In a move that has raised concerns within some traditional Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu circles, BJJ Globetrotters announced today that its members can now award themselves blue belts.
Christian Graugart, the leader of the affiliation that is currently recognized as the world’s largest, said, “Let’s be honest, the standards for getting promoted in Jiu-Jitsu are pretty watered down at this point anyway. So, we’re letting people decide for themselves when they’re ready for the next belt”.
The new rules for self-promotion were posted on the BJJ Globetrotters website today. They include things like doing well in sparring, going to classes (even watching “Globetrotters in action” YouTube ones count), and keeping up with camp announcements by subscribing to their newsletter.
BJJ Globetrotters aims for these new and more flexible blue belt promotion rules to gain traction across the broader BJJ community, emphasizing increased efficiency and “considerable workload reduction for the professors of our ever-growing sport”.
However, it’s not clear how coaches at different clubs will feel about students promoting themselves instead of waiting for their formal instructor to do it. This could cause some tension in clubs around the world as many white belts can now legitimately challenge the judgment of their black belt instructors, as long as they’re members of the self-proclaimed “World-Wide Community of Jiu Jitsu travelers”.
“Why wait for your coach to give you a belt if you know within yourself that you’re ready for it?” Christian asked.
We spoke with Timo Pießpanen, a BJJ Globetrotters member from Witzwald, Germany who gave himself a blue belt as soon as the new rules came out.
“I’ve been training for well over six months, and my coach only gave me one stripe. But after watching some online white belt matches, I just knew I was better than that,” he said. “Plus, at a camp last year, I totally dominated a big black belt guy from Estonia. I managed to be on top the entire time!”
The announcement only talks about self-promotions up to blue belt. But it also states that if you go to a BJJ Globetrotters training camp, you’ll now automatically get a stripe, which will help you move up to higher belts like purple, brown, and black.
“We will see how this goes for blue belts first. But we’re keeping the door open for potentially allowing our members to self-promote all the way up to brown or black belt in the future,” Christian said.
“I wouldn’t mind being the first in Jiu Jitsu history to promote myself to a coral belt one day,” he added.
The new rules allegedly take effect starting today, April 1st.