Not All Promotions Are Created Equal /// By: Vincent Inoncillo

What is a promotion? By definition it means “the action of raising someone to a higher position or rank." At a place of business it means moving from a regular associate to a manager position or higher, in the military it means moving up the ranks from Private to Sergeant Major and the list goes on as long as there's a chain of command. Promotion at your job sounds nice, but to a lot of us in the Jiu-Jitsu community, a belt promotion means more. Like I mentioned in a previous blog post, chasing the next belt may not necessarily be a bad thing because having goals are important.

As practitioners, our own Jiu-Jitsu is constantly evolving whether we know it or not. Some progress through the ranks at a faster pace than others and that's alright. The main thing is that we are learning, maturing and having fun. On the same note we all personally want to know how we stack up against others. There may have been a time when you were a white belt and you only wanted to roll with other white belts and maybe a couple blue belts because you felt that your skill was close to theirs or a little bit better. That's perfectly fine for a while just so you can experiment with the movements, but the fact of the matter is that we truly only get better if you challenge yourself with someone that is better than you. They say you're either the hammer or the nail. In Jiu-Jitsu everybody is the nail no matter how technically sound you are.

Getting promoted to the next stripe or belt is a big deal. It's recognition for your dedication and competence, or "Jiu-Jitsu IQ" as I like to call it. The criteria is different amongst schools and professors. For example, how often you attend class can be a factor toward promotion along with the combination of positive results when you compete. Attendance shows dedication and performing well in competition displays what knowledge you have accumulated and are able to apply to a resisting opponent. This can be some criterion for the way up. Another example is simply attending class regularly and being able to consistently apply what you learned to everyone in your belt level and below. Even giving higher belts a challenge such as defending or putting pressure during rolls shows off your progress. The factors toward promotion vary for each person.

Most traditional academies have a curriculum of techniques that they would like different belt levels to master before ranking them up. This ranges from different attacks from closed guard or mount, variations of certain submissions and even linking different techniques together. Roy Dean, a 3rd degree black belt under Roy Harris, coins Jiu-Jitsu as a “physical debate.” He says, " White belt is learning the shape of the letters and the alphabet. Blue Belt is learning words. Purple belt is stringing sentences together.  Brown belt is advanced arguments (counters to their argumentative counters) and black belt focuses on a personalized and concise delivery." The more you practice, the more you learn, the better you get and the better you get the more versed you become in these physical debates and progress to the next level.

Other academies may have an open curriculum. Open such as teaching progressive techniques and advanced ones to all belt levels. And even now Jiu-Jitsu is at the tip of our fingers all over the Internet. You can learn pretty much any technique from different people and different philosophies. This has definitely been a tool to improve your game over the last decade.

The guidelines for a promotion in Jiu-Jitsu aren't strict, they just differ between schools and professors. Every practitioner's approach in their Jiu-Jitsu journey is different, so it's okay to get surpassed by your others because you are on a different path.