1/19: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A BLACK BELT?

Earlier in the week I already decided on this topic, then had to chuckle as a friend of mine, David Fox from Metro BJJ, showed a podcast he did this week on this exact subject.  While it's not exactly a unique topic, it is good to discuss occassionally.  I think there is a little bit too much of a mistique surrounding BJJ black belts, primarily because of how long it normally takes to earn one compared to other martial arts.  So I would like to share my thoughts on it, which are pretty similar to Dave's.

I would like to start off by saying what a black belt is NOT.  Black belts are not guru's on every subject under the sun.  If a blackbelt is trying to give you financial advice and they are barely breaking even on their own finances, you probably shouldn't listen to that advice.  Black belts are not indestructible human beings.  We break just like everyone else when an arm bar is applied correctly.  Blackbelts are not all good people.   There are unfortunately plenty of blackbelts that don't embrace the honor and respect of martial arts.   Black belts are not the greatest competitors  or possibly even the best competitor in their own gym.

So, what is a black belt?  The heart of it, to me, is simply that a black belt is a person that has devoted much of their life to studying a martial art to the point they : 1) Understand the concepts of the art,  2)  Can execute techniques with a high degree of efficiency  and effectiveness against most resisting opponents, and 3) Are able to convey those lessons to new students and develop them into black belts as well.   When we look at any endeavor, be it physical or mental, I believe those 3 traits define what it means to become an expert.  If you are learning chess, you need to understand the concepts, execute the techniques, and be able to explain it to people to be an expert.  In either case, it doesn't mean you will never lose in competition to someone less experienced, but most of the time you will beat people with less experience.

With Jiu-Jitsu, in particular, there is a higher level of expectation as a black belt, I feel.  However, a very high quality wrestler who has been training for 10 years is going to have significantly high grappling ability as well.  Often times there is a mystique that a black belt should always beat a wrestler, which is not the case.  I really think the expectation is largely set by the fact that in wrestling, there are no belts.  You just train, you get better, and you let your performance on the mat be the judge.

Ask yourself this: What if there were no belt systems in Jiu-Jitsu?  Now, instead of looking at people and making an assumption of their ability based on their belt, it would only be based on their performance on the mat.  Maybe you have a guy who trained 3 years and is better than a guy who has trained 20.  Maybe the guy with 3 years experience is formally at a blue belt level and the guy with 20 years is formally a black belt level.  With belts, if the blue belt beats the black belt, it seems like a crazy upset.  But without belts, it simply becomes a fact that the guy with 3 years experience is just superlatively good.   Belts are simply a way to track your own progress, while understanding that our own physical assets or limitations are going to greatly impact how we compare to other people we train with.