Percentage of BJJ players that get promoted to each belt?

[Zankou]

The belief that purple and brown belts will eventually make it to bb is wrong. I know heaps of them that dropped off along the way

This is true, but like I say it's almost always injuries/kids/job that chops it down. My super-rough guess is that about 1/3 of purples make brown, and about 3/4 of browns make black. Maybe higher on the latter .. more like 90%.

 

[Uchi Mata]

Anybody who makes purple belt has what it takes to make black belt, so the drop off is a lot less. The purples and browns who drop out, it is always one of two thing: Injury or rising time constraints (work/kids). Brown belts are already basically good enough to get black, they are just on probation, fixing a few things.

No question purple is the "real" belt in my book. Hardest to achieve, hardest to leave, fo sho.

Yeah, I recall an old instructor of mine saying that purple is the first belt where black belts would consider you legit, and where it would be a real loss to a school if you stopped training. It's interesting, because purple takes usually 4-5 years, which is about how long it takes to get a black belt in many martial arts (Judo, for example). In those arts, black belt means that you know pretty much all the moves and can execute them competently, though you're no master. I think that actually describes purple pretty well...most purple belts I know have some familiarity with almost all BJJ positions, and rarely make stupid mistakes. But they're a long way from true experts, which in BJJ is black belt and in many other arts is more around 3rd dan (which takes about as long as BJJ's black).

 

[akdms]

This is my guess from 5 years of training at several schools and skimming my Facebook friends that train/used to train.

White belt: Around half will make it through the first month. Of those, about a third make it to blue.

Blue belt (16.5% of those that start): About a third will make it to purple. Most of those that drop will do so in their first year as blue. Those that make it longer then that tend to stick it out.

Purple belt (5.5% of those that start): About half make it to brown. This seems to be for three reasons:

1) life -- purple is where people need to be very dedicated and invest a lot more time. Up until this point you can pretty much just show up to class and drill whatever your instructor shows. After purple though it seems that you need to invest a lot of your time researching, planning, and drilling your own style (at least, this is how I see it as, as a purple myself). Also, a lot of life changes occurred between white and purple. People start grad school, get married, move, have kids, etc.

2) Lost interest -- I know a number of people who left for other martial arts where they felt they were progressing much faster. Progress at purple is much slower, especially if you are "top dog" at your school.

3) Injury -- I know a few people who dropped out due to injuries sustained right after getting their purple. Taking a few months off right getting purple is hard -- blue belts gun for you and there is the perception that a purple belt is an unbeatable jedi master, irregardless of injury, age, or difference in size.

Brown (2.75% of those that start): Almost everyone makes the jump from brown to black. I actually can't think of anyone who did not... Those that made it to this stage are incredibly dedicated and have just spend three to five years at purple alone, so that last year at brown is almost nothing. I'd say at least 80% make it to black.

Black (2.2% of those that start)


Note: All this is based on training at serious, established BJJ schools, with dedicated black belt instructors. There are a couple schools in my area, such as a university club and a couple other hobbyist schools mostly run by colored belts, where almost no one makes it to blue, and going past that requires training elsewhere. Including those schools, the numbers above would drop substantially from white to purple. Include those, maybe ~2% in my area make it to purple?

 

[RemyR]

I think it largely depends on what school you train at as well since numbers will probably vary greatly. My instructor where I train is super old school and is pretty reserved when it comes for promotions. There have been guys at my gym that were whites for 3+ years before getting their blue.

 

[Balto]

This is my guess from 5 years of training at several schools and skimming my Facebook friends that train/used to train.

White belt: Around half will make it through the first month. Of those, about a third make it to blue.

Blue belt (16.5% of those that start): About a third will make it to purple. Most of those that drop will do so in their first year as blue. Those that make it longer then that tend to stick it out.

Purple belt (5.5% of those that start): About half make it to brown. This seems to be for three reasons:

1) life -- purple is where people need to be very dedicated and invest a lot more time. Up until this point you can pretty much just show up to class and drill whatever your instructor shows. After purple though it seems that you need to invest a lot of your time researching, planning, and drilling your own style (at least, this is how I see it as, as a purple myself). Also, a lot of life changes occurred between white and purple. People start grad school, get married, move, have kids, etc.

2) Lost interest -- I know a number of people who left for other martial arts where they felt they were progressing much faster. Progress at purple is much slower, especially if you are "top dog" at your school.

3) Injury -- I know a few people who dropped out due to injuries sustained right after getting their purple. Taking a few months off right getting purple is hard -- blue belts gun for you and there is the perception that a purple belt is an unbeatable jedi master, irregardless of injury, age, or difference in size.

Brown (2.75% of those that start): Almost everyone makes the jump from brown to black. I actually can't think of anyone who did not... Those that made it to this stage are incredibly dedicated and have just spend three to five years at purple alone, so that last year at brown is almost nothing. I'd say at least 80% make it to black.

Black (2.2% of those that start)


Note: All this is based on training at serious, established BJJ schools, with dedicated black belt instructors. There are a couple schools in my area, such as a university club and a couple other hobbyist schools mostly run by colored belts, where almost no one makes it to blue, and going past that requires training elsewhere. Including those schools, the numbers above would drop substantially from white to purple. Include those, maybe ~2% in my area make it to purple?

