Video: Is Your Goal a Black Belt?

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Testing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is well known for its instructors giving belts to their students without a testing process. In many schools a student shows up one day and gets a surprise in front of the class by being awarded his next belt. I should know, I used to do this with my students. I now test each and every student for their belts.

“The following is my experience only and should not be taken as how I feel about other instructors. So don't get all bent out of shape. “

Here are the problems NOT TESTING caused ME (you might be feeling this way as a student too).

1. A number of students would continually get angry and resentful when a student they deemed not worthy of a new belt got one. They didn’t outwardly show it but behind the scenes they wondered why I gave the other person one when they tapped that guy out or he didn’t win a tournament and they did, especially if they had been there longer than the one getting the new belt. The backbiting was amazing.

2. Unhappy students questioned my standards behind what I thought was a blue belt or a purple belt.

3. They thought that the guys who were my buddies got a belt quicker than they did. In other words, I played favorites. Not the case, but I lost a number of promising students because of this.

4. No one knew the same material in the school. Their foundation had holes in it.

5. Students felt like they were doing their very best but didn’t know the criteria for advancement causing them to get discouraged easily.

6. Injuries went up because they felt they had to tap people in order to show they were worthy of advancement. Death Matches were rampant.

7. People took getting tapped out as personal failure and thought it would hurt their chances for advancement. They never tried or shared new moves because winning was required to get noticed. Everyone’s ego was on the line.

8. Many students questioned whether they deserve the new belt once they got it because they didn’t know what they knew. They had no reference.


Here is what’s good about NOT TESTING for ME (I'm not proud of this):

1. I got a lot of control over people and they did what I told them because of fear I would withhold a promotion.

2. I could be lazy and not have to make people understand the details about the techniques. They would never have to show them back to me.

3. I didn’t have to keep attendance because it was based on you tapping everyone or winning tournaments. Advancement wasn’t based on coming to class. I didn’t even know how many classes you attended.

4. If I thought a high ranking student was going to leave because he felt he wasn’t getting promoted fast enough I had an option to surprise him with a belt promotion and he would stay.

5. I could give belts at tournaments to reward you and to show what an able and benevolent instructor I was to the world.

6. Many students actually got promoted faster because they were athletic or had a wrestling background and could power their way to submissions. Maybe they had a great night and I was in a really great mood so let’s bring up the moral of the school with a promotion.


The following is what I do now. It’s not perfect but It works great for me and it's very fair for students.

1. You have to have a certain amount of hours of training for “most” students to be “eligible” to test. The more you come to class the faster you can test.

2. Since Attendance is important, I now know when you do and don’t come to class. I call you if I don’t see you. This way you know I care about your training.

3. You have to know basic moves for each belt level and you have to show them AT a high level or you fail. It’s called “a standard of performance.”

4. We are a self defense school first and a competition school second, so if you “choose” to be a competitor you can get striped (yes I stripe) faster at my discretion because I do feel that competition is important for you to find out what you’re made of. If you choose not to compete then you go strictly by hours of training. Everyone tests for a new belt though!

5. This is where I come in. If I feel your technique is not good enough or you don’t know the material but you have enough hours I let you know that you won’t test until you improve. Just because you can tap people out with your athleticism doesn’t mean you are ready for your next belt. I let excess hours transfer to your next belt once you do receive it.

6. I also have better quality instructors who know what they should be teaching in class. We are all on the same page.

7. I find that the more a student comes to class the more skill he gets and the more he taps people out. It's an amazing discovery.

The result?

I have very limited back biting, clearly defined goals for promotion, a way for competitors to progress faster then non competitors, students that are motivated to attend class, less injury, people who are not afraid to try new things and I insure that everyone has a proper foundation thus creating a better and happier student.*

The only real downside to this is that some people who want to get promoted super quickly might leave to another instructor who doesn’t test and will promote them faster. I don’t really care because I’m trying to create masters of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and not some dudes with black belts.

