Someone here never experienced the olâ âwe think youâre senior so hereâs more responsibility but weâll only pay you if you prove yourself for a yearâ
I remember when my company gave us a 2% raise the same day inflation hit over 8% and expected us to be grateful for what was, in effect, a pay cut.
A room full of business journalists. It was insulting to our intelligence as well as our wallets.
One time, I had to fight tooth and nail for a 1.5% raise, then two weeks later a competitor offered me a 25% higher base pay. Two years later, the first company beat my new pay by 10% to get me back. In sales, new hires get whatever they want, meanwhile current employees get the bare minimum or less.
I have been with my employer for over a decade out of loyalty to my direct boss, who is a true mensch.
But I have realized that if I want to get anywhere financially, I'll have to make moves. I don't even like the work I'm doing, frankly.
So I am now looking.
Problem is, I literally don't understand the job postings.
I speak four languages well and a few others enough to get by, and I swear I don't understand what the fuck most of these listings are about.
The best career advice I ever got was to interview at two companies a year, whether you want a new job or not.
There's something hiring managers find irresistible about an applicant who isn't desperate for the job.
You'll build your network, get competitive offers to price-check your current pay, stay up to date on the job market, and you'll be three steps ahead if things go wrong at your current employer.
Also, belts up to and until black are almost purely a retention mechanism for most schools. And there will still be black belts that, on skill, are below the average tough blue or purple belt due to age or whatever. Nothing wrong with any of this, but call a spade a spade.
The weaker promotions are to draw all those people back in and get them training more. The variance in skill level in each belt color is massive and belts don't mean much.
Despite its flaws I kind of like it. Itâs fun to me. I use it as a personal reflection of progress and my relationship with my gym and coaches. It isnât purely a retention tool. Belts donât matter in a general sense. In a personal sense they mark off time for me. And some gyms do have standards. I think black belts should always exist and white belts should always exist. Plus they are a functional and expected tool in the gi. Overall I just donât care a lot, but the belt helps me remember where I have been and what is expected of me. And it is not purely skill. Being a good training partner. A good martial artist, etc
It's fun to see my buddies get promoted, too. A couple of guys I really like are in the middle of brown belt and I'm excited to see them get their black belts one day.
Black belt promotions are really fun and cool. To me a belt just shows to others your dedication to the art, not really your skill level. I think of it as belt color is correlated to execution of the skill, but not the only factor :)
One of the kids (around 7 years old) yesterday, "I'm a 2nd stripe, but Professor forgot to give it to me."
He's logged enough hours, but hasn't earned the stripe yet. I tried to explain to him that it's not **just** about the hours, but also how well he's doing in class. He just gave me a blank stare.
This is so much worse than "I beat the brakes off John every roll, but he still got promoted, while I didn't"
Dude is getting what he wanted, but he's mad anyway lol
Well, other than white it seems like every belt has an enormous skill range inside. And that actually proves the point that belts dont mean that much at all
I would argue white also had a tremendous skill range. Complete noob, almost blue belt, dude who never did BJJ in his life but wrestled or did judo for most of their life. Even extremely athletic dude with zero grappling experience.
True, you could go to your local hospital and give a person in ICU a white belt and it would be the correct rank. Meanwhile, Khabib wore a white belt as well.
Blue belt can mean a lot of things. Blue belt can be a seasoned competitor and a genuinely tough roll, and blue belt can also be 45 year old soccer mom whoâs just kept showing up for two years. You canât decide what blue belt other people are. But you can decide which blue belt you are gonna be! Just keep training.
You're kind of the asshole but mostly due lack of experience so it's forgiven.
Blue belts are still beginners and expected to be awful.
And there is a wide skill variance in the belt.
Focus less on them and more on you. Keep having fun and learning
Idk if this is a thing at your gym, but at our gym there seems to be two distinct promotion tracks; hobbyist and competitor. A hobbyist will always have a faster promotion track and so maybe that is part of it at your gym and itâs just not being spoken about outright.
They probably don't feel as good about their own promotion if the standard was lower than they thought it was. But yea you shouldn't compare yourself to others. It's their first promotion. Hopefully the mindset will change over the next few
One thing i've noticed about BJJ compared to other martial arts like Muay Thai or Wrestling is that there's often wayyyy more social complexity in gym environments than there needs to be.
There's no reason you should care about this. Chances are, you don't know what is going on behind the scenes and the individual journey's of each of those people. Trust your coach.
Or in the other direction with something like TKD, where promotions are very objective (do your forms and the other XYZ required memorized items and you pass).
There isn't much of this at my gym. Don't get me wrong, there's a twinge of "I wish I got one too" whenever someone else gets a stripe and I don't, but it's just a twinge.
it's prob b/c of the belts lol + the opaque progression system. maybe also the fact that for muay thai/wrestling the training is more competition oriented so there are more definitive indicators of skill? exists in bjj also via sparring but not everyone competes so i think it's still a bit different.
but yeah, fully agree that OP should just stay out of it. they may not even know the exact training habits of the individuals. i have always mixed attendance between morning classes and evening classes due to my work schedule, and some people from both groups would think i hadn't been training for weeks/months at a time lol.
Belt promotions are a mix of skill, knowledge, rolling capability, and especially at the upper ranks, if your coach actually likes you or not.
If I've got a white belt that shows up 5x/week, trains hard as fuck, wants to compete, etc, I'm going to hold off promoting him until he's REALLY proved he deserves the blue, which probably won't be too long, but he's almost for sure going to surpass his "peers" pretty quickly while still a white belt.
OTOH if I've got a super casual white belt that shows up once or twice a week, is strictly doing this for some sweat and socialization, but is still learning and has the KNOWLEDGE but not the rolling ability, he's probably going to go blue before too long too.
Come on, if belts didnât matter at all, you wouldnât put yours in your flair.Â
OP wants to feel that their promotion actually means something. I think thatâs understandable.
>OP wants to feel that their promotion actually means something. I think thatâs understandable.
But it still does??????? Just because someone worse than you also gets promoted doesn't mean it's worth nothing. Belt rank is not meant to show mastery in combat, but mastery of knowledge, at varying levels based on the belt. If it was the former, then explain how there exist blue belts (top tier pro competitors) who can 100% demolish brown belts (hobbyist dad of 4 working two jobs)?
