Now, before I disappoint you with an “it depends, each academy is different” answer, I’ll cut to the chase based on personal experience. It took me roughly 18 months to receive my blue belt. I’ve heard of people getting their blue belts in less than 12 months, and I also know people who have been training for three years and are still white belts. A blue belt promotion is special and a significant milestone for many, as it’s the first belt awarded based on your progression (under the adult belt system).
You can do things to speed up your progress to the next rank and make your coach’s decision easier. We will discuss these, along with the broad-based blue belt requirements.
Develop Well-Rounded Technical Skills
The goal is to develop a solid understanding of the basic BJJ movements. By this time, you will have clocked some solid mat time developing your defensive and offensive game. As a white belt, you are exposed to a multitude of techniques in both Gi and No-Gi, but as you move towards blue belt, you start to hone your own unique game. You will begin to string attacking sequences together, move through various positions smoothly, and understand how the principles/application of one technique can be applied to another.
Additionally, you will begin to fill in the glaring holes in your game to develop more well-rounded skills. For example, it wasn’t until I was a three-stripe white belt that I took a private lesson with Professor Daniel Almeida (Head Instructor, Team Lead), and he highlighted the need to develop a solid functional guard. Before this, I had been banking on getting into a top position when sparring before progressing to more attacking positions (side control, mount, etc.). Following Professor Daniel’s advice, I spent the next two months starting each training round off my back and developing a decent half-guard game.
It’s important to be humble and use self-reflection to identify weaker parts of your game as a white belt, and not skip over the fundamental aspects to win a sparring round in training. You are laying the foundational blocks for a well-rounded game as a white (and blue belt, for that matter). If you neglect certain positions, it will show as you progress through the ranks.
Some academies will have specific requirements and a list of techniques you must showcase in a grading setting (e.g., Black Belt Roy Dean’s instructional videos teaching 77 techniques and Roger Gracie’s 60 techniques). However, many Academies nowadays will take a more ecological approach to training. Giving you the basic tools to experiment and find out what works in your game.
How do you know if you have a well-rounded game as a white belt?
If you answer yes to the majority of these statements, you are well on your way to a well-rounded beginner game and your next belt:
- I can put myself in inferior positions (e.g. partner has my back, side control, or mount) during sparring rounds and improve to a neutral position (e.g. half-guard, full-guard) against white belts
- I can chain multiple attacking sequences together against white belts (e.g. failed triangle choke, turns into an arm bar attack)
- I have a basic understanding of each guard with a couple of options to attack/defend in each
- I can execute/defend some basic takedowns (e.g. double leg takedown/single leg takedown)
- I can roll in a relaxed state and manage my energy levels against white belts
- I can answer basic technique questions asked by a new white belt student.
Consistent Training
It goes without saying that you should be as consistent as possible with your training. I personally found that attending at least two technical training sessions plus one open mat on average per week was the sweet spot. This allows you to continually develop your technical proficiency and learn new moves while also experimenting with/showcasing your progression during live sparring rounds.
Promotion criteria will vary widely across academies; however, many will place an emphasis on consistent attendance.
As a side note, there are a couple of housekeeping items that will take you further in your quest for promotion:
- Try to be engaged during technical training to get the most out of your learning. Being an active participant and experimenting with the techniques you are taught in class will strengthen the neurological pathways in your brain. Allowing you to learn faster.
- Be a good training partner (i.e., it costs nothing to be polite and considerate to your Coach and training partners) and contribute to the culture of your academy. A poor attitude will likely hold you back.
Is there a minimum time requirement to be promoted?
The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) has no minimum time requirements for adult white belts to be promoted to blue belts. This means that if you have previous grappling experience or commit to training five days a week, you may be promoted fairly quickly to blue belt.
Things that may speed up progress
Aside from training 5+ days per week, a couple of factors may speed up your progression/promotion. Let’s take a look.
Previous Grappling Experience
The first is previous grappling experience. Practitioners from wrestling and judo, for example, will have some meaningful transferrable skills in BJJ. Judokas will likely excel in standing positions, grip fighting in the Gi, and pin positions relative to your fresh white belt BJJ practitioner. Similarly, decent wrestlers will excel in takedowns, pin pressure, scrambles, and athletic ability.
Continuous Improvement Through Self-Learning
I can strongly vouch for instructional courses (e.g. BJJ Fanatics instructional library) and online coaching aiding with development. These days, we are lucky to have access to so much online content from the best grapplers in the world.
As a 3/4 stripe white belt, I was a sucker for finding a flash technique on Instagram and trying to hit that in training. The problem I encountered was that I kept testing so many new techniques that I did not have a clear strategy for my game. For that reason, I enrolled in Josh Saunders’ ‘White to Brown’ course to narrow my focus and develop a proper strategy. Josh is well known in Australia for getting a brown belt in 23 months of training under Luke Martin (Sydney West Martial Arts). He competed at ADCC 2022 and has qualified again for 2024. A lot of Luke Martin’s techniques are inspired by John Danaher, as he has trained in New York at the Renzo Gracie Academy.
Undertaking online coaching significantly improved my overall game fast due to the following:
- I developed a clear strategy i.e. pass to side control or half guard > use chest pressure to pass to mount > attack from mount or threaten submissions to expose the back > finish the fight via rear naked choke.
- I limited myself to a couple of proven techniques/movements in each position to advance my position.
- I was exposed to techniques and strategies that are not widely taught at my academy, namely leg lock entries and submissions.
I strongly believe that had I started the online coaching earlier in my BJJ journey, it would have helped me narrow my focus on the important techniques and expedited my development. This is supported by the 80/20 Pareto Principle, which states that 80% of the outcome comes from 20% of the causes.
Closing thoughts
If you are reading this article, I’m guessing you are interested in progressing to the blue belt level faster. If that’s the case, we have covered a couple of macro requirements and some things to speed up progress. But remember, each academy/instructor has their unique requirements, so why not have a conversation with them to understand these better?
You shouldn’t rush your development. White belt is a great place to be because you can easily over-perform expectations. Yes, it’s nice to receive a promotion, but even better is the personal satisfaction of developing your martial skills, so take your time and focus your energy on developing your game.
As a side note, there is a phenomenon called belt sandbagging in BJJ. Whereby a coach holds a student back at a rank too long, allowing them to smash competition records. If you would like to read more about sandbagging and belt inflation, check out our article by Robert Diserens.
