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[Frasedog]

Originally Posted by AJL416AZ

the real BJJ belt system:
white, blue, purple, brown, black

if you're in a BJJ gym, and they claim to be official, and use more colors, they are full of shit.

and it takes on average, 2-3 years of consistent training to get a blue belt, 5-6 for a purple, and 8-9 for a brown, much more for a black. this is just what i have heard, and everyone has their own learning speed, so you could be a blue in a year or 5.

Sounds a bit long to me. Most guys at my gym reach blue belt in 6-12 months. Blue to purple can certainly take years. One of my other instructors I believe achieved his black belt in 7 or 8 years, but it sounds like he was a bit of a prodigy, picking things up faster than average. Hereis what Wikipedia says regarding the yellow, orange, and green belts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjj#Graduation

Some schools use slightly different belt systems, such as having more colored belts before blue belt, but the above are the only widely accepted ranks as they are the standards for tournaments. There are minimum age requirements for belt promotions. Blue belts are never awarded to anyone under the age of 16. For promotion to black belt the minimum age is 19 years old according to the main regulating body of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the International Federation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

[Noob]

Originally Posted by AJL416AZ

the real BJJ belt system:
white, blue, purple, brown, black

if you're in a BJJ gym, and they claim to be official, and use more colors, they are full of shit.

That's not necessarily true.


Yellow, orange, and green are common colors for children's ranks. And I believe they are applicable up to 15 years of age.


American Top Team also has a green inbetween white and blue. It's a fairly common system, and there are an increasing number of schools that use it.


The school I was at for a few months before coming to Spain used it, as they were affiliated with Renato Tavares who is out of ATT.

[yeomans]

i have been doing bjj on and off for about 6 years now and i just got my purple belt last month.
it just depends in how much time you put into it and how good you can learn, some people take longer or less time to get their belts.

[ozzy2525]

Been doing BJJ for a year, I am still a white belt

[Dr. MMA]

the reason other colours are added is to reward you for your progress. When you are at one colour for 4 years, it can seem like you're not moving forward

A colour in between can show that that progress and avoid that frustration

[jcurin]

my gym (gracia barra affiliate) uses the white, blue, purple, brown, black system...with the other colors (yellow, green, etc) for junior/child rankings. once a junior green belt turns 16 he's a blue belt. I think this is standard practice for most all bjj gyms.

also we do 'stripes' as mini promotions within a belt which is also a standard practice i think (same as 'dans' in judo).

i've been training for two years, wrestled competitively for 6, and just received my blue belt.

[Palma]

Originally Posted by Frasedog

Sounds a bit long to me. Most guys at my gym reach blue belt in 6-12 months. Blue to purple can certainly take years. One of my other instructors I believe achieved his black belt in 7 or 8 years, but it sounds like he was a bit of a prodigy, picking things up faster than average. Hereis what Wikipedia says regarding the yellow, orange, and green belts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjj#Graduation

Some schools use slightly different belt systems, such as having more colored belts before blue belt, but the above are the only widely accepted ranks as they are the standards for tournaments. There are minimum age requirements for belt promotions. Blue belts are never awarded to anyone under the age of 16. For promotion to black belt the minimum age is 19 years old according to the main regulating body of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the International Federation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

That's way faster then our gym gives out blue belts. It's a solid year and a half or 2 and half years for most people.

[unquiet]

I don't think 8 years to get a black belt is considered a prodigy; maybe very hard working and skilled. For example, Saulo Ribeiro got his black belt in 3 or 4 years. That's crazy fast.

[ScottS]

Originally Posted by AJL416AZ

the real BJJ belt system:
white, blue, purple, brown, black

if you're in a BJJ gym, and they claim to be official, and use more colors, they are full of shit.

and it takes on average, 2-3 years of consistent training to get a blue belt, 5-6 for a purple, and 8-9 for a brown, much more for a black. this is just what i have heard, and everyone has their own learning speed, so you could be a blue in a year or 5.

You seem pretty opinionated for someone who gets their information from word of mouth instead of experience.
Most people get blue around a year or so at my school. Some longer and quite a few are less. I don't question the promotions since we do well in tournaments.

I'll answer the question about my own belt level sometime after Dec. 1

[DirtyDirtBiker]

I actually started bjj and thai boxing in 2001. Though I never really keep up with it in the summer because of motocross racing/riding, so its hard to keep your skills up. I actually started doing gi a few weeks ago and its so different. But my goal was to get a blue belt in 3 months, I hope it works out. I noticed a lot of these videos help out and doing extra training outside of the gym helps (I actually train gi/no-gi every day in my basement with a bunch of training partners)