White Belts tapping blue belts.

[Aaron Wood]

They didn't when I was there Bear....but who knows now.

[Aaron Wood]

I get my blue belt taken back at least twice a week....

[Bill Keeling]

It is if you want your students to have more than just the knawledge.... In other words, the ability to use said knawledge! I guess it's all about what type of school/student you are trying to produce. A lot of instructors know they will be judged to a certain degree by his students representation of his teaching. So maybe it's just back to an ego thing... But not in my case

[Justin W.]

fair enough, bill.

[Brandon Palmer]

I have blue belts that tap Purple Belts with ease and can catch and handle their own with Bro belts. Ive been a purple since 2005...but chose to walk away from the Gi school I was in and do my own thing (I wasnt learning or being pushed AT ALL). So its subjective and it depends on the path you take. I fought with guys in AZ (we had a team together) and they weren't officially ranked in anything...but would smash guys with high level belt ranks...doesnt mean the belt doesnt count, but dont judge a book by its cover "belt" because some guys have way more experience then they show on paper. Belt show what you know and the time you have put in....but there are also fighters who have a shit ton of mat time who arent worried about "belting" or belts..

Dont judge yourself just on what you wear...judge yourself on how you perform and wether you are improving. You have nobody to impress but yourself...

I must say, thats about the best thing i've heard in a while. No truer words were spoken. You are indeed a wise man, Mr. Green.

[AJ Camacho]

There's a guy at my gym who's generally better than me. One time I beat him really fast two times in a row. I felt awesome but then I remembered that he just had a kid and that he probably hadn't slept all week.

Sometimes there's more going on than just what's on the mats and as Kevin said, belts don't tell the whole story. I'm not calling anybody out but it's kind of in poor taste to brag about taps you get in training against higher belts. I mean they could've been working on their horrible upside down guard? It's just training.

[Kevin Green]

I must say, thats about the best thing i've heard in a while. No truer words were spoken. You are indeed a wise man, Mr. Green.

Thank you Mr Palmer... Im like that Haley's Comet, I come up with a good one every (what is it) 9 years or so???

[frank-theman-james]

here's my perspective on this though, we're you anymore deserving before or after the test? anyone who sees a person roll for even a week, can tell how far advanced in their game they are. that should be the test. I've never seen someone fail a belt test, which tells me that either it's dumb luck that nobody ever fails or that your instructor already knows how good you are and that you're going to pass. so why do the test? this whole 5 hour test seems like a test of cardio, rather than bjj. not trying to start any fights, or say I'm right and you're wrong. just my opinion.

This. My traditional karate instructor told it like this, when an instructor tells a student that it is time for a belt promotion, that instructor already recognizes the students abilities and in his opinion, that student is already that rank and the test is more of a test to determine how that student performs under pressure which is where the endurance issue is the pressure factor.

With that being the criteria, it leads to question on whether a person who trains their entire life and puts forth the hours and demonstrates knowledge but lacks physical aspects to be able to tap brown and black belts, is he less knowledgeable than the others? Eddie has stated on here that the only way to become a brown belt in this system is to go to HQ and tap his brown belts or consistently win in tournaments. With that ideaology in place, there are going to be several of us who if we are fortunate, will only be as high as purple belts. I can't afford to quit my livelihood and train at HQ for extended time, and at my age, I'm not going to blaze the tournament scene up, so ill be content to train to purple and continue to learn all I can and pass that knowledge down to my students on a technical level rather tan a competitive one.

And as Eisner says, "quit belt chasing". And I agree, emphasis is put on belts rather than knowledge. And I understand that being able to say that you are of a certain rank is cool, but belts dont always reflect extent of knowledge.

[Ed Simonson]

And we all miss having him there. He brings a different game with his strength and good gaurd.

[Ed Simonson]

I must say, thats about the best thing i've heard in a while. No truer words were spoken. You are indeed a wise man, Mr. Green.

Indeed Mr. Green. I judge myself in competition and when guys from other schools visit. When the guy (blue belt) from another local school came in and was getting tapped by our white belts, that puts things in perspective.