I cannot speak toward my current gym as my coach has not shared how he promotes or his over-all criteria is. From my observation, it is a mixture of all that.

When I was with checkmat, it was more matter of who gave him money for the next promotion. He seem to sandbagged his best competitors to bring in more medals.

When I was GH it seemed to be a more of time in grade than anything else, at least from my observation. Of course, my current coach was there longer than I and could probably shed more light on that.

Both my cousins received their black belts without ever competing (maybe one had a medal or two in their whole bjj career).

When I was at another school, the only way to get stripped or promoted was based on your competition record. He felt that this kept the legitimacy of the art intact.


Basically, from California to Texas, the requirements varied greatly from my experience. It seem to be either one of the three or a combination of it. It was never uniformed and/or completely arbitrary to the instructors discretionary policy.

It's a combination, plus my instructor rolls with everyone so he know where everyone is in their progression. Gotta be on the mat to drill, and you need to test yourself outside the gym, easiest way to do that is to compete. That way you can gage what you need to work on. I had to compete at all color belts.

Good topic, Andrew. In our organization, time in grade is only relevant for black belt degrees. For all colored belts and first degree black belt, promotion is based on performance. We have tests for every rank that include sparring in all ranges (both gi and no-gi, with and without strikes). Decorated competitors might be eligible to test sooner than non-competitors, but the main criterion for promotion is one’s ability to perform in sparring against a skilled, resisting opponent. Regular attendance is a necessary condition—but not a sufficient condition—for the development of skill.

Maybe something like a combination? I try to encourage my students to compete, at least once, at every belt level.

However, you could get to black belt and never have competed at all.

I don't do testing, as I work with my students on a regular basis, so I know what they know, or don't know.

Time in grade is important, but not the only factor: I can't have a blue belt who is regularly murdering all the upper belts (for example) regardless of how much time s/he has put in.

But otherwise, I think it's important for my students to get the full experience at each belt level, so I will only rarely promote faster than 2 years. There's pretty much never a rush.

In my Academy the way I grade is judged on a few things..

1. Knowledge
2. Being able to apply it under stress in a comp or in the Academy
3. Attendance
4. Being humble

These are some of my highlights I would say that have to be reached before moving forward.

If let’s say a student only shows 1 time a month that student isn’t going to move up as fast as a student coming 3 times a week.

I do see competition win or lose can have an influence on if you move on or not.

Being knowledgeable is a big key factor I personally don’t advance my students until they can show that they understand the moves first but also know how to apply them as well.

TEST VS TIME IN GRADE VS COMPETITION

None of them. IMPROVEMENT is the key and none of the above mean improvement.

- Everyone has their own journey.

- Your ability to teach others and bring others up to your level is the most important factor.

- Even if someone says they will never compete they should be able to hang with someone their age, size and rank in a tournament. How I would compare this would be not against someone who competes every month. But also not against someone who never competes. They should be able to hang with someone who competes a couple times a year casually but not seriously. They may not win but they should not get destroyed. They should have some chance to win and be competitive. People say all the time they will never compete and then they do.

- Getting promoted to fast will destroy their ability to enjoy competition. To slow can hinder someone's opportunities and challenges.

- Actual competitors normally get held back longer than hobbyists. Just the way it is. Coaches often times think they are doing their students a favor in letting them have time in the "sun" once they start doing well at a certain belt before promoting them.

- Time passing and attendance really should only be a factor if someone has not showed up to class much or is a new student at the academy and the instructor is trying to get to know them.

- The final factors being whatever character issue someone may have and whatever other scenario that they want the student to improve at. A coach may pick one area that he wants to see each individual student improve on before promotion. Could be anything.

Lots of great answers here.

We are a mixture of everything you said. We don’t really give a “test.” We make sure they are competent and have the knowledge.

My coach's stated list of criteria are:

Attitude
Attendance
Demonstration of Skill
Knowledge

Where/how you exemplify those things is less important, but if you feel your skills and knowledge are being underrated then competition is a good way to prove it.

Our specific criteria are…

(1) Fighting Ability: At each belt level, one is expected to be able to hang with people of comparable attributes and experience level. For example, to earn a blue belt, a four-stripe white belt should be able to make the blue belts in (or near) their weight class work hard to impose their will.

(2) Technical Knowledge: At each belt level, there are a certain number of techniques that one is required to know at a certain level of detail. This is more important for advanced ranks, since it also includes the ability to teach these techniques to a person of lower rank.

(3) Character: At every belt level, one should show good moral character. One should be a safe training partner who is helpful to everyone in the school (especially the new people). One should also represent the academy well outside of class.