How good is A blue belt?

There is also - literally - a world of difference between a world class [insert color] belt and the hobbyist same color belt. Not so much outliers as full vs part timers.

 

Pretty much

It answers the question "but they are a BJJ black belt....why did they make such a rookie mistake?" quite well though. Techniques drilled under visceral pressure become problematic when the parameters rapidly change - Keenan Cornelius (a GREAT player) has certain strategies that in MMA woudl find him mudstomped in short order; this does not invalidate them in any way, (and Keenan if he ever did switch would be smart enough to change his strategy) but to suggest that a lack of "reference ponits" for a scenario can cause issues

 

Normal distribution curve, world champions are just at the extreme end, and help keep the curve average high.

 

You also have to accept he had a better grappler on top of him dropping bombs, its hard to create space when one of the best wrestlers of his generation is pinning you down feeding you elbows
Machida might very well have been trying to create space in his mind but his body was controlled by a far better grappler, sometimes its simply not about what you can or try to do, but what the other guy is doing to you

 

judo newaza combined with bbj.

judo newaza is something else, they have moves all their own that don't really exist in bjj and vice versa. i like em both because i think grappling is fascinating. i've used bjj moves against judoka on the ground and felt like that was truly a victory for technique and i've used judo newaza against bjj guys and felt that was truly an amazing victory for technique. instead of picking one above all the others, take one you like to be your main art, and then digress and take something you might need to like to know in a fight you didn't plan. do i think i could pick up something useful in wing chun that might help my bjj ? yes. and if i come into class next time knowing some wing chun i might use on the ground, especially for grips in competition will i be above the level of a brown belt if all he did was be familiar with mostly guys taking bjj only ?

 

judo newaza combined with bbj.

judo newaza is something else, they have moves all their own that don't really exist in bjj and vice versa. i like em both because i think grappling is fascinating. i've used bjj moves against judoka on the ground and felt like that was truly a victory for technique and i've used judo newaza against bjj guys and felt that was truly an amazing victory for technique. instead of picking one above all the others, take one you like to be your main art, and then digress and take something you might need to like to know in a fight you didn't plan. do i think i could pick up something useful in wing chun that might help my bjj ? yes. and if i come into class next time knowing some wing chun i might use on the ground, especially for grips in competition will i be above the level of a brown belt if all he did was be familiar with mostly guys taking bjj only ?

 

So what is your grade in Judo and BJJ then?

 

They put tips on white belts in judo?

 

There are two kinds of blue belts.

There are hobbyists who enjoy the art and just want to practice it in class and learn.

Then there are blue belts who in addition to want to learn the art but are also mean competitors.

 

There can be as big a skill gap between blue belts as there is between black belts.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXjPKwU1hZs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXjPKwU1hZs[/ame]

The comments questioning the black belts' skills just crack me up. I think the second bb rolling with Keenan is Christian Graugart btw.

 

If all people of a certain grade were equal in skill there'd be no point in having competitions. Everyone would just fight to a draw every time.
Grades are always an aggregate and an approximation of everyone at that grade, probably distributed over a bell curve where the left and right of each grades bell curve overlaps the grades either side.

 

I know mma fighters with "no belt" who regularly defeat blue belts, and make it almost impossible for purple belts to submit them during live rolling.

 

I've met a couple like that. They got lost on their back though.

 

Even though they have no belt, they regularly train with people who do. And they would probably would be belted, if they trained gi more often.

Belts only indicate a minimum standard of competence, any belt, especially white/no belt, can exceed that minimum standard.

 

Just because they aren't graded in Gi BJJ doesn't mean they don't have grappling skills. They may train predominantly no-gi or train in another form of grappling altogether. MMA has its own approach to gi-less grappling. Fundamentals usually cross over and get developed with or without gi. Having said that I also find that some Gi players suffer without the Gi and some no-gi players are lost defending Gi specific setups. Grappling experience and skill is more meaniful than belt level when comparing players/fighters from differing contexts.

 

I can give you specific examples from my personal experience.

I see some blue belts struggle with white belts or wrestlers with six months or so of BJJ. On the other hand, I am a blue, and this year alone I have submitted three purple belts, and one brown in competition. It all depends on the blue's technical knowledge and the blue's competition experience.

 

Jesus Christ dude that's insane! Congrats

 

^This

In addition the old "sand in the hourglass" approach works well. There is a propensity to want to learn a lot of moves, and the internet has actually made this a lot worse. Long term this is fine, but short term means you have a very broad, yet potentially shallow skillset

A blue belt who conversely drills the beejeebers out of "armbar, DWL, choke, repeat...." will be able to hit the moves almost at will

 

Looks like someone needs a nice new belt.