No disrespect to anyone..

[lates85]

I think the proper term for these belt factories is called "mcdojos" applying to TKD and karate. Grandmasters are 8th - 10th degree blackbelts and are around 30-40 yrd old. I've seen a few where the head instructors are obese and explaining things to you and the thought could be in your head that taking advice from someone who can't even scratch his back is not credible. One dude here where I live when i visited a karate dojo SERIOUSLY looked exactly like Tank Abbott. Anyways, some places make you sign a 6-12 month contract and if you can't make a payment they send a collection agency after you...and also tuition is like 180+ a month..but if you spend enough time consistently at these places you can get into some decent shape with all the sparring, but is it quality and will they work in real life situations when you've been practicing stand up point sparring and minimal groundwork? that's for debate. and with that consistency you can be a blackbelt in 1 1/2 - 2 years in certain styles. I think belt tests are great if you really earn them and I don't mean by learning kata...proving technique you've learned and applying it..

[Ehsan_Karam]

At my gym after warmups before we get paired off to work technique we line up by rank, so the MAIN benefit of getting promoted is better training partners. This may not sound like a big deal but trust me it's HUGE. The higher level guys understand "no assistance, no resistance" and may even have details that you're missing, whereas the junior students kinda tend to try to defend stuff at inappropriate times or worse just flop onto their belly or something while you're repping a move. Side note: the way we do promotions is pretty sweet too. Every last sunday of the month if you want to test you show up and fight (grapple) for your promotion. We have a "level" system that takes into account your current belt rank and your weight and matches you up with an appropriate opponent and if you win you get progressively tougher comp until our head guy has seen what he needed to see.
That way if you get promoted you KNOW you earned that shit!

[Mike Noronowicz]

i don't even focus on belts , ranks and stripes . i just wanna improve and remember all that i learned

[bobby rivers]

Do belts matter? Under who?

[GorlockMacGregor]

To the OP:

There is no such thing as "Beating" blue belts and purple belts in rolling. If you're beating them in tournaments you have my respect, but Gym wins don't exist except in the mind of a white belt.

[Jarrad Mckay]

As a white belt, I would like to obtain a Blue belt mainly for something to strive at, so I can say to myself that I put in the hard work and did everything I had to do. From there on who knows. I do Jits for the love of Jits, but it's nice to have something to show YOURSELF for YOUR hard work. It has nothing to do with bragging rights to anybody else.

[leach_jeffrey]

To the OP:

There is no such thing as "Beating" blue belts and purple belts in rolling. If you're beating them in tournaments you have my respect, but Gym wins don't exist except in the mind of a white belt.

This comment seems strange to me, unless you are just trying to pick apart his terminology.

If a guy goes into the gym, day in and day out, and consistently hangs with and occasionally submits or out-scores blue and purple belts then I think he deserves your respect for his skill level (everyone should be respected regardless of skill level, but that is not what we are talking about). Not everyone enters tournaments, it doesn't mean that they suck.

Also, serious ass whippings are registered in the minds of non-white belts as evidenced by some of them getting angry and / or making excuses, and later avoiding white belts that delivered the ass-whipping.

[stlnl]

This comment seems strange to me, unless you are just trying to pick apart his terminology.

If a guy goes into the gym, day in and day out, and consistently hangs with and occasionally submits or out-scores blue and purple belts then I think he deserves your respect for his skill level (everyone should be respected regardless of skill level, but that is not what we are talking about). Not everyone enters tournaments, it doesn't mean that they suck.

Also, serious ass whippings are registered in the minds of non-white belts as evidenced by some of them getting angry and / or making excuses, and later avoiding white belts that delivered the ass-whipping.

You are missing his point. He is saying, people are in a gym to get better, not to always "win" and the context of a "win" in a gym is very, very relative (and its usually when experienced guy is trying to train from a bad position for him, giving less experienced guy a much better chance).

This doesnt mean some lesser ranked guys dont catch higher ranked guys. It happens and it is part of training. Talking about it on the internet, is just having a white belt mentality.

[leach_jeffrey]

You are missing his point. He is saying, people are in a gym to get better, not to always "win" and the context of a "win" in a gym is very, very relative (and its usually when experienced guy is trying to train from a bad position for him, giving less experienced guy a much better chance).

This doesnt mean some lesser ranked guys dont catch higher ranked guys. It happens and it is part of training. Talking about it on the internet, is just having a white belt mentality.

I think you are right. That makes sense.

[Tim Elliott]

A big problem I see with belts is people get into the habit of dishing out respect based on them. No belt, no respect.

This I personally find quite disgusting and not in the spirit of Martial Arts.