How does the belt system work in JJ?

[Cora Sek]

Last week was belt promotion at my daughter's gym which left me wondering how does it work in JJ. My daughter was so excited and EXPECTED to get promoted to the next belt level (orange), she is currently a yellow/orange. However, this didn't happen. She just got a stripe. I'm NOT saying this because she is my daughter, but you will never find a kid that work on her game harder than her. After school, after she finished her homework, we practice for about 30-45 minutes then we go to the gym. At the gym she put in another hour and half with the black belt club. ANd when all the kids leave, she ask the coach if she can spar with one of her favorite sparring partner. They usually go for about another 30-40 minutes in the cage. So each day she put in about 2.5 hours of practice. ANd on the weekend she put in about 3-4 hours of practice. All of her coaches know how much time she put into her game as she never miss a class. Not only that, she is showing them techniques that they haven't teach the kids yet and on top of that...the RUBBER GUARD. For six months straight she have competed in a tournament every month and gets 1st and 2nd, and brought her medals to show the class. Kids that she beat in the tournaments and in the gym are already long time orange belt and she go through them less than a minute. You can see on some of her youtube. So with the time she put in and all her accomplishment, she still didn't get promoted to the orange belt make her sad and down, which left me wondering how this belt system work?? I know she's only been doing this for 2 years, but believe me, her mat time is much more than that of kids that in it 4-5 years. So does time with the gym matter more than mat time and dedication to the sport? Of course my own philosophy about this is, don't worry about the belt color, just practice hard and beat them all, cus the streets know no color. But for a 9 year old girl, she just want some reward to show for her hard work and have a visual prize around her waist.

[Sam Sales]

Last week was belt promotion at my daughter's gym which left me wondering how does it work in JJ. My daughter was so excited and EXPECTED to get promoted to the next belt level (orange), she is currently a yellow/orange. However, this didn't happen. She just got a stripe. I'm NOT saying this because she is my daughter, but you will never find a kid that work on her game harder than her. After school, after she finished her homework, we practice for about 30-45 minutes then we go to the gym. At the gym she put in another hour and half with the black belt club. ANd when all the kids leave, she ask the coach if she can spar with one of her favorite sparring partner. They usually go for about another 30-40 minutes in the cage. So each day she put in about 2.5 hours of practice. ANd on the weekend she put in about 3-4 hours of practice. All of her coaches know how much time she put into her game as she never miss a class. Not only that, she is showing them techniques that they haven't teach the kids yet and on top of that...the RUBBER GUARD. For six months straight she have competed in a tournament every month and gets 1st and 2nd, and brought her medals to show the class. Kids that she beat in the tournaments and in the gym are already long time orange belt and she go through them less than a minute. You can see on some of her youtube. So with the time she put in and all her accomplishment, she still didn't get promoted to the orange belt make her sad and down, which left me wondering how this belt system work?? I know she's only been doing this for 2 years, but believe me, her mat time is much more than that of kids that in it 4-5 years. So does time with the gym matter more than mat time and dedication to the sport? Of course my own philosophy about this is, don't worry about the belt color, just practice hard and beat them all, cus the streets know no color. But for a 9 year old girl, she just want some reward to show for her hard work and have a visual prize around her waist.

Best bit of advice I can give (and I am still relatively new to all this, 18 months or so) is don't get all wound up with belts and rankings and all that bullshit. Quite often there is no method to the madness.
Seeing people less skilled and far less committed than you actually pass you in stripes/belts for whatever reason sucks balls though, but its part of the game I guess.
Anyway, hope she sticks with it as it sounds like she is going to be a killer! :-)

[Cora Sek]

Yes you are right... her last tournament, in the NO gi, Cora tapped this boy out in about 20 seconds and he didn't even know what hit him, all he can do was look at his coach and say "what happened??". When they finished with the no gi, I saw that kid in the gi with an orange belt on.

[Salami]

Stripes are time accumulative within the belt.4 stripes per belt.Comprehension is the next belt change. Instructors discretion. Funny cause in BJJ,they added the gray belt last year,after white, and before the yellow belt for the kids. I AGREE with you,train hard and it will come. Days are different now,status is pushed down our throats. At my former school,newbies would literally ask,"How long til I get my belt?" My veteran students know NEVER ask,or it's alot longer!
Kids go white,gray,yellow,orange. There should be rules at IBJJF.com When the Black Belt comes thats when it's difficult for what year the stripes come.There are no defined rules.Hope that helped

[Cora Sek]

here is that fight...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ss8W5YWo2c

[Nat Cummings]

here is that fight...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ss8W5YWo2c

That was actually kinda sad to see how badly quickly he lost- especially if he is supposed to be ranked higher than her.
I'm really impressed with her skill at her age, forget that she's a girl

[La'akea Sanborn]

I believe there are age requirements that some schools follow for certain ranks, so even if a child is putting in alot of work, and may well be deserving for the next rank, if you promote them a full belt then you end up having 14 15 year old black belts. In karate or tae kwon do, this happens all the time, but in jiu jitsu it's rare to see youngsters get full belt promotions. Most jiu jitsu instructors aren't gonna just give the belt away cause your kid pays the tuition and shows up at class. In the school I was training at, we litterally had a world champion at 11 or 12 years old and he was ranked an orange belt, who soon after got his green. I think I heard that you can't even receive your blue until your 16? Our kids don't even get that half yellow half orange stuff. You get patches, and then when you're ready the new belt promotion.

