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Many BJJ beginners don’t see much difference between brown and black belts. They’re both years away and the lines seem to blur between those two distinct belts. But of course, there’s a huge difference between black and brown belts in BJJ. 

While the brown belt in BJJ is all about thinking conceptually, learning to plug the holes in their techniques and setting traps, the black belt is more about reflection and focusing on the big picture. Black belts also go into teaching and passing their knowledge and skill to the next generation.

As you progress on your BJJ journey, you’ll find out that the path isn’t linear and getting a promotion isn’t just about piling up knowledge and skill. BJJ is a way of life. At its heart, its core values guide you throughout your entire life. So it’s important to know how each belt marks a new milestone in one’s life. 

Brown Belt

The brown belt is someone who’s been in the game for many many years. The got the basics down well and they have lots and lots of knowledge. They know many offense and defense techniques and they know how to get themselves out of a tight spot. There’s nothing new to them in the general sense of the sport. 

Too much Information

A brown belt is someone who’s been through a lot of competitions. They have a lot of skill and their game is really good. But, among all the good techniques, they still have loads of unuseful fluff cluttering their mind and cramping their style in more ways than one. As you make your way from a white belt up, you tend to learn a lot of things along the way. However not all those things you learn are good or work in your favor.

After a while, that extra knowledge comes in the way. You find yourself in a tough situation, you know how to get out of it, you can see your way, but then you can’t execute the maneuver the way you’d imagined it. Why? Because you still have a lot of baggage. Small pieces of information that prevent you from honing your style. Like bugs in the code, they have to be eliminated and fixed.

Conceptual Thinking

Then you need to work on your conceptual thinking. That’s an important part of the discipline. It’s one thing to know all the details, but you have to take a step back and look at the technique or position from a new angle. You’re no longer absorbing information that your mentor is passing down to you. You’re processing that data, analyzing it, crunching the numbers, looking for flaws or ways to improve the technique. 

That’s what we mean by conceptual thinking. Instead of taking the information at face value, critical thinking steps in and cuts through the noise to get to the core of the technique. At some point in their development from a learner to an evaluator, the brown belt decides to have an opinion about everything they have learned so far. 

This is how you develop your own style. You no longer follow the same steps that you have been doing for years when facing an opponent on the mat. You start to go through each movement and decide for yourself whether this step could be improved on. Whether instead of reaching for the opponent’s wrist, it might be better to grab their thigh instead. 

Experiment, Distill, Improve

In a way, the brown belt is distilling the information they got from their teachers, the skills they learned along the way. This is important for them to get rid of all the garbage information that keeps them from reaching the heights they hope to achieve.

You might say that the brown belt starts to come into their own at that moment. They still accept feedback and criticism from the instructor and other players. But mainly, most of the work is internal. They look for weaknesses in their game and try to improve them. In a way this internalization is an important step towards the ultimate goal of earning the black belt.

Some brown belts take a break here. They might devote their time to teaching or they might just go away for a while. This too is important for their development. You need to take time off to digest all the information you have and process it all. Time off helps them lose the fluff and what remains is the good data.

Black Belt

Reaching this stage in their progress isn’t the end of the road for black belts. Just because you have the black sash around your waist, doesn’t mean you stop learning or improving. If anything, it’s quite the opposite. Learning never stops and black belts remain students of the game and discipline.

Comprehensive Learning

It’s one thing to learn the inside out of every technique and its many variations, and it’s a totally different thing to look at the situation from both sides. The two sides of the coin is the kind of thinking that a player who has been in the game for many years can achieve. 

Newton taught us that for every action there’s a reaction. The black belt is not only focussed on the action, but also the reaction. If I pass the guard to my left, what’s the opponent’s move or moves? And what if I decided to pass it to the right instead? Will that confuse them? Is the rival reading me like an open book? Should I mix my game a little? Or a lot?

This is the black belt’s thought process. And it doesn’t just happen on the mat. They think about BJJ all the time. Some even dream about it. That’s normal. Because so much commitment and dedication to the sport is the only way one can get the black belt. It’s a continuous process that never ends. 

This dual thinking allows you to anticipate the opponent’s next move. Instead of being surprised by something you didn’t expect, you’re ready for the opponent and you have a ready answer for that. Compare that to doing the same thing over and over. When confronted with a novel approach you lose your edge and go on the defensive.

