Can someone explain Cesar Gracie's promotion philosophy/standards?

I remember Renzo saying he was a purple belt for like 7 years or something.
 
Graunie said:
I remember Renzo saying he was a purple belt for like 7 years or something.
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I think it was Relson that said that his dad kept him at purple for 7 years.

But it was part of an interview in the Renzo Gracie Legacy doco.

I will have to rewatch again.
 
I think I remember Relson saying that in an interview or something. My instructors (Migliarese bros) were at certain belts for a long time as well, I think Rick was a blue for five years and phil a purple for five. (that purple belt is about as worn as it could possibly be I think. )
 
I'm on my 4th year as a purple so I concur with Cesar.

Better to be strict than too loose. And I spent 3 years to get my blue too.

Nowadays people seem to focus too much on belts and stripes and even make up new belts.
Maybe a sound business strategy to keep the chumps in for an extra 6 months to a year before they embrace another fad but it's the guys who don't care about belts and just fuckin' trains who will stay around.
 
350 lbs fist said:
Nowadays people seem to focus too much on belts and stripes and even make up new belts.
Maybe a sound business strategy to keep the chumps in for an extra 6 months to a year before they embrace another fad but it's the guys who don't care about belts and just fuckin' trains who will stay around.
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This I agree with.
 
12thJJ said:
This I agree with.
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That is why I like the grading style in Brasil.

Just one grading at the end of the year, it is free and no BS. People named get announced while everyone claps.

The rest of the year, you concentrate on training.

Gordo even awards his new belts at the xmas BBQ while wearing shorts. How cool is that!
 
^^I've been there for one of those. :)

Gordo's a great teacher and hella hard to roll with.

I liked Rommel Cardozo's
 
lechien said:
That is why I like the grading style in Brasil.

Just one grading at the end of the year, it is free and no BS. People named get announced while everyone claps.

The rest of the year, you concentrate on training.
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Thats how Ralph does it...well, sans the free part. And then you run the gauntlet. Getting promoted there hurts and gets expensive.
 
the standard at my old gym was 1.5-3yrs to blue belt and our only purple belt had been training 5 years under our instructor 6 years seems like forever
 
stile0 said:
Even though I'm still a white belt I kind of agree. I think the point is to not just be ready for blue, but to be smashing blue belts when you get promoted. I'm still a long ways off though. oh well.
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This would be impossible, unless what you really mean is "the point is not just be ready for blue, but to be smashing other school's blue belts when you get promoted." Excessively high standards can be just as meaningless as excessively low standards. (note: before I offend anybody from his gym, that's not a comment about Cesar's standards, as I've never trained with him and have no idea. It's just a general statement)
 
greedysob said:
This would be impossible, unless what you really mean is "the point is not just be ready for blue, but to be smashing other school's blue belts when you get promoted." Excessively high standards can be just as meaningless as excessively low standards. (note: before I offend anybody from his gym, that's not a comment about Cesar's standards, as I've never trained with him and have no idea. It's just a general statement)
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Look at the age of the post you're replying to.
 
Oh hey I was quoted. How long ago was this lol? I'm a blue belt now.. and I think everyone has their own time. I've seen people grow into their belts and others be long overdue. None of it really matters anymore.. Just show up and train.

I was a crazy white belt and still am a little bit crazy at blue. haha
 
This is a tough one for me, because you don't want to see the ranks get diluted (one thing I love about BJJ is that rank really means something, which is not really true in most other martial arts including Judo), but at the same time if you're keeping guys back because that's your thing, I'm not such a fan. To me at some point you're just keeping people out of the black belt club because you can.
 
One thing I will say is that its real competitive at Cesars and everyone is confident in their belt.For a short time I trained at another school and was shocked at the attitude of the guys there.Everyone was all about getting a stripe or a belt, but wasn't confident in their ability.I brought a friend by from Cesar's and nobody at his belt wanted to roll with him.Everybody watched him roll to gauge whether they were good enough to "take him" rolling.Although my friend was better than average at his belt, I was embarrassed when nobody at his belt level even wanted to roll with him even though there were guys much bigger.I ended up going back to Cesar's and guys there are much more competitive and confident about their ability.If a visitor comes by, quite a few gusy at his belt and below will be in a hurry to roll with him.Even if he smashed them(not likely), they would still love to roll with him.In the long run I like how Cesar does it.He ignores time on mat and promotes solely on merit and ability.Recently he promoted a guy to Blue(ex wrestler) after like 4 months.The guy would beast on most Purples though.
 
All I want to know is; When am I going to get my coral belt??!!
 
Town Biz said:
One thing I will say is that its real competitive at Cesars and everyone is confident in their belt.For a short time I trained at another school and was shocked at the attitude of the guys there.Everyone was all about getting a stripe or a belt, but wasn't confident in their ability.I brought a friend by from Cesar's and nobody at his belt wanted to roll with him.Everybody watched him roll to gauge whether they were good enough to "take him" rolling.Although my friend was better than average at his belt, I was embarrassed when nobody at his belt level even wanted to roll with him even though there were guys much bigger.I ended up going back to Cesar's and guys there are much more competitive and confident about their ability.If a visitor comes by, quite a few gusy at his belt and below will be in a hurry to roll with him.Even if he smashed them(not likely), they would still love to roll with him.In the long run I like how Cesar does it.He ignores time on mat and promotes solely on merit and ability.Recently he promoted a guy to Blue(ex wrestler) after like 4 months.The guy would beast on most Purples though.
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I know exactly how you feel. I am seeing this more and more. Guys (audibly)chasing belts and even stripes but only want to roll with white belts, or their friends they don't mind tapping to.

Part of me is wondering if this is a new phenomona or if BJJ players had always been like this and I just never noticed.
 
stile0 said:
I know a purple under Cesar that was a bluebelt for 6+ years I think. He just recently got promoted also. My old instructor was a purple for 6+ also and just recently got his brown. Even though he didn't compete he was training with Jake and Nick a lot and I guess they told Cesar he was ready for brown.

For me to have gotten my blue, the requirements were to get gold in at least 4-5 tourneys. I'm not sure if that is part of Cesar's requirements or just my coaches old school mentality. Probably the latter.
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Where do you train if you dont mind me asking? A cesar affiliate?
 
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