Is It Harder To Get The BJJ Black Belt Now Than It Was 20 Years Ago?
Is It Harder To Get The BJJ Black Belt Now Than It Was 20 Years Ago?
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Bernardo Faria is a 5x World Champion. Bernardo started training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Juiz de Fora - MG, Brazil at the age of 14 in 2001. After receiving the Black Belt from his first instructor Ricardo Marques in 2008, He moved to Sao Paulo to join BJJ legend Fabio Gurgel and his Alliance team. After many years of training and winning many major titles, Bernardo moved to NYC in 2013 to train and teach at Marcelo Garcia Academy. In 2015 Bernardo achieved his dream of winning the IBJJF World Championship Open class title and his division, doing the double Gold and becoming the 1st in the IBJJF Ranking and also chosen as the best athlete of 2015.
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What do you think? Is it harder now? Or 20 years ago?
The school has to make at least 10,000 dollars off of a student before they can give them their black belt.
It should be about Meritocracy Bernardao!! Even 10years ago was very hard and lots of work getting any belt 2.5 -3years minimum unless winning gold medals Now it's a social club a belt a year some places, same schools who were really good and tough standard , repping that academy and professor's name.... but now they also lost their integrity. So now instead of merit, it's about money since the pandemic
My personal opinion as a professor with 26 years of training and teaching under my black belt: It is easier today to get a black belt than it was 20 years ago, but it's much harder to win a championship as a black belt than it was 20 years ago.
I fully agree!!!
Dear sir. There are couple of modern day BJJ black belts who compete under some form of ped or steroid. You've been warned. Dont play the blind, I kid you not.
Very well put. Aside from maybe Roger, Marcelo, and Rafa Mendes, I wonder how past black belt champs would do in competition today.
Thank you for answering my question! I got my purple belt in 2008, came back after 15 years, so many different games, strategies that plain didn't exist back then. Another thing I noticed when I came back, nobody is hung up on black belt lineage. More black belts make more black belts , make more black belts, and more schools people change. You pick a school that you like rather than where the instructor got his black belt or who their black belt grandparents were.
Being able to watch videos from great coaches, like John Danaher, on BJJ FANATICS is very helpful. There are more resources available now to supplement our training. I'm a 56 year old blue belt.
I'm "not so old school", I started to training BJJ in 1998, and spent 3 years as a white belt, 4 years as a blue, 4 years at purple, and almost 5 years as a brown belt to finally get my black belt... Those times were hard to get promoted, and some professors at those times didn't want too many black belts.
Wow great job for sticking around ,I believe todays students would quit if they had to wait that long
this is the right way. minimum 10years to get a BB
@@capofodedor7399 Good they can beat it
@@terrynichol577 😂😂
I think that is still the case today. Although, I don't think they should be afraid of people achieving the belt. Not everyone wants to open a school and not everyone can run a successful school.
I go to that school. The teacher is from Brazil. This is a Carlson-Gracie school in Homewood, IL. We start with traditional warm ups, forward rolls, back rolls, and shrimping. Also add in running, pushups etc. We are shown 3 moves and we drill them. Next is rolling and I have been smashed hard. There is a high turnover rate on students. It’s hard. It took me over 2 years just to get my blue belt and I still suck. The teacher said it took him 16 years to get his purple belt. I think if I get my black belt it will be a long hard road at this school.
I knew a guy that was a purple belt for 12 years. It literally turned white! Had a slight purple hue to it.
For sure!
Just adding the teachers blue belt certificate was from Rickson Gracie. He has it displayed on the wall. I am assuming he received his other belts through Carlson-Gracie.
Interesting point! I just try to give a different example. I'm Italian and I train bjj since some years. Last month my Master (55 y/o) said "In my times to learn bjj was much more difficult than nowadays and you are blue belts much stronger than my generation was." How can you read this message? Is it close to your video, or is it totally different? Of course, the Italian bjj reality is totally different from the Brazilian and the American...
What do I need a black belt for I have interest In competition or coaching.
The mystique of the jiu jitsu black belt is one of the most attractive parts of the art. So, the commercialization of black belts, i.e. the acquisition of a black belt through simply paying one's monthly dues is not an attractive change.
I go to a Carlson-Gracie school and the Professor has posted on Facebook he does not nor will he charge for belt promotions. He has talked against it. Saying we do not sell belts here, they are earned. The only cost I had was paying for my blue belt which I bought off Amazon.
A black belt just means you have mastered the BJJ basics and your journey is just beginning.
People are actually thinking out how to teach. Far less “here is a random techinique….now spar”
Is black belt inflationary nowadays?
I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think easier isn't the right word. It sounds like your description of getting a black belt today would be to say it's faster. Does faster mean easier?
I think it was harder back in the day because of access to training. Less schools, less black belts available.
How much faster can you learn with instructionals?
Depends. If you have some one that will watch the instructional with you and drill the moves with you. You will become really good, really fast. Assuming you do that a few times a week. Joseph Chen (won ADCC trials) attributes his fast rise to watching instructionals.
cant get a stripe on a blue belt ive had for 7 years.
been training consistently the whole time?
