What is the average time it takes to get to bluebelt in bjj?

If it takes more than 6-8 mos. of 2-3x a week then either the student is a slacker or the instructor is milking it IMHO. A Bluebelt means only thatyou have a basic understanding of positions and fundamental techniques. It doesn't mean you can beat Mike Tyson ......

It's in the mid-upper level Blue (or 3-4 stripe blue) that a student actually begins to show greater skill and the development of their personal style. The path to purple should take 2-3 years because at that level one may be expected to have a very strong grasp of the fundamental skills and techniques and in the mid-grade can be capable of providing instruction under the guidance of a BB.

It is variable and 6-8 months is on the low end across the board.
Different schools have different standards.

From my own experiences and talking with others, a year and a half is probably closer to average, with the distribution skewed towards longer than that.

Guys that get there belts in 6-8 months have hopefully won a tournament or two to justify the rapid promotion

A bluebelt doesn't mean much, other than having a basic understanding.

1.5-2 years is an aatempt for instructors to have tourney fighters who can place, IMHO. People place too many expectations on a blue, it isn't until mid-level that a blue should be expected to have serious technical skills IMHO. I remember back in the late 90s when I trained with some whites and recent blues while on temp duty in Texas. I found it unbelievable when they told me it took 2yrs for them to get bluebelt. Like I posted earlier, the path to purple and above is long. It takes lots of dedication and skill and this is where your ability to perform really counts.

As a whitebelt I trained 2 classes a week (=+2hrs), plus freeetraining and a non-class training day (for about anther 3-5hrs). If we add that up, it comes to anywhere from 200-300+hrs of training in a year. IIRC I got my blue a little over 7 mos. Mat Rats train 3-5 classes a week, plus all the mat time they can squeeze in for hours at a time. So let's say they have 8-10hrs a week training, that's like 400hrs on the lowend in a year. They darn well better win in the whitebelt category!

A guy with a tattered whitebelt from 1.5-2 years of training still gets to compete against novices in tourneys is total BS.

We see alot of " How long till ____belt?" on forums all the time. Just train and it'll come, but if it takes you 1.5-2years of conscientious training to get a bluebelt seems excessive IMHO. I think it's driven by the desire to have an academy look good in tourneys and as a result of the unbeatable bluebelt myth of the past.

It depends on the school most of the time.

there is a difference between schools but also between countries I think.
I think in europe it takes longer to get a blue than in brazil or US. There often is/was a lack of BB to promote. (off course there are/were also less training partners)
But things are changing

But in the end, especially in bjj, who gives a *#@) about belts
It has some advantages (tournaments etc), but more than that....
I know some really good submisison wrestlers, but they never train in gi/bjj, so they would still be a bjj-white .

According to your subjective standards. Why are your subjective standards of more merit than the subjective standards of people that have been training and competing in bjj for a lot longer than you.


Again, in your subjective opinion.
At my school (and the schools of most of the guys who train that I know) You get your blue when you've got the basics down and can execute them consistently. No one is expecting technical wizardry but efficacy is what seperates bjj (as well as judo, wrestling, boxing and mt) from the nonsense of other martial arts.



It took me 2yrs to get my blue (I turned it down at one point though), and frankly for the first six months there were times when I felt like I didn't deserve it. When I started the blues we had were unstoppable, I'd rather live up to that than get a belt as a pat on the back. Bjj and similar sports take a lot of dedication and skill. You don't promote people to make them feel better about themselves outside of a kids class.

1.5-3 years to blue was common, and still is in many places. If that hurts your self-esteem join taekwondo and get your black belt in an equivalent amount of time. If you can't perform on the mats, you're a whitebelt. And by perform I mean hang with blues from other schools, beat the whitebelts at your own and at least put up some resistance for the purples.




Frankly this reads like "we don't do well at bay area tournaments". Let me guess, you complain that Ralph sandbags don't you?
Well guess what, different people learn at different rates and different schools have different standards (though Ralph does sandbag, afterall dave cam won the us open blue what, three times?). Guys at my school have gotten their blues in 6 months and less, others like me took longer. There are guys that have been training barely longer than me that have been purples as long as I've been a blue. There are guys that are still whitebelts that started around the same time as me.
There is no set time but to say it should only take 6-8 months ignores individual variation and would lead to a lowering of standards.


Why shouldn't students and schools aspire to compete at a high level? Why shouldn't bluebelts be darn near unbeatable? Because it is hard? Because it lowers retention?
Whaaa.

Go back to t-ball if you're worried about that.

I dunno. I think 6-8mths is really a very short time to become a bluebelt, at the level I understand that to be, unless you were training VERY specifically very hard and winning tournaments a lot.

Blue belt, to me, means somone that when you first walk into the accademy (with no jiu jitsu, sub wrestling, judo dan grade etc etc training) then this guy will beat you, no matter what size you are. I remember reading somewhere a bjj blackbelt making reference to that being a way to tell when a whitebelt was nearing bluebelt level, without having other bluebelts in the class.

