For many, when starting Brazilian Jiu Jitsu the first goal is achieving the blue belt. Although this belt is still considered a novice rank, it implies a particular skill and knowledge level when compared to a white belt. Because of this, it is common when starting to wonder about the requirements and expectations that the blue belt brings. It should also be added at this point, that each gym has its own rules and there isn’t a set format when choosing who becomes or blue belt or what is expected of them. Having said this, there are some general rules which shouldn’t be broken when giving the blue belt.
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Blue belt requirements
As mentioned, this is a generalisation and doesn’t always apply to every gym or teacher. Broadly speaking, the requirements to becoming a blue belt are to have a basic understanding of the fundamentals. Secondly, you should be able to beat a stronger, but untrained opponent.
Fundamentals of BJJ would be defined as knowing how to execute sweeps and attacks from various guards along with developing a sense of timing of when and how to perform them. Whilst you won’t be expected to destroy your opponents, you should at least know how to exploit their mistakes.
Another requirement, perhaps more important is the knowledge of how to defend yourself well. When you first start BJJ, you will have no idea what you’re doing and regularly leave your neck and elbows open from every position. By the time you are promoted to blue belt, you should know not to do these things as much. If you find yourself doing it you should be well aware of your mistake, compared to the beginner who still has no clue what they did wrong.
You shouldn’t be daunted when you recevie the blue. There are literally tens to hundreds of thousands of people with blue belts all accross the world. You have not reached an elite level of grappling and nobody is keeping their eye on how you perform. You may find that some white belts start gunning for you to scalp a higher rank, but this should be seen as a compliment.
Some teachers such as Roy Harris, Roy Dean and Pedro Sauer have a curriculum approach where there are actual things you MUST know to become a blue belt. In these circles there will often be a blue belt test, rather than any other way of promotion. Depending on the instructor, there may be a blue belt requirements list or a set criteria of what you must do. This is very common in other traditional martial arts such as Karate where you will see a grading ceremony with requirements. This is a lot less common in BJJ, where it is usually the instructors discretion.
How Long Does It Take To Get A Blue Belt?
There is no set time for a blue belt. If you are athletic, a fast learner and training non stop for the first 12 months, some gyms may give you the blue belt after the first year. Anything less than this is really quite rare and under 6 months should be looked at with some scepticism. The exception to this rule is if the person was already a high level wrestler or Judoka.
When these people begin BJJ, some of them are already at blue belt level or very near in a lot of aspects, so can be promoted at almost any time. In tournaments, a BJJ white belt that is a Judo black belt may be seen as a “blue belt equivalent”. This means that even though they are a white belt in BJJ, they must compete in the blue belt bracket.
Overall you should have practised for at least 500 hours including sparring if you were a complete beginner when you started. Anything shorter than this for a blue belt promotion is quite questionable.
Other more oldschool gyms may make you wait a lot longer. If the gym does not care too much about pleasing their members and instead focuses on oldschool fundamentals and grinding out results, you should expect to see a blue belt at around 2 years of consistent training.
Overall it doesn’t really matter when you’re promoted to blue belt. All that matters is your own skill level. If you were a bad white belt, you will be a bad blue belt. There are no special powers gifted along with the belt, so fixating on acheiving a rank is really not helpful to your mindset or your BJJ ability.
Blue Belts In MMA / UFC
If you are watching a UFC fight, sometimes you may hear a commentator saying “this fighter has a blue belt in BJJ”. Most notably Jon Jones was an active “blue belt” in the UFC, also currently Khamzat Chimaev is a blue belt. This statement is true, but misleading for a number of reasons.
For a start, being a professional athlete who is conditioned and training every day already puts you way ahead of most people who train BJJ. The strength and athleticism different alone will be big enough to close most gaps against more technical fighters.
Secondly, a lot of MMA gyms do not have belts or purely train no gi. This means that their time on the mat goes unseen. They may have already sparred for hundreds, if not thousands of hours of purely BJJ without ever being promoted. They don’t have a blue belt around their waist, but they may have the time spent on the mats equivalent to at least a purple belt.
Lastly, their mentality is much more serious and they will have trained other martial arts such as Judo, Sambo or Wrestling. When you factor in that wrestling is such a huge part of MMA, in modern day it is trained a lot more than BJJ.
Wrestling is really not too disimilar from BJJ so there will be a lot of transferable skills, especially escaping from turtle, side control and various takedown battles. If this wasn’t trained in a BJJ gym, there will be no instructor to promote them to the next belt. Therefore they will remain a blue or white belt with the skill level of a much higher belt.
Most MMA fighters also really don’t care too much about BJJ belts. Their objective is to win fights. Whilst being awarded a belt might mean a lot to them, winning matches is the priority.
A difference in knowledge and physical skills
You should be able to very easily distinguish the average blue belt from the average white belt. Typically a white belt lacks knowledge, which leaks into their game. Whereas a blue belt has the knowledge which makes them far less prone to mistakes.
