Potential students of martial arts schools always wonder if the programs they are considering are “legit”. This is especially true of individuals who are interested in mixed martial arts training as opposed to traditional martial arts training.
One big problem that has occurred with the explosion of the popularity of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is that many schools have adopted the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu belt system. There is at least two schools in the Baltimore area, and at least one in the College Park area that are guilty of this. Basically, the school begins to use the BJJ belt colors of blue, purple, brown, and black for their promotions (which in itself is not bad). Unfortunately, they then begin to say that they are “such-and-such rank in jiu-jitsu” often leaving out that it is Japanese Jiu-jitsu or sometimes outright lying and saying it is in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
5 Belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu - THATS IT!
A second reason why belts are not an indicator of the quality of a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu program is the different standards that each program employs. Some instructors use a simple attendance system to determine belt ranks i.e. attend 96 classes and you receive your blue belt. Better programs use competition results and in-school performance for the same ranking. Obviously, a blue belt under the latter system is going to be very different than a blue belt under the former. So without knowing the criteria that each instructor uses to promote his students, a potential customer should not count the number of colored belts as a mark of a program’s quality.
is this not the problem with most karate schools, where the belt promotions are based on attendance. this leads to false confidence in students. http://www.jiujitsueducation.blogspot.com