How long does it take to get a BJJ black Belt? (hours)

anaconda said:
What exactly are people "falling for?"

Keeping track of your hours, setting goals, measuring progress - these are all proven methods to accelerate improvement, learn more quickly, and get closer to your full potential.

Who wants to get better? Don't fall for that trick!
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I don't think that was the main thrust of his argument. Keep in mind the main thrust of this thread (from 2013, a few years after "Outliers" was published), was "how many hours to black belt?" Which is inherently a dumb question.

Merely hours by itself is not sufficient to make you better. Approaching your training logically, with goals (short, medium, and long), measurements to track those goals, discipline to stick to your plan, attentiveness to your training sessions, and training with intent/aliveness/intensity, are all factors infinitely more important than raw hour tracking.

The Malcolm Gladwell 10k hours = Mastery concept is bullshit, other studies have confirmed it's just as arbitrary as it sounds, and many have exposed arbitrary decisions to get to "10k hours", or just flat out incorrect data in Gladwell's methods. The concept that people "fall for," is that if they just show up, even if they only put in 1/1000000th of an effort, they'll eventually reach mastery. Practice, unfortunately, doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.
 
ocarey2 said:
How are you not dead?

That leaves you less than 5 hours of free time a day not including time to shower, cook, clean, travel to and from the gym and work, get ready for training, get ready for work etc which basically means you have no free time (i've included 8 hours sleep in there)
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hahahahahaha

yes


I'm interested in all the talk about hours per week in here.

I train from 9-12 on Saturday and 10-12 on Sunday. Just about every weekend, provided I'm not travelling. So that's 5 hours of training just on the weekend. I normally train Monday - Thursday for 2-3 hours, though sometimes that's thai boxing or mma, and not only bjj

Every couple weeks I skip a day just cause I'm old

I guess 15 hours every week consistent is hard to keep up with due to work and my body being old and broken, but 12-15 hours a week is normal. It's harder to keep up with if I'm lifting regularly, but it's still doable
 
anaconda said:
What exactly are people "falling for?"

Keeping track of your hours, setting goals, measuring progress - these are all proven methods to accelerate improvement, learn more quickly, and get closer to your full potential.

Who wants to get better? Don't fall for that trick!
Click to expand...

You are right.

While I think quantitying your training is good as it is quantifiable. I mean I use training time as a factor in the graduation.

I just did not realise that some people actually take the count of the exact hours.

That is insane. Oh maybe I just think it is really overboard.
The only people that take an a hourly count are boat owners that count how many hours if engine usage.

But to think about I know seminar that kept a tally of how many reps he did.
 
DatCutman said:
I don't think that was the main thrust of his argument. Keep in mind the main thrust of this thread (from 2013, a few years after "Outliers" was published), was "how many hours to black belt?" Which is inherently a dumb question.

Merely hours by itself is not sufficient to make you better. Approaching your training logically, with goals (short, medium, and long), measurements to track those goals, discipline to stick to your plan, attentiveness to your training sessions, and training with intent/aliveness/intensity, are all factors infinitely more important than raw hour tracking.

The Malcolm Gladwell 10k hours = Mastery concept is bullshit, other studies have confirmed it's just as arbitrary as it sounds, and many have exposed arbitrary decisions to get to "10k hours", or just flat out incorrect data in Gladwell's methods. The concept that people "fall for," is that if they just show up, even if they only put in 1/1000000th of an effort, they'll eventually reach mastery. Practice, unfortunately, doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.
Click to expand...

Ok, this I totally agree with. Hours of practice is totally meaningless. Hours of wise practice do matter. Wise practice means intentional, working on specific tasks, and continuously improving or seeking out ways to improve.

Take driving for example. Tons of people have driven for 10k hours. Most of them are still terrible drivers because there was no intentional effort to improve driving skill once the basics were mastered.
 
lechien said:
You are right.

While I think quantitying your training is good as it is quantifiable. I mean I use training time as a factor in the graduation.

I just did not realise that some people actually take the count of the exact hours.

That is insane. Oh maybe I just think it is really overboard.
The only people that take an a hourly count are boat owners that count how many hours if engine usage.

But to think about I know seminar that kept a tally of how many reps he did.
Click to expand...

Haha I get what you're saying. I think hours of practice matters, and that there is a minimum number of hours one will need to become a black belt, but that number will be totally different for different people. I think to get a black belt you need thousands of hours of training. Is it 2,000 or 10,000? Depends on the quality of your practice, what kind of black belt you want to be (i.e. competitive vs average joe), your gym and environment, age and fitness, etc.

There are teenagers that probably have thousands of hours of practice that are still purple belts. Does anyone remember when the miyao brothers were coming up? They probably had more hours on the mat than most average black belts, but they still weren't black belts.

In BJJ, as belts currently exist, the belt is both an objective and a subjective measure. Maybe the level I needed to demonstrate as a black belt might only be worthy of a purple belt for an aspiring world class competitor. But it's also beyond just mat skills, it's knowledge and understanding and dedication.

