How I stripe white belts in Brazilian Jiujitsu

As a Brazilian Jiujitsu instructor, ranking your students can be difficult. Some academies have strict guidelines, but in the lineage I started, it was done by the instructor when it felt right. This can be very confusing for the student as they don’t know what they’re in for. In the confusing world of BJJ, you sometimes feel that you’re doing great, and the next you’re getting mercilessly crushed. Yet the entire time your teammates keep telling you that you’re getting better. Getting a stripe then feels great because it makes the recognition of your instructor of your progress real. We all get lost on our Jiujitsu journey, and getting a stripe is like seeing a milestone or a road marker that tells you that you’re still on the right path. As an instructor who has been teaching mostly whitebelts for the past couple of years, these are some of the milestones that I love to see in my students.

Remember that each of these is subjective, and might vary from person to person. Also this is a list of the things that I think are important and want to encourage. It generally takes four stripes to go to the next belt and for me, the jump in belt is different again. But each of these things is a huge milestone in a student’s advancement and understanding of Jiujitsu. To me, these are worth stripes and not everyone needs to acquire each of these merit badges before they move on.

Attending their first tournament

This is a pretty eye opening experience usually. Suddenly you have to use your Jiujitsu with something on the line. Some people you care about watching and caring about the outcome. It matters. And you don’t know the other person or what they know or how good they are. In the gym, you know your friends. You know they won’t hurt you if they tap you. But out here? This is the wild west! Obviously you quickly find out that everyone at the tournament is generally nice and suffers from the same fears. Stepping up is brave. Facing yourself like that is usually a huge change in people’s ability and learning to face our fears is why we (initially) come to train.

It doesn’t always have to be a tournament. Some people don’t have the time, or it isn’t their thing or whatever. Find them an outside opponent to face, so they can overcome their fears. Visiting another gym’s open mat for example could qualify for this.

Addendum: First place!

If you medal for the first time, especially first place, with a number of submissions, that is demonstrating to everyone that you’re one of the topmost whitebelts. That’s going out and showing everyone you’re the best. And of course they have the most stripes. If you place first, or medal in a big bracket where you have like 6 matches or something, the first time, that’s showing me you are getting ready for your promotion. Can this be the occasion for someone to get two stripes at once if they demolish ten opponents on their first tournament? You betcha. That’s awesome for them, and for you. Apparently, you teach them well.

Overcoming the White Belt Spaz

Some of the stripes you earn are optional, but this one isn’t. Everyone has heard of the spazzy white belt who injures others. In my opinion, you can’t be a blue belt and be ‘that guy’, so everyone has to acquire this stripe, regardless in my opinion.

This requires that the student leaves a certain mentality behind. The fear based mentality that a lot of students come in with. You need to overcome the shock of grappling and realize that you are not fighting for your life. Once that happens, you can settle down and start applying your intelligence to the grappling and actually start doing some real moves.

Everyone comes into this with a different level of spazziness. Wrestlers might not have any, because they already understand the sport aspect of being ground into the mat flat as a pancake. People with a large ego or insecurity usually have a lot. This takes time for everyone to overcome, but once you do, you’ll slow down (yes this is what your partner is telling you) and start using real techniques instead of strength. Yes, this is the kind of strength people are talking about. Once you overcome your own white belt spaz, you will stop using the wrong kind of strength, the kind that exhausts you 30 seconds into a roll because you’re fighting for your life.

Some people don’t have the white belt spaz ever. That’s great and they don’t need this stripe, obviously. I’m usually not worried about striping them up, because those people are already learning quickly and will give you plenty of opportunity to stripe the up through them getting steadily better.

Other students brag about them

When a student comes up to me and tells me how difficult someone’s guard is getting, or people consistently ask me how to prevent someone’s armbars etc, I pay attention. I’ll start looking at them better. And when I hear from multiple sources how good they are getting, through casual conversation etcetera, then I know. The others can all tell they’re getting better. That’s a great sign, generally reinforcing my own gut instincts. That can be stripe worthy.

Consistency

Consistency is key I often tell my students and it always shows. When someone is consistent and comes to class like clockwork, whether it is the one day a week they can make it or four days a week, if they come to class consistently, never slack, work hard and grind it out, they can tell the improvement in their skill. And so can everyone else. Consistency breeds endurance, strength of will, familiarity with technique, awareness of timing and the ebb and flow of the fight, etc. Jiujitsu will give you difficult times where nothing works, and happy times where you feel like a wizard or jedi or ninja. The ebb and flow of these is important to train through. It is important to realize that even when things fail you cannot quit on yourself and you have to keep training, and that is something you have to discover for yourself.

When I notice a student coming to class, week after week, like clockwork for a few months I realize that they are jiujitsu students and I can tell. Everyone can put on the white belt, but coming in consistently is what breeds the character of a jiujiteiro.

They caught the bug

They’re in the gym daily. They’ve bought another Gi. They’re not just sending you all the meme’s, but also instructional videos with questions. They’ve bought into the cult and they’re drinking the kool-aid. Sorry, but this is great. Once they have the bug, they are a sponge. The important part here is that the instructor steers some of this enthusiasm into the right channels. I.e. do not let this energy go to waste by letting a 250 pound guy pursue berimbolo’s just because that’s what won in the 10191 olympics. Use this time to steer them into successful techniques for their style and the situations they currently face. Once they reach success by following your instruction — which they will since they’re so enthusiastic!, they will fall in love with the process. These people, if you guide them, are going to be killers and lifelong enthusiasts.

Once I recognize this, and recognize that it is here to stay, I think it’s a sign of progress. And, because they follow class and study outside of class, they’re obviously getting better quickly! It would be hard not to notice their improvement.

They don’t quit

With this, I mean they do not sit out rounds, they don’t say no to a stronger blue belt or a tough roll. They don’t tap to pressure or other things that aren’t chokes or joint locks. They understand that life gets tough sometimes but that just means you got to be a little tougher. That kind of heart is hard to teach, but people can develop it through time. Once they do, and you notice that difference in attitude, they might be ready for a stripe.

This is kind of a ‘face your fears’ thing, and I believe that’s a pretty important aspect of the martial arts. Sure, Brazilian Jiujitsu is a sport, but it is also a martial art, a budo. And in my mind, that comes with inner game as well as physical mastery of skills. Being able to do that is important to me because it shows them one of the real superpowers that BJJ gives you: willpower.

Technique

They’re starting to get techniques and have a few favorite moves. Their bodies move better through repetition and practice. Before they were clumsy, now they know where they need to be. They’re familiar with your warmups and have no problem doing them right. At this point, they’re playing the game and learning. Once I see that they have an escape from every common position and obey all the basic defensive rules of Jiujitsu such as keeping your arms in on the bottom and turning to face your opponents etc, I know they are playing the game. At this point, they have usually leveled up a bit — they have become much harder to submit because they don’t run into everything blindly anymore. They might try their hand at some offense if you present the opportunity because they are able to play the game. There is usually a change in their ability here which suddenly makes rolling with them much better.

Conclusion

These are some of my go-to ways to stripe people up. I was never given a guide on how to stripe people, but this is a loose system of qualities that I have come across that I believe are stripe worthy for a whitebelt. I guarantee there are other ways that I have or will use. What ways do you use? Let me know so I can add those to my own ideas.