What happened at promotions

you are intentionally nitpicking, but even worse you are incorrect

ever heard the phrase "decorated competitor"? it's a thing...

one can absolutely be a decorated blackbelt competitor.

dont be a cunt grammar nazi

I'm not. I'm explaining that being a great grappler is cool, but it's not like being a veteran who jumped out of a plane into a war zone. Using the word "decorated" to describe skill at a game is practically stolen valor.
 
I have been a brown belt for 4 years. I have happened to beat black belts in competition before. I have been a 1 stripe brown belt for 3 years. At this last belt ceremony it was nice to see my friends get promoted. However I felt a little bad because I got passed over for promotions, because I really respect our professor. Of course promotions are not important, but aftee 4 years you get a little discouraged. I talked to my friend who is a decorated black belt competitor and a super nice person, who runs a gym in the area, and I asked him how I can improve, and he said "you are good. And at black belt level".

I am lost. I don't know what to do. I have a lot of friends at the academy.

What would you do?

Okay. It happened again. I was happy two see two of my friends get promoted. One of which is one of the best purple belts I know.

I talked to the instructor before on how I could improve. He did not really answer me. I have been a brown belt for 4 years and a one stripe brown for 3.

I wonder if there is a writting on the wall and if the instructor does not like me.

Anyways
 
Lol. Like you've never met a hypocrite in all your time in this sport.

We went over the reasons for non-promotion. Lack of ability or lack of character. If one aspect is missing then the other is the problem.

Please loose that "character judging" for a black belt. By that standard MANY famous BJJ artists wouldnt have a black belt. This is just some fancy nonsense to have more power over students, especially bb as they teach, often & are more involved in the gym. In most cases "character" means just submitting yourself to your coach no matter what which is imo not a sign of character at all and the origin of a lot of abuse and inflated egos in traditional martial arts gyms. Think about coaches who take ranks away for someone leaving because "lack of character". Happened not just once. Its just powerplay.

Just take Renzo Gracie for example. A great BJJ coach. Walking the streets to get into fights with strangers, spitting at his opponent in a fight..etc and you want these guys to evaluate character <Lmaoo> Or Royce attacking Riccio with his students like a criminal lunatic. Many of these guys are the opposite of role models.

One of the best improvements that bjj brought to the belt promotion MAs was imo to get loose of these soft factors and promote by competitive acomplishment.

I get that if you have a code of conduct in your gym like you explained, it should be clear that people follow that to a t and it can be used to not promote. But this will be obvious with 99% of people after a few weeks. So either dont promote them at all and kick them out or dont use that as an excuse. Going with your examples I dont get at all why someone would be promoted at all if he constantly "injures people"...etc. If a student cant behave proper even after years at a school the coaching staff does something very wrong.

Okay. It happened again. I was happy two see two of my friends get promoted. One of which is one of the best purple belts I know.

I talked to the instructor before on how I could improve. He did not really answer me. I have been a brown belt for 4 years and a one stripe brown for 3.

I wonder if there is a writting on the wall and if the instructor does not like me.

Anyways

Cant you not just have a very clear chat with him about it? You tell him your goal and ask politely when he will promote you and if not whats there to do to get there in what time frame? If he cant answer that I would just go.
 
Cant you not just have a very clear chat with him about it? You tell him your goal and ask politely when he will promote you and if not whats there to do to get there in what time frame? If he cant answer that I would just go.


I had been thinking about asking him how I can become better to become a black belt. Maybe he will help me gain a clear picture. I am starting to lose faith that it will ever happen.

I like him, he seems like a nice guy and a good professor. I have a lot of friends where I train at in Taiwan. I am from a western state in the US, but I l am in Asia, our team competes around Japan, Taiwan, and etc. We have some really good guys, one guy even got quadruple gold at the IBJJF Manilla Open and one of my friends she got second at Masters Worlds, and my other friend won the Fullforce Cup in Osaka and even beat Igor Tanabe and is literally the best purple belt I have ever rolled with and one of my friends got 2 place at the Tokyo Grand Slam this weekend at purple.
 
