SHOULD BLUE BELT TEACH?

If a blue belt has been training non-stop for over two years and for one of those years was intensive training(5 days per week) under two Gracie Barra black belts would he be a good instructor to train under?

if there were no higher belts around, sure.

My first teacher was a blue belt and I learned a lot from him, take a
class and see if you enjoy it.

I agree with Andre and Kalel.

What Andre said.

Probably not. Although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with a blue belt teaching if there were no higher belts around, everybody would just be picking up bad habits and probably worse technique.

A better bet: get some good instructional tapes, have everyone watch them, then go over the techniques together.

for many instructors the base requirement to form an assoiciation is that the person leading it be a blue belt.

if that's all that is available then for sure!

My first coach was a blue belt and I leaned allot from him. now i'm a blue verging on purple and am teaching too.

I think if you are a white belt, it is fine to train under a blue belt, if theyve been training under 2 black belts intensively, then they should be bringing some good stuff to the table. I have thought about this topic before, i think that training under a lower belt if you are white or so is a bit more beneficial in a way, becuase the blue or purple is closer to you in rank so understands what its like to be in your situation and isnt going to drown you with advanced techniques and expect you to know a bunch of moves and get impatient if you don't, training under a blue belt will also help him in his teaching abilities too, we have to start somewhere.
I hope that made sense.

I would say sure, it's alright for a blue to teach. Have his own bjj school, no.. teach, yes. I'm a blue currently and feel that I'm able to help the newer whites pretty well. Sure, I don't have the know-how of any black, brown, or purple, but even the low level of detail I know is more than any white can take in in a session or two.

When I first started training, when all the black belts were gone, a couple of Blue belts would run class. They always answered all questions, helped out & showed good techniques. Now could they tap Black belts.....no! But one of the guys was at a Very Good Brown belt level, who would even tap other Browns, who had trained for yrs. But was never promoted due to he would take so much time off & most black belts atleast want their students to come 3 or more times a week but unfortunately not everyone can. He really is SOLID in his technique. So dont let the belt color fool you & get in your way of you coming in to train & get better. You have to ask yourself....if a black belt had you teach a certain day....could you show solid technique???

if you can learn from them, then you should go train and learn as much as you can. A good blue knows the basics and will help you learn.

Im a blue belt and I teach the kids at our gym

TTT

a black belt in bjj doesn´t mean one can teach...

How many schools test for pedagocial skills when giving out belts? I am pretty sure that not so many, so I don't think that the belt actually has much to do with ones ability to teach.

Using that university analogy about junior teacher and professor, in many cases the professors are experts of their own field. They know their stuff and research area very well, but it doesn't mean that they know how to teach. On the other hand, the junior teacher might have great pedagocical skills, he might be able to better adapt to the situation where the students are and teach the material much better than the professor.

So, I think it is pretty much about the individual. You have to judge a teacher by his teaching, not his belt colour or competition merits. My advice would be to check out how the teaching is and if it suits you, go with it. I would apply the same rule if the teacher would have a black belt or what ever.

Another thing to consider is the difference between belt level, which usualy relates to competition skill, and teaching skill. A highly skilled teacher, even one with only a blue belt, can still give you a great deal. A poor teacher, even one with a black belt, can still waste a lot of your time. Competition is competition, coaching is coaching. Just one more thing to consider.

  • Charles

I have seen blue and purplebelts teach a technique and it looked exactly like the tech that I seen from a blackbelt, but the little details were not there. This is the key to making moves work. Little details. Lower belts tend to miss these little details when they teach. They just dont have the experience yet. I would say it would be better to get instructionals and training partners.

I understand being in an area with no blackbelts, but learning moves wrong is worse than not learning the moves at all.

How is learning the moves from a good Blue worse than learning from tapes?!
If you don't have an instructor at all, the tapes will most likely cause you to pick up much worse habits as there is no one to correct you. Most mid-level blues know their basics, so sure you may pick up a few bad habits learning from one but I think you'll avoid picking many more serious bad habits.

Shit, back in the day, all there was was blue belts.