I came across this article and wanted to share it. I’ve decided to start sharing more articles I think you’ll find interesting. It’s called “How Long It Takes to Get a Black Belt,” written by a Gracie Barra black belt over on the Aesopian BJJ blog.
I wrote about this a while back in a humorous manner, but this is done in a much more serious, statistical way with things like actual timelines included, not just ones I made up because they were fun. I SUPPOSE that one could be considered more reliable, but it’s not nearly as fun. /hehehe
This is my black belt of awesomeness.
I will also have you know that I was right on the money with my gut feeling graph.
Right now I’m sitting on: white belt: 1 year, blue belt: 2 years and counting. What’s your timeline so far?
About 6 months for white, 4 months as blue. I figure I’ll be blue for awhile, despite going to class 3 to 6 times a week.
From what it sounds like at my school is promotions take longer than average, since we are more street and don’t do competitions.
On some level you will be thankful, I think. It’s hard when you feel the pressure to perform and feel like you don’t deserve your belt!
Although if nobody at all is competing, then that’s a bit of an issue. Without competition, a gym doesn’t get much in the way of outside influence, which could cause the quality to stagnate. Same thing as evolution in nature or to an extent competition in business. I don’t compete myself, but personally I feel it’s really important that there is at least a handful of people competing from every school, to keep the vitality in the techniques and so the instructor can see their teaching remains effective.
Nothing wrong with wanting to have a ‘street’ focus, but even then you can still have a competitive element. E.g., MMA or no time limits submission only. Even the US military feels competition is important for their training, and it doesn’t get much more ‘real’ than actually killing people for a living. ;p
It took me, 3 to 4 years training as a while belt. My blue belt on the other hand is barely on its fourth month. Whenever non jiujitsu people asked about my blue belt, I usually give them a disclaimer that getting a blue belt on the average is significantly shorter compared to my timeline.
Out of curiosity, while you were a white belt, how often were you training?
I was notorious for being inconsistent, I’d show up for a month and then stop training for the next two. It was a sick pattern, thank god I’m over that phase.
I’ve probably shared my super-geeky spreadsheet here before, but my timeline is:
First official BJJ lesson was on the 8th November 2006 (though I had an intro on the 26th October 2006). I received my blue belt on the 14th February 2008, having trained 131.5hrs at that point. I then got my purple belt on the 6th March 2011, which was a further 371.5hrs since my blue.