So in short, yes - trying to use hours on the mat as a purely objective measure is dumb for many reasons. However, on an individual level keeping track of your hours and setting goals is probably a good thing.
 
anaconda said:
Ok, this I totally agree with. Hours of practice is totally meaningless. Hours of wise practice do matter. Wise practice means intentional, working on specific tasks, and continuously improving or seeking out ways to improve.

Take driving for example. Tons of people have driven for 10k hours. Most of them are still terrible drivers because there was no intentional effort to improve driving skill once the basics were mastered.
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Your point is a good one, though I hope this isn't similar to most martial arts practitioners.

In a car, you are driving and doing your thing

In training, hopefully you have an instructor and peers who are both guiding and aiding you in progress, and constantly growing along side you. Our roads would very likely be far different if every driver had an instructor with them on a regular basis

Your point is true, I'm not arguing against it. Simply putting in hours doesn't get you there, they have to be worthwhile hours, as you guys are all saying. But in our gym, I often tell people who start that being good at combat is easy, you just have to show up regularly. I mean that, because where we train, if you show up regularly, you have a group of like minded people who propel eachother toward improvement. Of course, everyone and everyone's journey is different.
 
Honestly, don't be obsessed to become quickly a black belt. Better focusing to hone your techniques at your current belt and become an excellent current belt.
Again criteria of belt promotion are really subjective according to the instructors and academy despite the fact they respect the minimum requirements from IBJJF.

The most important criteria is having fun with your teamates and know their game like chessplayers and know your own game and resolving the weaknesses with the help of your teammates. BJJ is still a team work, it doesn't pay my bills :)
 
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They say it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. Average class is 2 hours. 1 hour warmups and reps. 1 hour rolling.

That means you need 5000 classes. Training 5 days per week equals 260 classes per year. 5000 classes divided by 260 classes per year is 19.23076923076923 years.

It takes 19.23076923076923 years to get a black belt. LMAO.
 
mixmaster staph said:
It varies wildly depending on the individual and the guy giving the black belt.
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But seriously, this is the real answer. BJ got his in 2 years and won Mundials. But I know others who got it after 15 years. There's no perfect answer.
 
dmwalking said:
They say it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. Average class is 2 hours. 1 hour warmups and reps. 1 hour rolling.

That means you need 5000 classes. Training 5 days per week equals 260 classes per year. 5000 classes divided by 260 classes per year is 19.23076923076923 years.

It takes 19.23076923076923 years to get a black belt. LMAO.
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I have a life beyond the mats, I would rather believe that if I train an average of 6 hours a week, I would a black belt in 12 years so:
6*52*12=3744 hours of training

I believe that 10000 hours is the time you spent to become a coral red black belt after 31 years of black belt if he can still train 6 hours a week for 31 years:
6*52*31=9672 hours of training so you can be named BJJ master
 
I've a myth that you can quantify the time needed to become expert. It varies by person.

Getting a black belt depends on physical fitness, talent, enthusiasm, geographical location and worst of all... politics.
 
cugnao said:
I have a life beyond the mats, I would rather believe that if I train an average of 6 hours a week, I would a black belt in 12 years so:
6*52*12=3744 hours of training

I believe that 10000 hours is the time you spent to become a coral red black belt after 31 years of black belt if he can still train 6 hours a week for 31 years:
6*52*31=9672 hours of training so you can be named BJJ master
Click to expand...

I think you missed the humor in the post. There is no exact time to get a black belt.
 
dmwalking said:
But seriously, this is the real answer. BJ got his in 2 years and won Mundials. But I know others who got it after 15 years. There's no perfect answer.
Click to expand...
in 3 years and a half but training full time 6 hours a day 5 days a week for 3 years, I dunno how much his body had to endure the damages and injuries with so many hours of training
 
winterbike said:
The math has been done dude. 9672 hours.
Click to expand...
thatsthejoke.jpg
 
cugnao said:
in 3 years and a half but training full time 6 hours a day 5 days a week for 3 years, I dunno how much his body had to endure the damages and injuries with so many hours of training
Click to expand...

I would guess BJ didn't suffer a lot from significant injuries as they slow your progress down a ton.
 
Nnedd said:
hahahahahaha

yes


I'm interested in all the talk about hours per week in here.

I train from 9-12 on Saturday and 10-12 on Sunday. Just about every weekend, provided I'm not travelling. So that's 5 hours of training just on the weekend. I normally train Monday - Thursday for 2-3 hours, though sometimes that's thai boxing or mma, and not only bjj

Every couple weeks I skip a day just cause I'm old

I guess 15 hours every week consistent is hard to keep up with due to work and my body being old and broken, but 12-15 hours a week is normal. It's harder to keep up with if I'm lifting regularly, but it's still doable
Click to expand...

That is pretty pretty interesting. If you could make training your work then you would be able to train like a pro 9 hours a day which is like a full time job... Well it is for them.
 
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