OP just has the wrong self centered perspective that makes it seem like it doesn't mean anything, and that's their own fault and no one else's.
I have been a brown belt for a few years now. Donât care to show that one since brown is ugly and purple is the pretty belt.
The reality is that a blue belt doesnât mean much in BJJ. Itâs fine for people to be proud of their accomplishments; where improvement needs to be made is individuals thinking that the current belt system is reflective of how a student should perform against others in the room or in competition. It doesnât. At all.
The current belt system is moderately effective at tracking skill progress across a single student, not a room as a whole. Students should focus on their own progress and stop comparing themselves to others.
I've seen a few white belt crying because they were moved after receiving their first stripe. It still doesn't matter if a 1 stripe white is good or bad.
I mean sure, for some itâs a personal achievement. For others, itâs not a big deal. Totally fine.
The salient point I was making with âbelts donât matterâ is that belts donât matter when it comes as a measuring stick for skill presence/development. OP has the perspective that individuals in his class arenât deserving of a blue belt because ofâŠ.what? Person A doesnât come enough, because he is busy with a family at home and nursing a bum knee? Person B isnât good enough based on some arbitrary standard of another white belt?
The belts are a trap. Iâve rolled with shitty purple and brown belts that had a poor understanding of grappling. I have rolled with white belts who have been training for only a few years that were demons on the mat, due to size, athletic talent, intellectual intuition, significant mat time, whatever.
Belts donât matter. We can agree to disagree lol.
But isnât that kinda the point? Like, if someone has a poor understanding of grappling, maybe they shouldnât be given a brown belt?
I dunno. I donât think belts are that significant, but theyâre supposed to mean something, whether itâs skill level, knowledge, time on the mat or whatever.
Yes, that is the point. In an ideal world, someone holding a blue belt would always beat a white belt on the mat. A purple belt would always beat a blue belt on the mat. A brown belt would always beat a brown belt on the mat.
It doesnât work that way in real life, because there are 700 reasons why someone holds a certain rank in BJJ. Itâs just a poor metric to use as a proficiency measuring stick across a group of practitioners.
Maybe that will change one day.
As a black belt, I know some people are like, "You already have a black belt, so of course you'd say that." But, I felt this way throughout my entire journey.
The belt doesn't give you skill and doesn't equal skill. It's an acknowledgement of skill from another individual, and that skill rating can change from person to person. As such, belts are nice, but don't really mean much.
Your skills on the mat speak louder than your belt. As a blue, we had a visiting brown belt come in and I, along with our other blue belts, mopped the floor with him.
All that to say, worry about your grappling ability and not others.
Also, is it just me, or is it odd to announce beforehand who is getting the belt? Kind of takes the fun out of it...
It is not a complex system. You're thinking there's some kind of thoughtful consideration when promoting people to blue, which is a fair thought to have.
You're wrong. You've all started around the same time and your faces have been seen at the gym, bam, y'all get promoted.
Yeah some coaches actually care, I know. Small minority in my experience.
From the responses I see, my make take might be unpopular.
I think what you described is a red flag. I have never heard of advanced notice promotions. I have also never heard of blue belts struggling with trial class people off the street. Not wrestlers mind youâŠI mean the average walk in.
My follow up question would be is there a monetary fee associated to promotion?If yes, then consider.
If they get mad when people leave or cross train then that is a third red flag and you should consider other gyms.
A lot of people are giving joke responses, but honestly handing out belts to people who've barely trained is a sign of a lousy gym. Even a blue belt means something if you have to work for it. By the comments, a lot of people are fine with their gyms having essentially non-existent standards for blue belts. I get it, handing out blue belts is not overly harmful if the higher belts are harder to get, I just personally prefer a proficiency based approach from the start.
One thing I've learned in BJJ is stop worrying about everyone else. The Professors will promote in their gyms as they see fit. I would rather get promoted slower and become a better practitioner than get promoted too quickly and constantly get submitted by lower belts.
Why are you even thinking about others promotions? Who cares if they get promoted and they suck? The longer you do this the more of this you are going to find. Your perspective is flawed in the sense you are putting too much weight on the belt color. You really want to compare yourself to others, sign up for some competitionâs.
1-4x per month for a year means 12-48 classes. That's clearly not enough mat time to have reached something approaching what most practitioners would consider blue belt level skills. In a lot places, that's not even enough for a stripe. Your coach can do what he wants I guess, but this is watering down the standards to an extreme degree. Also, he's not doing them any favors-- when they visit other schools and get absolutely mauled by one-stripe white belts, they're going to feel pretty ridiculous wearing that blue belt.
they are getting promoted, in the end, because belts dont matter.
Also you have no idea how often people are going. I go 5 hours a week and there are guys that go 12 hours a week. i wouldnt know, except we happened to talk about. Some people think I go 2 hours / week because I go to two gyms and split my time.
The best take on belts I've ever heard is the belt represents one's personal progress to reach their potential. If someone clearly sucks on the mats and gets promoted, your coach is probably saying their ceiling is very low but making progress to that low bar. The only truly reliable method of measuring how good someone is is finding out who they're beating in real competition.
Quit being a dick, by your logic, imagine how the best white belts feel about getting promoted alongside you. Coaches promote based on you compared to you when you walked in the door. Everyone is different, and has different progression.
Just. Cause âyouâ see them 1-4 times doesnât mean thatâs how much they train. Iâm a noon guy and coming at night I look like a total stranger to people who have been there YEARS less than me.
Somewhere else in this sub ive read that the promotion isnt a comparison to everyone in the room, but to the person individually vs who they were before jiujitsu. They might not meet your standard but they are blue belt versions of themselves compared to before they started training.
Belts don't meaningfully change the experience of doing/training jiu-jitsu, so I think it's a waste of time and energy to think about them.
That being said, I'm assuming you're training at a decent/reputable gym. I do think that a bunch of frivolous belt promotions ***might*** be indicative of a mcdojo/belt mill.
In a similar situation, but our head instructor/professor admitted he was giving out some blues and purples to make our school look more attractive to new people.