Keep Plugging Holes

Since the learning doesn’t stop, so the uncovering of weaknesses in your game. The more you learn, the more convinced you become that you’re not perfect. Your game is far off from the summits you hope to achieve. You’re still far away from where you want to be.

So with new learning, the black belt discovers they’re still carrying baggage from their novice days. Things they have learned and they need to unlearn. Even after all these years, misinformation still lingers in the mind of the black belt and throw a wrench in the process. It’s unavoidable and you’d be surprised to know how many black belts still cling to concepts that they learned years ago.

This is why some black belts like to train against players of lesser experience. And they put themselves at a disadvantage as well. Why? So that hey can audit all the information they have learned and weed out the bad and useless one.

Someone once said that the best way to learn more about our beliefs is by explaining them to a child. The same concept applies to BJJ. Only instead of explaining the technique, the black belt tries to practice it in every variation possible. That’s when they get deep insights into the technique and learn the flaws as well as the strengths of each one.

Cover All your Bases

The idea here is that the more you know the better prepared you are for the unpredictable. And if there’s one thing sure on the mat, it’s how unpredictable your opponent can be. Maybe they discovered an old variation and would like to try it on you. If you’re not prepared, you might as well forfeit the match.

This is why the black belt strives to learn about all the techniques and positions even those they don’t usually use. Not only that makes them well rounded players, but also prepares them for their role as teachers. 

Imagine it’s your first day in your new role as a teacher or instructor at the academy and the first student asks you about a certain technique that you have never tried. You won’t look very much like a competent teacher if you brushed the question under the carpet or ignored it. You need to learn about all the techniques out there.

Even though both brown and black belts have immense levels of experience and knowledge under their belt, the differences between the two levels couldn’t be broader. While one of them is trying to sift through the piles of useless knowledge and understand their game better, the black belt is all about getting the big picture and going out of their way to learn more about the less known techniques.

In a sport where you sweat a lot like BJJ, hygiene is paramount. You shower after every class and you wash your Gi often. But what about your belt? Should you wash it too? With all the grappling and tugging, the belt gets dirty over time.

Many BJJ players refrain from washing their belt for fear of losing the stripes. But careful washing in lukewarm water will ensure the stripes don’t fall off. Machine washing tends to shrink the belt, so it would be better to handwash it. And if you do lose your stripes, just put them back on.

But the question of washing your BJJ belt is deeply rooted in superstition. As we’ll see later, many players especially those who compete in tournaments are a little sketchy when it comes to washing their belt. So let’s separate fact from fiction, dispel the myths, and ensure you show up to class in a clean Gi with a clean belt as well.

Should you Wash your Belt?

That shouldn’t even be an issue at all. Do you need to shower? Yes, you do. Do you have to wash your clothes? Absolutely. Unless you want to repel people off wherever you go. So the answer to the question of should you wash your belt is you definitely have to.

Apart from the hygienic aspects we just mentioned, there really is no reason for you to walk around in a stained and smelly belt. It’s not just appearances, but it also poses a health risk. When the belt absorbs sweat, that makes it fertile grounds for germs and fungus. 

Because of the intimate nature of BJJ where you get in contact with your opponent’s Gi and belt often, a germ-riddled belt can cause many skin diseases as well as respiratory ones. And it doesn’t take much friction to damage the skin of the player and transmit lethal germs inside their body. BJJ students go to the academy to learn about the discipline, not catch diseases.

And yes appearances matter. Just take a look at your teacher’s belt. Is it dirty or stained? Does it look like it hasn’t been washed in ages? Of course not. You should emulate your teacher in their adherence to good hygiene and go to class dressed in clean clothes. Your BJJ belt is no exception. It complements your whole image and instills confidence among your classmates.

Common Superstitions

But why do some BJJ players think twice about washing their belt? The answer to that, believe it or not, has to do with superstition. Now we all know that in competitions, players tend to go off the rails and associate certain objects with either good or bad luck. A certain player, for example, will not shave on the day of the tournament. Now, that player isn’t hoping to use their facial stubble to force the opponent into submission. It’s just superstition. The player associates an unshaved chin with luck. If they shave, they feel the universe isn’t on their side.

