That type of reasoning is totally counter productive. Your friend will and should get his blue belt when he has the skills to show for it, however long that takes. That's what made BJJ effective and what it is: An art where ranks still mean something and where for the most part - save for the hobbyist/pro-competitor skill-gap and a few outliers - the color on the belt does reflect the person's skills and place in the pecking order. It looks like more and more BJJ schools are falling into the trap other arts couldn't avoid, and as a result you see widening skillgaps between people testing for the same levels. That's what happens when you promote based on mat time only: You've been training for x years times x hours a week -> You're up for testing! No if your skills aren't there you shouldn't be. That's doing a disservice to the art and the person being promoted.
I think performance against peers is definitely key, but it's not the only thing. For example I have particular strengths to my game which mean I can dominate some blues quite easily if I can enforce it. However those same guys have a far broader level of skill across all positions and therefore have better overall jujitsu than me. I think a blue belt has as a baseline a certain quality if BJJ across all positions/situations.
Performance against people the same age, strength and size is the real acid test. That and having a functionally rounded game, and being a safe roll, (not hurting people, tapping when appropriate, and knowing basic IBJJF rules, and when to adhere to them, and when not)
Hey Chadderz. Bit confused here do you mean he talks a lot more about reality of a street fight/violence when you mean self defence? Isn't all of BJJ practice physical side of "self defence"?!
Pretty much this. The BJJ we learn is like vanilla. Like award winning world class vanilla. It's basic and good for most situations. In some of the self defence parts we cover headlock, basic self defence throws and takedowns.after that beginners often get taught basic guard technique, both passing and attacking from guard. To understand why we don't do lots and lots of classes on self defence let me put it like this: Me learning to escape a headlock is the same as a boxer learning to defend a wild hayemaker. We are learning a defence against an inexperienced combatant. You will rarely see anyone in bjj put on a headlock like the school bullies do. This is because it is ineffective against good grapplers.
Lol. Like I said the gym I was at had its own belt system. Though the instructor was a brown belt and then blackbelt under Rickson by the time I left, he always made everyone test under another very high level Riskon representative. The times I have popped into other BJJ gyms this has always been a very interesting thing for me. As most just think I know nothing and I have a hard time explaining why I can hang with, if not get the better of blue belts but never can say I have any actual rank in the system. Would love to get back to BJJ some day but as for now priorities are else where.
Lol. Like I said the gym I was at had its own belt system. Though the instructor was a brown belt and then black belt under Rickson by the time I left, he always made everyone test under another very high level Riskon representative. The times I have popped into other BJJ gyms this has always been a very interesting thing for me. As most just think I know nothing and I have a hard time explaining why I can hang with, if not get the better of blue belts but never can say I have any actual rank in the system. Would love to get back to BJJ some day but as for now priorities are else where.
I was under the impression that if you compete it would work the other way round. Is that wrong or just more dependent on the coach?
In our school competition has no bearing on how long it takes to get a belt. We don't have a competition team or a fight team. We are one team ^^
Im aiming for blue after 2 years. Even though I have a bit of experience behind me, I'm treating it as starting from scratch. Also aiming for 2 classes a week when I can. If I can get more in I would. But sometimes due to work I end up with 1 class in a week or none at all.
With prior grappling experience, consistent training, and inteligent/directed rolling thats definitely doo able, at twice a week. Youve wrestled before yes? in which case your turtle game and base should be pretty good already. If you try and concentrate on guard and sweeps to get on top to start every/most rolls that could be a good way to avoid the pitfalls of being a better wrestler learning bjj.