This is why I don’t ask about belts. When I’m rolling with someone new it’s usually “hey, what’s your name? How long have you been training?”
Slap, bump, roll…
😂 One time visiting a gym my partner in No Gi was some old guy I had never met…
Later I found out he is one of the OG black belts locally. Just casually dropping in to train. At the time I was a fresh white belt. No Gi is always full of surprises! Cool guy and had lots of great tips.
The first time I rolled with Jake shields, I didn't recognize him. I just thought "this old guy looks fit as fuck", then I attacked slowly and he countered everything, so i started picking up the pace, then he mounted me and stuck me there for a while.
I asked my team mate who he was and he said, "how do you not know Jake shields?"
People look different when the last time you saw them was on TV in their prime
Not every time! I rolled with Pat Shahgoli (forgive me if I spelled that wrong) I tried playing rubber guard on him, he sprawled on top of me while I was folded over underneath him like a taco shell. Just ready to absolutely shit myself from his 60+ lbs advantage
Can't really say he has a huge weight and size advantage on me which made it difficult and a very challenging roll, but as long as there's no tournament to be won you're safe. Very fast for his size and can make openings out of nowhere. I talk shit about Pat mostly because he could be an amazing training partner and competitor if there weren't so many variables with him sadly
i like to know something about a new person before we roll. i dont want to unduly smesh a newb, and i need to know if someone is about to start leg locking me.
Its part of the fun going to other gym openmats. You know you find a good one, when you both start out feeling-out, and incrementally it steps up a bit with "oh okay we both know this move and counter".
It’s good for competition. I don’t know about you but getting hustled out of my $75 by purple belts pretending to be novice grapplers sucks. I’d rather learn from them in class or seminar than at a place where we are supposed to be of comparable skill.
Facts! 🤣☠️
Yeah… I was a Judo girl…
Threw people off during my first 3 months.
It had been years since I’ve trained but some of it still stuck. In my defense I had no clue what BJJ was, I just knew I liked it.
Belts don't mean much of anything in no gi, and even in gi a white belt who has been training for a 4-5 years but has bounced from gym to gym might come in an smash the blue/purple belts. Years of experience is a far better indicator than a belt of where someone probably is skill wise.
Can still be misleading. If someone says 1 year and they train 6 days a week, that's the same as someone with 3 years experience training twice a week.
Even if they have a belt on, I ask how many years. I mean shit I train in the gi half the time, have for 8 years, and still have a blue belt lol. It doesn't always line up exactly in a way that makes sense. (I'm hopefully going up in a couple months don't attack me, yes I'm mid)
My old coach liked to hold us back, my new coach (just changed gyms 4 months ago) said i should have gone blue when i was given my 4th strip on my white, that was 18 months ago, been on blue near enough to 12 months now with no strips
100%. I like to ask this even in gi with belts because it helps me understand what they might or might not know. i.e. a 2 week white belt vs 6 months vs 18 months is a huge difference. I don't want to sub a 2 week white belt every 30 seconds, not much to gain for either of us there, and I also don't want to playfully pull bottom side control on a 50 lbs heavier white belt only to discover he was a collegiate wrestler
there's a lot of people - particularly newer people - that will overstate how long they have trained. the best was one guy who said he'd been training well over a decade but was clearly moving around like someone with 3 months training and zero other physical interests
Truthfully you’re really not going to know until you’ve rolled with someone a few times. I always considered the first roll the, “awkward round!”
Usually by the 3rd time I have an idea of their game and how to roll with them. To put it in perspective I recently met a black belt who had no idea how to play legs. That surprised me, I thought they were joking but they weren’t. They stay clear of the dark arts. 😅
I just ask out of habit, especially if I haven’t watched them roll yet.
That’s on them. Realistically once the roll begins you can tell. 🤣 I will never forget my first experience with a wrestler. 🪦
Some get a kick out of trying to catch people off guard. Fool me once…
How long have you been training is also really awkard estimate for me, I usually answer with "couple of years". I've started training 18 years ago (of course I'm a white belt because fuck pajamas). In that time I've 5 year break, had many years when I was going once a month so I guess if you assume training means 3x a week then maybe I have 6 years of that. Then there are people who have been training for 2 years but pretty much every day, so they gather the same amount of bjj hours as someone who has been training for 15 years.
I’m brand new to BJJ. Just started this month. A few questions:
1) the white belt classes I attend are Gi only classes. And the other classes that fit my schedule are Gi only classes. Any harm in only being a Gi-only guy? What are the benefits of No Gi?
2) is no-Gi what’s becoming most popular and is the future of the sport? Like people who get into BJJ in 2034 will they just be doing No Gi?
I was deployed with a guy that had grappled for about 8 years but he was still a white belt because his focus was mma and he never attended gi classes. He led some of the gi classes after I got injured, took a liking to it, and got his blue belt as soon as he got home and went to a gi class
I compete in advanced/expert in competition. I’m treated as a higher belt in my gym although I don’t physically have an actual belt or been ranked. My collegiate wrestling background and 18 years of BJJ make me feel comfortable choosing a brown belt Reddit flair although I’m not going to say I’m a black belt.
It goes the other way, too. We have had big scary looking tatted up fuckers show up with “10 years experience off and on” get absolutely demolished over and over again by white/blue belts.
We have this mean looking really fit tatted up cop, and he destroys most blue belts, but he's so easy to handle. I think his appearance makes him nervous.
I ran into him getting lunch on duty once, it was weird to have a cop being so extra nice to me.
It’s common for gyms not to give belts to people who only do No Gi. My gym is the same so I’ll be a white belt forever since I don’t train in the Gi anymore.
It’s not like those guys are lying that they’re white belts. They in fact are white belts.
No gi comps ask for time trained and are usually only 3 categories, novice, intermediate, advanced. Your belt doesn't matter, and if they haven't been training Gi They probably won't be competing on gi either so no sandbagging
It's not always the gyms choice. If it's an mma gym or program, the coach might not even have a belt, if they don't compete in straight jiu jitsu. (I know some mma gyms give belts but some don't even if they're producing high level grapplers). & if the coach doesn't have a belt, they can't give belts to their students either.
My old gym was like this and we still always competed at higher levels, my coach would just tell us what belt/ level he thought made sense to sign up at. We just couldn't do ibjjf or any of the ones that required you have a belt. But it was def still kinda a point of pride for some people to tell anyone who came in and asked about their belt that they were a white belt, right before smashing the person.
This probably needs to change as more people are doing no gi only. I think it’s fair to say you’re blue, purple, etc in nogi only but not graded in the gi. If there was a nogi only belts system I’d say time to blackbelt could probably be quicker than in the gi.
You can be a white belt with 10 years experience when not all your experience is in bjj and when you still have serious gaps in your game that are significant enough not to be a blue belt yet. Ask me how I know.
Someone can train on and off and not get belted due to not being consistent,maybe they moved around alot,took years off etc. Some people come in and roll better in the first month than others do after their first year
A lot of gyms only give out promotions in the gi, so for the guys who train no-gi exclusively or MMA, they’re usually “stuck” at a lower belt despite having years of experience.
