Ok I have been kind of informally cross training in sub-wrestling for a while now. But I decided that it was about time to train properly and have recently joined a BJJ school, it takes me over an hour on the train to get there!!!! But the club is run by a very good instructor and its worth it. Anyway, I am not actually to bothered about the belts, but coming from a TMA background were gradings are held periodically and very formalised I have some questions about the BJJ grading system. Firstly, if anything I'm writing is wrong then correct me. From what I can tell BJJ doesn't have a formalized grading syllabus, as with other arts, its all performance based and if someone can hold there own/beat a students of a higher belt then he will be awarded that belt. What I'm wondering is how that all works, can any BJJ black belt award a new belt to any student, because I've read on the internet about people who say the were awarded there brown belt by one person then 2 years later another person decided they were good enough to be black belt so they award them it. I'm just wondering how it all works really?
Sorta. While it is performance based it is also knowledge based. It is based on ability in all positions and situations. You won't rise up the ranks so to speak just with having a great top game. You have to develop all aspects of your jits, improve your guard, improve your top game, half guard, guard passing ect. You have to know about all positions, attacks and defence. You can get your belts from different black belts, that is true.
So in a completely hypothetical situation. If I am a BJJ instructor and someone comes to my school who is a brown belt and after he has trained with me for a few weeks I think he is good enough to be a black belt I can award him that belt? I am just trying to understand how it all works.
if you're a high enough ranking black belt, sure. of course, at that point, you wouldn't be asking people on the internet bjj belts are portable, because a: every bjj school (other than att) has the same belt system, and b: the culture is such that nobody should have a belt they can't defend. if i went off to another karate school (outside my organization), i'd put on a white belt. if a purple belt from another bjj school showed up on my mats in a white belt, people would quickly notice, and probably get very annoyed. just a different culture. oh, and some schools do have a well defined per-belt syllabus, for the record.
Whats att? I guess it's just a different culture, its very alian to people from TMA's like you said if you so much as change your association (not even your style) chance are you will be a white belt again. Its part of the reason I don't think belts are necessary as skill speaks for its self. But I think BJJ is probably the only art were the belt system actually works and you know a black belt is better than a blue belt. Were as in something like TKD you can have a low belt who can kick a high belts ass and the only reason the guy has a higher belt is cos he has been doing it longer.
It's not necesarily performance based. At my gym I can beat the blues 75% of the time and am still white, and we have a CSW guy who's almost as good as both of our blackbelt instructors and he's a whitebelt too.
Aaah i thought he lived in Manchester in the UK for some reason. Was pretty sure there is no school with two BB's there.
You should be getting a blue belt soon. If you are tapping guys with the same moves or have problems in certain positions then that may be why you have not gotten it yet. When I was a white, before I got my blue, I had a good guard and very good defense for a white belt. I just had a not too good mount and a tough time escaping side control. Once I improved in those areas I was awarded the blue.
I would suggest then that you go enter a large tournament and compete as a blue belt and see how you do.
ATT has a green belt between white and blue I believe. They justify it by pointing out that a 6 month white belt will win against almost every noobie that walks in, just as blue belts win against almost every white belt.
Are American top team and Brazilian top team in anyway related. cos they have very similar names and similar logos, is this just a coincidence?
Also I know that in most BJJ schools I have heard of you are given your new belt when you get to the level of that belt i.e. if your a white belt and you start to hold you own against and beat other blue belts regularly, your game in all positions is blue belt standard etc. you are awarded a blue belt. But I was wondering do any schools actually do gradings, in the TMA sense, as in going in front of an examiner and having to grapple and stuff? If so what do you guys think about this.
When I got my blue belt (way back when) I had to grapple in front of Matt Thornton (and with Matt Thornton too) to get it in a sort of "official" grading. However that probably had more to do with the lack of high grades in the UK at that time and also the fact that Matt T had to travel over in order to do some seminars and gradings. It can be (and mostly is it seems) less formal than that. I also think that my instructor had to give Matt the nod beforehand that I should be considered for blue while he was over.
Thanks for the link. I always enjoy reading Matts stuff, he explains things in a very simple manner and really gets the idea across.
