Thoughts on Jiu-Jitsu Belt Progression

As I slowly make my way through Saulo Ribeiro’s instructional book, Jiu-Jitsu University, I realized that I’m enjoying reading about Saulo’s perspective on the rolls of the different belt levels.

The Goal of the White Belt: Survival
The Blue Belt’s Secret Weapon: Escapes
Perfecting the Purple Belt: The Guard
The Brown Belt’s Mission: Passing the Guard
The Black Belt’s Focus: Submissions

You can read a review of the book here.

There are a lot of differing perspectives out there, each with their own merit. The single common theme that I see is that because of the nature of training and learning Jiu-Jitsu, in that the belts are strictly performance based, one would be hard pressed to maintain the illusion that they were at a certain belt level in Jiu-Jitsu, if they actually were not.

I recently read a post by Sam Sojourner in his blog, Diary of an Angry Grappler. He writes as a purple belt about his perspective on the path to black belt, and how he sees the different belts.

White Belt - At white you are learning the basics of positions and submissions and the idea of positions before submissions. Learning 2-3 basic passes. Learning to mount. Learning to armbar, choke, or triangle. As a white belt all you want to do is pass, mount finish, or finish from your closed guard. That's it. For you, you feel like the mount is huge! And in your closed guard, your only choice is finish.

Blue Belt - At blue you know most of the moves, but you can't chain it all together into a full game yet, but you have some moves you are great at. Here it's all about smashing and scrambling. Either you and the other blue are both scrambling to stay on top, or trying to smash the hell out of the other guy while you pass and you are experimenting with a lot of the advanced moves.

Purple Belt - At purple, doesn't matter what kind of purple you are, it seems like all roads lead to the back, all you care about is taking the back, all you want is the back. You mount but still think about somehow getting the back, you do all these flashy moves to get to the back or set up a move that will somehow lead to their back. This is where your game is at its most flashy.

Brown Belt - Almost a black. Now your game is more defined, your signature moves are just that much better. You can teach concepts and convey ideas, what works and why it works. The difference between a brown and a black is really mat time and experience. Everything else should be all dialed in, they just need patience.

Black Belt - The black belt becomes the white belt again. Position before submission. Passing, mounting, finishing. No more sidemount as the holding position. They want to mount you and choke you, or from their back, finish with armbar or triangle. They have their white belt game back and mount is the holy grail again, and your closed guard is your sniper rifle, just this time around it's that much tighter and better.

Older Black Belt - No matter how flashy and fast you were as a black belt, eventually all the black belts' games look the same. Pressure pressure pressure, passing, smothering, suffocating. They just ooze on you until they finish you. I have rolled with a lot of older black belts and they all had that same game. Eliminate the gaps and the spaces. Truest form of jiu jitsu and I know the black belts I like now who are still flashy, eventually they will make their game so economic and efficient, it will also be that oozing game. All roads, no matter how different they were at the beginning, all end the same way. You end up having Helio's game.

With our belt testing just around the corner, there’s been a lot of talk amongst members of the class about where they think they are in their evolution. With that thought and conversation sometimes comes the accompanying doubt and second guessing about one’s ability. We must remember that we are always the most critical of ourselves, but you must believe in yourself.

I still clearly remember my thoughts and feelings upon my promotion to black belt. It was definitely one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Taking from the words from one of my earlier posts, it was somewhat unexpected and I was extremely honored. I vowed to wear it proudly, as it is a symbol of our dojo and an honor to be the first student that Shihan had ever promoted to black belt in Jiu-Jitsu. But mostly, I was struck with the awesome responsibility one has to wear that belt and the long journey ahead as a student to continue learning. Although my first journey started years ago, a new journey began for me.

Georgette Oden recently wrote in her blog, Georgette’s World, about her early promotion to blue belt. She commented on her own doubts that she was at that level, as well as her “incredible feeling of awe, humility, and motivation to work harder.” I could totally relate. As a matter of fact, I remember after my promotion to blue belt how I felt a responsibility to be better than I was the day before, as if the color of my belt provided me with some intrinsic super learning powers. Of course it didn’t, but I did find myself working even harder to meet my own expectations about where I thought I should be. To me it seemed like my progression began to move forward in leaps and bounds.

Some time ago I wrote about the Psychology of Jiu-Jitsu with a brief overview of my perspective on the stages of development. What I’ve come to realize is that at each turning point, there is a grey area. One can easily see the differences between a white belt, a purple belt and a black belt, but what about the differences between a high-level yellow belt (white belt) and a low-level blue belt, or between a high-level purple belt and a new brown belt? What are the differences between various academies? Is our system of progression the same as every other school? In my opinion, the whole notion of attaining validation from any source outside our own selves runs contrary to the philosophies of Sho-Rei-Shobu-Kan.

Realizing of course that this in and of itself is a contradiction of ideas about belt progression in Jiu-Jitsu. There is a fine line between keeping our belt promotions in line with the Jiu-Jitsu community at large, and not adhering to some arbitrary, external standard of measurement.

Awhile back, I had a handful of students who refused to take part in belt testing. They had it in their mind that it should take exactly ten years to obtain a black belt, regardless of performance. They were simply focused on that time frame. I think they believed they were adhering to the concept that the belt didn’t matter. Ultimately what I ended up with was a handful of blue and purple belt-level folks who were wearing white belts. One of them, even after being promoted to a higher belt level, refused to wear the belt. Another student had been training at another academy and talked with me about how good a couple of their blue belts were, as if that was now the standard for promotion to blue belt. The irony of all of this is the contradiction of ideas about the belt system. They were so strongly opposed to the use of belts as a means of measurement, but at the same time were so attached to their own ideas about how progress should be measured.

Bakari Akil, PhD posted on his blog, Jiu-Jitsu 365, What Army rank would a BJJ belt equal? I found this to be an interesting approach and that his analogies were rather intriguing.





One of my favorite perspectives comes from Roy Harris. If you’ve not clicked on a single link up to this point, I highly recommend that you do so now. Mr. Harris’ article on Progression in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a must read and should shed some light on the subject for my senior students.







The bottom line is that everyone has their own perspective on belt levels and each one has their merit. My final words come from Saulo Ribeiro.

“There is no sense in chasing a belt and getting it as fast as possible. Often, people do not see that black belt will be their longest belt. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you get it in four years or fifteen. Either way, you will have the rest of your life with a black belt around your waist. Building the black belt is what matters.”