Been a white belt for 5 years

[Urban Trekker]

Actually it's not, since the foreman has an easier job and is getting paid more money.

What they have in common is that they're both a reflection of what the person making the decision thinks of you.

 

[Hanzou]

What they both have in common is that they're both a reflection on what the person making the decision thinks of you.

If your story about a white belt submitting brown belts consistently is to be believed. In reality we probably just had a white belt who was frustrated about their lack of progression and made up a story of a mythical white belt who could tap out brown belts with consistency, yet was blocked from going up in rank by their big ol' mean BJJ instructor.

 

[Urban Trekker]

If your story about a white belt submitting brown belts consistently is to be believed. In reality we probably just had a white belt who was frustrated about their lack of progression and made up a story of a mythical white belt who could tap out brown belts with consistency, yet was blocked from going up in rank by their big ol' mean BJJ instructor.

It's possible. This was on the Chewjitsu YouTube channel, and I saw it a few years ago, so what I'm saying could be off.

However, one thing that does appear to be common in all of these stories are instructors finding reasons not to promote someone, despite objectively better on the matter on the mat than others who have been promoted or are of higher rank.

In the end, to each their own. If you like it, I love it.

 

[Hanzou]

It's possible. This was on the Chewjitsu YouTube channel, and I saw it a few years ago, so what I'm saying could be off.

However, one thing that does appear to be common in all of these stories are instructors finding reasons not to promote someone, despite objectively better on the matter on the mat than others who have been promoted or are of higher rank.

In the end, to each their own. If you like it, I love it.

Yeah, but again that's frustration for not advancing as fast as THEY want to. BJJ schools are simply not belt factories, and people need to understand that having a colored belt around your waist means nothing if you don't have the skill associated with that rank.

Unfortunately I do see Bjj schools begin to relent and loosen requirements for ranks That's when Bjj becomes a McDojo and we get people with black belts who simply suck.

 

[Urban Trekker]

Yeah, but again that's frustration for not advancing as fast as THEY want to. BJJ schools are simply not belt factories, and people need to understand that having a colored belt around your waist means nothing if you don't have the skill associated with that rank.

If brown belts are being submitted by white belts, I'm not sure how one can say it's not a belt factory, but it's really not something I'm going to take my time to try to understand.

Unfortunately I do see Bjj schools begin to relent and loosen requirements for ranks That's when Bjj becomes a McDojo and we get people with black belts who simply suck.

If by "relent and loosen requirements," you mean that less skilled people are being promoted, then I agree.

But I'm seeing far too many things like someone not getting promoted because the instructor wanted to see more intensity, or the person has such-and-such personality trait - in other words non-quantifiable things that give the instructor certain vibes, never "if you do this specific thing next time, you will get your belt."

And I'm not saying promotion should be 100% based on quantifiable factors. But things like submitting people of higher rank are big elephants in the room that should overshadow any "vibes" the instructor is getting from the student.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

However, one thing that does appear to be common in all of these stories are instructors finding reasons not to promote someone, despite objectively better on the matter on the mat than others who have been promoted or are of higher rank.

I'm not saying that none of these stories are true. I will say that with 21 years in the art and experience with multiple schools and instructors I have never observed such a situation myself. I don't think I've even heard second or third hand about a situation quite as drastic as the "white belt submitting brown belts" scenario you mention.

Here's what I have seen or heard about:

I've heard of a small percentage of schools that only promote on a set testing day which only comes up maybe every six months or so. I've met people who went un-promoted for a while because they couldn't make it to those test days. Personally I think this is a stupid practice and there is no reason to hold someone back for a significant period because they couldn't make it to the test on those specific dates. (I've never met anyone who got to brown belt level skill without ever being promoted past white because of this, but I've met people who were overdue for promotion.) Fortunately, this is a rare approach in the art. It's much more common to not even have an official test and to just promote the student when the instructor feels they are ready.

A student may be held back because they have an incomplete game. For example, they may be winning matches at a purple belt level due to an excellent top game and wrestling skills, but their guard is still at a white belt level and they're in trouble if they end up on their back. Or they may practice exclusively no-gi and they have a coach who insists they learn the gi side of the art before being promoted. In this case, the coach should let the student know what they need to work on.

A student may be winning matches based strictly on physical attributes. To use an extreme example, if you have a white belt who is a 22 year old, 250 pounds of solid muscle, pro football player and put him against a 45-year old, 130 pound, female brown belt, then yeah, the white belt will probably win. Duh. Coaches are generally looking at application of skill for promotions, not applications of being twice as big as your opponent.

A student may sometimes get a submission on a much higher ranked opponent because that opponent is deliberately giving them an opportunity or is working on some new technique they haven't mastered yet. This is different from consistently submitting higher ranked opponents.

What I have never seen or heard of is a coach refusing to promote someone with demonstrable brown belt skill past white belt just because they didn't like the individual. (If they disliked the student that much, they'd probably just find an excuse to kick them out.) In my experience, even if the instructor somehow missed that the student needed promoting, the brown belts would all be begging the instructor to promote the guy so as to save them from the embarrassment of being submitted by a white belt. )

 

[Buka]

That's when Bjj becomes a McDojo and we get people with black belts who simply suck.

Thank God that doesn't happen in Karate schools. (Oh, God, I SO amused myself with that!)

It does not happen in ANY school, of ANY style, if it's a good school. My opinion of course.