Stripes on BJJ belts?

[ElKarlo]

Being submitted by lower belts is just a normal day at the office. Doesn't mean anything.

True, but it can man something if you are being beaten pretty handily all the time by guys your size, yet at a lower rank

 

[Calibur]

Being submitted by lower belts is just a normal day at the office. Doesn't mean anything.

Lol.

A normal day in WHOSE office? If I get submitted by a lower belt that's not on the cusp of being promoted, that's a weird fucking month.

 

[Task]

I guess it varies from school to school I know at white belt after my second stripe I was encouraged to compete.

I guess like the first response said, it just shows progression through the belt.

Most guys in my gym don't care for stripes after blue belt. We have a brown belt who's been doing really well on the ibjjf circuit and been a brown belt for three years, has one stripe that he got a few years back, if anything, if he finds himself getting anything in the near future as far as further move "up" it'll be to black belt.

 

[Balto]

Lol.

A normal day in WHOSE office? If I get submitted by a lower belt that's not on the cusp of being promoted, that's a weird fucking month.

That gets a lot harder the higher up in rank you go.

The ranks aren't evenly spaced with respect to practical skill gap in rolling. I think the skill gap between white and blue is roughly equal to the skill gap between blue and black. A solid blue belt will almost never lose to a first day guy. This is mostly because of the rapid beginner learning period. After blue belt though, improvement comes much slower.

So it is pretty easy for a blue belt to almost never tap to white belts. It is much harder for a black belt to never tap to brown, purple, and even some blues that are towards the upper end.

 

[Calibur]

That gets a lot harder the higher up in rank you go.

The ranks aren't evenly spaced with respect to practical skill gap in rolling. I think the skill gap between white and blue is roughly equal to the skill gap between blue and black. A solid blue belt will almost never lose to a first day guy. This is mostly because of the rapid beginner learning period. After blue belt though, improvement comes much slower.

So it is pretty easy for a blue belt to almost never tap to white belts. It is much harder for a black belt to never tap to brown, purple, and even some blues that are towards the upper end.

Your post is proof that I spend too much time rolling with white belts.

No but seriously, contrary to what people preach every time I roll their is a winner and a loser.

Actually, more like success and failure. That success and failure really has little to do with tapping. If I can't sink an armbar from mount on a white belt or if I get held in side control for one minute by a blue belt, that crushes my spirit a lot more than getting randomly tapped for some reason. So in my head I truly lose all the time. But in terms of people getting submitted I've seen it pretty balanced.

Again partly because the ranks are lopsided where I train, and partly because I think upperbelts start cherry picking their matches after a while.

 

[Task]

Again partly because the ranks are lopsided where I train, and partly because I think upperbelts start cherry picking their matches after a while.

I've seen that happen loads here, some visiting/older black belts will not roll at all with the competition bjj guys (blue, purple and brown ranks) simply because they don't want to be getting tapped by "someone lesser in rank"

I personally wouldn't care.

Wait, I would care, if I genuinely did something stupid and could have avoided the submission. But that would be my fault, not the person I was rolling with.

 

[Balto]

Your post is proof that I spend too much time rolling with white belts.

No but seriously, contrary to what people preach every time I roll their is a winner and a loser.

Actually, more like success and failure. That success and failure really has little to do with tapping. If I can't sink an armbar from mount on a white belt or if I get held in side control for one minute by a blue belt, that crushes my spirit a lot more than getting randomly tapped for some reason. So in my head I truly lose all the time. But in terms of people getting submitted I've seen it pretty balanced.

Again partly because the ranks are lopsided where I train, and partly because I think upperbelts start cherry picking their matches after a while.

You've been a purple for quite a while, right? So it would make sense to me that you rarely get tapped by a lower rank because that's only white/blue. And it's going to take a pretty beastly blue to beat a guy who has been training 10-15 years now like you have.

I'm a brown belt. Getting tapped by a white belt would be pretty strange, like once a year kind of thing. That holds for even the "yeah but he wrestled/did Judo/trained no gi for years" kind of white belts.

Getting tapped by a blue belt really depends on the blue belt. Most will not. Maybe 2-3 can do so occasionally. One guy beats me consistently. He was a high level competitor, but he is backing down some now since mat skills don't pay the bills.

Once it gets up to purple belt, it's not really weird at all for me to get beaten. Purple/brown/black all beat each other back and forth all the time at my gym. The only two really above that fray are two black belts that train full time and have competed at a high level. Other than that, pretty much any of us can beat another one and it's not notable at all.

Nobody cherry picks at our school luckily. If I am selective, it's towards the harder guys if anything. I know the handful of guys that are around my size that can give me challenging rolls -- a couple blue belts, a decent amount of purples, a handful of browns, and one or two blacks. So I just pick my partners based on membership in that group rather than any kind of belt ranking. I will usually beat the black belt I train with the most, and I will usually lose to the blue belt I train with the most. That's okay with me. They're both tough rolls for me where I learn a lot, so I gravitate to those guys.

 

[lechien]

True, but it can man something if you are being beaten pretty handily all the time by guys your size, yet at a lower rank

It means it is time for them to get promoted.
You guys are overthinking it, sometimes.
Stripes and belts are tools to encourage people to train.
No one should fear or worry a promotion.
Do not worry about the destination, enjoy the trip.

 

[stihal24]

Stripes and belts are tools to encourage people to train.
Do not worry about the destination, enjoy the trip.

Well said. My understanding of stripes is that they are degrees at each belt level, but are given out inconsistently. Not in a bad way, I just think it's up to the instructor to judge each of their students.

For example, I trained at one gym where they had a set number of classes you'd roughly be able to earn your stripe in, that being said if you were way ahead of the game 10 classes early, or way behind 20 classes late, they wouldn't award the stripe, more just a rough outline of where they think you should be.

Alternatively, where I earned my first stripe, it was more of an encouragement thing. I had been training for a little while but picking things up slowly (and burning out quickly due to an embarassingly bad cardio regiment). To be completely honest, I think my instructor awarded me the stripe just to renew my passion to train, etc.

 

[1neeto]

Lol.

A normal day in WHOSE office? If I get submitted by a lower belt that's not on the cusp of being promoted, that's a weird fucking month.

You telling me that you have never been submitted by a lower belt? I'm a two stripe white belt and have submitted some blues and been submitted by no stripe white belts too. Also seen a few purples submitting browns, blues submitting purples etc. It truly is a normal day at the office.

Now if you're being constantly submitted by lower belts then either your lower belt partners need a promotion, or you need to up your game.

 

[Calibur]

You telling me that you have never been submitted by a lower belt? I'm a two stripe white belt and have submitted some blues and been submitted by no stripe white belts too. Also seen a few purples submitting browns, blues submitting purples etc. It truly is a normal day at the office.

Now if you're being constantly submitted by lower belts then either your lower belt partners need a promotion, or you need to up your game.

In the gi? To a white belt? i think it's literally been years.

To blue belts it happens a few times a year. Being generous. It's Not often. Purples it just depends who they are.

Not that I don't get my guard passed, back taken and otherwise positionally dominated at practice. I just don't think it's normal for someone who has been training for under 4 years to tap someone who has been training longer on a regular basis.