School with low standards?

So about 5 months Blue Belt at my school (Blue Belt for about a year, maybe a tad less been training for about 3 years), made a question to the instructor, along the lines "how many privates can I pay for, or what is the cost to move thru the belts quicker". Now he is a foriegn dude so there is some lost in translation, and the instructor told him thats not how it works and explained how you get promoted (time, skill, tourney etc)....

Fast forward to now and he has switched schools and is a 3 stripe purple belt, Now this is a name school in the Chicago area, so I am shock by this, but to each his own, another instructor can promote however he wants. This guys isnt bad, but is blue belt level with some parts of his game being fairly good, so I can see if you only see him for a little while you may think he is a better blue belt than he is...but cmon..to get a new belt after being at a school for a month cant be normal.


So talking with others in my school about this school, it came up that there was a MMA fighter (fought in the UFC) that was promoted to brown with no prior ranking by the same school(I cant confirm this as that is hearsay and may just be rumors)

I guess I dont know why I am mad or even care, as whatever, it seems like they want to lower their standards, they can, but I cant understand any rational that you would promote a blue belt to a 3 stripe purple in the matter of 3-4 months. Also I dont know what the deal is, but just knowing that he was "shopping" for a belt and found a place that would give one, weather money changed hands, or just found a place that would promote quickly, and to be given a brown belt without having belts before just seems not right, It just sucks as if more and more schools do this, it lowers the standards for all of us.

I cant even describe why I am angry because it doesnt effect me directly, but it just seems wrong.

You'll get good info if you name the school.

There are a lot of Chicago BJJ/MMA types on this forum.

I guess that is a good question, do I or if you see this do you have a responsiblity to other people to "out" a school like this or at least ask people from the school to explain this on a forum?

I mean it may just be a rouge affliate, but if you heard about this or had these questions in your area, what is the proper action or respone?

Is this a suburb of Chicago? I say in the NW between Hoffman and Palatine? Give me a hint?

7 Dust - Is this a suburb of Chicago? I say in the NW between Hoffman and Palatine? Give me a hint?

No, This is a school over in NW Indiana/Chicago area with affliiates downtown.

Do you know of another, is this pretty common in our area?

Who cares?

Too much focus is given on how other people, other gyms, other teams do their promotions. Seems rather silly.

Lots of schools give belts liberally. Sucks, but not much you can do about it except find a legit instructor and train there to earn your belts. Let the others do what they want. Sure it waters the art down, but the true practitioners will gravitate to the legit schools.

We've had folks come to our school from other local schools not as well respected as ours, and they learn quickly where they are in the pecking order. We've had folks come to our schools from legit schools and they are great training partners to have and are right where they should be and it is great to have them around and it adds to the training environment.

It all comes out in the wash.

CJJScout - Lots of schools give belts liberally. Sucks, but not much you can do about it except find a legit instructor and train there to earn your belts. Let the others do what they want. Sure it waters the art down, but the true practitioners will gravitate to the legit schools.

We've had folks come to our school from other local schools not as well respected as ours, and they learn quickly where they are in the pecking order. We've had folks come to our schools from legit schools and they are great training partners to have and are right where they should be and it is great to have them around and it adds to the training environment.

It all comes out in the wash.

Sadly I agree there is not much we can do. Bugs me, but we are powerless since the minimum requirement for the time at each belt is now becoming the standard. We will see more and more five year blackbelts and the ones promoting them point to the promotion guidelines and feel justified. We are well on our way to the "everyone is a BJJ bb," just as we have seen happen to TKD and karate.

^^ I think that is my problem, since we are in a sport judged against our peers, when the other schools are promoting for any reason other than skill, its crap.

Schools who do that should be ashamed, and the students that train at schools that do that also should be ashamed, I know it all works out on the mat, but if my school started handing out belts, I would find a new school.

People complain when schools sandbag and also when they promote too fast. Bottom line is to find a school that's right for you, and then shut up and train. Quit complaining about people getting promoted, or not, elsewhere

I do appreciate that you want your belt to mean something, not just to yourself, but to the bjj community at large. And you don't want schools with poor standards to diminish what it means. The ibjjf has laid out some standards. While some object to ibbjf as an authority, I do think what they are trying to do is a good thing in this regard. There are just so many schools these days. Standards are inevitably going to vary. Some schools aren't that particular at the lower belts.

I think that for those on this thread who are telling you that it doesn't matter, aren't being honest about it to themselves. Just look at the mayhem that occurs with suspected belt frauds, especially at black belt... These are just some extreme points on the same spectrum... Hopefully the school you are referring to is less lenient when it comes to the BB, which I think is the real litmus test for belt standards.

I'm not saying that it doesn't matter, it absolutely does matter. I'm just saying you really can't do anything about it.

Why worry about this dude that jumped and is getting promoted faster when his skills don't reflect his belt? Be content that you are training with a legit guy and that when you get your belt it is because you earned it.

I was just wondering if it was an MMA based school. Sometimes there is different criteria for belts with MMA based schools.

When you have no objective standards for what constitutes a given belt the result will be inconsistent promotions. At one extreme you have schools that sandbag students in order to get better comp results, and on the other you have instructors that promote for money or other reasons that don't have any bearing on skill level. Fortunately, most schools fall between the extremes and produce good quality students.

7 Dust - I was just wondering if it was an MMA based school. Sometimes there is different criteria for belts with MMA based schools.

Yes it is,

I think that where most of the standards get lowered, MMA and BJJ are differant sports and should be treated as such, if your a ground and pound guy..great..but that doesnt mean you are good on the ground.

I guess it would be to me like having a black belt employeed at Iowa to promote the guys who won the ncaa championship at wresting to brown belt...they can be amazing at what they do, but its not BJJ.

haha.. a friend of mine saw this post and called and told me that he was told they promote a stripe for every tourney they win even if it is 1 match.

Good to know, he should be a red belt by next christmas. lol

its questions like this that you should name the instructors. where you train at, and the new school in question.

clearly your bothered by this guy getting a purple with a few stripes after a couple months.

do you want to be a purple belt getting smashed by the blues, or a blue belt who smashes purples?

OP,

I'm relatively certain I know the people whose rank you're questioning...as well as the instructor who gave them the rank you are questioning.

In regards to the blue belt with a foreign accent who was promoted to purple belt (Let's call him ...John):

John came to the school already having multiple wins at blue belt. Once he joined the team he won two more additional tournaments. My guess is his victories at blue in the past, coupled with the victories he amassed after joining his new team, had something to do with the instructor you question giving him that rank. His tournament wins were only part of the decision to award him his purple belt though. I know of no policy the instructor has that guarantees rank based off of wins...the instructor, like most, uses many factors in the decision making process. Phone Post 3.0

This instructor you question btw...let's call him Jeff...has been around for quite some time...and was fortunate enough to be trained by the both the son AND grandson of the founder of Brazilian jiu jitsu...so I tend to think he knows a thing or two about ranking people.

As a side note...I've actually rolled with John and can assure you his rank is warranted. I'm a brown belt and have been training in jiu jitsu since late 2001 btw. Phone Post 3.0

In regards to the brown belt UFC fighter you questioned the rank of (Let's call him Derrick):

There's been quite a few cases of jiu jitsu black belts giving no gi rank to MMA fighters...do you question Derrick's promotion only? Or the concept of fighters being given rank who don't train in the gi? I know this has been debated on this forum in the past. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think both Renzo and Rolls Jr. have done similar things. Phone Post 3.0