In a recent post on Instagram by Tom DeBlass, a letter was shared with him by an affiliate, showing a letter allegedly sent from Alliance Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy as it refers to the academy under the belt test fee section, although this has not been confirmed since there is no letterhead or contact details visible.
The letter opens warmly enough. A student is informed they’ve been “selected” for their purple belt test, praised for their “hard work, consistency, discipline, and dedication,” and congratulated on a “significant milestone.” But the tone shifts quickly. By the third paragraph, the academy is “highly recommending” the student book private lessons before the test, and by the fourth, it’s laid out pricing for two private-lesson bundles: four sessions for $600, or eight for $1,100, discounted from list prices of $700 and $1,250, respectively. The fine print notes the discount is “available only until your belt test date,” and that the standard $75 testing fee is waived entirely if the student buys the eight-session package.
Already alarm bells are ringing as anyone experienced in BJJ likely has never performed a test in their life, and if they did, they certainly weren’t pitched private lessons beforehand.
The letter closes with a quote attributed to the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, and a reminder to stop by the front desk to “pick up your study guide” and reserve those private sessions.
The core criticism
For a large segment of the BJJ community, letters like this one are a textbook example of what’s often derisively called “McDojo” behavior, for anyone unfamiliar with the term, this is mixed martial arts culture describing academies that resemble fast-food franchises more than traditional training halls: standardized, promotion-happy, and quick to monetize a student’s insecurity about advancement.
The specific objection isn’t to belt testing itself, or even to private lessons, which most instructors agree can be valuable. It’s the sequencing and framing. A student is told they’ve been chosen for a test, implying an evaluation of already-demonstrated skill and is then immediately told that to actually be ready for that test, they should pay for additional coaching, on a clock that expires the day of the exam.
Comments on the instagram post argue that in a sport where competence is supposed to be built and shown incrementally on the mats through live rolling, sparring, and sheer accumulated repetition, a single scheduled “test” is a poor proxy for skill in the first place. BJJ, unlike some traditional martial arts, has historically leaned on a functional test that’s hard to fake: whether a student can actually perform techniques against a resisting opponent, day after day, for years. Formal belt exams are a comparatively recent import into much of the BJJ world, and skeptics see the added ritual, study guides, testing fees, scheduled private-lesson packages as importing not just the exam format but the sales apparatus that has historically come with it in other martial arts.
A freelance journalist with more than seven years of experience covering a wide range of topics, with a focus on delivering accurate, engaging, and well-researched reporting. He studied at the University of Birmingham, where he developed a strong foundation in journalism and communications. Martin is a 10th Planet BJJ brown belt and has been training for approximately 10 years and a keen follower of submission grappling.