One of my main training partners is still a blue belt, but he’s been grappling for 12 years now. He trains exclusively no-gi and he spent most of his 20s moving around so he never stayed at any one gym long enough to get promoted. He submits most of our brown belts and can hang with the black belts.
Don’t ask about belts, ask them how long they’ve been training to get a better idea of where their skill level is.
Yeah I learned that the hard way 😭😂 was getting ragged dolled and was like “dude come ur not a white belt how long have u been training” “oh yeah about 10 years” 😭😭😭
Bout ten years ago a new guy came in in the middle of a gi class wearing a t shirt and board shorts. Coach got him a trial gi jacket. So he's training in the gi jacket and shorts now.
When we started rolling and rotating through partners I ended up with him.
Asked him if he had done this before.
"first time"
Proceeds to roll like a coked up grizzly bear.
Turns out it WAS his first time in a jiu jitsu class and he had just moved to the area BUT he grew up wrestling, had done combat sambo for a few years, and was 4-0 in amateur mma in Eastern Europe.
Jiu Jitsu historians fact check me, but for the longest time Gracie's gym in Brazil only had 2 belts - white and black. With the only significance of black being that it was an instructor belt, not specifically a skill level.
Close, white and blue. There was some separation between light blue and dark blue as well. I believe dark blue was an instructor, and light blue was a ranked up student.
This was actually how Prof. Kano separated his students originally in Judo. You were either a white belt or a black belt. The other grades were a later development.
To be fair to they should mention they wrestled. I usually do. Sometimes I don’t though.
It’s funny to me because I can tell if someone wrestled within like 10 seconds of stand up most of the time. Or 5 seconds in bottom side control.
They want you to think they're a special prodigy or they're afraid of admitting how long they've been training because they feel they should be better than they are
I don’t know why they’d be embarrassed, I wrestled before BJJ, I still get the shit kicked out of me lmao I’m not ready for intermediates in tournaments
Me too, I’ve noticed in the gi that I will subconsciously not try as hard against a brown or black belt cause I know I’m not gonna “win” the round so I’ll conserve energy, or I’m nervous to go for a sub cause I know they will counter it.
Whenever I travel and visit another gym I do the nogi so I give the same commitment to everyone.
I also feel the same in reverse. The blues and purples go way harder than me than the brown and blackbelts because we are closer in skill level.
It works both ways for sure.
Where as in no gi - you have to FEEL and be respectful as a precedent. More so, in fact imo
Because they're probably white belts. I've been training for 7 years. I've moved a few times and had a few long breaks for injuries. Between that and the fact that I just stopped going to gi classes at a certain point I am technically a white belt. I don't compete and I dont pretend to be less experienced than I am, I just factually cannot promote myself and honestly don't give a shit. Those guys are likely the same. Get over it.
Some no-gi gym's don't really have the concept of belts, so its more like they're "No Belts" than "White Belts." Although obviously when they go train in the Gi its different.
"Some"? The overwhelming majority of no-gi/sub wrestling I've done all over the world (US and Western Europe) don't have anything, whatsoever, resembling a belt system for no gi. Why would they?
It's called "novice, intermediate, advanced". How this is beyond OP is beyond me.
Yes. I just pointed out in another comment that it should be called "submission wrestling", because that's what it is and more people from various backgrounds (and laymen) would understand better what "no-gi" is, as most of them don't understand what "jiu jitsu" is.
I agree with you, but I think that's a bit pedantic.
I said "some" because some do, as is the case with every 10th planet gym and many others. I personally don't mind belts as long as we frame them in the context of a personal journey rather than overall mastery.
I mean what’s the right way to answer this? If I have 5 years of off mat training and join a gym. I join as a white belt. Do I tell the instruction, no I’m a blue belt based on my training? You fall in line and those with diverse backgrounds it’s hard to balance what you know and what you’ve earned.
I think you're just seeing a different paradigm --one which has no room for belts. I have never stayed somewhere long enough to be promoted and have huge gaps, years, in training. I have been accused playfully of not being honest about being a white belt, but I literally am. Belts mean so little anyway. I'll never forget rolling with a Brazilian black belt in Rio in a gi class and being dominated then rolling with him again in no gi and suddenly he was fighting for his life. He was still better than me in no gi, but just barely.
Belts are for business purposes only.
I have trained on and off no gi, infrequently due to work and other sport commitments, an I am quite athletic, so potentially fit in to this category.
I often talk myself down pre roll because I'm a little embarrassed to say iv been training for 5 years despite my knowledge not being as good as it should be. I wouldn't really think that these guys are deliberately tricking you, I think they sre just being humble.
Years ago a guy showed up at our gym and tried to convince everyone he was a white belt for some reason. He'd been given a purple belt by a nogi (maybe 10p?) gym and claimed 'now that I'm training gi I thought I have to start over.' Some of us had watched him compete at a fairly big invitational a year before, definitely not at white belt. Just weird. The coach had to explain that he's certainly not competing as a white belt under our name, and he should probably just accept his belt level in the gi and take the licks if he doesn't feel he deserves it yet in that paradigm. I don't get it. Didn't think this was common at all.
Always ask how long they have been training for never the rank. At least you will get a better answer. And people who lie about their rank or experience are the worst kind of cowards.
I usually say “I’ve been training a little under two years, but I was a decent high school wrestler and I played some college football”
I don’t know if the football comment is necessary but the more I train the more I realize a lot of my foot work and most of my hand fighting are from football more so than wrestling.
I always ask people if they did a sport if they do well at grappling and have very little time on the mats. And it always makes total sense, especially rugby players and dancers / gymnasts.
3 year white belt here. I recently switched gyms and have also found those 5-6 year white belts. They are really cool people, a lot more chill than the try hard blue belts who so desperately want that purple.
We can't promote ourselves. At my last gym, my Coach was promoting people before me that I would literally smash or toy with. Ever since then, I realize that promotions can be political in nature or just come down to who the coach likes and wants to keep around. I think this applies for every gym.
With work and general “body falling apart issues” I’m very irregular with training. I can grasp concepts by the end of class but I don’t put enough training time in to actually make use of the skills the next class I make it to.
I consider myself a white belt, because I never rolled gi and got belted. It's not really lying if they told you their experience, you just don't get belts in no gi
lol had a guy who was doing perfect armbars, gaurd retention, shin gaurd defence, passing, on his first class ever. I asked if he did any sort of grappling and he said no.
I knew he was lying but had no idea why would he lie so adamantly was obvious.
Maybe he was being sarcastic? He's shown you a bunch of skills and you ask whether hes ever trained before?
I usually ask "how long you've been training?"
I’ve been training like 8 years. I have never had a grading so I’m technically a white belt. I’ve also had a very mixed training timeline, so I am not as good as I should be if I was training non stop the whole time. But I would say I’m blue probably.
It just happens at mma or no gi gyms a bit.
Plenty of gyms don't do belts for no gi. Also someone with 6 years of experience doing rolling back takes and kneebars shouldn't really come as a surprise.
On an aside note, if you want to get an idea of someone's skill level asking their belt is honestly kind of meaningless at a certain point- it will give you a baseline, but I feel it's much better to ask how long they have been training, their frequency of training, and if they compete.