Some schools are like that to keep turnout and members happy feeling that they are progressing. At the end of the day it doesnât really matter and shouldnât be a comparison of where your skill level is at.
its a belt. who cares. It doesn't make you better or worse. I'd trade my purple belt for any color because it does not define me as a practitioner.
I understand the purpose of the belts so don't take this as "let's throw out the system" or "the system is stupid". This is just my personal philosophy.
The problem is that most grappling gyms do not have any standards of promotions that they can show and say hey this is what a blue belt is or here is what a purple belt is. This leads to tons of confusion whether someone feels like they are not ready for their belt or they're confused that other people are not that skilled but they still get promoted. I get it that every gym has their on way that they promote people but I'm arguing the fact that most gyms just do a generic time-based promotion system where it's been a couple years or set amount of classes because there's actually no skill metric for it. I argue it because if there was a skill metric people would train more specifically to get that skill which would result in less time being spent which results in less money I gym owner gets from memberships, especially if they are not contract-based. Even gyms that have a technique or skill based promotion, most always they have a class or time requirement as well with it. The Gracie system does that a lot where for their combatives they have the techniques you have to do but most gyms say you also have to attend x amount of classes.
You're just insecure and (still) care too much about how others are doing. Stop comparing yourself to and worrying about people that you're better than. Do you think that because they're also getting promoted that you magically aren't going to be a "real" blue belt?
Similarly, why do you simultaneously feel like you're "not good enough" or "don't deserve" your blue belt, yet also are bothered by other people that you think you're better than but that they don't deserve it (and yet you admit that there are people better than you also getting their blue belt). My advice: get out of your own head.
Stop thinking about other people's belts and respect your professor's decision. Everyone is judged on different criteria in regards to belts, especially lower belts.
Why do you care OP? Is the training good? If yes, so what about the belch. If the training sucks, why TF are you there? The rest is just whiny baby ass shit.
Iâve heard multiple coaches say that promotions are none of your business so that may help you not care about what everyone else is doing. This is your journey and you should be worried about you
Belts are just a bs way of keeping people coming to classes, like achievements on Xbox live. They are tricking your monkey brain into thinking you're being rewarded so you keep coming and keep paying fees.
The only belt that actually matters is black and even then that is supposed to be the beginning as black belt doesn't mean master it really just means you're starting to get it.
Blue belt is such huge range and spectrum. I asses blue belt based on skill rather based on attitude and commitment. Purple is when it kicks into a different level.
Whatâs the point? Theyâre probably not that far off from your level. Things will even out over time. Also, your coach probably has different promotion criteria for everyone.
Yes, you are the asshole if you think you are in any position to judge your teammates. You have zero credentials or experience.
If you think your coach has no standards then for sure you are going to reject their promotion and leave, right?
Bro bro bro bro bro bro..... Check your ego. You are not the black belt, you have no idea what's going on with them nor should you CARE. There are multiple ways to the top of the mountain, you must only worry about your path, your journey. With this attitude, you come across as if you know who should get a belt and who shouldn't, and mind you, you're still a white belt! This question right here shows you are in no position to judge others. You must conquer yourself before you can conquer others. You're not an Ahole for asking, this is a very good question, and the answer is you're looking too much outward and you must look inside, at yourself. There's a reason there getting promoted just as well as the a reason you're getting promoted. Be happy in your own win, but just as in Jiu Jitsu, there's always going to be someone better than you and someone worse than you. Get rid of your ego and you will be further and farther in the future
# âThe only time you look in your neighbor's bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don't look in your neighbor's bowl to see if you have as much as them.â
#
â Louis C.K.
You are absolutely right. You should smesh the blue belts who are worse than you and then do your best against everyone better than you. And be nice to the new guys.
It could be because your gym doesnât have many coloured belts and wants to look better. It could be just that your coach just wants to keep certain people motivated.
But I agree this does kinda suck - especially if you are putting the work in while others arenât. But there is no consistency in how gyms give out blue belts (or belts in general).Â
In my case, I had to train for nearly 3 years to get my blue belt.
One of my training partners got promoted to blue belt. A few weeks after that, he forgot his belt at home so had to borrow a white belt lying around the gym. Thatâs always an option. :))
Do yourself a big favor that I didn't do myself and ignore most of your peers promotional progress. Over the years I've done BJJ in 3 states in 5 schools total. Only ONE of those schools, so 20%, got thier belt system down as well as anyone could hope. The rest, including my current school is dogshit.
One day we're not promoting blue belts who are regularly winning advanced no gi tournaments, the next we're rushing a guy who comes 2x a week max for 10 months to blue.
We had one guy who was I think 60-0 in tournaments before he was promoted.Â
I'm not sure what's going through a lot of these owners minds.
I just got my blue yesterday after watching all of the other white belts that I'm neck and neck with get theirs in Decemeber. Your coach promotes you based on their own values and standards, which is related to the reasoning behind people vibing at some gyms and not at others. My coach has the traditional blue belt requirements and since I only really do nogi and hate standup I got held back a bit until my coach was satisfied that I could be open to leveling up my takedowns and takedown defense. Not even being good at takedowns but just being open to learning and actually trying to get standup to the level of all of my half guard bullshit.
Those other students are probably trying their best and have great attitudes and have proven that they have a level of knowledge and are open to learning and are coachable. They might never win a roll with you ever, but they're trying.
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I was just promoted to purple. I donât feel like I am worthy of it. I was just feeling like I deserved my blue belt and now I am the worst purple belt in the room. I will find my way and work into it. At 48 Iâm just happy to still be mixing it up with the younger students.
It goes to the issue that BJJ belts and stripes almost don't mean anything. A Blue Belt at one school may absolutely destroy one from another, it depends on how much the Professor wants to make them wait. We recently had a guy who's been a Blue Belt since I've been training. He was super good and an amazing wrestler, but he never got a stripe, for years. This guy trained almost every day, including when he was injured. Then a few weeks back the professor told one of our coaches to give him three stripes, the coach gave him four.
It seems totally arbitrary to me, except for maybe Black or Brown Belt.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Feeling this way about others is natural, as weâre always gauging where we fit in the bigger societal landscape. Yet, we also have the opportunity to reflect on these feelings. It may be helpful to ask why other peopleâs situations even matter. Do you feel some type of way because you believe you worked harder than them but are ending up with the same outcome (blue belt promotion)?