I'm a brown belt. If you train 3-4 times a week it's 2 years to Blue , 4 years to purple - 3 years to brown- 2 years to Black. 11 years your black belt. Depending on your level you may be an average black belt or an exceptional black belt. Anything more then this in my opinion is a money grab.
@@1969rioI agree!You can argue both sides. But if they’re holding back technique details or coaching just to make you struggle longer because they struggled long that’s just not necessary. JJ is HARD & practitioners WILL HAVE to endure suffocating, humbling smashes and submissions regardless. I’m glad I started in the age of many tutorials and channels on it because time is our only wealth and there’s many other worthy things to invest in. Im a capable 54 160lbs with 5 months in and I’m moving faster because I’m studying it online as well as go 3-4 times (hard) a week. Also, todays JJ seems more complexed imho
I'm a part of many, MANY long time blue belt that hasn't had a single stripe since a decade or so. We live in a heavy rural area and BJJ black belt come hee once in a while, so our instructors arent black belts, and those who can award stripe arent in a hurry to award stripes. We are in no rush to ask, nor do we care about earning them, cause most of us are continually ascending and transforming. On my side, I have countless of anecdotical stories of situations where no stripes blue belts owned few stripes blue belters, sooo. If what you look for is a single stripe, or (running gag), you cant earn a single stripe to save your life, then try worrying about improving your game year round. Be that bad ass blue belt that most upperbelts have trouble rolling with.
yes. but in different places. so i guess i cant complain. been here training consistently a year now@@eifelitorn
Still just $20 at a martial arts store (; Just be glad there is so much more to learn. Unless you are actually a high level competitor, but you almost certainly are not one. Do what you enjoy and don’t worry about what others tell you to do. If you are interested in competition, do that, interested in just the fun of it, do that, interested in self defense… probably don’t worry about it, if you get decent then try some sparring now and again, and you’ll be able to crush almost any untrained person 1-1, and realize you that agains multiple opponents or armed opponents, you are likely screwed, focus on soft skills (like being nice, deescalating, and avoidance of hostile situations, “best defense, no be there”).
The hard part is denying the obvious. If you are in a school that gives out belts, what does it mean when you don't receive one or receive stripes? Being without rank has consequences in a gym that gives out rank. Where you stand in line, how you address others, having to move out of the way when rolling, cleaning mats, etc. You can say that it doesn't matter and it might not, but as long as you're not one of those types that barely trains and do it just because you like it, it will matter. No one wants to train hard and then see people who don't or train much less, etc., move up and you remain in place.
@@mouthguardcomicthat sounds like a red flags school you do want to avoid it possible :S
@@TheDOS I would agree. I just think that if a school gives out belts, it should be fair, do it in a timely fashion and not use arbitrary time restraints.
Carlson Gracie Jr said that a black belch had to retire so the number 1 brown belch to get a black belch under Carlson Gracie Sr. It's the same at my Carlson Gracie academy. My professor will tell you straight up, I don't give out belts, don't come here for a belt.
I dont care about belt, the most important is how you roll
Oh boy, unfortunately comparing jiu-jitsu schools to high school is a fair comparison but also a sad reality. Our high schools here in the USA graduate people that have no business having a high school diploma. If you can barely read and you can't do long division, you don't deserve that degree. In the same sense, if you are trying to grab the shoulders of someone and push them off of mount, you are not a blue belt (Gracie Barra, you know who you are!). Just like high school diplomas, they are handing these belts out like candy!
It should be about Meritocracy!! Even 10years ago was very hard getting any belt. Now it's a social club a belt a year some places, same schools who were really good and tough standard repping that academy and professor.... but now they also lost their integrity. So now instead of merit, it's about money since the pandemic
Way too easy now. Now, the guy everyone liked but wasnt BB material and who topped out as a purple belt 20 years ago, can go on to get a BB. The allure of the BJJ BB is gone.
Depends on the gym. McDojo? Just keep showing up Danaher? Lifetime junior Personally, I dont think Ill ever be a black belt. Im competitive with black and brown belts now in the gym, but now and then I roll with a real black belt and it’s just embarrassing. Fine with never surpassing purple, purple I can carry.
dont worry brother. if youve made to purple, youll make it to black. most people quit before even getting their blue belt and then another huge chunk quit after they get their blue. if you were dedicated enough to stick around for purple youll be there for brown and black !
Do you think the BJJ black belt has been watered down over time?
I think on the surface you could think that because of the rate at which you could obtain one, but really what’s changed is the ease and access to good information and training, you can train more than ever and focus on what works more than ever without having to dredge on with techniques that might not work well for you or suit you, more training partners to engage with now than ever before, really the sky is the limit now, just depends on the athlete and their desire. Especially in grappling, no gi, look at the Rodriguez bros and Nicky Ryan, guys who wrestled previously, the ability to adapt and learn from that base is incredible given what’s available, I suppose it’s really how everything works given reaching mass appeal.
LISTEN...it should be hard...I got my first black BELT 30 Years ago and it was brutal..I had to full contact fight three times at the end of a four hour GRUELLING TEST..I got ROCKED but learned GRIT AND HOW TO DIG DEEP.....today IT'S a fkn joke WHERE I live..dont even break a sweat.