I also think of somone with a blue belt being somone with a nice game already, somone who doesn't have think or look clueless but already knows what his best 'go-to' moves are etc. Somone who already has 'flow' is what I guess I'm trying to say.

I have to say that I've not seen a blue belt promotion in under a year since I've been here, and you do see many whitebelts getting silver or gold in state championships more than once before being graduated to the blue, two or three years of jiu jitsu is not completely unheard of - although it is widely regarded as sandbagging.

Lastly I would like to say that this, obviously, depends on the school and that we have had blue belts come in from other (larger) schools that I've cleaned the mats with. YMMV.

I still say 1-2 years, averaging on a year and a half, training 3-5 times a week.

-t

I did some training with GB vancouver and the blue belts were really good, they said it takes about 2 years if you train regularly 3x week and do well in competitions. The purple belts were really really good and the brown belts were untouchable....................had me tapping like flipper.

Thanks for the lecture Zits.

When I started BJJ there were maybe 4-5 purples out of hundreds of guys. I remember rolling with guys like Yoshida,Wang the Onzukas, etc when they were still blues. I roleed with some monsters as a white and blue and managed survive well enough, i'm in the game to train and have fun, not be a mat-monkey.I had blue for 8.5 and purple for 1.5 years. Ihave been in the game for +10 years so I sure as !@#$ don't crave a darn promotion. I dodged stripes from Relson for +4 years because I didn't do much gi and years later, many people couldn't believe I was "only" a blue.




T-BALL ROCKS!

Huh, think I had you mixed up with someone from the bay area. Nonetheless the question still stands: What makes your subjective standards a more appropriate set than those of others with more experience?
Having come from styles where ranks were awarded how you see blue should be, I find the idea horrible. It leads to rot.

Oh you rolled with Barret Yoshida? Congratulations.

It's only my opinion, which means nothing in the BJJ world and I could care less. As time goes on, I could care evn less. I'll just keep training.

As for my 6-8mos, it's not an absolute....I did mention "conscientious training." One example of someone who didn't meet this standard was someone I recently met. He came to train with an instructor I know and was intro'd to me. He was concerned that he had been trainnng for 9mos or so and felt he sucked while others made great improvements in the same time. I asked him about his training and he admitted to not drilling the techniques he learned in class and just spazz rolling. Watching him train I could see he knew bit and pieces, but lacked so many fundamentals it wasn't even funny. He also had no idea about creating space/filling space, base, off-balancing, etc and was a total spazz in practiicng. Since i know what his instructor taught him, I knew it was a problem of his own making.

So of course a person like this doesn't meet the "standard" and if their mentality, doens't improve, will eventually end up having his training parnters in class doing scissor-paper-stone (don't llaugh, I've sen it happen) to see who is unlucky enough to have him for a partner during the class.

Like I said, my opinion means squat. But i don't have a stake in the game. I don't need to make a living, nor do I have to make a rep to gain students.

6 months for a blue isn't too unreal an expectation, but you better have bagloads of natural talent, be a good and hard working athlete and put in the hours.

usually its 12-18 months - i think i got mine in about 14 months, buty actually thik it was too early - should have been another 6 months. took me a shade over four years to get purple.

As long as it takes to pull the money out of your wallet at the store to get that blue belt?

I paid for mine in sweat and blood. if i'd wanted to buy one I would have gone to a Royce seminar.

Ha. Yeah Royce's standards seem more like armlok's. Basic understanding of the concepts and that's about it.

Teddy,
You got nothing worth saying or listening to on the subject. Go back to your 55 y.o fake Koryu play-fighting, katas. If we wanna discuss how long it take to get a Blackbelt in a pretend Koryu JJ style we’ll make a thread. How come you don’t wanna answer the questions I posed on the other threads????? Awww too bad, crumble your fantasies.


Well I didn't buy my belts in a seminar. Paid with aggravating two shoulders to the ppoint that the only thing holding them together is muscle tension, shredded anle that can pop in and out of joint, torn patella ligment, wobbly mcl, gnarled toes and fractured teeth that required caps.

I've been lucky. I've only broken a toe, hyperextended elbows and strained my shoulders.

My ears however aren't doing too well.

Given the price described above, I think it would be better to remain forever a white belt. Of low rank, but perhaps healthier.

two dislocated elbows, three broken toes, a bit of carpal tunnel and thats about it

obviously not counting the chronic back neck knee and shoulder pains, muscle tears and sprains, hyperextended fingers, water on the knees and so on... cos those aren't real injuries.

my ears are fine though :)

umm Im a wrestler and have been for 8 years Im 17 and been doing BJJ for 4 months and I dominate other white belts but I dont have my blue belt yet it took my instructor over 5 years to get his and my other instructor was just promoted after 7 years under Phil Cardela whom is a black belt under Relson Gracie. Ive won the world team trials in the mens division in in ft worth and recently won the teens gi and placed third in mens No-Gi at NAGA unless PHil decides to promote me on the spot at a tournament like Grey said hes done in the past Im probably not going to get mine for YEARS...also at the same time in the gracie system a blue belt is awarded to the equivelent of a BLACK BELT IN JUDO which also evident in the fact I have a black belt in judo in my class who really is only a blue belt.

ilivetowrestle21
What you are doing is called sandbagging... However, it seems like it's your instructor's fault and not yours.