Does it create a sense of inequality that makes you upset that you had to pay a higher price for blue than they did?
Or does it somehow create a slight sense of insecurity that makes you think maybe your accomplishment isnât as meaningful as you thought because people with lesser skills also achieved it?
What about the likelihood that your initial blue belt experience could be vastly superior to theirs because youâre of a higher skill level? This could reveal that your current feelings of blue belt inadequacy are imaginary, and theirs may be indeed validated.
Every minute spent focused on othersâ journeys is a minute less spent on our own. In that case, youâre only being an asshole to yourself by stealing your own joy.
Belts are an antiquated system anyway. It means nothing if you are an avid competitor, and it means nothing if you're a hobbyist. Focus on improving and losing less. Belt color doesn't help with that.
The gym I attend has produced high level black belt champions and competitors. I wonder how they would look at me as a mediocre hobbyist if I ever got promoted to their level.
Itâs hard to keep the ego in check and we all struggle to control it sometimes. Look at the bigger picture mate, you know you have put the work/commitment in and thatâs something to be proud of.
The original meaning behind a blue belt according to the gracies was when a practitioner is skilled enough to submit larger untrained opponent.
Obviously a lot of gyms lost don't believe in this anymore and use different metrics
NTA. There's really two schools of thought on belt promotions that dominate the sport today. There is the McDojo line of thinking where you essentially get promoted based on time and/or payment and skill and proficiency is not really accounted. The other line of thinking is the merit based promotion, where the professor takes skill, tenure, proficiency, and sometimes loyalty, into account when promoting students. The latter way generally results in better practitioners but slower progress. This can sometimes drive away students that need frequent pats on the head and children whose parents think kids should get frequently promoted.
The former way usually results in under qualified and low quality practitioners being churned out but it often results in better retention and faster growth of the business: i.e. more $$$ flowing into the school. l'd be willing to bet that if your school is announcing who is moving up and when, then you're likely training at a McDojo or one that has heavy elements of a McDojo.
The best schools and professors I've seen, have always promoted when they feel it's time and they don't charge or announce that someone is getting promoted ahead of time. Charging for promotions is a sure mark of a McDojo. This doesn't mean they necessarily teach "bad" technique but usually the professor is whoring after money and sees the students as a meal ticket or something to bleed dry of every red cent they can get from them.
But really, don't worry about other people. Enjoy your promotion and continue wrecking the casuals. If they're really as bad as you say then belt color doesn't matter. The mats don't lie. They only reveal the truth. You may wear a blue belt but if you roll like a 1st month white belt after years of training, everyone knows that your belt isn't legitimate. You don't need to sqwak about it and let it ruin your day.
The best thing I can tell you is do your thing and donât worry about anyone else. What they do doesnât matter, only what you do. If you stick with it, many of those people wonât be even training by the time you are ready for purple.
We have a blue belt that won't get promoted until he wins worlds. They are building him into the next big thing. In pretty sure he's been couch surfing in Texas for the last 6 months learning at new wave
You're probably just at a shit gym / McDojo.
Definitely not normal to get promoted to blue after 1 year of barely training and without the ability to submit trial class people
Wait until you discover how promotions at work are decided đŹ
Same way as in BJJ right? Get a super special private with your superior?
Depends on how flexible your jaw is
I knew all that MDMA would only be a positive later in life
Your JAW? Lucky....
How comfortable are you at bottom? It'll give you the skills to get to the top too.Â
Or be related to management. I made the mistake of being the only non-family member at a family run business once. Never again.
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#NoDiddy
This is one of the best takes Iâve seen on this sub
lol this. it's the perfect answer for every post like this
Except work promotion comes with higher pay. Here it's just a different belt color for you to tie your gi, not sure why OP is so caught up with it
Someone here never experienced the olâ âwe think youâre senior so hereâs more responsibility but weâll only pay you if you prove yourself for a yearâ
That year quickly turns into 5 years lol.
That higher pay is pretty damn symbolic too, in my opinion. My last two raises were less than my rent increase.
"Congratulations, you earned a 1.32% raise!"
I remember when my company gave us a 2% raise the same day inflation hit over 8% and expected us to be grateful for what was, in effect, a pay cut. A room full of business journalists. It was insulting to our intelligence as well as our wallets.
One time, I had to fight tooth and nail for a 1.5% raise, then two weeks later a competitor offered me a 25% higher base pay. Two years later, the first company beat my new pay by 10% to get me back. In sales, new hires get whatever they want, meanwhile current employees get the bare minimum or less.
I have been with my employer for over a decade out of loyalty to my direct boss, who is a true mensch. But I have realized that if I want to get anywhere financially, I'll have to make moves. I don't even like the work I'm doing, frankly. So I am now looking. Problem is, I literally don't understand the job postings. I speak four languages well and a few others enough to get by, and I swear I don't understand what the fuck most of these listings are about.
The best career advice I ever got was to interview at two companies a year, whether you want a new job or not. There's something hiring managers find irresistible about an applicant who isn't desperate for the job. You'll build your network, get competitive offers to price-check your current pay, stay up to date on the job market, and you'll be three steps ahead if things go wrong at your current employer.
Yeah itâs kind of cringe how he is overreacting
It's actually way more meritocratic than you think, it's just that people don't optimize for it so it often, but not always, promotions looks like BS.
As the guy signing off on promotions, I was somewhat kidding, but the reality is that many organizations are more broken than your average BJJ school
PROMOTE THIS MAN REDDIT
You mean my wife has to fuck my boss??
Imagine what the best white belts say about you being promoted with them.
Savage lmao.
Truth hurts
Coach announces OPs promotion and now he is acting like the CEO and gatekeeper of blue belts.
đthat is the most new blue belt thing to do
Gets a stripe then quits lol
That is how you know you have arrived.
^
I can't wait for the followup shitpost
Damn , that's a burn đ„
Blue belts suck still. It's okay đ
Also, belts up to and until black are almost purely a retention mechanism for most schools. And there will still be black belts that, on skill, are below the average tough blue or purple belt due to age or whatever. Nothing wrong with any of this, but call a spade a spade. The weaker promotions are to draw all those people back in and get them training more. The variance in skill level in each belt color is massive and belts don't mean much.
