2 sides to Jiu Jitsu belts...

Shane Moore

3d • Long Game Grapplers Talk

see a lot of people get confused (and a bit discouraged) around belts and what they’re “supposed” to mean in Jiu-Jitsu.

It usually shows up like this:

Someone’s been training a long time.

They’re a bit older, maybe a bit smaller.

They’ve earned a purple belt (or higher).

Then they go to a competition, an open mat, or train somewhere new… and they get absolutely worked by a blue belt.

And the thought creeps in:

“Maybe I’m not as good as I thought.” and "i dont deserve this belt"

I want to clear this up, because most of the confusion comes from mixing two completely different systems and expecting them to mean the same thing.

Belts and competition are not the same thing.

A belt is your progression inside the martial art, as determined by your coach ... the person who sees:

how long you’ve trained
how you train
how you learn
how you apply technique
how you conduct yourself on and off the mat
how you’ve grown over time

A belt is contextual and completely SUBJECTIVE.

It’s personal.

It’s long-term.

It’s not a promise that you will beat everyone below you in every possible scenario.

Now compare that to competition.

Competition is a snapshot.

A moment in time.

Under a specific rule set.

With specific incentives.

Age, weight, athleticism, risk tolerance, rule optimisation, and preparation all matter massively here.

And yet… we try to use belts as the sorting mechanism for competition.

That’s where things break down.

If it were up to me…

Competition would have three divisions only:

Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced

That’s it.

Based primarily on time in the sport, not belt colour.

Because someone can:

be a blue belt with 8 years of hard competition training
be a purple belt who trains 2–3x a week, avoids injury, and plays a long game
be 22 years old or 42 years old
be explosive or methodical
be optimised for competition or optimised for longevity

Trying to pretend those people are “equal” because of belt colour is where the confusion lives.

So why do belts still matter?

Belts matter inside the academy.

They:

give structure
mark long-term development
help coaches guide students appropriately
create mentorship pathways
anchor people to the process, not just outcomes
and yes keep people training who would have otherwise quit, this keeps revenue for the gym.

They are a language between you and your coach, not a universal ranking system of who would beat who in a fight.

A belt is not a prediction.

It’s a reflection of where you are on your path.

Why does this keep getting messy?

A few reasons:

Jiu-Jitsu is still a relatively young sport
Competition organisations (like International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) need structure and clarity for mass events
Marketing loves simple stories (“Blue beats Purple!”)
People naturally tie self-worth to outcomes if they don’t have a clear objective

None of that means you’re doing it wrong.

It just means the system isn’t great at explaining itself.

The real question to ask isn’t:

“Does my belt mean anything?”

It’s:

“What am I training for right now?”