Belts between White and Blue

Thanks for the feedback all. It is a BJJ exclusive school, not TJJ and the classes are mostly adults (with some family classes too). The instructors lineage is very good, and the place seems really legit. I don't want to trash them or anything I was just interested if other places had similar things. I think what most folks said seems pretty accurate and it's probably a way to keep folks engaged.
 
I'm not a fan of belts between the traditional ranks, but I have a lot bigger problem with schools that hand out blue belts like they are candy. Blue used to mean something. Now half of them should still be white. Guys are getting blue in 6 months. I can understand if you hold rank in Judo and maybe if you are a stud wrestler and dedicate yourself to your bottom game, but a blue belt should have all the basics. They should know what to do in every position. Lots of blues now have decent top or bottom games, but they are lost when they get in certain situations. You might not be able to implement, but you should know what you are supposed to do and have a 3-4 options for the basic positions. Sorry to rant off topic
 
What I don't get is, white to blue is usually the shortest time for a promotion (maybe brown to black can be shorter). Why would there be a need to put another belt in between?
Brown to black is the longest time between promotions at my school. I watched people go from white to purple in the time I had my brown.
 
I personally don't like the green belts. They have them at the school I'm attending now. It does give good seperation between white belts and good white belts; but I just like the traditional jump from white to blue better. It takes more time and is a true accomplishment.
 
Brown to black is the longest time between promotions at my school. I watched people go from white to purple in the time I had my brown.

Yeah, this seems to depend on the school. My previous instructor was a brown for several years. At the current place where I train (Gracie Barra), blue belt is definitely the belt that takes the longest to get promoted from. They say you gotta wait 5 months between stripes for a blue belt, while at purple and brown it's 3-4 months.
 
Okay....so I got the details between White and Blue there are 3 belts, Yellow Orange and Green. I've done some looking around and cannot find any other gyms that do this for adults. Does anyone's gym have this system?
 
It's done in some parts of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. There's a yellow belt after the white belt there. I think you can't do americanas or omoplatas as a white belt in Minas, but I might be insanely wrong. I've been to a tournament where a guy from there was competing. He was a huge fat dude with a deep hole-like scar in his stomach, probably in his mid 30s, and was a yellow belt. Won the whole thing without missing a beat.
 
Brown to black is the longest time between promotions at my school. I watched people go from white to purple in the time I had my brown.

Yeah, this seems to depend on the school. My previous instructor was a brown for several years. At the current place where I train (Gracie Barra), blue belt is definitely the belt that takes the longest to get promoted from. They say you gotta wait 5 months between stripes for a blue belt, while at purple and brown it's 3-4 months.

Yeah, what happened to the "average" 1-2-3-4, 10 year rule to get to black?

1 year at white to get to blue
2 years at blue to get to purple
3 years at purple to get to brown
4 years at brown to get to black

That used to be the "typical" standard that everyone used to quote? Actually took longer for most, especially Cesar students :wink:, but it was one of those easy, "this is what a dedicated, skilled, practitioner might be able to expect," kind of things?
 
Green, or "High White" inbetween White and Blue for adults is increasingly common. Check out the instructor's credentials, and don't let the belts scare you off. lots of great schools do this now.
 
What I don't get is, white to blue is usually the shortest time for a promotion (maybe brown to black can be shorter). Why would there be a need to put another belt in between?

That really depends on the gym. At ours white to blue and blue to purple seem to be about equal at ~3yrs.
 
Okay....so I got the details between White and Blue there are 3 belts, Yellow Orange and Green. I've done some looking around and cannot find any other gyms that do this for adults. Does anyone's gym have this system?

My gym recently changed over to a multiple-belt system for white belts from traditional stripes. I believe the thinking behind a system like this is to keep certain people motivated and attending class who might otherwise quit without kudos. Obviously this stops when someone's achieved their blue, but the hope is that they'll be doing BJJ for BJJ's sake at that point, and not for the belt.
 
My school is white to blue for adults. The kids get yellow and orange.

The adult white belts don't get any stripes. So yeah you kinda have to check how old/worn someones belt or gi is to figure how long they have been training as a white belt LoL.
 
It all sounds complicated, but I guess if they are charging 120$ per a month getting new belts may give those students gratification or a sense of accomplishment and then they keep paying that high premium.
 
I'm pretty sure that is the format at the University of Jiu Jitsu in San Diego (Saulo & Xande Ribeiro) if I remember right. It could also be that the club in question has two belt streams: a) in-house system and b) certified BJJ rank.
 
id assume some schools add green belts because students get frustrated being white for so long
ive been white forever , since it was a long time before i trained regularly but personally i dont care
i think i want to wear my white belt until its destroyed
 
all schools that I've ever been to that have a kids program have yellow, orange and green belts but as someone stated before a lot of schools use the green belt inbetween white and blue.

For what it's worth when I open my school I'll have the green in between white and blue

not trying to hijack the thread... but, may I ask why?

I'm also curious. Is it to keep people motivated and student retention higher?
 
I'm also curious. Is it to keep people motivated and student retention higher?

This, it gives someone a tangible reward which seems to work fairly well where being materialistic is the norm.
 
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