For those of you with extremely good memory, I posted a month ago that after 5 yrs of no-gi grappling I´ve started with BJJ.
The reasons for this was that a black belt instructor started to teach in my gym. Altough I get caught in various collar chokes from time to time, it is going quite well. And a lot of fun!
My instructor said something about soon it might be time for belt promotions for some students.
Although I dont think he is referring to me (as I have only trained there for a month or so) what is the process and the requirements for white-to-blue belt promotions?
Sadly the majority of BJJ schools don't have a uniform policy or procedure for promoting belt ranks (when I say uniform, I mean across bjj schools, each club no doubt has some sort of procedure of their own). The most common one I hear is "when you can tap blue belts, then you're a blue belt" and so on.
As stated, ask your instructor. Each club generally has it's own way of promoting students.
Look, that's not the case. The problem is that it's a tough question to answer (especially if people are not bjj instructors themselves). The reality is that there are many things which count to grading a student. As a BJJ Black Belt with my own students, there are lots of things I look for. Technical ability, wrestling ability, good character, consistency in training and more. It generally takes around 2 years of training twice a week for someone to get to blue belt. The only short cut is train more often and harder.
Like Elvis said, there is no set criteria for belt promotions in BJJ.
For example, I train under Royce Gracie, and he doesn't use strict criteria (he doesn't seem to, anyways). He watches you roll, maybe rolls with you himself, and then awards rank if he feels that you're at that level.
Roy Harris, on the other hand, has strict criteria for promotion (he told me so during a private lesson). He requires his students to demonstrate specific techniques and knowledge during a belt test. His criteria is posted on his website.
Lorenthz - I would recommend the Gracie Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced tapes (www.gracieacademy.com) since they deal with collar chokes and how to defend against them in a very good progression. If you can ever do a seminar with Ryron/Rener Gracie or Helio they have a very good system to defend against collar chokes that is not completely shown on these tapes. But the tapes are very good and show a lot.
Other instructors have tapes that specifically cover white to blue material like Pedro Sauer's series (www.pedrosauer.com) or Helio "Soneca" Moriera's single tape that he sells at his seminars (www.heliosoneca.com)
Lorenthz, How are you enjoying the gi work?
I swapped from no gi (after about 2 years training) to BJJ gi work. Although it has improved my grappling in some respects I am tempted to go back to no gi as I'm more interested in training for MMA and find the emphasis on gi based techniques frustrating. (Collar chokes etc)
I'd be interested to hear if you think it's worth sticking with the gi if you're training for no gi.
its different everywhere. since i had a very strong wrestling base, i was beating all the blue belts when i was a white belt. but i got my blue because of actual rolling, no exact test really. but some teachers like Rickson for example, have a list of things you have to do (5 subs from guard, etc.)
However, if someone like Rickson sees a white belt tapping purple belts, he'll promote you on scene.
I think Roy Harris's site has a good list of techniques for blue belt, which is probably pretty consistent with the other Moreira people, if that helps...
got my blue from Renzo in training after passing a purple-belt's guard. Got my purple from Sean Alvazez in much the same way, going toe-to-toe with advanced purples in a round-robin sparring drill. I think this method is pretty much par for the course, with some exceptions (Roy Harris e.g.). I do know that simply winning won't get you promoted in my school if you are just using tard strength or refuse to put the gi on...
The main difference between Gi and No-Gi grappling as I have noticed so far is of course that in no-gi grappling you can "muscle" your way out of positions and submission, but with the gi the exact technique of esc a triangle for ex is more important.
No news but still my main lesson. Especially since I used to use force quite alot.