So what has washing the belt got to do with superstition? Well, for one thing, sometimes your stripes will fall off the belt during washing. Some players consider that a bad sign and it could mean they will lose the next match. Of course it’s easy to put the stripes back on the belt. But to the superstitious mind, losing the stripes is tantamount to losing the competition.

One can’t argue with superstition. So when a player values an unwashed belt and considers it a symbol of their fortitude and dedication. But what has a smelly belt got to do with one’s involvement in the sport? Nothing of course. But what has a black cat got to do with luck? Or why do some people avoid walking under a ladder or become jittery if they break a mirror? Superstition has no legs under the light of reason. 

And let’s not forget that BJJ is built on skill and reason, not voodoo. You don’t go to class to learn to cast a spell. You go there to learn techniques that require using your skills. Whether your belt is tattered or your stripes are awry will have zero effect on the outcome of the competition. 

Why you Need to Keep your Belt Clean

There are so many reasons, but we’ll just cover the main ones here. The first major reason why you need to keep your belt as well as your Gi clean at all times has to do with the health risks associated with dirty or stained belts. I think we can all agree that in these times, getting an infection is the last thing one would want.

More and more bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics. To get in contact with a dirty belt exposes you to a fungal infection that causes a rash and might develop into something more serious. Allergy and rashes are not to be taken lightly. An untreated rash could become more than just an inconvenience. The longer it goes without being looked into, the higher the chances it would take years to get it fixed.

Then there’s hygiene. Just think about it for a second. Every time you get on the mat and your belt touches an opponent, small skin particles and droplets of sweat get absorbed by the belt. With time and with lack of washing, that skin and sweat pile up increase and pretty soon you’ll be walking around carrying DNA footprints of every player you ever went up against on the mat.

As far as souvenirs go, dead skin should be the last thing you want to be wearing around your waist. And since you come in touch with that belt more often than your opponents and classmates, that puts you at a higher risk of catching something nasty like the ringworm. It is responsible for many health inconveniences that you’d rather go through life without. 

How to Wash your Belt

Now that we have established the necessity for washing your BJJ belt, let’s talk about how you can avoid all those unpleasant side effects and keep a clean belt around your waist. Here are the best ways to go about it.

Handwash

When you ask a player why they don’t wash their belt, the first complaint they throw at you is that the belt shrinks with every wash. That may be true with machine wash which is why you need to need to switch to handwash instead. It might be a little bit of work, but the results are well worth the effort.

Don’t soak the belt since that will make it shrink. The idea is to dump the dirty belt in the pot using gentle detergent, give it a few squeezes and rubs then rinse it thoroughly. This will wash away not just the dirt, but also the odors of the detergent. You might want to use a softener to prevent that shrinking issue. It depends on the material the belt is made of.

Lukewarm Water

All mothers know that hot water causes clothes to shrink and wear out quickly. The combination of hot water and strong detergents is too much for the fabric to handle. First, the color fades, then the edges of the belt become tattered. This is why many players prefer a dirty belt over a worn-out one.

Cold water on the other hand doesn’t have the same destructive effect on the belt. If it’s winter and you’re not keen on putting your hands in icy water, then lukewarm water will do the job. As long as no steam comes off the pot, your fine and the belt is in no danger. Don’t use strong detergents. Shop for one more suited to delicate clothes. Also, steer clear from the dryer. It can put a strain on the belt material and speed out its wearing off.

The Stripes

Another problem with washing the belt has to do with the fragile stripes. It’s one more reason to opt for handwash over the washing machine. But even during handwashing the belt, the stripes tend to fall off. So what can you do about that?

Simple. Just put them back on. The stripes are not a permanent fixture anyway. As you progress with your training, you’ll earn more stripes to add to the ones already there. So don’t stress over the missing stripes. 

Another thing to consider is that the stripes are taped. So while washing and ironing the belt, don’t give the stripes the rough treatment. I recommend you use waterproof stripes that don’t come off easily and don’t lose their color or shape when put into water.

A better way to keep the stripes on the belt at all times even during washing is to stitch them yourself. With a needle and thread trace around the edges and make the stripes a permanent part of the belt itself.

If you’re one of those people who have to bend their head every time they pass through an open door, you must be wondering how you can use your height to your advantage in BJJ. Unlike other sports like boxing where being a little squatter can work wonders for you, with Mike Tyson being a shining example, BJJ favors the tall and lanky.