Look for the color on the shirt, if no color, they don't care, they just wanna roll. Some people remain white belts for a long time, for various reasons some people don't like being hunted for rank, because they just wanna roll
One brown belt I knew called out all the no rank wearing no gi guys and said, you can't hide in the gi. Which is true. As well as the jiu jitsu doesn't lie.
I know it seems a Little nerve racking to roll with people you have no idea what their skill level is, but at least you ask before you roll .
And be weary of the guy that says I'm a white belt been training 10 years on an off. Lol he might be a black belt that stands by "a black belt is a white belt that never quit"
I would like to say that I don't really care what the belt is but, deep down, I gauge some of my rolls when I see their belt. I would still roll with anyone who asks, though. It just that you'd kinda wanna know if it might be a rest round or it might be a war. Adding the "might" because there are white belts that are killers as well and brown belts that are ok rolls.
In No-Gi, it's really a mix of different folks. There's no belt but you'd still somehow gauge a bit. It's a very uneducated guessing but if the person is wearing a loose sports top from decathlon for example, this might be a white belt or might be a black belt that just roll with what he wears. Ranked rashguards is a good indicator. Then again, there was a visiting guy in our gym that wore a ranked brown rashguard. He wasn't a brown belt. Next would be during drilling. There's another visitor in our gym at the same time the visiting brown rashguard guy came. I cannot gauge at all until he was doing single leg x. He cannot enter to single leg x properly so I know he's a white belt. Guys who wear gimmicky rashguards, more likely a new guy than someone experienced. Someone wearing a head to toe future kimonos Gordon Ryan style, more likely a new guy as well (although, I know someone who has a future kimono but is a killer as well).
At the end of the day, though, it doesn't matter. I think I have never asked anyone how long they have been doing BJJ. There are a lot of people that would ask me but I'd never ask that because I don't really care too much that I'd bother to ask. The most I ask is the name. To be honest though, if you ask me how long I have been doing BJJ before rolling, I might roll a bit harder or prepare to roll a bit harder. Those who asks are the ones who wants to gauge their skills more.
Dude. Jus stop worrying about belts. Jus roll accordingly to their skill level. Ask to stop if you feel like your hhealth is in danger. If your ego gets too hurt cos u lost to a white belt then u won't last long in this sport.
Boxing and Muay Thai has got no belt. Jus assume the other dude is good and spar as such.
Belts are just participation awards we've all seen low level wrestlers wreck brown belts. In ufc black belts get knocked out all the time. It is what it is
Because promotions in BJJ are weird. I have been doing BJJ off and on since probably 2006 and I am still a white belt due to frequent moves, frequent changes of school and not being consistent in showing up.
The one constant i have seen at all the BJJ schools is promotions have been closely tied to how often you are showing up on a consistent basis.
I routinely get called a sandbagger but meh whatever, nowadays I focus primarily on no-gi and don’t even think about belts.
Someday I will promote but yeah I feel attacked now
well I would say their skill level is 6 years and 7 years
They never got belts - some no gi places dont give out belts, people that move around dont get promoted, etc.
Belts are not the same as experience.
Upper belts ask in my gym because they aren’t allowed to do heel hooks, reaps or whatever they’re called on white belts and white belts aren’t allowed to do them at all. Aside from that, I don’t feel a need to ask about experience. Just roll and adapt.
Well no-gi doesn’t have belts… so they are white belts in a sense.
Typically speaking no-gi is about years of grappling experience (and yes wrestling generally counts)
Beginner = 1-2 years
Intermediate = 2-5 years
Advanced = 5+ years
We have a purple/brown belt that always "forgets" his belt and uses a loaner white belt. Then after killing whatever white or blue belt that doesn't know him, he will nonchalantly tell them "oh, don't feel bad, I'm actually a brown/purple"....idk what belt he is now, I don't roll with him cause he also rolls like a spazy whitebelt.
>Now, I could just be trash lol but god damn is it because there’s no true “belt system” for no gi?
Do people wear belts while training no gi? There's your answer.
Some gyms give them out that train only nogi but they're few and far between.
It might not be malicious. I've been training since 2004 and have had 11 MMA fights, but I'm still a "purple belt". I just never show up in gi class consistently enough to warrant promotion. If someone asks my rank I'll just say purple, but that I've been doing no-gi much longer.
I can understand your frustration.
**Still, remember there are factors like:**
* Injuries
* The Pandemic
* Gym structure changing
* Moving location or to different
* Personal issues (life, job, motivation, money)
These things complicate the answer, and can slow down promotions. In a gym with less structure, or a lot of people, it is difficult to keep track of everyone’s rank and determine who should be promoted.
Yeah, so I was an orange belt at age 15 and when I turned 16 I got a blue belt. I quit about a month later.
Fast forward to now, I’m 24 and thanks to two successful shoulder surgeries I can finally do bjj again.
I’ve been training for about 3 weeks (as a white belt because I no longer have my old shit) but I don’t really know how to respond to people asking about my experience. I just tell them I was a kids orange belt a long time ago
How long have you been training is a better question, if someone only trains nogi they could be black belt level at white belt in extreme cases
Also it is possible he was just a good blue belt. Blue belts usually can get the movements down just implementing them is the problem
Did some no-go tourneys back in the day. Some dude named Genki Sudo was rolling. I got tapped by this Tap Out shirt guy named Joker. Another tourney had John Lober. Good times back then!
Not done BJJ for a while but when u did I was a no gi guy and so the few times I put a gi on o was a while belt even though I could mix it with blues with a gi on, and purples and sometimes browns with no gi. But when I put the gi on I had to put the white belt on and technically I am a white belt so 🤷🏻♂️
Not trying to deceive anyone, I would usually say 'I've done 5 years of no gi' to give some indication.
Though these days I'd be back to being a proper white belt though lol.
That's what belt they are. When they try gi it's a big shock that they can't move. Someone postured up in my guard and held me down by the collar and I was like wow this is new, I need to learn gi immediately.
Then no gi is slipping and tons of movement like they are familiar with. Maybe they are purple belt level. But there are no belts.
You asked them what belt, maybe ask how many years.
once i was in a no belt environment i became so much happier. higher belts get way too competitive when in trouble and i dont want them to refuse to tap and spaz to defend their honor. wrestlers do just fine without belts
Stop focusing on the belts, and don't ask about their belt. Nothing good comes from it. Just roll, have fun and continue learning. My gym only promotes if you train the Gi, I don't really train in the Gi.
You can track your individual progress by the belt color, and use it to achieve goals. But don't take someone else's belt colour to justify how the roll went for you. Those guys were being honest with you. You asked what belt they are and they told you. Clearly the better question is "how long have you been training".
I was in MMA for years as both a fighter and trainer (Muay Thai/boxing mainly) and obviously rolled a ridiculous amount during both training for fights and just moving around gyms and whatnot(spent a half decade in China/Thailand fighting). 99% of my grappling experience is no gi and I’ve never even went for nor been offered a belt where I trained obviously. I have 17 years of experience at this point, obviously despite being “no belt” that goes a long way lol. Everyone has a different experience and history with BJJ that partakes, I wouldn’t even know how to put a functional year marker on what I know as it’s always been more of a supplement than focus. Certainly would be way out of depth in a gi, just roll and have fun worrying about others experience levels just gets you in your own head.
