So let me ask you guys this, a brown belt who has developed his own style of jiu-jitsu, who has been training all over the place with different coaches, goes to a gym and signs up, puts in the time on the mat, shows up to each practice, drills, rolls, spars, taps people out, does competitions, wins, helps the instructor teach and puts in his own teaching time. However during this time, his style does not change to his last coaches style. Does this guy not deserve a black belt in the sport? Should he wait 10 years under one coach and just then and there when his style changed to the coaches he should get his belt?
As far as I know and I heard this many times from black belts who trained their own blackbelts, belt shows the time and effort you put in the sport more than anything else. It shows your willingness, heart, teaching, dedication... there are blackbelts out there that have never competed and could be easily crushed by many athletic brown belts, or never really roll with their coaches style, that does not mean they don't deserve their belts or ranks.