As a big man this thread has made me feel attacked lol. Belt minimums are fine. Obviously there will be that one in a million person who has an accelerated trajectory and has the skills to back up an early promotion, but for the vast majority I don’t think that’s the case. In 2021 ibjjf isn’t the only game in town anyway. No need to worry about their minimums if you never compete in their tournaments.

That a Purple belt heavyweight is basically a blue belt lightweight in skill on average and this is kind of a problem.

Yeah tbh that’s a bit insulting…

I am not that great...my point was more that heavyweights and lightweights are normally drastically different in technical level. That a Purple belt heavyweight is basically a blue belt lightweight in skill on average and this is kind of a problem. More that if they are going to enforce all these rules I wish that instructors wouldn't promote heavyweights so fast just because they crush smaller guys in practice. I do well against purple belt heavyweights my age normally but it doesn't feel like oh I am beating good purple belts. It feels more like other academies are just promoting people to fast and a lot of the purple belts should still be blue belts. And a lot of the blue belts should still be white belts. That is more of my complaint. I don't feel that I am special or that great I feel like I should be an average blue belt...I just feel like other places are promoting people to fast and it waters down everything else. The holding back of students is more rare than people getting promoted to soon. And when everyone is getting promoted to soon it then just magnifies any gaps/sandbagging when they do occur. It makes it less fun everyone from the no lifers to the casuals. In general I wish it would take the heavyweights longer to get promoted to blue belt so that the competition level would be closer in skill gap at the larger weight classes. Smaller weight classes are normally very competitive no matter what. Heavyweight divisions can just be very boring. I have a lot more fun in the absolute divisions because normally the 170 to 190 pound guys are much more of a challenge then then 200+ pound guys. If you haven't had the experience of mostly always competing against guys over 200 pounds you may not understand my frustration at least at the lower belts. I am sure at brown/black it isn't an issue. But their are places that do promote to black belt to fast as well just based on time spent and they feel like purple belts not black belts. I much prefer when people have to pay the iron price and not just show up for 10 years and get their decade achievement award. I personally think that anyone should be able to earn their blue belt but purple belts should be damn hard to earn and not everyone should be able to earn a black belt just because the clock ticks away or they help teach. Just going to be Karate/TKD in a few more years. I go to tournaments excited to get to face purple belts hoping to have challenging matches or get my ass kicked so I can learn something new and way to often the purple belts just feel like mediocre blue belts. This is not fun. I look forward to the losses and hard earned wins. I can't stand the easy wins. It doesn't feel like you achieved anything and just wasted your time.

Have you actually read what you wrote? Different body types have different capabilities. It doesn’t make them “less technical”. It means they may explore different avenues , use their body weight differently, defend differently etc etc to suit their body type and weight. Add in to that age brackets, they clearly won’t have the same flexibility ! Does that make them less technical? Absolutely not . And this is the whole issue with “what should a belt colour mean?” . Do you know what your opponents or training partners were like the day they started BJJ? How have they progressed since they started ? Not everyone steps in to BJJ following a good relevant background like wrestling, judo, sambo, MMA, catch etc, so many a time the thought some people may never have competed in any sport in their entire life ! So it’s safe to say you may find people who have “done a bit” before their BJJ journey may very well struggle to find solid opponents for a few belt colours. But seriously dude, have a word with yourself.

Mute button. See how useful that would be?

Absolutely !