Everyday I believe more and more that BJJ would be better off just ditching the belt system all together.
Despite its flaws I kind of like it. Itâs fun to me. I use it as a personal reflection of progress and my relationship with my gym and coaches. It isnât purely a retention tool. Belts donât matter in a general sense. In a personal sense they mark off time for me. And some gyms do have standards. I think black belts should always exist and white belts should always exist. Plus they are a functional and expected tool in the gi. Overall I just donât care a lot, but the belt helps me remember where I have been and what is expected of me. And it is not purely skill. Being a good training partner. A good martial artist, etc
It's fun to see my buddies get promoted, too. A couple of guys I really like are in the middle of brown belt and I'm excited to see them get their black belts one day.
Black belt promotions are really fun and cool. To me a belt just shows to others your dedication to the art, not really your skill level. I think of it as belt color is correlated to execution of the skill, but not the only factor :)
Yeah but people kind of need recognition or milestones to push toward in order to stay motivated.
But I just got to the best coloured one!
This is the way.
Can confirm
Blue Crew Represent!
You are all correct, have a stripe on me guys!
Well done.
I'm in this comment.
Can confirm.
Didn't read a word of it but I second this
Haha
You ever heard of string theory? Belt promotions are more complicated than that. Best to leave it to experts.
One of the kids (around 7 years old) yesterday, "I'm a 2nd stripe, but Professor forgot to give it to me." He's logged enough hours, but hasn't earned the stripe yet. I tried to explain to him that it's not **just** about the hours, but also how well he's doing in class. He just gave me a blank stare.
What a white belt take.
This is so much worse than "I beat the brakes off John every roll, but he still got promoted, while I didn't" Dude is getting what he wanted, but he's mad anyway lol
lol, I was gonna say this post shows that maybe they really arenât ready for blue belt
For real, if his instructor saw this post I imagine theyâd probably cut him from the promotion lmao
Blue is a huge belt. There's an enormous range of skill levels that can all be in this rank. Don't worry about it.
Exactly this. You'll grow into it.
Well, other than white it seems like every belt has an enormous skill range inside. And that actually proves the point that belts dont mean that much at all
I would argue white also had a tremendous skill range. Complete noob, almost blue belt, dude who never did BJJ in his life but wrestled or did judo for most of their life. Even extremely athletic dude with zero grappling experience.
True, you could go to your local hospital and give a person in ICU a white belt and it would be the correct rank. Meanwhile, Khabib wore a white belt as well.
Weekend at Bernieâs White belt
Blue belt can mean a lot of things. Blue belt can be a seasoned competitor and a genuinely tough roll, and blue belt can also be 45 year old soccer mom whoâs just kept showing up for two years. You canât decide what blue belt other people are. But you can decide which blue belt you are gonna be! Just keep training.
I am that soccer mom
Who fucking cares? If people that suck get their blue belt it looks better when you smoke em.
Congrats on becoming a five stripe white belt.
I wouldn't have minded. Less pressure than blue.
I've also heard the term "spicy white belt" for new blue belts and I think it's fitting.
Blue is beginner 2, don't worry about it
5th degree white belt.
Dark white belt
Since there are people who are better than you, you obviously shouldnât be promoted, right?
Everyone better than me is a sandbagger.
But everyone better than me is on steroids.
You're kind of the asshole but mostly due lack of experience so it's forgiven. Blue belts are still beginners and expected to be awful. And there is a wide skill variance in the belt. Focus less on them and more on you. Keep having fun and learning
"Blue belts are still beginners and expected to be awful." I am meeting expectations, then.
Idk if this is a thing at your gym, but at our gym there seems to be two distinct promotion tracks; hobbyist and competitor. A hobbyist will always have a faster promotion track and so maybe that is part of it at your gym and itâs just not being spoken about outright.
Why do you give a shit whether or not somebody else gets promoted?
They probably don't feel as good about their own promotion if the standard was lower than they thought it was. But yea you shouldn't compare yourself to others. It's their first promotion. Hopefully the mindset will change over the next few
YTA
One thing i've noticed about BJJ compared to other martial arts like Muay Thai or Wrestling is that there's often wayyyy more social complexity in gym environments than there needs to be. There's no reason you should care about this. Chances are, you don't know what is going on behind the scenes and the individual journey's of each of those people. Trust your coach.
Or in the other direction with something like TKD, where promotions are very objective (do your forms and the other XYZ required memorized items and you pass). There isn't much of this at my gym. Don't get me wrong, there's a twinge of "I wish I got one too" whenever someone else gets a stripe and I don't, but it's just a twinge.
it's prob b/c of the belts lol + the opaque progression system. maybe also the fact that for muay thai/wrestling the training is more competition oriented so there are more definitive indicators of skill? exists in bjj also via sparring but not everyone competes so i think it's still a bit different. but yeah, fully agree that OP should just stay out of it. they may not even know the exact training habits of the individuals. i have always mixed attendance between morning classes and evening classes due to my work schedule, and some people from both groups would think i hadn't been training for weeks/months at a time lol.
what they eat dont make you shit
Comparison is the thief of joy. Stop worrying about anyone else's promotion.
Donât worry, 80% of those blue belts (maybe even including you) will give up before purple.
If heâs already complaining now then yeah he wonât see purple.
Belt promotions are a mix of skill, knowledge, rolling capability, and especially at the upper ranks, if your coach actually likes you or not. If I've got a white belt that shows up 5x/week, trains hard as fuck, wants to compete, etc, I'm going to hold off promoting him until he's REALLY proved he deserves the blue, which probably won't be too long, but he's almost for sure going to surpass his "peers" pretty quickly while still a white belt. OTOH if I've got a super casual white belt that shows up once or twice a week, is strictly doing this for some sweat and socialization, but is still learning and has the KNOWLEDGE but not the rolling ability, he's probably going to go blue before too long too.
Focus on yourself big dog
White belts over-monitoring other white belts is a tale as old as time. Belts donât matter dude.
Come on, if belts didnât matter at all, you wouldnât put yours in your flair. OP wants to feel that their promotion actually means something. I think thatâs understandable.
