Boyd Belts

The Gracies have just released a new video that makes official a bunch of things I've known about Jiu-jitsu for a long time. Mostly it's about motivation and getting old but other things are included as well. Size for one thing.

It seems they have a system of comparing people of different sizes and ages that they call Boyd belts. They are named after a student of theirs who eventually earned a Black Belt. He started his training later in life than most people.

It goes like this. Every 20 pounds of size or 10 years of age is roughly the same as a belt colour in free rolling.

Let's say a 40 year old Purple Belt is rolling with a guy who is ten years younger, wears a Blue Belt, and is 20 pounds bigger. He shouldn't freak out if he can't beat that Blue Belt. In Boyd belts he is a Purple Belt due to youth, and a Brown due to his size. Of course, this varies greatly, but it is something to consider.

They clearly only care about age differences between adults. It is my own thought that the age modification should ignore ages below 30. What I mean is that any adult under 30 be thought of as that age for Boyd purposes, but that's just me.

Let's look at some real-world examples; perhaps a dramatic one.

Ryan and Elizabeth roll. They are both Blue Belts. He's a bit more than ten years older, so she should count as one Boyd Belt higher, and win most of the time. He, however, is maybe a hundred pounds bigger, which is five Boyd Belts. This gives him an advantage of four levels, so it's about the same as if she were fighting some level of Black Belt. Should she expect to score 50% of the time. Not likely.

Or have her fight me. I only gain three Boyd Belts on her for size, while she gets three or four back for age. Hmmmm. Doesn't quite match how it works out if we go full on.

What these concepts do is to try and level the expectation playing field. Maybe the two mixed together doesn't work perfectly, but it does show something.

When I roll with Ryan, I give up a couple of Boyd size belts, and about three Boyd age belts. By either measure should I expect to score all that much? Nope, and this has been exactly my experience. Against him, I defend, and only strike when an opening arises, which rarely works. If we roll for five minutes and nobody scores, I'm very happy with. The Gracies say I should be.

I like the Boyd Belt idea.