Sense and Not

The following is a tally of all the verified ranks listed on the Gracie University web site, from Blue Belt Stripe One clear up to the highest rank of Tenth Degree Black Belt. The ones at the top are the lowest ranks, and the ones at the bottom are the highest.

208 Blue Belt One Stripe

73 Blue Belt Two Stripes

28 Blue Belt Three Stripes

8 Blue Belt Four Stripes

93 Purple Belt no stripe

17 Purple Belt One Stripe

3 Purple Belt Two Stripes

3 Purple Belt Three Stripes

1 Purple Belt Four Stripes

45 Brown Belt no stripe

7 Brown Belt One Stripe

5 Brown Belt Two Stripes

2 Brown Belt Three Stripes

1 Brown Belt Four Stripes

50 Black Belt no stripe

5 Black Belt One Stripe

3 Black Belt Two Stripes

3 Black Belt Three Stripes

2 Black Belt Four Stripes

2 Black Belt Five Stripes

1 Black Belt Six Stripes

2 Black Belt Seven Stripes

2 Black Belt Eight Stripes

3 Black Belt Nine Stripes

2 Black Belt Ten Stripes

There are a number of anomalies within this listing. The first would be any errors I made in counting them off of the online listing. A second would be that it is possible that the listings include a mix of both active and inactive members, with no way for a casual observer to know which is which.

There was also at least one Black Belt whose rank was listed as “Technical,” which is supposed to be a designation only for Blue Belts whose rank was achieved by online testing, and not for any higher ranks.

In addition, there are at least a few deceased persons on the list. The most notable are the only 2 Tenth-Degree Black Belts recognized by the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu organization, Helio and Carlos Gracie, the co-founders of the art.

So what does it all mean? Darned if I know, but there are a few interesting patterns.

Within every Belt color there are less registered as the rank within the Belt goes up. For example; there are 45 Brown Belts with no stripes, 7 with one stripe, 5 with two, 2 with three, and 1 with four stripes. This is what one would expect.

From Belt to Belt, there is also a clear progression. There are 317 Blue Belts (even with no-stripes not tabulated due to my laziness), 114 Purple Belts, 60 Brown Belts, 50 no-stripe Black Belts, and 25 above that. I consider it fair to divide Black Belts into the groups of lowest, and all above that. Every other level has a student resident at that level for about 5 years, while Black Belt ranks are much more long lived.

Taken as a continuum, it is a very weird pile of data. There are more than 11 times as many zero-stripe Purple Belts as there are four-stripe Blue Belts just below them. There are also 2 times as many zero-stripe Brown Belts as there are four-stripe Purple Belts under them and 50 times as many new Black Belts as four-stripe Brown Belts. What's up with that? Taking this phenomenon as a whole, and add all the zero-stripe Belts together and all the four-stripes together, we find there are 188 people sitting one rank ABOVE 10 others just below. This is very strange, and only happens at the transition between four stripes and the full-color-belt promotion just beyond that.

Anyhow, these are the figures. Make of them what you will.