Well here's the thing, I am under no black belt. I started in late 90s / early 2000's under Rick Young in Edinburgh, there were issues with a couple of the students there due to outside stuff. I moved to a non BJJ, more vale tudo gym and straight to MMA and sub wrestling. I popped a gi on to get my blue belt years later and returned to no gi and MMA. Aside from some seminar stuff I was never in a BJJ gym again. Since then I have coached sub wrestling and MMA. So I'm a bit lost.

That brings a lot more context to the situation. It’s kind of hard to establish how well you’re doing if you don’t have a mentor yourself. It’s kind of like the blind leading the blind at some point. But if the goal is to evaluate yourself against your students, that would be one metric. But honestly, since you’re not in a traditional, BJJ format, The only person you need to evaluate against yourself is you. I suppose as long as you’re learning improving and having fun, there’s no sense in comparing yourself with anyone else

Thanks for your insight. I really appreciate it 🙏 I'll stay on my path and see where it leads. I'm currently organizing a seminar with an amazing respected black belt for September and will have a club from further away joining us for it. I'm doing my best to establish organic relationships with people better than me, with a hope to have myself and my students improve further.

Good luck, if I can ever help from afar let me know I’d be happy to help

Wait until your friend becomes a black belt. Worked for me. :D

Host seminars and build relationships with black belts you trust. You can also seek affiliation with a black belt. We have affiliates in Europe and the US. We record our lessons on video and send them so they can study. We also created a curriculum for them to follow. They visit us once a year for exams and technique upgrades. I wish you the best.

Hi David, it is hard to evaluate someones progress just by seeing him one time. Truth is that you develop way faster having an instructor guiding you. Often technical details are key and without them you rather enforce the result. Jiu-Jitsu to me is finding the smart answer. To go from blue forward you should accumulate technical approaches and become confident using them. To not stall, find yourself a professor/coach you want to work with and try to see him regularly. Maybe it is even worth traveling somewhere to spend some time on-site. Let me know if you think I can be of any help. This is a community and we should always help out each other.

Hello matey, If you look up oldmanbjj on this platform (Matt Holland) hes a Bjj BB out of Elgin. You also have North coast Bjj which is a checkmat gym based in Inverness. Both must be closer than 5hours, you could ask/use them to oversee gradings and promotions. Just an idea.

We have our first seminar booked for September. I'm trying to organically develop relationships in the community.

If I make it out there, I’ll teach for free

I don't want you ruining your holiday just for us. I really appreciate it though 🙏

Find a black belt to go under and let that be his call. Attendance is graded differently if you’re that far away and teaching, also avoid the road of self promoting or just finding someone to give you a belt, do you want to own an upper belt or be an upper belt? Amazon sells belts all day long, but earning it from a seasoned instructor is the real accomplishment. Just the opinion of a casual purple belt.

I personally don't mind staying at blue, however I want to start teaching kids classes and be able to grade them as they need that kind of feedback. Also my current students are wanting to do gi classes on top of the no gi we already do, and it would be nice to be able to add stripes to their white belts eventually. Can't do that at blue. From what I've read it's 'common' in some places for purples to grade up to blue. Although not necessarily respected by all. As stated in a few of my replies I am working on relationships with black belts, but that would be a once or twice a year thing. I dunno really, when I was running clubs years ago it was all sub wrestling and MMA focused. But it's nice to throw the gi on, especially living in a cold climate 🤣

I’ll sponsor you for free if you fly me out once a year 😂😂. I’m totally non-profit right now.

Hahaha How much are flights 🤣 We're also non profit 😀

Hello David, as many already pointed out finding a building a relationship with an organization or black belt is probably the best way to proceed. In many cases that I k own of for people that has been living far away form gyms with black belts has just had the tracing and training session overviewed by video links that can be a oof option as well to have a person evaluate your progress. Running your own gym is a tough thing for anyone to do and one of the criteria’s many instructors evaluate for higher belts is how do you contribute to the academy and the over all grow of Jiu Jitsu. I would say teaching and running your own gym kind of qualifies as good in that aspect :). Let me know if I can be of any help further and good luck :)