Belts in a Bag

Last night just about everybody at Jiu-Jitsu was present. I don't know if it was a fluke, or because our instructor Shawn was back from training in Los Angeles.

There must have been a dozen White Belts, and 14 Blue Belts.

It was a sparkling evening.

There were a pile of promotions, which is always nice. Two White Belts received stripes, and Wan received his long-sought-after Blue Belt. As cool as all that was, they were all normal promotions.

Then came the special ones.

People from the start of the Gracies' long-distance program have been a bit screwed over when it came to rank. Cosme, for example, received his Blue Belt back in August of 2011, has never taken any significant breaks in his training, and has been promoted as far as our instructor could according to the rules. That's four years of training since getting his belt, and in all that time he's only been rewarded with two rank stripes.

A new Blue Belt who were to train steady for four years now would probably get to Purple Belt. Last night this discrepancy was addressed in a symbolic way.

Richard and Scott were each awarded a stripe, bringing them up to 2 stripes and 4 stripes respectively. Cosme and Koko each received two, bringing his total up to 4 stripes, and hers to 3. They are still behind, but it was nice that some symbolic correction was made.

It's funny, you very often hear the words that “rank doesn't matter.” Interestingly, it is more usually a Black Belt saying it, and not a White.

It gets said, but the evidence is quite the opposite. Let me give three reasons.

Down at the Gracie Academy, there are nights when gi are not worn. People dress in shorts and rashguards. Without a gi, it would be logical to not wear a belt. The strict rule is that you wear your belt even when training no gi. The reason is that it is important for people to know your rank so they know how knowledgeable their partner is both in training and in rolling. Clearly rank matters in that instance.

My next piece of evidence is that if “rank doesn't matter,” and students desire it so much, why isn't it just given to them. Why not just hand belts out willy nilly? After all, it doesn't matter.

If “rank doesn't matter,” is true, it should be easy to test out. At some big, advanced-class session at HQ, let's ask everybody to decide if they really believe if rank matters or not. If they say yes, or can't decide, they are dismissed. All of the others put their belts into a big sack, and then everybody blindly picks one out. All of the ranks are entered into the computer as that person's new, official, real rank. You'd see Blues becoming Blacks, and Blacks becoming Blues, for real. I don't think you'd see many former Black Belts being happy at what had just transpired.

I contend rank matters, or there would be no system for it at all.

It is meant as motivation, reward, and visible gauge.

Right now Koko is working like a crazy person, trying to complete a rank exam before she heads back off to university. She is drilling hard before and after class, as well as in the corner during the White Belt sessions. I have unlocked the door for her several times so she can put in hour after hour of extra practice. Certainly her knowledge and skill are growing significantly, but it would not be happening if she were not pursuing that tiny little belt stripe.

The compensatory stripe promotions last night were given as reward for the many long years put in by some of my friends without any corresponding increase in rank. They put in the hard work, and it just felt wrong the way it was standing.

We wear coloured belts at all to provide a system of letting one another know our approximate skill level. There is, of course, some variation, but if I am about to roll with somebody wearing a Brown Belt, it will be a significantly different experience than if they are wearing a Blue one.

All in all, it was a fine evening.