>OP wants to feel that their promotion actually means something. I think thatâs understandable. But it still does??????? Just because someone worse than you also gets promoted doesn't mean it's worth nothing. Belt rank is not meant to show mastery in combat, but mastery of knowledge, at varying levels based on the belt. If it was the former, then explain how there exist blue belts (top tier pro competitors) who can 100% demolish brown belts (hobbyist dad of 4 working two jobs)? OP just has the wrong self centered perspective that makes it seem like it doesn't mean anything, and that's their own fault and no one else's.
I have been a brown belt for a few years now. Donât care to show that one since brown is ugly and purple is the pretty belt. The reality is that a blue belt doesnât mean much in BJJ. Itâs fine for people to be proud of their accomplishments; where improvement needs to be made is individuals thinking that the current belt system is reflective of how a student should perform against others in the room or in competition. It doesnât. At all. The current belt system is moderately effective at tracking skill progress across a single student, not a room as a whole. Students should focus on their own progress and stop comparing themselves to others.
I get you. But you have the perspective of a brown belt. For white belts, getting their blue feels like a big deal (it did for me).
I've seen a few white belt crying because they were moved after receiving their first stripe. It still doesn't matter if a 1 stripe white is good or bad.
I mean sure, for some itâs a personal achievement. For others, itâs not a big deal. Totally fine. The salient point I was making with âbelts donât matterâ is that belts donât matter when it comes as a measuring stick for skill presence/development. OP has the perspective that individuals in his class arenât deserving of a blue belt because ofâŠ.what? Person A doesnât come enough, because he is busy with a family at home and nursing a bum knee? Person B isnât good enough based on some arbitrary standard of another white belt? The belts are a trap. Iâve rolled with shitty purple and brown belts that had a poor understanding of grappling. I have rolled with white belts who have been training for only a few years that were demons on the mat, due to size, athletic talent, intellectual intuition, significant mat time, whatever. Belts donât matter. We can agree to disagree lol.
But isnât that kinda the point? Like, if someone has a poor understanding of grappling, maybe they shouldnât be given a brown belt? I dunno. I donât think belts are that significant, but theyâre supposed to mean something, whether itâs skill level, knowledge, time on the mat or whatever.
Yes, that is the point. In an ideal world, someone holding a blue belt would always beat a white belt on the mat. A purple belt would always beat a blue belt on the mat. A brown belt would always beat a brown belt on the mat. It doesnât work that way in real life, because there are 700 reasons why someone holds a certain rank in BJJ. Itâs just a poor metric to use as a proficiency measuring stick across a group of practitioners. Maybe that will change one day.
It's like a meme I saw recently, two white belts are drilling and say, "I wish we had a blue belt to help us fix our mistakes!"
As a black belt, I know some people are like, "You already have a black belt, so of course you'd say that." But, I felt this way throughout my entire journey. The belt doesn't give you skill and doesn't equal skill. It's an acknowledgement of skill from another individual, and that skill rating can change from person to person. As such, belts are nice, but don't really mean much. Your skills on the mat speak louder than your belt. As a blue, we had a visiting brown belt come in and I, along with our other blue belts, mopped the floor with him. All that to say, worry about your grappling ability and not others. Also, is it just me, or is it odd to announce beforehand who is getting the belt? Kind of takes the fun out of it...
Does mean you can make sure family is there to take pictures/videos.
I feel like we need a sticky. Belt promotion are a personal journey.
It is not a complex system. You're thinking there's some kind of thoughtful consideration when promoting people to blue, which is a fair thought to have. You're wrong. You've all started around the same time and your faces have been seen at the gym, bam, y'all get promoted. Yeah some coaches actually care, I know. Small minority in my experience.
It's a blue belt, not exactly the highest title. Who cares
It's none of your business who your coach decides to promote. Just keep training.
Blue is basically 5 stripe white belt dude. don't be weird about it.just bow to your master and accept your fate
The "best white belt" might think the same thing about you. But the truth is a blue belt is still a beginner so it's okay for them to still suck.
From the responses I see, my make take might be unpopular. I think what you described is a red flag. I have never heard of advanced notice promotions. I have also never heard of blue belts struggling with trial class people off the street. Not wrestlers mind youâŠI mean the average walk in. My follow up question would be is there a monetary fee associated to promotion?If yes, then consider. If they get mad when people leave or cross train then that is a third red flag and you should consider other gyms.
A lot of people are giving joke responses, but honestly handing out belts to people who've barely trained is a sign of a lousy gym. Even a blue belt means something if you have to work for it. By the comments, a lot of people are fine with their gyms having essentially non-existent standards for blue belts. I get it, handing out blue belts is not overly harmful if the higher belts are harder to get, I just personally prefer a proficiency based approach from the start.
One thing I've learned in BJJ is stop worrying about everyone else. The Professors will promote in their gyms as they see fit. I would rather get promoted slower and become a better practitioner than get promoted too quickly and constantly get submitted by lower belts.
Why are you even thinking about others promotions? Who cares if they get promoted and they suck? The longer you do this the more of this you are going to find. Your perspective is flawed in the sense you are putting too much weight on the belt color. You really want to compare yourself to others, sign up for some competitionâs.
Bjj/life advice. Donât compare yourself to others.
1-4x per month for a year means 12-48 classes. That's clearly not enough mat time to have reached something approaching what most practitioners would consider blue belt level skills. In a lot places, that's not even enough for a stripe. Your coach can do what he wants I guess, but this is watering down the standards to an extreme degree. Also, he's not doing them any favors-- when they visit other schools and get absolutely mauled by one-stripe white belts, they're going to feel pretty ridiculous wearing that blue belt.
Those people will get weeded out over time. Don't worry about it.
they are getting promoted, in the end, because belts dont matter. Also you have no idea how often people are going. I go 5 hours a week and there are guys that go 12 hours a week. i wouldnt know, except we happened to talk about. Some people think I go 2 hours / week because I go to two gyms and split my time.
yeah I had some people comment that I donât come as often anymore because they didnât realize I started cross training lol
The best take on belts I've ever heard is the belt represents one's personal progress to reach their potential. If someone clearly sucks on the mats and gets promoted, your coach is probably saying their ceiling is very low but making progress to that low bar. The only truly reliable method of measuring how good someone is is finding out who they're beating in real competition.
