Promotion

It takes a long time to level up in Jiu Jitsu. It’s not impossible to be a black belt in four years of training, but the number of people who have done it is really low. There are no child black belts in BJJ, and the adult belt progression begins at 16. Every instructor has different criteria for what demonstrates that a student is ready for promotion, and there’s a taboo about asking what you need to do to reach the next level. Some promotion criteria are effort, technical execution, personal growth, and tournament performance. A stripe or belt can be based on one or all of these things. At Chuva Brazilian Jiu Jitsu we don’t do belt gauntlets or testing fees, and if you get promoted, then you’ve definitely earned it.