In the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu community, there is a traditional practice for deciding belt promotions that has lingered despite being severely outdated. The practice creates a number of issues that can cause rifts between students and even cause an instructor to lose the respect of his academy. That practice is belt testing.

Bruce Lee, considered by many to be the father of mixed martial arts, stated, “Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” One of the things that Bruce Lee discarded early on was the use of the kata. If you are unfamiliar with what a kata is, it is the memorization of a specific set of techniques, demonstrated in a specific order, usually for a rank promotion.

Sound familiar? It ought to if you attend a school that requires its students to test for their belts. I believe this system of katas for belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is damaging to its practitioners and the community as a whole. Allow me to explain.

This system has often led to the promotion of the unskilled. While a certain online school has taken a fair amount of heat for the way they promote their students, the fact of the matter is, they really aren’t that far off from any other school that requires belt testing in the fact that they are promoting those who are not truly skilled enough to receive their new rank.

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An effect that this has within a school is that it creates an inconsistency of skill among the ranks. I have attended a number of schools that use this method of promotion and never can tell what sort of grappler I will be rolling with based off of the color of their belt. I’ve rolled with purple belts who would put black belts to shame, and I have rolled with purple belts who ought to be embarrassed to enter a competition division higher than a white belt. A rank test gives the unskilled a chance to surpass (in rank) the more skilled.

Often, this form of promotion is coupled with the amount of time a person has spent coming to practice. I believe this to only further the problem. To give stripes to, or to invite a person out for a belt test who has not made much improvement over someone who stomps all over them in live rolling is a huge mistake. It fosters feelings of resentment and bitterness among those skilled individuals who are being overlooked based simply on the amount of free time they are able to put into grappling. Besides, I can’t imagine a world in which Caio Terra was told he needed to wait on his belt test because he hadn’t been in Jiu-Jitsu for long enough.

So what is the best way to promote an individual? The most effective method I have ever come across is based off of four indicators: competition, skill rolling with peers, technical knowledge, and in a distant fourth, time spent in class. Competition comes first in my mind, no matter what. It is by far the most important aspect of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu today. I will take a moment to discuss the competition criteria; the others, I feel, are self-explanatory.

Competition helps every practitioner reach their ultimate goal in Jiu-Jitsu no matter what it happens to be. What if a person took up BJJ to get into shape? Competition is an amazing motivator. What if they want to learn self-defense? A competition allows a person feel what it is like to have someone come at them full force to try to hurt them, and forces them to defend themselves. What if a person took up Jiu-Jitsu just to get out of the house and socialize? Some of my most fun experiences with my teammates have come from attending competitions together.

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A competition allows an instructor to see where their student truly lies in applying their knowledge. I understand that there are exceptions to this idea of having all students compete. Some may be physically, mentally, or financially unable to do so. I get that. Really, I do. I would never hold someone back from a promotion if they were simply unable to compete for one of those reasons. However, if they avoided competition for nearly any other reason, I would withhold promotion from them. There are too many positive benefits to be gained from competition that a grappler can gain no other way. A grappler who has never competed is still an incomplete grappler, regardless of their rank.

What say you, grappling community? Is there a better way to promote students? Or am I wrong about belt testing? I want to hear what you think.