You said: "Why does the art need to grow? Honestly."
So then are you saying that Bjj/Gjj, at this point, doesn't really need to grow anymore? Then how will current and future Bjj instructors ever make a living from teaching Bjj? I mean if the art doesn't grow or expand (in terms of the people it reaches) then it will slowly shrink back to obscurity and essentially be limited to a few people who have an interest in it.
So what will be the future of Bjj?
Again I am only playing devil's advocate here. I am not saying I want these things to happen or actually think they will. I'm just trying to open this discussion up a bit by exploring certain case scenarios.
LOL @ people giving a crap what Carlinhos and IBJJF does, and a even bigger LOL at people thinking this going to be enforced. Perhaps the only people that will have to follow this criteria will be Gracie Barra Association, and even then Gracie Barra is so big now that I dont even think Carlinhos will be able to enforce it in his own assocation. I wonder if Carlinhos will take away Pe De Chumbo and Romulo's black belts because they did not attend the referee and first aid course. I think this whole thing is good just say that there are technically standards in BJJ, but just like everybody in the BJJ community, you can decide whether or not you want to follow it, and if you decide not to, so what? How can Carlinhos stop it?
Taken from Saulos site-
All belts are officially recognized by the CBJJ (Confederation of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), currently the largest BJJ governing body in the world.-
Most credible instructors will have there students belt promotions recognized by the CBJJ without a problem.
This just comes down to money and the people dumb enough to pay it.
I think Carlinhos has done a lot to grow the sport all over the world, but lets keep it real, expanding the sport will always mean more $$ in his pocket.
J-LauFan1 said: "why does everyone need to make a living from teaching bjj?"
So you expect them to teach for free? And do you expect those who are teaching to teach forever? Someone is going to have to take their place. And if there is no one to take there place because there is no way to make a decent living teaching Bjj then it will certainly shrink because of a lack of quality teachers.
LittleC,
You make legit points. You're right in that all of this may be just "paper" law. That is, it all may be just something that is only good on paper but doesn't apply to real life because no one will enforce it or abide by it.
So you're saying standards should be maintain on the local level (i.e individual school/small organizations)?
If yes then I can see your point BUT the only problem with that (if you can call it a problem) would be the differences in skill, ability, technique, etc among people from the different schools/organization who are supposedly the same rank.
Personally, I've come to accept the fact that in Bjj there is going to be a huge range at each belt level in regards to skill, ability, technique etc. In other words not every blue (purple, brown or black) are going to be on the same level. Some are going to be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of others in every respect.
I think some of the difference in skill level between BJJ belts isn't the lack of standard, but rather due to the length of time at each belt.
For example: Purple belt A just received his belt and was a blue belt only a month ago. Purple belt B on the other hand has been a purple belt for four years, and will receive his brown next month.
Now what happens is they either have a roll at a mutual club (ie: Purple belt B travels and pops in to a club to train), and then beats purple A, then goes away saying 'their purples are below standard'.
or they meet in a tournament, and while purple belt A just finished competing in the blue division last month, and purple belt B is about to go to the brown division. The very experienced Purple B submits the very new Purple A, and goes away saying 'their purple belts are below standard'.
So I agree with Shen, across the board, given the same time and experience at the same belt, BJJ has some of the most 'uniform' standards of any martial art.