Some schools won't even consider promoting you to blue unless you've been training solidly for at least a year. At both schools I've trained at, blue means you're pretty a solid grappler, and most people take 1.5 to 2 years to get there.

You might not get it for a while possibly because:

1. BJJ is a slow art to be practiced, I noticed many people with a wrestling background (beyond the first few months even) go pretty hard while rolling. Not saying that you do, I don't know. But if you can beat people all chilled out with tight technique rather than fast loose movements you will not only win a lot of respect from your training partners but your instructor will notice it and commend it well beyond winning percentage.

2. Dominating the white belts is not enough. You have to go 50/50 with the blues, and survive the purples. Did I mention you have to use tight, controlled technique?

3. Your wins in tournaments don't always incite promotion. You have a wrestling background, you get your blue based on your BJJ level. Wrestling counts in a tournament and helps you toward a win, but it essentially counts for nothing as far as promotion. Think about it... would you have done so well with a wrestling level of zero? What level is your BJJ at compared to your wrestling?

After training six months, at age 18, I won gold no-gi and gold gi at grappler's quest (total of 7 opponents, 5 submitions, no close matches). I did not recieve a blue, but guys I was beating in practice got theirs around the same time. The difference (I see now) is that they outclassed me in technique, but I was bigger, in better shape, and the winning while rolling mattered to me. While I was busy winning, they were busy getting better by going against some guy who had them beat in every variable except the one that matters for promotion: technique.

In the end, you have to forget about the belt and forget about winning in randori. Save the workout for the gym, use as little muscle as possible and you'll know when you're doing well when HE starts powering and speeding through everything.

For me at least the most productive practices aren't the ones where you smash all the whites, they are the ones where you get smashed by the purples. And happily. That way you know where you're weak.

This feels about right to me. I got my blue shortly after my instructor started saying 'Tap this guy out now' when I was rolling with newbs and having it happen in about five seconds.

Barring other training, a truly horrendous physical advantage, knives, guns, attack helicopters etc. etc. a BJJ blue belt, to me, should be a guy who can kick your arse.

I'm the other Armlock-- I can't add much to conversation but I can say that I recently started BJJ and find that there is a noticable distinction between white belts and blue belts. Not sure how clear the distinction is between blue and purples except that it is pretty clear when you get to the very experienced end of the purples.

Speaking as a blue belt, every purple belt wrecks me effortlessly except the one I've got 50 pounds and twenty years on.

If its belts people want they should not come to bjj .Its a time served art. no short cuts or katas to learn for belts that are meaningless just pure mat time sparring and drilling blood sweat n tears etc.early promotion does nobody any good at all.But saying that the control a instructor has over promotion it could be abused and i have seen some frustrated jiujitsuka who felt they should be getting promoted but what is the rush do you want to be a purple or brown or even black that gets rinsed by some mat dog no belt. this is what belts can do, i think can put people under to much expectation that they not ready for after all we should be enjoying what we do most days of our week.even though i don't really like any belt system the bjj one has to be the most relevent with real ability in combat, sandbagging or not. but for me its not be about getting belts its about gaining/aquiring ability over a long period of time and enjoying the journey i do actually love to roll and submit and be subbed i really don't want a belt or a stripe if they come and they have its just a token that you have been seen to make progress.I still like the no gi when you pair up with somone you never met and no one knows what belt is what and you spar and you find out there who has put the time in lol.




Quote armlock
.Well I didn't buy my belts in a seminar. Paid with aggravating two shoulders to the ppoint that the only thing holding them together is muscle tension, shredded anle that can pop in and out of joint, torn patella ligment, wobbly mcl, gnarled toes and fractured teeth that required caps.[/quote]

LOL i have a very simular tale to this lol

One year, six months, three weeks and two days plus a few odd hours. Thats more or less of course.

Over three years for me.

Like others have said, it's HIGHLY subjective between schools.

My club is only small and our coaches are 'only' senior purples (both wouldn't be too far off Brown). We place a very high emphasis on aptitude for fundamental techniques and consistency.

Since the day I started, it's been about 5.75 years, but I did take some time off over the last few years due to work and illnesses. Realistically, I've probably been on the mat for about 5 years.

I'm hoping to get my purple toward the end of 09 or early 10, but I'm not losing sleep over it. If I can get my black before age 40 (I'm 30 now), I'll be pretty happy.