I'm curious how uniform belt levels are across the country and world compared to where I am at. Since Roy has put up many well produced promotion videos of his students rolling, it's a good measuring stick. https://www.youtube.com/user/uchideshi/videos Would you say your school's students are tougher or easier than his, at each belt level?
You must be referring to the videos of his students choosing to get their grading filmed . They are great videos and demonstrations. Only a few students choose to do it. I understand they are given the options. Is there any videos of them sparring?
It's really hard to tell the way he films them. Watching a brown belt test they guy looks fine, but medium intensity positional sparring is very different from competitive rolling. In general, I think levels across the country are fairly similar, probably a little higher in CA, the NYC area, and SoFlo. I've rolled at a number of famous gyms across the country and never felt like I couldn't defend my belt against competitors at my level, and I'm nothing special in my area.
They demo techniques and then do a kind of shark tank on the tester, but no one seems to go super hard on them that I've watched
I agree but up here in Ohio some of the guys here similar to eddie bravo hold guys back until they are levels ahead of even a average black belt.
The new measuring stick is Giba Lotus aka Confiance Jiu Jitsu. They are trying to tell everyone David Lang is a black belt and leave him alone. How much money do you think changed hands to publish that Facebook post?
It is hard to tell how tought they are. That was ts question. But the technical level in those videos from the students that choose to do them is very good and well above expectations in my opinion. Great videos as well.
Some schools don't have testing, others do. Some schools have sport competition results as a standard (or one of the criteria), others don't. Some have minimum time (classes), others don't. From what I can tell, I think they Roy Dean students are about the right for the belt level. And I think that in most of those videos, Roy Dean rolls with the student themselves at the end so he would know whether its the right time.
Roy explained in a video that he gives 3 options. just receive the belt do that video stuff just a grading but no video
Roy Dean's belt testing exams are remarkable to watch and I appreciate that they exist. My academy/team judges promotion more on a full body of work, consistency, leadership (helping lower belts), and heads collected from competition.
Now I'm a purple under Infight Canada/Rio but I was a Roy Dean blue belt. My "demo" was not taped but I did go through the shark bait part. Some guys come at you harder than others but overall it's a physical and mental challenge. There are minimal breaks and it's tiring. You aren't expected to win, just don't give up. Roy's belted DVD's are a guidelines but his students know much more than only the techniques on the videos. He teaches lots of stuff in class that doesn't appear anywhere in his DVD collection. I train when I travel and my blue belt held up when I visited new schools. I actually trained with one of his purples in Maui when I was a blue and his purple did well against the guys there. Roy is a good guy and a great instructor. Students learn at different rates. He has average ones and also has excellent ones...like any school.
Roy does seem like a cool guy. Very open minded as a martial artist and person. On a personal note, I thought it was cool when he posted on the ug about how pua/mystery method stuff helped him understand how to interact with girls. I'm sure he took flak for it but the shit is gold and his characterization of it as "social jiu jitsu" is perfect. It was a shame when stu Cooper amoged him and fucked a girl he liked lol