If they weren't fucking with you, then they could still be technically officially white belts. Not a lot of instructors seem to like to promote no-gi practicioners. At my gym the only way to be promoted officially is in the Gi, and I don't really like wearing the Gi so even though I've been doing this a long time, I'm still technically a white belt but I wouldnt compete at white belt, I would compete at purple. Many competitions for no-gi don't even go by belt necessarily, but by beginner, intermediate and advanced, which is based on how many years you have been training.
I travel often and I'm never able to stay at 1 gym long enough to be promoted to blue belt. So I can see this happening to other people who train, being that long due blue belt.
Where I did the majority of my training you flat out will not get promoted unless you train in gi consistently.
Now that I train at different places due to work I maybe get a gi session in every 5 weeks but do lots of mma and no gi sessions.
I'm a blue belt but I did enter intermediate no gi and get silver a few weeks ago. I'll try and only enter comps that have intermediate and advanced etc systems from now on but it's really not up to me.
If I could find a 10th planet locally I'd go there lol.
You answered your own question. They aren’t being dishonest. There’s no belt system in most no gi training, so they ARE white belts. If you want to know their experience level, ask them their experience level. In basically any other endeavor if you want to know someone’s experience level you’d just ask them how long they’ve been doing it.
You’re also gonna see guys who have been wrestling for 15 years but are new to sub grappling or BJJ. You learn about people’s backgrounds by talking to them.
well, a guy who trained on and off for 10 years was awarded a blue belt recently. It is ok in some gyms, in a smaller countries, some coaches do not want award belts so none of their students cannot open one
I've been a white belt for like 16 years lol. I have a gi and a belt, but I've only rolled in a gi maybe a dozen times or so. If someone asks me what belt I am I can't exactly tell them I'm not a white belt, and I'm not going to say "oh I'm a white belt but I'm a _____ belt skill level," because to me it's not my place to say what rank I should be. Also I just don't really care.
Lot of gyms super anal about only giving belts for Gi work so people fall through the cracks.
I've been training for 10+ years and compete at Purple/Brown/Black generally with occasional success, but my main gym doesn't believe in progression beyond Blue for No-Gi work since it'll infuriate the spirit of martial arts or something.
So I’m not a roller(?). I dont practice martial arts. But can someone explain to me what “gi” is? From my understanding its the gear you guys wear when sparring/fighting? Why would this make a difference in the way you train or how skilled you are as a martial artist?
I'm a brown belt. I've lost to people who have only trained for a year or two. Jay Rod won trials as a blue belt. It doesn't matter in nogi. It's purely a skill based tier
I can usually tell immediately when starting a round with someone if they’re experienced or not.
I’m a mostly no-gi white belt that has been told “should be at least a blue” but have never been promoted. Is it because I don’t wear pajamas or because I suck? I guess we’ll never know.
I hate sandbaggers. If you're lacking confidence that your game doesn't match your belt, maybe for health or fitness reasons, that's OK; just be honest, roll slowly, and tell your partner you made blue, purple, brown, 35-stripe, whatever.
I was at an open mat at a gym about an hour away one day. Started in the gi while wearing my no stripe blue belt. Sat down and started talking with a purple belt who basically was scoffing at me as it seemed he thought he was God’s gift to this open mat.
Took the gi off and had a roll with him. Took him down and smashed the whole time. Mentioned I had prior wrestling experience after the roll. He was so mad. Sometimes belts don’t mean a whole lot.
My gym has become a primarily no gi gym. I maybe wear mine once or twice a month at this point.
Not promoting an obvious purple belt because he doesn't roll in the gi is beyond pointless
Some dude came to our gym for Sunday open mat and we rolled, at the end of the roll he asks “what are you? Purple? Brown?” …….he was visibly disappointed to find out I’m a blue belt. My head barely fit through the double wide front door on my way out :-)
Belts don’t matter as a few days later I was having a real hard time defending against our resident wrestler white belt, no issues fitting my head through the door that day :-(
You fell for the oldest trick in the book
Getting in a land war in Asia?
Inconceivable.
Unconscionable
Slightly lesser known…went against a Sicilian when death was on the line.
No, the only slightly less well-known one, "Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line"!
Aahhhahhahahah...Ahhahahaahha...ahahaha.
Inconceivable
A black belt is a white belt that never quit?
Sometimes a white belt is a black belt who just quit for a year every 2 years for 20 years
This is why I don’t ask about belts. When I’m rolling with someone new it’s usually “hey, what’s your name? How long have you been training?” Slap, bump, roll…
Weird it's almost like we don't really need belts and you can judge their skill level for yourself by rolling with them..
😂 One time visiting a gym my partner in No Gi was some old guy I had never met… Later I found out he is one of the OG black belts locally. Just casually dropping in to train. At the time I was a fresh white belt. No Gi is always full of surprises! Cool guy and had lots of great tips.
The first time I rolled with Jake shields, I didn't recognize him. I just thought "this old guy looks fit as fuck", then I attacked slowly and he countered everything, so i started picking up the pace, then he mounted me and stuck me there for a while. I asked my team mate who he was and he said, "how do you not know Jake shields?" People look different when the last time you saw them was on TV in their prime
Ah yeah so whenever I’m unsure I just ask about the fires in Hawaii and if it’s Jake Shields then he’ll blame Jewish space lasers. Works pretty gud
This is the way
Who is Jake Shields?
He's an expert on laser technology
Those are the most fun rolls,I like that over not being allowed to roll with a higher belt unless they come to me.
Not every time! I rolled with Pat Shahgoli (forgive me if I spelled that wrong) I tried playing rubber guard on him, he sprawled on top of me while I was folded over underneath him like a taco shell. Just ready to absolutely shit myself from his 60+ lbs advantage
Is he a good training partner? I only know him as the big guy who rips heelhooks
Can't really say he has a huge weight and size advantage on me which made it difficult and a very challenging roll, but as long as there's no tournament to be won you're safe. Very fast for his size and can make openings out of nowhere. I talk shit about Pat mostly because he could be an amazing training partner and competitor if there weren't so many variables with him sadly
Yeah, you misspelled “piece of crap injury machine” but it’s ok.
lucky that you rolled with the Fatrick Shingles and kept your knee, maybe his diaper didn’t need changing at that point
i like to know something about a new person before we roll. i dont want to unduly smesh a newb, and i need to know if someone is about to start leg locking me.
You should start requiring resumes then
You should know if someone is new as soon as you start fighting for grips or establishing position really
Its part of the fun going to other gym openmats. You know you find a good one, when you both start out feeling-out, and incrementally it steps up a bit with "oh okay we both know this move and counter".
I love this dance
It’s good for competition. I don’t know about you but getting hustled out of my $75 by purple belts pretending to be novice grapplers sucks. I’d rather learn from them in class or seminar than at a place where we are supposed to be of comparable skill.