As much as it hurts your childs ego, in a way, this is a good thing. It challenges your child to have patience, a sense of long term commitment, and something to strive for in terms of martial arts as a life style. This is probably why enrollments in arts like karate or tae kwon do, start to dwindle shortly after puberty. Once you're a black belt, you've already had your cake, and soon the kids start to move on to high school and other interests in their life. (I'm a 3rd degree black belt, who rec.d there shodan at age 10 or something, and have helped teach other children with my karate school).

This could also be the reason why you don't often see green belts at your local school or gym, because some parents, families, or children, don't understand the concept, or just lack the patience and commitment and also fizzle out due to frustration or just loss of interest. Why there seems to be so many students btw the ages of 5-10 but why at around age 13 or so the enrollment of that generation really thins out. New students coming in at white belt who are 14, 15, 16 are at a physical maturity where it's accepted to promote them to blue without the yellow, orange, green rankings, so that's typically when a whole new generation of students begin again.

As a parent, take it upon yourself to explain to your daughter that jiu jitsu is a life style. Something that should grow to be a part of her and not just happen in pre fabricated increments. Use it as an avenue to elevate her personal learning as opposed to constantly comparing yourself to your peers. It's kinda like having a college degree on a resume. It really doesn't matter what you majored in, so long as you demonstrated the long term commitment to stay on the path and get your diploma. It's that dedication that employers appreciate. Not just the academic prowess.

U also may wanna consider somethings that you've brought up in your post. You seem to dedicate alot of time into your daughters training and alot of what you guys work on are things that are outside of what's being taught. I'm not saying this is the case at your school, but the sad reality is this could be looked at as a distraction in various ways. Yeah we will all say that it's bull shit, and the exposure benefits everyone, but if you're the guy who's in charge of curriculum, and one of your students is injecting a new style amongst your pupil that you don't totally understand, unless you're truly willing to learn and adapt your teaching styles to it (which isn't as common as you think), you're starting a bit of a counter culture in the gym. Many 10th planet practitioners still continue to go through this as adults, where as children, instructors maybe a little less rigid to encourage the initiative of the child and to save face. It's like that tae kwon do kid, who still does tae kwon do at a karate dojo, or a wrestler or judo player who relies to heavily on their wrestling judo techniques while at a jiu jitsu school. On a much broader scale, eddies thing with renato is symbolic of this phenomenon that seems unreal, put has a place in a real world.

As cliche as this next point may sound, don't be that pushy parent who's constantly evaluating there child by comparison to other children. Each childs journey is different, each have their own relationship with their teacher, each have their own unique lessons to learn, and it's a little short sighted to base your opinions on competition results, and sparring sessions that are really designed to encourage the growth of the school overall, not just designate the all stars from the b team. This is something that I notice in martial arts that's quite different from traditional american sports. The focus can at times be too comparitive and not as communal as martial arts is intended to be. She's got a lot of talent and potential, and it's obvious she loves the sport. Who cares about the color of her belt, she'll get there. And if she truly is better than those that are promoted, believe me, on the mat, everyone learns the truth and reality of the game anyway.

You seem very proud and involved in your childs jiu jitsu and that's a good thing. Just keep it positive for their sake, ya know? I've had this conversation with tons of parents and you're not the only family who experiences these feelings, or this situation. The truth of the matter (which is really not the focal point) is you daughter is tapping everyone out anyway and people are definitely aware and taking notice of that. In that sense her dedication is recognized for it's true merit, and this is where it's important to think about the spiritual side of jiu jitsu and not just the competitive side, cause believe me, there's probably alot of envy in the air. Especially cause she's a girl.

so in closure to my essay on the matter, your belt really just keeps your kimono closed and your pants up, who cares what color it is. Alot of families go through this in their own way, don't make it bigger or harder than it needs to be for yourself.

respectfully with all my support

[bobby rivers]

Do you train Cora?

[Cora Sek]

Here is a tough boy (mohawk) that is an orange belt and been doing BJJ for over 4 years now...
Battle of H-town on 10/20/12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcT0wjJF-to

They met again at Fight to Win Texas Open on 11/17/12 but this time, the Rubber Guard is in her arsenal. We been playing with the Rubber Guard for about 4 wks by then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vASvcSnnCi4

[Brandon Woolsey]

Gotta be 16 to get your blue.