I have been a brown belt for 4 years. I have happened to beat black belts in competition before. I have been a 1 stripe brown belt for 3 years. At this last belt ceremony it was nice to see my friends get promoted. However I felt a little bad because I got passed over for promotions, because I really respect our professor. Of course promotions are not important, but aftee 4 years you get a little discouraged. I talked to my friend who is a decorated black belt competitor and a super nice person, who runs a gym in the area, and I asked him how I can improve, and he said "you are good. And at black belt level".

I am lost. I don't know what to do. I have a lot of friends at the academy.

What would you do?

i was a brown for 5 years luckly for you u dont have to do 100 self defense techniques to get promoted
 
Hang in there. Dont listen to what some of these guys have to say. Getting a black belt is not like getting a stripe on your blue belt. Wanting to get a black belt when you know you are one is not egotistical IMO.

I have been where you are. If you can believe this, I was a blue belt for 9 years. This is after being a college wrestler and beating black belts in competitions on numerous occasions. After 9 years I got a purple belt and was pretty much wrecking everyone on my team, damn near everyone in my town. I also asked my coach what I needed to do but he just told me "tighten things up". Good advice but not real specific. It was hard watching one of my teammates who is my age, bigger, but one that I could beat on a daily basis getting promoted to black belt. I ended up moving to where I could be a full time competitor and I got my black belt within a year, under a very accomplished competitor who is one of the best coaches in CA. One thing I never thought about until after getting my black belt, is that some coaches arent ready to have multiple black belts under them. For whatever reason, giving out a black belt for some coaches might not be something that is very natural. My old coach has only promoted one black belt in 15 years. My most recent coach has about 25 in the last 8 years or so.

Its one thing to take a martial artists approach to the journey to black belt when you are a lower belt. Its a whole different thing when you are a brown belt and you are beating other black belts. There is something that feels much different when you are in that spot.
 
I had been thinking about asking him how I can become better to become a black belt. Maybe he will help me gain a clear picture. I am starting to lose faith that it will ever happen.

I like him, he seems like a nice guy and a good professor. I have a lot of friends where I train at in Taiwan. I am from a western state in the US, but I l am in Asia, our team competes around Japan, Taiwan, and etc. We have some really good guys, one guy even got quadruple gold at the IBJJF Manilla Open and one of my friends she got second at Masters Worlds, and my other friend won the Fullforce Cup in Osaka and even beat Igor Tanabe and is literally the best purple belt I have ever rolled with and one of my friends got 2 place at the Tokyo Grand Slam this weekend at purple.

straight up ask him. My instructor did similar things to people, held guys at ranks where they had no idea what the problem was, winning multiple federation medals and whatnot, including me. I left. I'm a customer not a disciple, this is a sport I do, not a cult I'm in. Another well-known local instructor took some umbrage (he's a friend of both of us) about it and said it's HIS decision when he gives you a black belt. And my response is that it's my decision to disagree and go elsewhere (this other guy long ago did the same, was one of a crew who jumped to get promoted early by someone else). I joined another team, recovered from major injury, competed at master worlds and got promoted.

I'm FAR happier now with the team, the new mestre, and the entire arrangement. Sometimes these types of academies turn into toxic politicized environments where the "bad rap" on you is coming from rivals and the instructor is taking sides in henpicking bs. My promotions rule is basically- compete. If you go to a Fed tourney and you wipe out your opponents, don't get scored on, and take a gold, you have pretty much shown me all you'll need to show anybody at that rank. Hell if you've been beating people at your rank and you medal, you are ready for the next level. I'm not gonna sandbag anyone. Competition is in many cases a BETTER answer than you can give to the student- most of the time they will realize what it is they are lacking as a result of failure there.