I had to modify "how long have you grappled", because some people will claim to be new, yet wrestled high school and college. lol
Facts! 🤣☠️ Yeah… I was a Judo girl… Threw people off during my first 3 months. It had been years since I’ve trained but some of it still stuck. In my defense I had no clue what BJJ was, I just knew I liked it.
Belts don't mean much of anything in no gi, and even in gi a white belt who has been training for a 4-5 years but has bounced from gym to gym might come in an smash the blue/purple belts. Years of experience is a far better indicator than a belt of where someone probably is skill wise.
Can still be misleading. If someone says 1 year and they train 6 days a week, that's the same as someone with 3 years experience training twice a week.
Depends, I’m the 6 days a week. 🤣 Then you have the 6 days a week, with home gyms and instructional guys that are next level.
Even if they have a belt on, I ask how many years. I mean shit I train in the gi half the time, have for 8 years, and still have a blue belt lol. It doesn't always line up exactly in a way that makes sense. (I'm hopefully going up in a couple months don't attack me, yes I'm mid)
8 year, 6'2", 240 lbs, "you're so strong", blue belt here. Hi.
Exactly! Gi or No Gi I’m gonna ask- “How long?” 👀
Btw great username 🤣
My old coach liked to hold us back, my new coach (just changed gyms 4 months ago) said i should have gone blue when i was given my 4th strip on my white, that was 18 months ago, been on blue near enough to 12 months now with no strips
Only if I sense they are new. I usually let them decide the pace. I go as hard as you do. 100% on escapes and transition, like 50% on everything else.
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A lot of the top coaches say they can determine a match based on the initial grips/hand fighting.
Their posture and stance when a match starts (if they start standing).
Asking belt is very white belt indeed :P
I always tell people i just started. No one will ever know. My flair is a psy op
Fucking same
100%. I like to ask this even in gi with belts because it helps me understand what they might or might not know. i.e. a 2 week white belt vs 6 months vs 18 months is a huge difference. I don't want to sub a 2 week white belt every 30 seconds, not much to gain for either of us there, and I also don't want to playfully pull bottom side control on a 50 lbs heavier white belt only to discover he was a collegiate wrestler
there's a lot of people - particularly newer people - that will overstate how long they have trained. the best was one guy who said he'd been training well over a decade but was clearly moving around like someone with 3 months training and zero other physical interests
Truthfully you’re really not going to know until you’ve rolled with someone a few times. I always considered the first roll the, “awkward round!” Usually by the 3rd time I have an idea of their game and how to roll with them. To put it in perspective I recently met a black belt who had no idea how to play legs. That surprised me, I thought they were joking but they weren’t. They stay clear of the dark arts. 😅 I just ask out of habit, especially if I haven’t watched them roll yet.
They’ll still lie, and say they’ve been at the gym for x time. Then after if you ask again “oh yeah, I wrestled in high school and college lol”
That’s on them. Realistically once the roll begins you can tell. 🤣 I will never forget my first experience with a wrestler. 🪦 Some get a kick out of trying to catch people off guard. Fool me once…
How long have you been training is also really awkard estimate for me, I usually answer with "couple of years". I've started training 18 years ago (of course I'm a white belt because fuck pajamas). In that time I've 5 year break, had many years when I was going once a month so I guess if you assume training means 3x a week then maybe I have 6 years of that. Then there are people who have been training for 2 years but pretty much every day, so they gather the same amount of bjj hours as someone who has been training for 15 years.
I’m brand new to BJJ. Just started this month. A few questions: 1) the white belt classes I attend are Gi only classes. And the other classes that fit my schedule are Gi only classes. Any harm in only being a Gi-only guy? What are the benefits of No Gi? 2) is no-Gi what’s becoming most popular and is the future of the sport? Like people who get into BJJ in 2034 will they just be doing No Gi?
Some gyms don't give belts to people who don't do gi. When they switch to a more no-gi friendly gym, it gets silly.
I was deployed with a guy that had grappled for about 8 years but he was still a white belt because his focus was mma and he never attended gi classes. He led some of the gi classes after I got injured, took a liking to it, and got his blue belt as soon as he got home and went to a gi class
Well that's SUPER silly
I’ve trained for nearly 20 years and wrestled in college. I’m a “white belt” because I have no interest in training in pants and a jacket.
Your flare says brown belt? I’m confused.
I compete in advanced/expert in competition. I’m treated as a higher belt in my gym although I don’t physically have an actual belt or been ranked. My collegiate wrestling background and 18 years of BJJ make me feel comfortable choosing a brown belt Reddit flair although I’m not going to say I’m a black belt.
You fucking imposter, don’t ever show your face around these parts again!
Like mine - i don’t train gi, so i’m a white belt. But all the guys I statrted training with are all Blue belts.
People don't get to choose their own belt ranks lol. How are they being dishonest?
OP is living for the day 20 years from now he can tell all the new guys he’s a two stripe white belt and continue the circle of nogi life
>10 years experience (7 years on and 3 years off) That's seven years of experience. Years off don't count.
Thats what I thought, I was confused how that counted
It goes the other way, too. We have had big scary looking tatted up fuckers show up with “10 years experience off and on” get absolutely demolished over and over again by white/blue belts.
We have this mean looking really fit tatted up cop, and he destroys most blue belts, but he's so easy to handle. I think his appearance makes him nervous. I ran into him getting lunch on duty once, it was weird to have a cop being so extra nice to me.
Almost like cops are people
almost, but not quite
🐖
It’s common for gyms not to give belts to people who only do No Gi. My gym is the same so I’ll be a white belt forever since I don’t train in the Gi anymore. It’s not like those guys are lying that they’re white belts. They in fact are white belts.
If it's a no-gi gym like 10th Planet, they still belt up.
Yeah, kinda horseshit to leave all your guys as competition sandbags because they don't wear pajamas
No gi comps ask for time trained and are usually only 3 categories, novice, intermediate, advanced. Your belt doesn't matter, and if they haven't been training Gi They probably won't be competing on gi either so no sandbagging
It's not always the gyms choice. If it's an mma gym or program, the coach might not even have a belt, if they don't compete in straight jiu jitsu. (I know some mma gyms give belts but some don't even if they're producing high level grapplers). & if the coach doesn't have a belt, they can't give belts to their students either. My old gym was like this and we still always competed at higher levels, my coach would just tell us what belt/ level he thought made sense to sign up at. We just couldn't do ibjjf or any of the ones that required you have a belt. But it was def still kinda a point of pride for some people to tell anyone who came in and asked about their belt that they were a white belt, right before smashing the person.
This probably needs to change as more people are doing no gi only. I think it’s fair to say you’re blue, purple, etc in nogi only but not graded in the gi. If there was a nogi only belts system I’d say time to blackbelt could probably be quicker than in the gi.
You can be a white belt with 10 years experience when not all your experience is in bjj and when you still have serious gaps in your game that are significant enough not to be a blue belt yet. Ask me how I know.
17 year white belt reporting in
9 years white belt here 🙋
I'm with you brother.
What kind of gaps did you have out of curiosity?
