How does your bjj academy promote ?

E

Evenflow80

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How does your bjj academy handle promotions ?

A) attendance based: show up enough times in a time frame, get a stripe or belt on the "due date". Is this alone enough to qualify an academy as a McDojo" ?

B) attendance based, but based on # of classes attended with no set date scheduled for "promotion". Similar to A , is this alone enough to qualify an academy as a McDojo?

C) entirely skill based only. If so, how is this determined? I imagine in a big academy with 100+ members this would be very difficult for the professor to individually habe time to assess each and every person for each and every belt, let alone each stripe. Obviously the ideal choice, but is it realistic in this day and age where jiu jitsu is now almost a main stream sport ?
 
Evenflow80 said:
How does your bjj academy handle promotions ?

A) attendance based: show up enough times in a time frame, get a stripe or belt on the "due date". Is this alone enough to qualify an academy as a McDojo" ?

B) attendance based, but based on # of classes attended with no set date scheduled for "promotion". Similar to A , is this alone enough to qualify an academy as a McDojo?

C) entirely skill based only. If so, how is this determined? I imagine in a big academy with 100+ members this would be very difficult for the professor to individually habe time to assess each and every person for each and every belt, let alone each stripe. Obviously the ideal choice, but is it realistic in this day and age where jiu jitsu is now almost a main stream sport ?
Click to expand...

You have been posting a heap of threads asking about other academies recently. Are you by any chance looking at a move?

Answer is B and mostly C. Attendance is tracked, stripes are given out, but you aren't getting the belt unless you meet the standard. Your standard may be a bit different, but whatever belt you have is well and truly earnt. Most people where I train win/medal well in their respective local tournaments and do similar in bigger national ones.

I think a mix of B and C is the way to go. Sometimes you get people who excel in one area and win everything with that specific skill, but have massive gaps regardless of comp results.

I like the idea of each belt having set standards that include the ability to have a well rounded skillset and ability to pass that knowledge on. Not everyone competes and even then competition itself is so structured within the rulesets that it can favour certain strategies that lead to major deficiencies (guard pulling).
 
When I started at my gym almost 6 years ago, it was very small and promotions were based on C only. They didn't even track attendance. Some guys took 1 year to make blue others 3 and the coach knew everyone well. But as the gym has grown, they now track attendance and it's a combo of B and C. No matter how terrible you are, you're basically guaranteed blue in 2 or less as long as you show up. But I think C is still the main factor for purple+. I think bigger gyms almost have to use the mcdojo model for lower belt promotions, both to retain students and because there are too many to keep track of.

But coming from a wrestling and Judo background, I still think BJJ puts too much emphasis on belt color even though I've now trained it longer than the other two. Was just talking about this yesterday at the gym. I respect the tradition but there's pros and cons for sure.
 
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Very slowly. I almost wish I had a mcdojo. Then again I've been a blue belt for 12 years and am in a hurry to catch up.
 
deadshot138 said:
Very slowly. I almost wish I had a mcdojo. Then again I've been a blue belt for 12 years and am in a hurry to catch up.
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12 years? Your academy might have unrealistic standards.
 
We follow IBJJF time in grade rules, but if you're not up to standard you're not going to get graded.
 
Just showing up long enough will get you a blue belt. After blue who knows depends on the student and their goals. If you teach or compete the standards seem to be higher and take longer if you excel and work hard it goes fast.
Guess what I’m saying is it depends on YOU not the school.
 
Almost everyone who does BJJ thinks their school is particularly slow at belt promotions, it's hilarious.

The reason people think or say that is to indirectly brag themselves up I think.

"I'm this belt color because my school promotes very slowly"
 
Got my 4th stripe on my blue, testing for purple in February tentatively
 
Evenflow80 said:
How does your bjj academy handle promotions ?

A) attendance based: show up enough times in a time frame, get a stripe or belt on the "due date". Is this alone enough to qualify an academy as a McDojo" ?

B) attendance based, but based on # of classes attended with no set date scheduled for "promotion". Similar to A , is this alone enough to qualify an academy as a McDojo?

C) entirely skill based only. If so, how is this determined? I imagine in a big academy with 100+ members this would be very difficult for the professor to individually habe time to assess each and every person for each and every belt, let alone each stripe. Obviously the ideal choice, but is it realistic in this day and age where jiu jitsu is now almost a main stream sport ?
Click to expand...


C)

The coach will never promote over blue belt for a guy who comes less than 3 times a week. Because he coaches pretty much 75% of the classes he will have rolled with you a couple times a month or he will have watched you roll because he has injuries and can't roll every class

So it's a 100% based on the coache's opinion, he will give out blue belts more easily but I've never seen a bad purple belt or over

He wants you to understand the basics, to see you roll often and to see progression for blue belts

for purple and over, you need to have a real and complete game, he wants to see that you roll at least 3 times a week. You also need to have some curiosity, to watch instructionnals, to watch matches.
 
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BJJ Lover said:
Almost everyone who does BJJ thinks their school is particularly slow at belt promotions, it's hilarious.

The reason people think or say that is to indirectly brag themselves up I think.

"I'm this belt color because my school promotes very slowly"
Click to expand...

Once you are at the end of your blue belt, that you have your own style, the belt colors means nothing

Smaller comps don't have enough purps and brown belts and make them compete together, no gi you're in the advanced category

As a purple belt, I'm not afraid to give advice to brown belts on techniques that I have in my game. I do those techniques every roll, I'm a useful ressource for them

I can beat some older purple belts, I can dominate some brown belts but they can pull out a nice sub from out of their asses from time to time and make me tap. A couple of highly skilled blue belts can kick my ass. Some top guys at our gym will have trouble with a small section of my game so I'm a useful training partner for those situations.

Once you have the basics and that you have your go to techniques, who cares about the belts. We are just a bunch of skilled dudes training together and helping each other.
 
BJJ Lover said:
Almost everyone who does BJJ thinks their school is particularly slow at belt promotions, it's hilarious.

The reason people think or say that is to indirectly brag themselves up I think.

"I'm this belt color because my school promotes very slowly"
Click to expand...

I think mine promotes fast. I got purple in 3.5 years and I'm not exceptionally talented.

Our criteria are B and C combined.
 
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