Interested in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
We have a comprehensive 8 week introductory program available, and separate classes called “BJJ Fundamentals” that are catered specifically for beginners. We also have separate classes for more advanced students. With access to an unprecedented 26 classes per week, Revolution BJJ has something to offer even the most eccentric schedule.
Interested in Muay Thai Kickboxing?
Our introductory 8 week program for kickboxing will give you all of the tools to join in with the experienced students. Contact us here to find out more!
Kids Program! We have a new and exciting kids MMA program where children 4 and up can learn effective self-defense in a fun and successful class!
First visit to the gym: what to expect
May’s theme at Revolution BJJ is a specialty of the house: the Kimura! The Kimura is not only a submission, but also a position in and of itself. Use this powerful grip to advance your position and ultimately to finish the fight.
Our 8 week intro programs are in full swing. There are still a handful of spots for the Muay Thai intro. BJJ is sold out!
How long will I spend at each belt level?
This is a question that is impossible to answer accurately. Expectations and requirements are going to vary widely from instructor to instructor. Some gyms require a certain number of classes before each belt; others require the student to win or medal at a tournament before progressing to the next level. However, there are some common sense rules and averages based on what most high level instructors expect from their students before they can expect to be promoted.
This article will cover my personal expectations as an instructor, along with some specific examples of promotions I’ve given out over the years.
White to blue belt:
The bottom line: you can expect about 2 years of consistent training (3 days a week or more) from white to blue belt.
Exceptions: I’ve given out one blue belt in under a year, to a student who won a 60-man white belt bracket (IBJJF Pan Ams) with five submissions, along with dozens of other local tournaments. Another student did well at competitions locally, winning a few events in our region, all the while training between six and nine times a week.
The other end of the spectrum is the student who is less athletically talented, who trains sporadically, or both. This person can take much longer than the average 2 years. Some students will take even as long as five years to reach the blue belt, but what’s important is that the standards are met for every individual, man or woman, old or young. There’s no such thing at our gym as a “girl belt” or a “pity belt.” Either you have earned the belt or you haven’t.
Blue to purple belt:
Blue belt in BJJ sees the highest discrepancy of skill in competitions. You will see the brand new blue belt who is promoted because of the number of classes he attended (not at our gym, mind you), and then you’ll see the guy with a frazzled blue belt that has turned gray due to age, with four withered tape fragments clinging on due to decomposition of the atoms, not from any kind of adhesive that remains.
The bottom line:
Expect to spend a minimum of two years at blue belt, even if you are athletically talented and very dedicated. Purple belt is considered at many gyms to be an advanced belt rank, one to be highly respected by new students, but revered by more experienced blue belts. Purple belt generally means that you are capable of teaching in some capacity, even if it’s only to help out other individuals in the classroom.
Exceptions:
It is possible to go from blue to purple belt in less than two years, but I have only personally done this a small handful of times over the years. Our most accomplished student at blue belt tore everyone up at local competitions from the moment he was promoted to blue belt, but it still took him nearly 2 years to make it to purple. Why? The standards demanded of purple belts at our gym include a comprehension that transcends a mere blue belt’s conceptual understanding. The purple belt will figure out positions on his own without guidance, although he still needs correction and advice from time to time.
Even the exceptional athlete with an excellent understanding of BJJ is likely to spend at least 2 years at blue belt.
My own personal training anecdote:
I was a very competitive blue belt by the time I got my purple belt. I ended up getting silver at the Pan Ams in a pretty stacked blue belt lightweight division in 2003, losing to Mike Fowler in the finals. I won virtually every tournament at blue belt that I entered locally, with very few exceptions. And yet, whenever I rolled with a brown belt, I felt like a first day white belt. Why? Because there was an entire belt separating us, purple belt. That is why the journey from blue to purple is an arduous one, and should remain so. Preserving the standards that have been around since I was coming up, and, indeed, even demanding higher standards for each belt due to so many more people training and information spreading so much more quickly is a crucial key that separates BJJ from traditional martial arts, and should remain so. If I have anything to say about it, it will stay that way forever.
I’ve been doing jiu jitsu for about fifteen years now. Looking back over the years, there are five distinct revelations I’ve been through with my open guard. Each realization/revolution made my guard twice as difficult to pass.