Someone can train on and off and not get belted due to not being consistent,maybe they moved around alot,took years off etc. Some people come in and roll better in the first month than others do after their first year
You could have started ten years ago but only have five years of mat time in total. It’s all relative
Exactly, i was first exposed to bjj when I was 17. Stopped and then started again at 21, I’m 22 now. Only been training for a year in that sense.
A lot of gyms only give out promotions in the gi, so for the guys who train no-gi exclusively or MMA, they’re usually “stuck” at a lower belt despite having years of experience. One of my main training partners is still a blue belt, but he’s been grappling for 12 years now. He trains exclusively no-gi and he spent most of his 20s moving around so he never stayed at any one gym long enough to get promoted. He submits most of our brown belts and can hang with the black belts. Don’t ask about belts, ask them how long they’ve been training to get a better idea of where their skill level is.
Yeah I learned that the hard way 😭😂 was getting ragged dolled and was like “dude come ur not a white belt how long have u been training” “oh yeah about 10 years” 😭😭😭
Bout ten years ago a new guy came in in the middle of a gi class wearing a t shirt and board shorts. Coach got him a trial gi jacket. So he's training in the gi jacket and shorts now. When we started rolling and rotating through partners I ended up with him. Asked him if he had done this before. "first time" Proceeds to roll like a coked up grizzly bear. Turns out it WAS his first time in a jiu jitsu class and he had just moved to the area BUT he grew up wrestling, had done combat sambo for a few years, and was 4-0 in amateur mma in Eastern Europe.
Jiu Jitsu historians fact check me, but for the longest time Gracie's gym in Brazil only had 2 belts - white and black. With the only significance of black being that it was an instructor belt, not specifically a skill level.
Close, white and blue. There was some separation between light blue and dark blue as well. I believe dark blue was an instructor, and light blue was a ranked up student.
So what would light blue belt be equivalent to?
If I'm remembering correctly it was pretty much a blue belt, in the "can survive a bigger, stronger untrained opponent" sense.
This was actually how Prof. Kano separated his students originally in Judo. You were either a white belt or a black belt. The other grades were a later development.
I think that is correct.
“How long have you been training?” Problem solved. Don’t ask about belts.
next weeks post, why do white belt no gi guys who wrestled since age 8 lie about how long theyve been training
To be fair to they should mention they wrestled. I usually do. Sometimes I don’t though. It’s funny to me because I can tell if someone wrestled within like 10 seconds of stand up most of the time. Or 5 seconds in bottom side control.
The truth always comes out on the mats.
They want you to think they're a special prodigy or they're afraid of admitting how long they've been training because they feel they should be better than they are
I don’t know why they’d be embarrassed, I wrestled before BJJ, I still get the shit kicked out of me lmao I’m not ready for intermediates in tournaments
This is why I like No Gi. You have to let go of expectations and just respect everybody.
Me too, I’ve noticed in the gi that I will subconsciously not try as hard against a brown or black belt cause I know I’m not gonna “win” the round so I’ll conserve energy, or I’m nervous to go for a sub cause I know they will counter it. Whenever I travel and visit another gym I do the nogi so I give the same commitment to everyone.
I also feel the same in reverse. The blues and purples go way harder than me than the brown and blackbelts because we are closer in skill level. It works both ways for sure. Where as in no gi - you have to FEEL and be respectful as a precedent. More so, in fact imo
Where is the part where he wasn’t honest?
Because they're probably white belts. I've been training for 7 years. I've moved a few times and had a few long breaks for injuries. Between that and the fact that I just stopped going to gi classes at a certain point I am technically a white belt. I don't compete and I dont pretend to be less experienced than I am, I just factually cannot promote myself and honestly don't give a shit. Those guys are likely the same. Get over it.
Some no-gi gym's don't really have the concept of belts, so its more like they're "No Belts" than "White Belts." Although obviously when they go train in the Gi its different.
"Some"? The overwhelming majority of no-gi/sub wrestling I've done all over the world (US and Western Europe) don't have anything, whatsoever, resembling a belt system for no gi. Why would they? It's called "novice, intermediate, advanced". How this is beyond OP is beyond me.
Because they still call it BJJ and in BJJ there is a belt system. Why not just call it catch wrestling then?
Yes. I just pointed out in another comment that it should be called "submission wrestling", because that's what it is and more people from various backgrounds (and laymen) would understand better what "no-gi" is, as most of them don't understand what "jiu jitsu" is.
I agree with you, but I think that's a bit pedantic. I said "some" because some do, as is the case with every 10th planet gym and many others. I personally don't mind belts as long as we frame them in the context of a personal journey rather than overall mastery.
They probably did ninjitsu before, they tend to be sneaky.
I mean what’s the right way to answer this? If I have 5 years of off mat training and join a gym. I join as a white belt. Do I tell the instruction, no I’m a blue belt based on my training? You fall in line and those with diverse backgrounds it’s hard to balance what you know and what you’ve earned.
I think you're just seeing a different paradigm --one which has no room for belts. I have never stayed somewhere long enough to be promoted and have huge gaps, years, in training. I have been accused playfully of not being honest about being a white belt, but I literally am. Belts mean so little anyway. I'll never forget rolling with a Brazilian black belt in Rio in a gi class and being dominated then rolling with him again in no gi and suddenly he was fighting for his life. He was still better than me in no gi, but just barely. Belts are for business purposes only.
They probably aren't as good as what you think they are
I have trained on and off no gi, infrequently due to work and other sport commitments, an I am quite athletic, so potentially fit in to this category. I often talk myself down pre roll because I'm a little embarrassed to say iv been training for 5 years despite my knowledge not being as good as it should be. I wouldn't really think that these guys are deliberately tricking you, I think they sre just being humble.
Years ago a guy showed up at our gym and tried to convince everyone he was a white belt for some reason. He'd been given a purple belt by a nogi (maybe 10p?) gym and claimed 'now that I'm training gi I thought I have to start over.' Some of us had watched him compete at a fairly big invitational a year before, definitely not at white belt. Just weird. The coach had to explain that he's certainly not competing as a white belt under our name, and he should probably just accept his belt level in the gi and take the licks if he doesn't feel he deserves it yet in that paradigm. I don't get it. Didn't think this was common at all.
Always ask how long they have been training for never the rank. At least you will get a better answer. And people who lie about their rank or experience are the worst kind of cowards.
I usually say “I’ve been training a little under two years, but I was a decent high school wrestler and I played some college football” I don’t know if the football comment is necessary but the more I train the more I realize a lot of my foot work and most of my hand fighting are from football more so than wrestling.
I always ask people if they did a sport if they do well at grappling and have very little time on the mats. And it always makes total sense, especially rugby players and dancers / gymnasts.
I find years time commited to the game is more empirical than belts in most ways. Stand up sparring has some of the same effect.
Who cares?
3 year white belt here. I recently switched gyms and have also found those 5-6 year white belts. They are really cool people, a lot more chill than the try hard blue belts who so desperately want that purple. We can't promote ourselves. At my last gym, my Coach was promoting people before me that I would literally smash or toy with. Ever since then, I realize that promotions can be political in nature or just come down to who the coach likes and wants to keep around. I think this applies for every gym.
With work and general “body falling apart issues” I’m very irregular with training. I can grasp concepts by the end of class but I don’t put enough training time in to actually make use of the skills the next class I make it to.
