BJJ testing- what's it like?

msmitht

2nd Black Belt
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Never had a bjj test. Spent 2 years at white and was given blue after class. Spent 3 years at blue and was surprised with purple last oct. The black belts and Master just look at a students posture, balance, technique and how effectively they roll....especially when totally out of gas. There are certain techniques that coincide with the different belt levels but BJJ is about combat effectivness. No in school test can tell you that you are ready for promotion. You are ready when you are ready. If you are invited to a test then that means the instructor thinks that you are ready and is just waiting to formalize it...which is not a bad idea....but what do they charge for it? Personally I paid for my Purple with blood, sweat, tears and many packs of ice.
 

Aikironin

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There are certain techniques that coincide with the different belt levels but BJJ is about combat effectivness. No in school test can tell you that you are ready for promotion. You are ready when you are ready.

Well said, although it tends to contradict the majority of schools. If BJJ was about combat effectiveness, your promotions should be based on handling yourself against some sort of Self defense Street attack. Not based upon how well you roll against others in your rank structure. Does this make sense to anyone other than me? As I have rarely if never seen a Spider guard or a Star Pass in anything resembling a street fight. Now if your school is Sport based clearly promotions based upon skill level within ranks makes absolute sense. But any discussion forum would not be complete without a School X blue belt being able to beat School Y blue belt in NAGA or grappler's quest, so on and so on. This is a false metric. The test should be can School X and School Y blue belt be able to successfully defend themselves against an unskilled attacker of similar size. That to me is the bottom line.

This thread has shown that with each school the standards of testing vary differently, which is okay as your instructor is really the best judge of someone's skill, as we all know by now, somedays you are on fire, and somedays you are getting crushed by everyone, big picture mentality of your training should be foremost in your view as not every day will be one that takes you a step forward.
 

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