These numbers seem the most accurate to me so far.

 

[Aprentice]

These numbers seem the most accurate to me so far.

I think those numbers are most accurate only if you dont count people who have been training less than 6-12 months

 

[Balto]

I think those numbers are most accurate only if you dont count people who have been training less than 6-12 months

New white belt attrition isn't that horrendous. Most of them will quit, but if the chance of making even blue belt is like 1/20 or worse, something is wrong with the gym.

Guys who quit before blue belt are the saddest I think. Their training time was wasted. I don't really think BJJ is useful before blue belt. At least it certainly doesn't live up to what was promised.

 

[anaconda]

Way off.

At higher ranks, it becomes much more likely that you will advance to the next rank. You have only 5% of brown belts becoming black belts. That is way off. It's probably more like 75%+.

The biggest drop off is from white to blue, then blue to purple is also pretty big, and from there it becomes much more likely that you will keep going up.

edit: misread the original

 

[Dirty Holt]

Way off.

At higher ranks, it becomes much more likely that you will advance to the next rank. You have only 5% of brown belts becoming black belts. That is way off. It's probably more like 75%+.

The biggest drop off is from white to blue, then blue to purple is also pretty big, and from there it becomes much more likely that you will keep going up.

I believe you misinterpreted the post. He is saying that .01% of all BJJ practitioners who start at white belt will make it to black belt. I would say the number gaps between brown and black should be close to even.

 

[claytongray]

New white belt attrition isn't that horrendous. Most of them will quit, but if the chance of making even blue belt is like 1/20 or worse, something is wrong with the gym.

Not if you include all those guys that come in for a free class and are never seen again.

 

[Lutador011]

I'm pretty sure no one ever made it to black belt

 

[lechien]

I'm pretty sure no one ever made it to black belt

who are you reffering to?

 

[Einarr]

I'm pretty sure no one ever made it to black belt

True. It's a myth widely propagated by 5-stripe brown belts.

 

[hXeNinja]

This is an interesting thread, actual facts would be good. I agree that a lot of white belts drop out and the higher the rank the more people will stick with it.

 

[akdms]

This is an interesting thread, actual facts would be good. I agree that a lot of white belts drop out and the higher the rank the more people will stick with it.

Problem is there's sadly not a lot of people on this forum that would have actual data. Not too many big school or brand owners come here. Might be a better question for the mma.tv forums. Guys like Scotty from OtM frequently post over there; they might know how many white belts they sold a couple years ago versus how many blue belts they sold this year, how many blue they sold a couple years ago versus purple now, etc.

Some instructors might keep data, but even that's biased since it's likely that only the good ones would.

 

[GuardGame]

When I first started Bjj my coach had just opened his school 2 months before. There were about 30 students. All white belts and like 2 blue belts. One of those blues quit. The other made it to purple and had to stop because of work and family but still comes in every once in a while.

10 years later, 3 of us are black belts, 2 are browns, 2 are purples, and the rest quit before reaching blue.

Don't know if or how this helps but it's how it went down!

 

[lechien]

It sounds about right guard game..maybe the number of purple is a worrying sign.

after 10 years of training, we only made 3 homegrown BB (meaning they started from white belt).

the number varies and fluctuate trought the years but an average of 30 students will be correct.

Now with minimum 6 months contract, I am not too sure how many people went trought the program.

 

[hXeNinja]

When I first started Bjj my coach had just opened his school 2 months before. There were about 30 students. All white belts and like 2 blue belts. One of those blues quit. The other made it to purple and had to stop because of work and family but still comes in every once in a while.

10 years later, 3 of us are black belts, 2 are browns, 2 are purples, and the rest quit before reaching blue.

Don't know if or how this helps but it's how it went down!

That means 1/10 progressed to black, 2/15 progressed to brown as well as purple. All in all 7/30 actually stuck with JJ, they are fairly narrow odds.

 

[primaxopt]

In many ways, it actually makes sense to not progress past, say, purple. MMA is at least a part of the reason many, if not most, people practice BJJ. The marginal value of an additional hour of BJJ at purple belt is much lower than at white belt. If you think about it, we spend a lot of time on things that are not about combat effectiveness. Learning to use and pass guards like spider guard, DLR, etc are all less useful than rolling with punches, or learning takedowns and striking. It makes sense to at least be the equivalent of a blue belt at wrestling and judo and striking before plunging even further into BJJ. At least if you care about MMA in any way.

It actually makes sense to devote more time to other combat sports once you've leveled up sufficiently in BJJ. I for one would hate to be a brown belt who rarely does no gi, always pulls guard, rarely rolls with strikes, and doesn't know any striking. That's a woefully incomplete grappler and fighter.

 

[Knock Out Ned]

I made a blog post about this a few months back, even though it's not very scientific or anything: http://iloveleglocks.blogspot.kr/2013/03/whos-left.html



This picture is from 2004. Only three people in the picture made it to black belt. There's around sixty or more people in the picture.


Everyone is a white belt.