to get 3rd dan grade and so on.
I have seen a guy going through 12 people, to get 3rd dan. It took him about 20 min.

I dont know about NZ batsugun.
Is James still planning to go to the Olympics?
 
Depends on the grade- 2nd dan is 10.
Direct Kodokan tournaments even have once a year promotion, where you can get as many dans as you want, if you are capable to beat 6 guys in a raw (6 1st dans, to get 2nd dan promotion), then continue with 6 guys, 2nd dan, to get 3rd dan grade and so on.
I have seen a guy going through 12 people, to get 3rd dan. It took him about 20 min.

I dont know about NZ batsugun.
Is James still planning to go to the Olympics?

James is into creating a bjj gi brand nowdays.
 
I started at a new club a few months ago. I was told they had gradings every 6 months. You pay your $50, attend the grading, get your stripe or belt. At that rate it will take at least 2.5 years and $250 to go from one belt to the next. No faster because you can only get one stripe at a time. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’m not crazy about paying for a piece of tape on my belt. I kinda like it the way it is at some other clubs where the instructor might say at the end of class, “Hey, give yourself a stripe, you’ve been looking good.”
McDojo alert. Fifty bucks for a piece of tape? How about I keep my fifty and you go fuck yourself?
 
McDojo alert. Fifty bucks for a piece of tape? How about I keep my fifty and you go fuck yourself?

This. Id never pay a cent for grading, let them keep me a no stripe white forever for all I care.
 
McDojo alert. Fifty bucks for a piece of tape? How about I keep my fifty and you go fuck yourself?
It weird, because he is a good teacher; I really enjoy his classes and want to keep going to his club, but this whole paying for stripes thing bugs me. Probably if I don’t go to the grading I’ll have to find a new place to train.
 
If you are a competitor, getting promoted just before you feel you are ready is actually good for your development. In my observations, more students have been hurt by getting promoted too slow than getting promoted too fast. The best performing BJJ academies in tournaments regularly promote their students at average to faster than average intervals. The academies that are known to promote their students extra slow usually have average to below average success in tournaments.
What do you think is the reason for this
 
It weird, because he is a good teacher; I really enjoy his classes and want to keep going to his club, but this whole paying for stripes thing bugs me. Probably if I don’t go to the grading I’ll have to find a new place to train.

I dunno is the coaching good? Is what you end up paying (including grading) reasonable?
Because beyond that it’s semantics. I get it feels weird but coaches are coaches/practitioners first and as far as business goes they are just winging it...
 
I dunno is the coaching good? Is what you end up paying (including grading) reasonable?
Because beyond that it’s semantics. I get it feels weird but coaches are coaches/practitioners first and as far as business goes they are just winging it...
Yeah, his instruction is very good, no complaints there. I’d just never heard of anyone being charged for a stripe. I’ll probably end up going but won’t tell my wife I paid $50 for 2 inches of tape.
 
I know this is a topic that is done to death, but I can't help but remain concerned over this.

At my academy, if you come and train at least 3 times a week, you will get your blue at 1 year and purple at 3 years, brown at 5, and black at 7 years.

I'm pretty consistent, train 4 - 5 times a week, and now as a 4 stripe blue I am basically 4-5 months away from getting my purple which makes it exactly 3 years to get purple.

There is no question my professor is legit as hell, multiple Pan am and even a Worlds no-gi gold. Countless smaller comp wins.

I've only competed 4 times so far, all as blue. Got a gold, two silvers, and a bronze. So I do all right against other academies I guess, but not stellar by any means.

At what point is getting a belt in BJJ too quick to be considered a fake, mcDojo belt? is getting a purple at 3 years a joke? I am hardly a phenom at all, pretty decent but nothing special.

Basically, based on your experience and thoughts, what would you consider as the most legit number of years to get to each belt? And any less than that number you would consider that person to be not as legit?

Speaking of normal people, not prodigies who compete and medal 12 times a year.

Thanks!

It's ok to be nervous, hesitant about getting zeh purple, I know I was. But accept it and let it motivate you. If you are doing well with blues then at worst you will be at the bottom of the purples. 3 years 4 plus times a week sounds like you deserve it. It's a lie even of cloth, train!!!
 
3 yrs at white (3x a week, no comps). 3 yrs at blue (4-5x a week, +comps every 2-3 mo). 3 yrs at purple (2-3x a week, no comps). 5 yrs at brown (4x a week, +comps every 2-3 mo for last 2 yrs).

If I was doing 4-5x week +regular comps, might have gone quicker. Or might have gone slower if the bar went up. Never really thought about whether I got it too early or too late, since my training and comp frequency varied from belt to belt. Just left it up to the instructor...
 
3 yrs at white (3x a week, no comps). 3 yrs at blue (4-5x a week, +comps every 2-3 mo). 3 yrs at purple (2-3x a week, no comps). 5 yrs at brown (4x a week, +comps every 2-3 mo for last 2 yrs).

If I was doing 4-5x week +regular comps, might have gone quicker. Or might have gone slower if the bar went up. Never really thought about whether I got it too early or too late, since my training and comp frequency varied from belt to belt. Just left it up to the instructor...

Holy ****. So in other words you got your blue at same time I would be getting a purple
 
Not it really matter but I tend to stick around 2.5 years per belts.
So 10 years to BB.
Of course, I don't sand bag but still follow ibjjf minimum requirements.
 
What are you concerned about specifically? If your instructor is legit and you are hanging well in competition what is the problem.

I would understand if you said you visited another gym and got smoked by the higher level white belts, but sounds like you are hanging with your peers?

So competition is validating you , your coach is validating you, why in the heck(excuse my language) would you concern yourself with sherdogs opinion.
 
What are you concerned about specifically? If your instructor is legit and you are hanging well in competition what is the problem.

I would understand if you said you visited another gym and got smoked by the higher level white belts, but sounds like you are hanging with your peers?

So competition is validating you , your coach is validating you, why in the heck(excuse my language) would you concern yourself with sherdogs opinion.
 
What are you concerned about specifically? If your instructor is legit and you are hanging well in competition what is the problem.

I would understand if you said you visited another gym and got smoked by the higher level white belts, but sounds like you are hanging with your peers?

So competition is validating you , your coach is validating you, why in the heck(excuse my language) would you concern yourself with sherdogs opinion.

I suppose. Just see a lot of talk on here of McDojos and BJJ being watered down etc. Naturally if you put this much time, effort, and resources into something you want to make sure you are getting something at the end that is legit.

Plus here is the main thing: I've only ever stepped foot inside one academy. My experience with different academies and what is "standard" BJJ training, promoting, etc is pretty much confined to the bubble that is my own academy. This place helps to expand out of that bubble a bit.
 
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