How good is A blue belt?

So I was sparring with some of are blue belts yesterday. I technically should be one too, seeing as I have put in the time, but every time we rank up I miss the class, and are head instructor can be very forgetful.

However my technique is still solid enough to fight with a majority of them and not do bad. yet I see them sparr some purple belts and get obliterated. Tons of fighters come to are gym and train, then get into the ring around the time they get there blue belt. However, you watch there fights both amateur and pro and they just look like the average MMA guy. No big skill sticks out among the rest. which got me thinking about the title of this post.

I believe that since being a blue belt is one of the longest transitions, people think of themselves higher because of it.( i.e. being your one for about 4-5 years as opposed to about 3-4 for purple to brown) I have seen so many blue belts fight guys in other systems eons higher then they are. ex: blue belt vs judo black belt, blue belt vs karate brown belt, blue belt vs TKD black belt( ok with the state of tkd in the US maybe that one isn't so bad.)

but how good is an average blue belt in YOP . I do think that the average blue belt is good enough to face someone who doesn't have any or a limited grappling knowledge, regardless of size and win. So i'd say that your street fight ready by blue. especially since white to blue is all the self-defense techniques first, and limited sport techniques. (usually) but that is as far as I go.I'd never go challenge judo blackbelts or high level sambo and catch wrestling guys thinking I'm now a beast. I personally wouldn't clime into any cage until I was at least an established strong purple belt too.

but I'd love to know what you guys think.

 

As with all the belts, in my opinion, it just tells you when you're good enough to start focusing on something else in your training.

When you're a white belt your focus should be on drilling all the basics. Where to grip and when to grip, using your posture defensively, keeping your elbows in, hip escaping, bridging etc. Your main focus at this belt should be surviving positions; even if you can't escape or reverse you should be focusing on not getting subbed/not letting your opponent reach a more dominant position. Working on not getting your guard passed so easily, blocking the cross face, preventing mount, not giving up your back, not falling into easy submissions. By the time you get your blue belt you should have have a fairly strong defense, a firm grasp of BJJ fundamentals, decent sweeps and a few go-to submissions that you have a high success rate with.

Your foundation should be solid by the time you get your blue belt because your next step should be to expand off of that with maintaining positional dominance, better sweeps, more submissions, etc. Blue belt is when you know you've got the basics down and you can start being more aggressive when you roll instead of always being on the defensive, but you're still not as experienced or technical as a purple belt.

As far as MMA goes, being a blue belt isn't going to hurt your chances, but it's not a ticket to easy-mode victories either. Maybe years ago it would have been, but now with BJJ being mandatory for MMA and so many beasts coming out of high school and college with strong wrestling backgrounds, it's just not as strong as it used to be.

 

Ribero says the same thing is Jiu Jitsu University. I totally agree, play to survive. and if you want to get into a ring having a belt is good but training for the ring would be quite different. a blue belt who has trained extensively for the ring is gonna do much better than a purple belt who hasnt.

 

you see I want to do MMA as well ( as an amateur) but when you watch MMA the people who always do exceedingly well are the people who have a strong base in something and then branch out to other areas.Silva has amazing standup and a bjj game first. gsp had his kyokushin already, then his wrestling. chuck had is wrestling. contrary to popular belief that you should try and learn everything.

So my point as was said at Blue belt all you have is strong basics, and some go to submissions. which IMO is why at amateur level all you see is the most basics of basic subs. armbar, reer naked choke, triangle. No omoplatas, gogos, kimuras from guard etc. I personally won't feel like I'm ready to go into MMA as a good jiujitsuka until atleast a mid level purple.

 

I agree. Most ppl i know that go into MMA are at least purple or compete regularly in no-gi.
But striking Dominates MMA at the moment.
BJJ classes vary. I learn purely grappling but a friend of mine who trained else where learnt ground and pound techniques as well.
you'll want to get yourself into an MMA class to train more towards MMA if you're a purple at a pure grappling club. Im quite sure my friend (who should have been graded up to blue but left before he got his belt) would be fine in the MMA arena if he learnt some more stand up, because his BJJ teacher focused on complete groundwork - striking and grappling.

 

Blue belt means that you have a basic understanding and abilty in most pure grappling areas, which means that under Gi BJJ rules, a blue belt should be able to deal with anyone untrained his/her own weight, with purple belts being able to deal with any reasonable weight difference.

Whether of not this applies to MMA, Nogi or da str33t depends on a few other factors but generally well taught basics cover these enough to be able to deal with untrained people.

The reason your not graded yet is likely to be your attendance is poor (you admit you miss classes) and so you just havnt got to that level yet.

