How long is it reasonable to stay at blue belt, in your opinion?

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Aprentice

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Hey all

I was a white belt for 1.5 year, got many medals at local and regional tournaments at that belt. On august its going to be 3 years since i got my blue belt. On my first year as a blue belt i won many tournaments and went to pan ams in california, lost in the quarter finals, my fourth match. Then i spent about 1.5 years without competing, due to personal problems, but still training at least 4 times a week, mostly 6. In the last year, i decided to get back at competing, got back to a more intense training routine (2 sessions a day, as before) and have slowly come back to winning the local comps. This year i traveled to worlds in california, was feeling great and training really well, but lost on my first match. Didnt really get dominated or anything like that, but i made a mistake and "slipped" and learned a lot from that mistake.I was really inspired and came back to brazil prepared to look at this loss as the beginning of my preparation for next years worlds, and already planning a bunch of local and national competitions for this semester, determined to keep the pace up for worlds next year.

I thought that i would get the purple belt despite of how i did at worlds, for many reasons, but i didnt. I saw this as a compliment from my master, in a way, since everybody who is more of a hobby trainer from my time got the purple belt, so obviously it was not because i didnt have the necessary technical level, but because he is using different standars for me, as a competitor who has some ambitions in the sport...

But last night i had a weird nightmare where at competition the masters of other competitors were coming after the match to me and telling me that i should be at purple belt, and i woke up feeling a bit guilty. I never wanted to have a belt fast, i always excluded these thoughts from my mind and thought that it was up to my master, period, so no point even thinking about that. But i always thought like "i have about XX years in this belt to get as good as I can in the competition level". So, if I have more time at blue, and its reasonable, GREAT.

What is your opinion on this matter??? what is the longest someone can be held at blue belt?

Thanks!
 
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Well, I was a blue belt for approx. 4 years and a few months. I knew a guy who was a blue belt for 7 years and another who was there for 6. Both recently got their purple belts. If it truly takes X years to develop purple belt skill, then that's what it will be. However, I have team mate who want to stay at blue to win more medals there.

A good question might be to look at your weaknesses. Have you improved overall? Some people have a real great IBJJF game with a solid sweep and a submission but lack everything else. Have you completely neglected your takedowns? Even more ignored parts of the game like your escaping ability. Is it such that when you get passed, it's done for you? Or are you houdini like and you can slither out of bad spots? There's always a way to add to your game that makes skill improvement recognition undeniable.

I'm a brown belt and I would be promoting people based on skill that I can see. I don't believe in time spent as the sole indicator for change. I would definitely consider people slightly differently. I can't expect my future 65 year old student to be exactly like my future 19 year old athletic kid.

Good luck. Keep training and train with the intent to get slightly better each day. I stopped competing when I got my purple belt cause I did not find competing enjoyable. But I focused on my training to make it specific and help me to continually develop. Without ever competing, I was promoted to brown belt last year after 2.5 years at purple. I kept adding little dimensions to my overall skill set.
 
Ive said it before, but one of my teammates won old man worlds at blue belt, and my coach didn't promote him for an entire year after because he lacked skills off his back. Have you asked your coach what he wants to see from you?
 
He is sandbagging because he knows you are a keen competitor.

It really up to you.

Some people would ask to not get promoted as they would want another chance to compete at blue at the world.

I mean one could think what would be your chance to do well at purple if you could not pass the first round at blue.
 
3-4 years at blue belt isn't that strange at my gym. We've got people whose blue belts are so old that they are shredding and turning into white belts.
 
Slightly off topic, but in response to all those talking about more medals:

I don't really understand sandbagging. A coworker of mine trains at a different gym than me. We are similar in skill level and time spent training. We are both competing at an upcoming naga event. I'll be at intermediate for no gi. He plans on doing beginner. He has a very good chance to win beginner, imo. Even if he wins beginner and I lose in intermediate, I feel superior.
 
lechien said:
He is sandbagging because he knows you are a keen competitor.

It really up to you.

Some people would ask to not get promoted as they would want another chance to compete at blue at the world.

I mean one could think what would be your chance to do well at purple if you could not pass the first round at blue.
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Pretty much this... training that hard while also competing in big tournaments can be counterproductive to promotions unless you win or place top 3.

I got my purple after around 4.5 years and train a lot less than you do, won gold at naga as a white and silver as a blue but dont compete that seriously or often.
 
barring injury, if you are stuck in one belt for too long there is something wrong with the way you are being coached/guided.
 
Blaney said:
Slightly off topic, but in response to all those talking about more medals:

I don't really understand sandbagging. A coworker of mine trains at a different gym than me. We are similar in skill level and time spent training. We are both competing at an upcoming naga event. I'll be at intermediate for no gi. He plans on doing beginner. He has a very good chance to win beginner, imo. Even if he wins beginner and I lose in intermediate, I feel superior.
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People now a days want the easy win its pathetic, good on you though
 
I've never understood why the hell so many guys care about what belt they are, or how long they should be at some belt, or whatever. Life (jobs, family, injuries, accidents, births, deaths, marriages, deployments, whatever) get in the way. I was a blue belt for a very, very long time. It's not like being a blue belt is a bad thing--or being a purple is that great. Just enjoy the fact that you are alive, healthy, and can actually do jiu-jitsu.
 
thanks for the opinions! I guess that i still have some time to achieve the level that I want at blue belt without feeling guilty for taking too long.
 
going on 8 years as a blue belt, gone between 3 gyms in that time, took a full year off in that span, and went through a terrible divorce. I'm happy where I'm at. for a long time I was upset that I wasn't getting promoted, but I've stepped back and stopped chasing belts, and am back to actually enjoying jiu jitsu instead of being mad at it.
 
In my opinion, try to get to the skill level of a purple belt or higher. Just keep on developing parts of your game, and try to get all areas of your game up to purple belt. Winning worlds should in my opinion not be what promotion is about. The top 3 guys at worlds in purple and blue even could beat some non competitor black belts nowadays. To medal at worlds is like a big gamble for most people, because so many technically sound fit guys join the worlds, it is very easy to lose a match on a mistake, or even not a mistake but some area where your opponent happens to be stronger than you.
Just keep training and getting better, and eventually your coach will realize you should compete in the purple belt category, or you'll be so much better than before that you can ask your coach to let you fight in the purple belt category next year. But that's all up to you.

Most of all enjoy your time as blue belt, try out new things, work on your skills (techniques, timing, strategies, different games). Don't worry so much about opinions of other people/coaches, it isn't like you can give yourself the purple belt.
 
Dont focus on the belt. Focus on getting better in every aspect of your game, especially your weaker areas. Your instructor is the one who should worry about your belt not you.
 
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