Question: My instructor is a black belt who originally came up under Gracie Barra but no longer has any affiliation. He’s a legitimate black belt, but he doesn’t hold stripes beyond that. Given my situation, how would I eventually be able to earn my black belt? Do I need to be connected to an official affiliation for it to be recognized, or are there other legitimate pathways through Beltchecker or the wider BJJ community? I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

My instructor’s been a black belt for over 15 years.

Best thing to do is to tell him to make a profile on here, get verified as a 4th degree (for time served) and then have him promote you.

@Bobby, who will promote my instructor 1st degree and so on?

...they get degrees on their blackbelt for staying alive AND continuing to train...

If you want rank verified on here, or ibjjf for that matter, this part is optional: I've yet to see anyone downvoted because they're not actively training. In ibjjf you just have to keep your membership active and take the rules course, etc. (i.e. just pay $$$ and jump through some hoops).

That's why I say that's done on the honor system. There is no reasonable way for members here or the IBJJF to confirm that someone is still training. But if you really want your belt to mean something you aren't going to want a promotion from a 9th dan grand poobah red belt that hasn't trained since the Reagan administration, but continues to add stripes because of time served. While doing so may not result in downvotes from anyone other than he who shall not be named, you are far more likely to gain upvotes if you've maintained some sort of competition record or at least provide some training photos to show that you are actually active.

I doubt that my instructor will sign up with Beltchecker.com.

That's unfortunate, as I feel like it's the best/easiest (at very least, cheapest) solution to your issue.

My instructor isn’t exactly tech-savvy 😅 so I’ll need to make some time to help him get registered on Beltchecker. That said, there’s plenty of proof of his black belt. He appears in all my belt promotion photos, and I even managed to find an old photo from way back in his journey at his original Carlson Gracie club. I’ll be uploading as much photo evidence as possible. Most of the documentation from his brown to black belt journey overlaps with my own profile, since we trained together during that period. I also have photos from his black belt promotion, showing the four other black belts who were part of promoting him.

What a mission helping Johno (William John van der Veen) with his profile—especially with so little documentation and photo evidence available. Most of what we could use came from our club and his formal gradings under four other black belts. John has been training me for over 11 years, so it’s important to get this right. Now it’s just a matter of getting him verified, and then we’re good to go. Hopefully when the time comes, I’ll be able to receive my black belt under him as well.

I hear you—but I’m not really one for competitions. In my view, you compete to be the best, otherwise you’re just wasting time and money. I get tested every class by athletes half my age, with twice my fitness and strength, all trying to rip my head off. Technically, I’m also measured by high-level guys from all over the world who drop into Jeffreys Bay for a surf and end up visiting our club. My instructor and I are more than happy being hobbyists. Don’t get me wrong—I definitely train hard. Between surfing, windsurfing, kettlebells, sea rescue training, and everything else, we keep ourselves busy in a small coastal village. That said, some of our students do compete, and we’re still working on getting everyone registered on Beltchecker with proper proof of their achievements. Unfortunately, a belt—apart from putting a bigger target on your back—can also be used to take advantage of new students if the culture isn’t right and mainly It attracts new students.

Hi guys, please check out Johno (William John van der Veen)’s profile and help me get his belt verified. I know there isn’t a lot of formal proof, but he has been training me for over 11 years and is still very active on the mats.

You posted a picture in another thread of him getting his black belt tied on. Difficult to see faces, but still better than what's on his profile now, if you want to help him out and add it. Voting with unbroken lineage as one of my criteria (basically using IBJJF equivalent criteria, minus cash- and loyalty grabs), I would advice you to do what you can to track down the full lineage (all the way back to Maeda). There are a lot of old threads on that, if you want to go looking. I have sent out a request for information to someone higher up in what I suspect is your lineage, so with a bit of luck, I might be able to help you out partially. But you should still be ready to do the heavy lifting yourselves. Once Johno's original BB legitimacy (including lineage and promotions to BB were done by a >2:nd degree BB) is established, I dare say that a time-served-promotion for stripes through Beltchecker is very widely recognized in the BJJ community.

Thank you, I really appreciate your willingness to help us. Over the past few years, my main focus has simply been building a club where I can consistently spend time on the mats. Otherwise, I wouldn’t really have a place to train in Jeffreys Bay.

Maybe I need to think about getting promoted, too. I've been 6 years purple belt after almost 15 years of training. Local black belts like to see rolling skills, but at age 68 and two hip replacement operations my focus is on teaching. It would be nice to get a black belt in Jiu Jitsu, but I might be a little late on this one. Lets say I am promoted soon to brown and it has always taken me 5 years to get to the next belt - I'd be 73 ish for black belt. It just does not look promising... but I like a challenge :-)

... I would guess you have less physical limitations, even with your hip replacement operations, so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to reach black belt.