If your instructor won't give you an answer then I recommend finding another instructor. Maybe this isn't the best road for everyone as you will become a creonte and in many cases will lose people who were "friends" and a lot of the time a big chunk of your social circle. This is one reason I never did BJJ as a lifestyle.
 
dude that sucks, I would tal to your prof but 3 years without a stripe at brown??? might be time to leav
 
If it makes you feel better I won Master Worlds(won 5 matches) and double Bronze at Pans(won 3 matches at weight and 2 at Absolute) at Purple 3 years ago and still a Purple belt.Plenty of guys I beat regularly in competition and Open Mats are Blackbelts now. I approached my instructor letting him know that I am looking forward to competing at Brown and asked what I needed to work on to get to that level in his eyes. I got a really vague answer as well. One thing that makes me feel better in knowing I will be a legit BB when I get it. There are few things worse than being a BB that knows they aren't legit. Especially if you are a competitive person.
 
Do other people pay large sums of money to get promoted to black? If he wants money, and wants you to pay without being asked, then nothing will change until you figure it out. If you can't ask the instructor, ask your closest friend who recently got promoted.

Are you fat? Is everyone getting promoted on a diet and lifting weights to look good? If he is waiting for you to figure out what the problem is, and then fix it, you need to figure out what the problem is.
 
Every scenario boils down to two basic possibilities:

1) You've earned the promotion, and he's withholding the recognition. In this case, he's an ass, and failing at his job.

2) You genuinely need more work, and he's not giving you coaching or guidance.
In this case, he's still failing at his job.

If it were an inconsequential thing, then I'd say to let it slide, but belts (especially black) do come with real intangible benefits. Black belt opens up a higher level of competition, gains you social status, and if you wish to teach, it lends credibility and makes you more likely to book seminars. He's not treating you well, so unless you have a good reason not to find a new gym, you'll be happier training somewhere where they do.
 
*Update*

I sent him an email. And we are going to talk about it this week.

Thanks for telling me your opinions since the last post :)
 
Promote yourself, smash any black belt that has a problem with it.
 
I have been a brown belt for 4 years. I have happened to beat black belts in competition before. I have been a 1 stripe brown belt for 3 years. At this last belt ceremony it was nice to see my friends get promoted. However I felt a little bad because I got passed over for promotions, because I really respect our professor. Of course promotions are not important, but aftee 4 years you get a little discouraged. I talked to my friend who is a decorated black belt competitor and a super nice person, who runs a gym in the area, and I asked him how I can improve, and he said "you are good. And at black belt level".

I am lost. I don't know what to do. I have a lot of friends at the academy.

What would you do?

This is an odd post for a brown belt. But if it's not a troll job, for what it's worth from a lower belt, just enjoy the process. Seriously, the belt will come. Literally just don't expect the ranking anytime they do promotions. Just keep rolling and your time will come.
 
This is an odd post for a brown belt. But if it's not a troll job, for what it's worth from a lower belt, just enjoy the process. Seriously, the belt will come. Literally just don't expect the ranking anytime they do promotions. Just keep rolling and your time will come.

I'm sorry- you're wrong. If his instructor hasn't prepared him for his black belt in 4 years as a brown- something is significantly wrong. What would another year matter at this point? Either the instructor doesn't want to give him his black belt- at which point, time isn't going to matter (it's not going to come). Or, he hasn't made the progress since brown belt that is required for black. Again, then his instructor has a serious issue if you can't prepare a brown belt for black in 4 years- time again, doesn't matter.

Either point blank ask what is up and why- or it's time to find a new gym.
 
I'm not. I'm explaining that being a great grappler is cool, but it's not like being a veteran who jumped out of a plane into a war zone. Using the word "decorated" to describe skill at a game is practically stolen valor.

LMAO Stolen valor!!!! Hahahaha. A bit extreme.
 
I was really happy to see my friends get promoted today.

But it happened again. I don't know what to do. I was passed up for any promotion again. I have been a brown belt for 4.5 years and a one stripe brown for 4.1 years.
 
He should just give it to you.
 
I was really happy to see my friends get promoted today.

But it happened again. I don't know what to do. I was passed up for any promotion again. I have been a brown belt for 4.5 years and a one stripe brown for 4.1 years.

If he isn't willing to tell you what it takes, specifically, start looking for somewhere else to train. Sorry to say.
 
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