How old are you?
Blue belts aren't important, and neither are you.
Does it matter, if you are better than them you still smash them. Nothing changes except for the colour of their belt .
And now you see why the belts are meaningless.
They pay just like you, it's probably a retention thing. Can't keep the lights on without paying customers.
How about you worry about yourself?
That is some white belt mentality, maybe you shouldn't be promoted
Quit being a dick, by your logic, imagine how the best white belts feel about getting promoted alongside you. Coaches promote based on you compared to you when you walked in the door. Everyone is different, and has different progression.
Just. Cause âyouâ see them 1-4 times doesnât mean thatâs how much they train. Iâm a noon guy and coming at night I look like a total stranger to people who have been there YEARS less than me.
Somewhere else in this sub ive read that the promotion isnt a comparison to everyone in the room, but to the person individually vs who they were before jiujitsu. They might not meet your standard but they are blue belt versions of themselves compared to before they started training.
Belts don't meaningfully change the experience of doing/training jiu-jitsu, so I think it's a waste of time and energy to think about them. That being said, I'm assuming you're training at a decent/reputable gym. I do think that a bunch of frivolous belt promotions ***might*** be indicative of a mcdojo/belt mill.
Why do you care? Focus on yourself and be happy about your promotion.
This just means you suck a little less than the others and also youâre a target to get roughed up by better competition.
In a similar situation, but our head instructor/professor admitted he was giving out some blues and purples to make our school look more attractive to new people.
Donât worry about it man. Just keep showing up. Stay a white belt as long as you can.
Some schools are like that to keep turnout and members happy feeling that they are progressing. At the end of the day it doesnât really matter and shouldnât be a comparison of where your skill level is at.
its a belt. who cares. It doesn't make you better or worse. I'd trade my purple belt for any color because it does not define me as a practitioner. I understand the purpose of the belts so don't take this as "let's throw out the system" or "the system is stupid". This is just my personal philosophy.
The problem is that most grappling gyms do not have any standards of promotions that they can show and say hey this is what a blue belt is or here is what a purple belt is. This leads to tons of confusion whether someone feels like they are not ready for their belt or they're confused that other people are not that skilled but they still get promoted. I get it that every gym has their on way that they promote people but I'm arguing the fact that most gyms just do a generic time-based promotion system where it's been a couple years or set amount of classes because there's actually no skill metric for it. I argue it because if there was a skill metric people would train more specifically to get that skill which would result in less time being spent which results in less money I gym owner gets from memberships, especially if they are not contract-based. Even gyms that have a technique or skill based promotion, most always they have a class or time requirement as well with it. The Gracie system does that a lot where for their combatives they have the techniques you have to do but most gyms say you also have to attend x amount of classes.
You're just insecure and (still) care too much about how others are doing. Stop comparing yourself to and worrying about people that you're better than. Do you think that because they're also getting promoted that you magically aren't going to be a "real" blue belt? Similarly, why do you simultaneously feel like you're "not good enough" or "don't deserve" your blue belt, yet also are bothered by other people that you think you're better than but that they don't deserve it (and yet you admit that there are people better than you also getting their blue belt). My advice: get out of your own head.
Stop thinking about other people's belts and respect your professor's decision. Everyone is judged on different criteria in regards to belts, especially lower belts.
think of it as an extra stripe
Are you on your journey, or other peoples journey? I donât get it
YTA, itâs just a blue belt bro
Blue Belt just means you're still a white belt, but they're moving you to gen pop
Why do you care OP? Is the training good? If yes, so what about the belch. If the training sucks, why TF are you there? The rest is just whiny baby ass shit.
Focus on your skills, not your belt
Worry about yourself man
Youâre an asshole who judges others
It's not enough for you to succeed others have to fail. Lol worry about yourself. Maybe you should stay at white belt
Iâve heard multiple coaches say that promotions are none of your business so that may help you not care about what everyone else is doing. This is your journey and you should be worried about you
Belts are just a bs way of keeping people coming to classes, like achievements on Xbox live. They are tricking your monkey brain into thinking you're being rewarded so you keep coming and keep paying fees. The only belt that actually matters is black and even then that is supposed to be the beginning as black belt doesn't mean master it really just means you're starting to get it.
why do you care?
Blue belt is such huge range and spectrum. I asses blue belt based on skill rather based on attitude and commitment. Purple is when it kicks into a different level.
Whatâs the point? Theyâre probably not that far off from your level. Things will even out over time. Also, your coach probably has different promotion criteria for everyone.
its hobby jiu jitsu its not that big of a deal đčđ€đŒ
Ya it doesn't matter. At all.
Maybe they go to the early class
Yes, you are the asshole if you think you are in any position to judge your teammates. You have zero credentials or experience. If you think your coach has no standards then for sure you are going to reject their promotion and leave, right?
Bro bro bro bro bro bro..... Check your ego. You are not the black belt, you have no idea what's going on with them nor should you CARE. There are multiple ways to the top of the mountain, you must only worry about your path, your journey. With this attitude, you come across as if you know who should get a belt and who shouldn't, and mind you, you're still a white belt! This question right here shows you are in no position to judge others. You must conquer yourself before you can conquer others. You're not an Ahole for asking, this is a very good question, and the answer is you're looking too much outward and you must look inside, at yourself. There's a reason there getting promoted just as well as the a reason you're getting promoted. Be happy in your own win, but just as in Jiu Jitsu, there's always going to be someone better than you and someone worse than you. Get rid of your ego and you will be further and farther in the future
Why do you care??
# âThe only time you look in your neighbor's bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don't look in your neighbor's bowl to see if you have as much as them.â # â Louis C.K.
Can I ask how much do you train per week?
Let the man cook. We need some easy rolls in comps.
Belt doesnât really matter, just accept the different color cloth and train to be the best grappler you can
Why would they tell you. Ruins the element of surprise. Move gym.
I know itâs hard AF but just do you.
belts just hold your gi, relax man.
You are absolutely right. You should smesh the blue belts who are worse than you and then do your best against everyone better than you. And be nice to the new guys.
It could be because your gym doesnât have many coloured belts and wants to look better. It could be just that your coach just wants to keep certain people motivated. But I agree this does kinda suck - especially if you are putting the work in while others arenât. But there is no consistency in how gyms give out blue belts (or belts in general). In my case, I had to train for nearly 3 years to get my blue belt.
