Roads

What is the absolute best thing about being a student at the Gracie Academy in Los Angeles?

Just forget about the great instructors, full training schedule, first-rate facility, and even the training itself. The absolute best thing is that there are no promotion exams at all.

All the little levels have the same requirements that we have out here. A student must train for 8 months and have attended 100 appropriate classes to be considered for a belt stripe promotion. The one difference is that at Certified Training Centres like our school, those are rock-solid minimums. Down in LA they are not carved-in-stone. If the Gracies want to give somebody a belt stripe early.... well... they are the Gracies.

Two years ago while training in LA, I overheard a student congratulating another on a stripe promotion. The other student thanked him, and said he had been surprised as the promotion had come early.

I have been to LA twice, and on the second visit there were a few people wearing higher rank than strict adherence to the rules would have made possible. Far from the centre, it is 8 months and 100 classes or nothing.

This is how it should be.

Down there, when one is ready for the next Belt, it is awarded. It doesn't seem to matter how many stripes a student has on their current belt, if they are ready for the next belt it is given. No test needed, as they know all of their students very well. The one restriction on this is that they only hold two belt promotion ceremonies per year; one in June and the other at Christmas.

For Certified Training Centre students belt promotions are very, very different. To be considered, students must have the maximum number (4) of stripes on their current belt. They must also record their months of training and class attendance since receiving their 4^th stripe. No guideline is given as to how many months or classes this should be.

They must then arrange to do an in-person evaluation with the Gracies, or one of their authorized Black Belts. This can either be done at a seminar somewhere, or it might require a visit to Los Angeles.

Once under the microscope, they are subjected to a test of their general Jiu-Jitsu knowledge, and to extensive sparring. I suspect the process would be quite intensive, not to mention long. At the end, the student is either promoted to the next belt, or not.

Let's use me as an example. I have a Blue Belt with 3 stripes. If I were an LA student, and if the Gracies felt I was already good enough to be a Purple Belt I would have been awarded one this month (June) (fat chance).

If not, I should receive my next-and-final Blue Belt stripe in October (same here and in LA).

If I were a Los Angeles student, and good enough, I would then receive a Purple Belt at Christmas. If not ready, it would likely be awarded the next June. In all of that, no decision or action would be required from me. I would just concentrate on my training until the rank came.

As a distant student, I have to decide when my Purple Evaluation should be done. How long should it be after receiving my 4th stripe? How many classes should have been attended? Should I wait for a seminar near home, or go to LA? Failure would necessitate another, later evaluation.

This entire process would be bad enough if each student only had to do it once in a career. A long-time distance student will go through this process this three times; once for each of Purple, Brown and Black Belts.

For a distance student, if we assume 6 months to go from beginner to Blue Belt (very, very fast), and assume they are successfully promoted for each belt 6 months after receiving their last, previous Belt's stripe the total time to reach Black Belt is very daunting. The total comes to 12.5 years, and this should be considered an absolute minimum, and would include 3 difficult and stressful evaluations.

The shortest-ever time for anyone to go from beginner to Black Belt at the Los Angeles school is 7 years, and no exams were required at all.

I hate tests.