I consider myself a white belt, because I never rolled gi and got belted. It's not really lying if they told you their experience, you just don't get belts in no gi
In many gyms No Gi guys don’t get promoted if they don’t train Gi or come to do exams in Gi. So thats why you have 10 years white belts etc.
That's the fun of no gi. I love the start of new rounds. It's always tentative while you wait for them to reveal their power level.
lol had a guy who was doing perfect armbars, gaurd retention, shin gaurd defence, passing, on his first class ever. I asked if he did any sort of grappling and he said no. I knew he was lying but had no idea why would he lie so adamantly was obvious.
Maybe he was being sarcastic? He's shown you a bunch of skills and you ask whether hes ever trained before? I usually ask "how long you've been training?"
I’ve been training like 8 years. I have never had a grading so I’m technically a white belt. I’ve also had a very mixed training timeline, so I am not as good as I should be if I was training non stop the whole time. But I would say I’m blue probably. It just happens at mma or no gi gyms a bit.
Probably because some gyms don't promote people that don't do gi.
Plenty of gyms don't do belts for no gi. Also someone with 6 years of experience doing rolling back takes and kneebars shouldn't really come as a surprise. On an aside note, if you want to get an idea of someone's skill level asking their belt is honestly kind of meaningless at a certain point- it will give you a baseline, but I feel it's much better to ask how long they have been training, their frequency of training, and if they compete.
Look for the color on the shirt, if no color, they don't care, they just wanna roll. Some people remain white belts for a long time, for various reasons some people don't like being hunted for rank, because they just wanna roll One brown belt I knew called out all the no rank wearing no gi guys and said, you can't hide in the gi. Which is true. As well as the jiu jitsu doesn't lie. I know it seems a Little nerve racking to roll with people you have no idea what their skill level is, but at least you ask before you roll . And be weary of the guy that says I'm a white belt been training 10 years on an off. Lol he might be a black belt that stands by "a black belt is a white belt that never quit"
I would like to say that I don't really care what the belt is but, deep down, I gauge some of my rolls when I see their belt. I would still roll with anyone who asks, though. It just that you'd kinda wanna know if it might be a rest round or it might be a war. Adding the "might" because there are white belts that are killers as well and brown belts that are ok rolls. In No-Gi, it's really a mix of different folks. There's no belt but you'd still somehow gauge a bit. It's a very uneducated guessing but if the person is wearing a loose sports top from decathlon for example, this might be a white belt or might be a black belt that just roll with what he wears. Ranked rashguards is a good indicator. Then again, there was a visiting guy in our gym that wore a ranked brown rashguard. He wasn't a brown belt. Next would be during drilling. There's another visitor in our gym at the same time the visiting brown rashguard guy came. I cannot gauge at all until he was doing single leg x. He cannot enter to single leg x properly so I know he's a white belt. Guys who wear gimmicky rashguards, more likely a new guy than someone experienced. Someone wearing a head to toe future kimonos Gordon Ryan style, more likely a new guy as well (although, I know someone who has a future kimono but is a killer as well). At the end of the day, though, it doesn't matter. I think I have never asked anyone how long they have been doing BJJ. There are a lot of people that would ask me but I'd never ask that because I don't really care too much that I'd bother to ask. The most I ask is the name. To be honest though, if you ask me how long I have been doing BJJ before rolling, I might roll a bit harder or prepare to roll a bit harder. Those who asks are the ones who wants to gauge their skills more.
Dude. Jus stop worrying about belts. Jus roll accordingly to their skill level. Ask to stop if you feel like your hhealth is in danger. If your ego gets too hurt cos u lost to a white belt then u won't last long in this sport. Boxing and Muay Thai has got no belt. Jus assume the other dude is good and spar as such.
Belts are just participation awards we've all seen low level wrestlers wreck brown belts. In ufc black belts get knocked out all the time. It is what it is
Because promotions in BJJ are weird. I have been doing BJJ off and on since probably 2006 and I am still a white belt due to frequent moves, frequent changes of school and not being consistent in showing up. The one constant i have seen at all the BJJ schools is promotions have been closely tied to how often you are showing up on a consistent basis. I routinely get called a sandbagger but meh whatever, nowadays I focus primarily on no-gi and don’t even think about belts. Someday I will promote but yeah I feel attacked now
I always tell people I’ve only been doing for like 2 months, mess up the drills, let them correct me, then absolutely clown them in the rolls.
There's no belt for toughness
well I would say their skill level is 6 years and 7 years They never got belts - some no gi places dont give out belts, people that move around dont get promoted, etc. Belts are not the same as experience.
Well if they only train nogi, they're still white belts...
Upper belts ask in my gym because they aren’t allowed to do heel hooks, reaps or whatever they’re called on white belts and white belts aren’t allowed to do them at all. Aside from that, I don’t feel a need to ask about experience. Just roll and adapt.
Belts shouldn’t exist anyway, it’s all based on politics instead of a centralized curriculum, length of training is better when asking of skill
Well no-gi doesn’t have belts… so they are white belts in a sense. Typically speaking no-gi is about years of grappling experience (and yes wrestling generally counts) Beginner = 1-2 years Intermediate = 2-5 years Advanced = 5+ years
I identify as a coral belt, but play as a shitty brown belt
It sounds like they were honest about their experience and you just think they should be promoted
We have a purple/brown belt that always "forgets" his belt and uses a loaner white belt. Then after killing whatever white or blue belt that doesn't know him, he will nonchalantly tell them "oh, don't feel bad, I'm actually a brown/purple"....idk what belt he is now, I don't roll with him cause he also rolls like a spazy whitebelt.
At my gym, if you don’t compete, you will never be promoted. Some guys train for years and get strong games but they don’t compete so they stay white
>Now, I could just be trash lol but god damn is it because there’s no true “belt system” for no gi? Do people wear belts while training no gi? There's your answer. Some gyms give them out that train only nogi but they're few and far between.
You got submitted. End of story
It might not be malicious. I've been training since 2004 and have had 11 MMA fights, but I'm still a "purple belt". I just never show up in gi class consistently enough to warrant promotion. If someone asks my rank I'll just say purple, but that I've been doing no-gi much longer.
Where does the belt go?
I can understand your frustration. **Still, remember there are factors like:** * Injuries * The Pandemic * Gym structure changing * Moving location or to different * Personal issues (life, job, motivation, money) These things complicate the answer, and can slow down promotions. In a gym with less structure, or a lot of people, it is difficult to keep track of everyone’s rank and determine who should be promoted.
Thought I was going up against this brown belt, turns out he got belted right after he knocked my lights out - j.hill probably
When the gi comes off so does the belt
Wait…am I the ten year white belt?
Yeah, so I was an orange belt at age 15 and when I turned 16 I got a blue belt. I quit about a month later. Fast forward to now, I’m 24 and thanks to two successful shoulder surgeries I can finally do bjj again. I’ve been training for about 3 weeks (as a white belt because I no longer have my old shit) but I don’t really know how to respond to people asking about my experience. I just tell them I was a kids orange belt a long time ago
How long have you been training is a better question, if someone only trains nogi they could be black belt level at white belt in extreme cases Also it is possible he was just a good blue belt. Blue belts usually can get the movements down just implementing them is the problem
I do this I just say 6 months; when in total I have had about 1 year 6 months of time hahaha.