 

If you're a good Blue Belt (like me, ha!) you should be owning people on the ground who have no grappling experience. Weight doesn't matter too much (unless it's a huge difference) because, well, they have no grappling experience! This advantage disappears rapidly however once the guy you're fighting knows even the first thing about grappling.
This levelling is heightened fighting no-gi IMO, due to the lack of grips. I used to think I was "better" at no-gi because of this fact, it was just that I sucked less at it.
Then of course with MMA you add in strikes, which changes the game a hell of a lot. The addage is you punch a Black Belt in the face, he becomes a Brown Belt. Punch him again, he becomes a Purple Belt. And so on...
In short: MMA grappling levels the field a lot so you're going to have to be considerably much better than your opponent if you think you're going to get by on BJJ alone. Train specifically for it though, and a Blue Belt will be a good base. A lot of my academies guys fight MMA, and they do pretty well for themselves - at amatuer/pro-am level at least.

 

If you want your blue belt you don't need to be "not doing bad" against other blues, you need to be subbing them consistently. It can be very easy to think you're doing well against higher grades because you're not getting subbed often but it's much easier to stall than attack, especially in the gi. If you're just surviving against the blues and getting wrecked by the purples, you're not ready.
There was a time when the blue belt was something of a B.A. license. It's not quite so consistently true now for a number of reasons, but it's still beyond the equivalent of a black belt in the compliant styles and that's going to take some time.

 

True dat, plus blue belts will in the main not be trying to wreck white belts with any and all technique, I know as a fact Ive been told by my teacher to work on specific things with white belts which particularly includes escapes from inferior positions, which when you've got 150% of your body weight on top of you going hell for leather is difficult for the ego.

 

I think it depends what he means. I’ve always heard it said that to be x Belt you should be able to hang with x Belt. i.e. You shouldn’t worry about being able to win all the time against them – hell there are white belts who give me trouble still! – but you should be able to hold your own against them. Blue Belt is a wiiiiiiiide range of ability so I think it’s too simplistic to say “you should be able to sub them”. i.e. A 4-stripe white Belt might be able to force his game on some of the newer Blues, and catch them in a sub here and there (and therefore getting close to being Blue himself) but they are going to get smashed by the 2, 3, 4 stripe Blues who’ve been that grade for years.

 

the thing is though most of those guys started training when they were children/ early teens. well they prove the theory that having a solid base in something is great for MMA most of us just dont get enough time to be honest.

 

I started training as an early teen

 

well then how come you feel the need to try and get a solid grounding in something now ?

 

RoninMaster, do you even train BJJ? The more I read your post the more is sounds like someone who doesn't. Your choice of words, spar instead of roll and fight instead of roll and even asking the question about how good is a blue belt.

If you trained at a school you would know how good your blue belts are because of rolling with them and how well they do when they compete.

I don't know but this just doesn't feel right to me.

 

This. To expand on it, if you are a "true" blue belt you help the white belts get better. If you find holes in their game you give advice without hindering their learning. In my school, the blue belts are pretty good. But they spend most of their training in class with lower ranks teaching than subbing people. But if you go to randori and watch them roll with higher ranks they are not getting thrashed. They get beat but their skills are solid and they are attempting new things trying to expand their toolbox. When training it's more about making everyone better than going in and just destroying people. Their is always someone who can do it to you so if you are a dirtbag partner in a good school, you usually get trashed by the instructor then dismissed. By the way I'm using the word "you" to explain the person. I'm not saying you to address you personally.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHF2c1_07YY"]YouTube - ‪ogc YouTube sharing‬‏[/ame]

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=538713229 I'm the guy sticking out in the center in the second row with the red and black jiujitsu gi.

enough proof?

I know how good are blue belts are as i have mentioned before That I sparr with them and fair pretty well. I simply use the term sparr over roll out of habit. the entire topic is beginning to veer off course as this wasn't a post about my particular skill level in regards to blue belt. It was a question of how good Is a blue belt in BJJ,or what you think the average blue belt should be able to accomplish. i simply stated my level in BJJ to identify where I was located on this particular scale.

 

I don't know about BJJ but at a friends Karate dojo there are a few Brown belt folk who are fearsome! Colour isn't that big a deal. I do appreciate that it should be an indication of skill level. Take each fighter or player for what they are, not what is keeping their Gi shut.

 

A belt just holds your pants up.

I know plenty of great no-gi guys that subbed blue belts guys all the time.

 

Are you the guy talking in the video?

If so, no offense but you are no way near blue belt. You didn't lose because you didn't run enough... posture FTW.

I'm not trying to take a dump on your skills here just saying.

 

BJJ is pretty unique in that there grading criteria actually means something, blue belt is a good beginner standard. Having pure nogi guys sub them, in nogi rolling doesnt invalidate that, is just means the nogi guys are also good, or the bjj guys had predominatly focused on pure Gi material. Remember BJJ tends to rank based on Gi ability.