1- Getting stacked. I realized that I could balance on my neck and shoulders, and that my guard wasn’t passed just because I was stacked. Virtually all of my blue belt students are better at this than I was when I first got my blue belt, which is more a sign of the times than anything else. 20 years ago, “guard” really meant “closed guard” to most BJJ practitioners and instructors. 15 years ago, “open guard” was in the first stages of coming into its own. For me, this realization came the earliest in my open guard evolution, somewhere between white and blue belt.
2. Getting underneath. In 2003, I watched Marcelo Garcia dominate ADCC with a new type of guard people started calling “X-guard.” About a year before that, I had been introduced to a less advanced version of X-guard by Eric Burdo, but seeing it in competition at the highest level made it much clearer to me. At about the same time, I was obsessed with leglocks, so I was looking at ankle lock and heel hook transitions from the bottom. Eventually, the two positions were revealed as branches of the same underlying concept: just because someone steps over my legs doesn’t mean they had passed my guard.
3. Spinning back to guard. I first noticed Rickson Gracie recovering his guard this way nearly 15 years ago and immediately saw the value in this, but didn’t see how to integrate it into my own game until years later. If your opponent is trying to throw your legs to your right to pass, instead of shrimping towards him, you continue the motion and circle your legs around to recover guard. This essentially doubles your guard recovery ability because you literally have two ways to go in order to get your guard back.
4. Lazy man hands. Remember that you have four limbs and your opponent essentially only has two when you are playing open guard. Not only can you use your hands as frames to escape a bad position; you can use your outstretched arms as guard maintenance tools, becoming every bit as important as your legs with your open guard, creating space and helping you make angles. This is one of the most frustrating things for the guard passer to deal with. Just because someone gets around your legs doesn’t mean your guard is passed. Your hands and arms are as much a part of your guard as your legs.
5. Inversion/upside down guard. This goes back to the beginnings of my open guard- being stacked and realizing my guard isn’t passed. Imagine you can do a 180 degree split with your legs. This means your guard has 180 degrees. If you simply follow your opponent when he goes around your legs and go upside down, you have an extra 180 degrees, totaling 360. No matter where your opponent goes, you will still have him inside your guard. Watch Michael Langhi if you’re curious as to what this idealized type of open guard might look like.
Be realistic about your expectations! You probably won’t be able to integrate all five of these at once, but pick one that makes the most sense for you to develop immediately. You will see your guard become tougher almost right away.
Instructors will often tell their students to roll “technically.” What does this really mean? It is rarely articulated.
At its core, jiu jitsu is all about leverage. A tiny person can defeat a much larger opponent in spite of an incredible strength discrepancy through the use of simple Newtonian physics, concepts all schoolchildren learn at an early age. Simple enough, right?
However, where things become a little tricky is in the implementation of leverage. How do you actually become proficient at applying leverage in situations you might otherwise find incredibly stressful?
When you are doing “live rolling” (sometimes called randori or newaza, depending on your background), the objective when trying to execute a technique should always be to use virtually no strength when attempting to apply the technique. If you are using a significant amount of strength in order to achieve your position or submission, you are never going to be certain that you are using proper technique. Further, when your strength is matched or exceeded by an opponent when it really matters- in a self defense or competition setting- you may completely fail if you’re relying on being stronger than your opponent.
On the other hand, if you start attempting to execute a technique with virtually no strength applied, and it works, try it again with a similar level of effort applied to the movement against a different partner, or simply ask your current partner to give you some resistance as you apply the same technique again. If you can still get the move, odds are that you are using proper technique.
This strategy may make for an uphill battle in the short term, but in the long term, you will not only have a deeper understanding of grappling, you’ll also have a lot more training partners who appreciate your style!
Revolution BJJ offers an 8 week intro program for Muay Thai Kickboxing that meets on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6:30 PM. Classes are one hour apiece, and the same essential lesson from Monday is repeated on Wednesday.
This program is designed to take you up to a functional level of understanding of all of the basic movements of Muay Thai kickboxing. The entire course is only $49, you don’t need any equipment to take the class, and although you are certainly welcome to join the gym at the completion, you are not obligated in any way.
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