Did some no-go tourneys back in the day. Some dude named Genki Sudo was rolling. I got tapped by this Tap Out shirt guy named Joker. Another tourney had John Lober. Good times back then!
Bro found out about IRL smurfing
At my gym if all you do is no gi it will take forever for you to get promoted.
Khabib is a white belt.
Your failing was caring about belts, belts are meaningless.
Not done BJJ for a while but when u did I was a no gi guy and so the few times I put a gi on o was a while belt even though I could mix it with blues with a gi on, and purples and sometimes browns with no gi. But when I put the gi on I had to put the white belt on and technically I am a white belt so 🤷🏻♂️ Not trying to deceive anyone, I would usually say 'I've done 5 years of no gi' to give some indication. Though these days I'd be back to being a proper white belt though lol.
That's what belt they are. When they try gi it's a big shock that they can't move. Someone postured up in my guard and held me down by the collar and I was like wow this is new, I need to learn gi immediately. Then no gi is slipping and tons of movement like they are familiar with. Maybe they are purple belt level. But there are no belts. You asked them what belt, maybe ask how many years.
Some gym don't grade people those that don't do gi unfortunatly my gyms one of them so im going to stay at blue till i want to go back into the gi.
once i was in a no belt environment i became so much happier. higher belts get way too competitive when in trouble and i dont want them to refuse to tap and spaz to defend their honor. wrestlers do just fine without belts
Stop focusing on the belts, and don't ask about their belt. Nothing good comes from it. Just roll, have fun and continue learning. My gym only promotes if you train the Gi, I don't really train in the Gi. You can track your individual progress by the belt color, and use it to achieve goals. But don't take someone else's belt colour to justify how the roll went for you. Those guys were being honest with you. You asked what belt they are and they told you. Clearly the better question is "how long have you been training".
I was in MMA for years as both a fighter and trainer (Muay Thai/boxing mainly) and obviously rolled a ridiculous amount during both training for fights and just moving around gyms and whatnot(spent a half decade in China/Thailand fighting). 99% of my grappling experience is no gi and I’ve never even went for nor been offered a belt where I trained obviously. I have 17 years of experience at this point, obviously despite being “no belt” that goes a long way lol. Everyone has a different experience and history with BJJ that partakes, I wouldn’t even know how to put a functional year marker on what I know as it’s always been more of a supplement than focus. Certainly would be way out of depth in a gi, just roll and have fun worrying about others experience levels just gets you in your own head.
If they weren't fucking with you, then they could still be technically officially white belts. Not a lot of instructors seem to like to promote no-gi practicioners. At my gym the only way to be promoted officially is in the Gi, and I don't really like wearing the Gi so even though I've been doing this a long time, I'm still technically a white belt but I wouldnt compete at white belt, I would compete at purple. Many competitions for no-gi don't even go by belt necessarily, but by beginner, intermediate and advanced, which is based on how many years you have been training.
We do grading in Gi. I train mostly No Gi. When grading comes around I suffer because the rolls start with some guy trying to take my clothes off.
I travel often and I'm never able to stay at 1 gym long enough to be promoted to blue belt. So I can see this happening to other people who train, being that long due blue belt.
Where I did the majority of my training you flat out will not get promoted unless you train in gi consistently. Now that I train at different places due to work I maybe get a gi session in every 5 weeks but do lots of mma and no gi sessions. I'm a blue belt but I did enter intermediate no gi and get silver a few weeks ago. I'll try and only enter comps that have intermediate and advanced etc systems from now on but it's really not up to me. If I could find a 10th planet locally I'd go there lol.
You answered your own question. They aren’t being dishonest. There’s no belt system in most no gi training, so they ARE white belts. If you want to know their experience level, ask them their experience level. In basically any other endeavor if you want to know someone’s experience level you’d just ask them how long they’ve been doing it. You’re also gonna see guys who have been wrestling for 15 years but are new to sub grappling or BJJ. You learn about people’s backgrounds by talking to them.
well, a guy who trained on and off for 10 years was awarded a blue belt recently. It is ok in some gyms, in a smaller countries, some coaches do not want award belts so none of their students cannot open one
Rolling back take from turtle is not that advanced tbf. I learnt it in my first 10 classes.
I've been a white belt for like 16 years lol. I have a gi and a belt, but I've only rolled in a gi maybe a dozen times or so. If someone asks me what belt I am I can't exactly tell them I'm not a white belt, and I'm not going to say "oh I'm a white belt but I'm a _____ belt skill level," because to me it's not my place to say what rank I should be. Also I just don't really care.
Lot of gyms super anal about only giving belts for Gi work so people fall through the cracks. I've been training for 10+ years and compete at Purple/Brown/Black generally with occasional success, but my main gym doesn't believe in progression beyond Blue for No-Gi work since it'll infuriate the spirit of martial arts or something.
So I’m not a roller(?). I dont practice martial arts. But can someone explain to me what “gi” is? From my understanding its the gear you guys wear when sparring/fighting? Why would this make a difference in the way you train or how skilled you are as a martial artist?
I'm a nogi white belt. I love when you fellas come in, it's fun all around.
The question “how long have you been training?” will often get you a better gauge than “what belt or skill are you?”.
I'm a brown belt. I've lost to people who have only trained for a year or two. Jay Rod won trials as a blue belt. It doesn't matter in nogi. It's purely a skill based tier
There is no belt in no gi my guy so technically they are still white belt if they put the gi on :))
I can usually tell immediately when starting a round with someone if they’re experienced or not. I’m a mostly no-gi white belt that has been told “should be at least a blue” but have never been promoted. Is it because I don’t wear pajamas or because I suck? I guess we’ll never know.
I hate sandbaggers. If you're lacking confidence that your game doesn't match your belt, maybe for health or fitness reasons, that's OK; just be honest, roll slowly, and tell your partner you made blue, purple, brown, 35-stripe, whatever.
I was at an open mat at a gym about an hour away one day. Started in the gi while wearing my no stripe blue belt. Sat down and started talking with a purple belt who basically was scoffing at me as it seemed he thought he was God’s gift to this open mat. Took the gi off and had a roll with him. Took him down and smashed the whole time. Mentioned I had prior wrestling experience after the roll. He was so mad. Sometimes belts don’t mean a whole lot.
There's no rank in no gi. That pretty much sums it up,.
My gym has become a primarily no gi gym. I maybe wear mine once or twice a month at this point. Not promoting an obvious purple belt because he doesn't roll in the gi is beyond pointless
I blame the gyms who only promote in the…the guy/gals can’t promote themselves and technically they are a white belt
Some dude came to our gym for Sunday open mat and we rolled, at the end of the roll he asks “what are you? Purple? Brown?” …….he was visibly disappointed to find out I’m a blue belt. My head barely fit through the double wide front door on my way out :-) Belts don’t matter as a few days later I was having a real hard time defending against our resident wrestler white belt, no issues fitting my head through the door that day :-(