Last thing…

Could you see Harvard ,Yale or a Military Academy graduate people with no testing or curriculum standards? The Dean just walks up one day and says..You are ready to graduate? Do you really want your next belt without meeting any kind of preset concrete, in writing standard? I guess only you can answer that.



*Keith Owen Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu recently won the Team Title at the Northwest Submission Challenge held here in Boise Idaho.


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Washing your Gi

I am regularly asked how often you should wash your gi. The obvious answer is after each session, however; I am not naive enough to think that every person washes their gi after EACH and EVERY training.

I admit that I have gone several classes without washing my gi before and the world didn’t come to an end. The problem comes when you push it more than 3 times on a regular basis without washing, you are really risking

1). Catching a disease,
2) Turning Your White Gi brown,
3) Offending Your Training Partners with your stench. You know..that ammonia smell.

This also goes for rash guards and shorts as well.

I have walked into numerous schools and saw students with dirty gis. I cringe because these are people that aren’t keeping their stuff clean. This means I have a better chance of getting staph. Don’t be one of these guys! Have several gis and wash them regularly! This goes for belts as well! Then wash YOURSELF after every class.

There is nothing cool about Dirty Gis.

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Germs and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

I am a little late to the party, this came out last month and has been making the rounds but it's a great read on germs and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from a microbiologists stand point!

www.bjiujitsu.blogspot.com/2011/09/microbiologists-take-on-bjj.html


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Master Pedro Sauer on Self Defense-New Video

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Should You Weightlift in Jiu-Jitsu?

In my early days as a Jiu-Jitsu student I was told that to be good at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu that I shouldn’t lift weights. I was told it adversely effects your technique because you want to use the proper angle instead of muscling through a position to be most effective.

I don’t know if I totally agree with that but I do think that weightlifting is bad for your jiu-jitsu if you are lifting really heavy weights to bulk up like a weightlifter. That much muscle takes up a lot of oxygen in a match leading to quicker muscle fatigue. You need to be lean and mean to go the distance Baby! You're even starting to see extremely slim and toned fighters in the UFC.

If you do want to weightlift then Kettle bells and Bulgarian Power Bags are an awesome accessory to the grappler’s tool box. This kind of weightlifting gives you strength at different angles and exercises muscles important to good grappling that regular weightlifting won’t train. Body weight exercises are also excellent such as pull ups and pushups to help improve your game.

So is weightlifting good in Jiu-Jitsu? Yep…just make sure it’s the right kind of weightlifting.

P.S. If you do steroids to enhance your performance then you’re a dumbass.

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10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu

I want to say for the record that I am an unapologetic Gracie jiu-Jitsu Gi practitioner. I love the gi and will never abandon it. I know that many of you hate the very mention of the words “10th Planet” and the name “Eddie Bravo.” My personal goal in Jiu-Jitsu is to get better technique and I will study Judo, Wrestling, Sambo and yes, even the dreaded 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu in order to do it. I am unapologetic of this as well.

When I think of Eddie Bravo I think of a quote from Fredrick Nietzche, “Every Profound Spirit Needs a Mask.” Eddie Bravo’s mask is that of the Rock and Roll Messiah that has come to free us from the confines of the gi. I personally think of him as someone who has helped me to explore my gi game better.

Eddie Bravo hasn’t done himself any favors by alienating the gi practitioners in our sport but if you get past the rhetoric and the moves that require great flexibility you can find a lot of gems that will make your game better, especially since it appears to me that gi pants make a very positive impact on getting friction for many moves. Perfect for gi Jiu-Jitsu!

I am not a big fan of Eddie Bravo as a “Jiu-Jitsu Messiah.” but I am a fan of him as a very solid Jiu-Jitsu practitioner and innovator. If you ignore 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu then you are doing a disservice to yourself. So just grab one of his books and a flashlight, go hide in your closet and read it. You don’t even have to tell anyone.

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