For example, a white belt may naturally have bad posture and leave their arms open to attack. However, a blue belt should have better posture and realise when they’re in danger. An important distinction is often that white belts will put themselves into bad positions, whereas blue belts have to be put into bad positions. This is a key difference and comes back to the importance of fundamentals. If you can roll with good fundamentals then it’s on the opponent to submit you; whereas if you roll with bad fundamentals then you may offer submissions by being incompetent.
It’s also important to note that blue belts aren’t expected to be fantastic. The average blue belt is still a work in progress and still has big holes in their game. However, by this point they should have the necessary experience to show a bit of quality. One key difference between the two belts is that white belts are essentially practicing something different. For example, watching a white belt spar doesn’t really look like Jiu Jitsu, whereas watching a blue belt spar – you can tell they have trained in BJJ.
Another key difference and requirement of blue belt is being able to chain attacks together. Whilst this isn’t essential at this point, it’s still relevant. By this, we mean that typically a solid white belt may have one good attack. They may try to triangle you and have an ok entry. However, if this fails then they are lost. Blue belts should have other ideas if their main attack doesn’t work. For instance, if the triangle choke is defended, then you can counter with an armbar or switch to an omoplata.
This is when your BJJ starts to improve as you become more versatile and set up fakes. Some claim this mentality arrives mostly at purple belt – but you should still have a few combinations as a blue belt. The same goes for escapes, passing and sweeps. Compared to a white belt – a blue belt should be more fluid.
Blue belt expectations
The expectation of a blue belt depends on your school and its culture. One typical measurement of a blue belt is being able to successfully defeat or at least fend off a white belt. For example, if the white belt has 30KG on you then this may be an issue. However, you should still be able to survive against them at least and show off your technical advantages. Similarly, if the white belt is roughly the same size and strength – you should be able to submit them and prove your dominance.
Perhaps this is a strict measurement as you can always have a bad day or roll. However, most of the time this is expected from you. Whilst a more experienced white belt may catch you occasionally with a submission, the idea is that most of the time you can dominate those with less experience than you.
Although it is becoming rarer with the popularity of BJJ always increasing. In some small town gyms a blue belt may be expected to teach classes. There is nothing wrong with this if the school is full of white belts, I remember I learned a lot from all sorts of different coloured belts when I was a beginner. In some ways if a black belt is out of touch with what it was like to be a beginner, it can be better to learn from a blue belt. This is because they can remember what it was like being new and teach more basic technique with no nuanced details.
Improving your mentality
Away from the specifics of training, there are also other measurements of your BJJ. For instance, whilst still relatively new, you should be able to tie your belt properly, have good hygeine, and set good standards. If a white belt asks you a basic question, you should have enough skill to broadly answer their question unless it is something very specific. With this said, remember that newcomers do look up to blue belts so you need to show you are respectful and skilled enough when it comes to training BJJ.
Similarly, it is good to have a healthy attitude to training as a blue belt and keep an open mind when performing moves – and not to become arrogant once you have achieved the belt. Remember, there is still a lot to learn and your BJJ journey has only just started. It is important not to get carried away at blue and become arrogant with an inflated ego either.
Blue belts aren’t meant to be perfect
Blue belts aren’t meant to be perfect. A big mistake that most white belts believe is that blue belts are excellent and should be put on a pedestal. This isn’t true and it can lead to feelings of imposter syndrome when finally getting the rank. Not only this, but you may get disappointed when reaching the belt as it feels like you should have some kind of new skills or secret knowledge.
Instead, blue belts still have holes in their game. Whilst you can probably tap more higher belts as a blue, you will still have more bad days than good ones. This means you should continue training consistently and continue your good attitude. Not only this, but blue belt ‘blues’ are also a real thing. This is because of diminished gains compared to being a white belt.
As a white belt, you may see leaps of progress as everything is still new, whereas as a blue belt things become more repetitive and possibly more frustrating. For some, this is normal and you just have to train through these periods. In doing so, you will improve and show a healthy mentality to BJJ.
This is not just for learning, in BJJ the road is very long once you’re a blue belt. You will only receive a white stripe roughly every 6 months, which means in general, if you’re still consistently training with no breaks, injuries or other time off. You will most likely be a blue belt for at the very least 2.5 years. When you add in life events, this timeframe can often double!
Summary
Achieving the blue belt and practising as a blue can be a daunting prospect. However, by the time you reach it, you will probably be ready. As the saying goes, ‘your instructor will know when it’s ready to promote you’. In trusting your teacher, you should be comfortable in wearing the blue belt and in time you may grow to enjoy the rank. Overall, the requirements should be a basic grasp of Jiu Jitsu and to be able to handle yourself against an untrained opponent.
A lot of people use the example of a BJJ blue belt in a street fight. If we think about this as a hypothetical example in which you must fight an untrained clone of yourself (same weight, height and strength). By the time you have a blue belt you should almost certainly come out on top.
This is because you should know some basic takedowns, guard recovery, sweeps and submissions. Against an untrained version of yourself, you should be winning these theoretical fights 99/100 times. On a similar note, you can find out just how dangerous a blue belt is here.