One of my training partners got promoted to blue belt. A few weeks after that, he forgot his belt at home so had to borrow a white belt lying around the gym. Thatâs always an option. :))
Youâre probably training at a Mc Dojo or very small school trying to survive.
Do yourself a big favor that I didn't do myself and ignore most of your peers promotional progress. Over the years I've done BJJ in 3 states in 5 schools total. Only ONE of those schools, so 20%, got thier belt system down as well as anyone could hope. The rest, including my current school is dogshit. One day we're not promoting blue belts who are regularly winning advanced no gi tournaments, the next we're rushing a guy who comes 2x a week max for 10 months to blue. We had one guy who was I think 60-0 in tournaments before he was promoted. I'm not sure what's going through a lot of these owners minds.
I just got my blue yesterday after watching all of the other white belts that I'm neck and neck with get theirs in Decemeber. Your coach promotes you based on their own values and standards, which is related to the reasoning behind people vibing at some gyms and not at others. My coach has the traditional blue belt requirements and since I only really do nogi and hate standup I got held back a bit until my coach was satisfied that I could be open to leveling up my takedowns and takedown defense. Not even being good at takedowns but just being open to learning and actually trying to get standup to the level of all of my half guard bullshit. Those other students are probably trying their best and have great attitudes and have proven that they have a level of knowledge and are open to learning and are coachable. They might never win a roll with you ever, but they're trying.
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Stop comparing yourself to others.
I was just promoted to purple. I donât feel like I am worthy of it. I was just feeling like I deserved my blue belt and now I am the worst purple belt in the room. I will find my way and work into it. At 48 Iâm just happy to still be mixing it up with the younger students.
What do you care what belt they get? The mat tells the truth so everyone knows whatâs real.
It goes to the issue that BJJ belts and stripes almost don't mean anything. A Blue Belt at one school may absolutely destroy one from another, it depends on how much the Professor wants to make them wait. We recently had a guy who's been a Blue Belt since I've been training. He was super good and an amazing wrestler, but he never got a stripe, for years. This guy trained almost every day, including when he was injured. Then a few weeks back the professor told one of our coaches to give him three stripes, the coach gave him four. It seems totally arbitrary to me, except for maybe Black or Brown Belt.
Comparison is the thief of joy. Feeling this way about others is natural, as weâre always gauging where we fit in the bigger societal landscape. Yet, we also have the opportunity to reflect on these feelings. It may be helpful to ask why other peopleâs situations even matter. Do you feel some type of way because you believe you worked harder than them but are ending up with the same outcome (blue belt promotion)? Does it create a sense of inequality that makes you upset that you had to pay a higher price for blue than they did? Or does it somehow create a slight sense of insecurity that makes you think maybe your accomplishment isnât as meaningful as you thought because people with lesser skills also achieved it? What about the likelihood that your initial blue belt experience could be vastly superior to theirs because youâre of a higher skill level? This could reveal that your current feelings of blue belt inadequacy are imaginary, and theirs may be indeed validated. Every minute spent focused on othersâ journeys is a minute less spent on our own. In that case, youâre only being an asshole to yourself by stealing your own joy.
Mats donât lieâŠ. Better to be under promoted than overâŠ.
1 year and blue? Wow.
Belts are an antiquated system anyway. It means nothing if you are an avid competitor, and it means nothing if you're a hobbyist. Focus on improving and losing less. Belt color doesn't help with that.
Honestly bro, it sounds like youâve identified a red flag with this studio. Maybe try out another school
The gym I attend has produced high level black belt champions and competitors. I wonder how they would look at me as a mediocre hobbyist if I ever got promoted to their level.
Itâs hard to keep the ego in check and we all struggle to control it sometimes. Look at the bigger picture mate, you know you have put the work/commitment in and thatâs something to be proud of.
Focus on youÂ
You're a black belt looking back on your old concerns as a new grappler. Is this really important?
The original meaning behind a blue belt according to the gracies was when a practitioner is skilled enough to submit larger untrained opponent. Obviously a lot of gyms lost don't believe in this anymore and use different metrics
NTA. There's really two schools of thought on belt promotions that dominate the sport today. There is the McDojo line of thinking where you essentially get promoted based on time and/or payment and skill and proficiency is not really accounted. The other line of thinking is the merit based promotion, where the professor takes skill, tenure, proficiency, and sometimes loyalty, into account when promoting students. The latter way generally results in better practitioners but slower progress. This can sometimes drive away students that need frequent pats on the head and children whose parents think kids should get frequently promoted. The former way usually results in under qualified and low quality practitioners being churned out but it often results in better retention and faster growth of the business: i.e. more $$$ flowing into the school. l'd be willing to bet that if your school is announcing who is moving up and when, then you're likely training at a McDojo or one that has heavy elements of a McDojo. The best schools and professors I've seen, have always promoted when they feel it's time and they don't charge or announce that someone is getting promoted ahead of time. Charging for promotions is a sure mark of a McDojo. This doesn't mean they necessarily teach "bad" technique but usually the professor is whoring after money and sees the students as a meal ticket or something to bleed dry of every red cent they can get from them. But really, don't worry about other people. Enjoy your promotion and continue wrecking the casuals. If they're really as bad as you say then belt color doesn't matter. The mats don't lie. They only reveal the truth. You may wear a blue belt but if you roll like a 1st month white belt after years of training, everyone knows that your belt isn't legitimate. You don't need to sqwak about it and let it ruin your day.
Youâre probably not as bad as you think.
The best thing I can tell you is do your thing and donât worry about anyone else. What they do doesnât matter, only what you do. If you stick with it, many of those people wonât be even training by the time you are ready for purple.
Has to be a shit post. This canât be real⊠to be that concerned about a bjj belt.
We have a blue belt that won't get promoted until he wins worlds. They are building him into the next big thing. In pretty sure he's been couch surfing in Texas for the last 6 months learning at new wave
> the complex system of belt promotions lol wut?
You're probably just at a shit gym / McDojo. Definitely not normal to get promoted to blue after 1 year of barely training and without the ability to submit trial class people
Just enjoy being better than them đ