The top 5 guard passes for tall people are:

1. Closed Guard Pass
2. Behind The Back Guard Pass
3. Butterfly Guard Pass
4. Body Lock Guard Pass
5. Slick Tripod Guard Pass

But towering over your opponent is not always an advantage. Even if you use one of those guard passes, without knowing how to use your height properly, your takedown might not go according to plan. For tall people, using the top grip as opposed to holding on to the sleeve or lapel is the preferred and most effective grip. So how do you go about executing each one of those and getting a win on the mat? That’s what this article is here to answer.

Closed Guard Pass

The beauty of the Closed Guard is that it works best for tall people. Now being taller than your opponent entails you have longer arms. And that’s the secret we’d like to share here. If you have long arms, and you’re playing Closed Guard from the top, then you can use those powerful arms to limit your opponent’s movement and crack an opening in their armor. Here’s how to do that.

You’re on top so the first thing to go for is to aim for the rival’s arms. Their biceps will be on the ground at the start of this position so grab each one with a hand and pin them to the floor. This has the added advantage of limiting the opponent’s movement as well as launching your attack against their defenses. 

Lean on your arms and readjust your position sliding your knee under the opponent’s buttocks. This gives you a better balance and prepares you for your next move. Notice how your long arms allow you to keep the body of the adversary pinned down while you have more room to maneuver and shift your body weight. Shorter arms will make your movements clunky and awkward at best.

One of BJJ best known champs, Fabiano Scherner, favors this position because from that starting point he raises himself into the tripod base. He uses his knee to which is still jammed into the opponent’s guard to make the breakthrough. Now all you have to do is sit back down, forcing your knee even further and slicing that guard wide open. You got your knee between the opponent’s knees and your path is now clear.

Behind The Back Guard Pass

The Behind The Back Guard pass starts with you on top the same way Closed Guard does. Your opponent is on his back and again you go for the biceps. Once you get those secured, you use your head to apply more pressure. Lock your head into the opponent’s chest to have full control over their movement. In this position, the rival can hardly use their body nor arms as a defense. All they can do now is wait for you to make your next move.

The next variation is really important and the taller you are the better you can execute it. Use your head and arms to spring your body up into a wide base. The idea is to cradle your opponent’s body into your own arms before you launch your offensive. To achieve that, slide one arm under their body trying to reach for your other hand. Nudge their body over to help you get them in the position you aim for. 

Again long arms work best in getting this technique right. To wrap one arm all the way under the rival’s body you need a really lanky arm. Now with the opponent secure in your arms, it’s time for your knee to work its way between the crouched opponent’s knees. This opens the guard and you can now push their leg to the ground and get you in position for the perfect triangle. From there you can see your way clear to securing the head and arm of the opponent. And it all started with long arms making their way around the opponent’s body.

Butterfly Guard Pass

The Butterfly Guard is a popular technique of guard passes that players learn to master at an early stage of their practice. It’s not an exceptionally difficult one to learn or get good at. But if you are tall you can use your height to add a variation to this technique to make it even more effective. Here’s how you can achieve this.

The usual way players opt for is to keep their heads next to the opponent’s chest on the floor before they make their move and jump over the rival’s hooks. While this is the normal way, it doesn’t mean it’s the most effective. So how can you improve on that? It’s simple. Place your head on the adversary’s chest instead of next to their chest. Why is that effective?

Well, it keeps the opponent wondering which way you’re going to pass. By staying over the rival’s body, you can choose to go either way when you jump over their hooks. You’re keeping your cards close to your chest and not tipping your hand early on. Compare that to placing your head on the mat. This gives away your whole strategy and your opponent can read the next few moves you’ll make and prepare themselves for your assault.

One of the beauties of BJJ is that the more you practice and the deeper you dive in the techniques, the more interesting variations you can come up that give you an advantage over the opponent. Sometimes a simple shift or modification goes a long way into breaking the opponent’s defenses and securing your victory.

Body Lock Guard Pass

One of the problems that white belts and even blue belts grapple with when it comes to guard passes is the leg locking entanglement. Your legs get trapped between the opponent’s and you just don’t know where to go from there. It’s a problem that is exacerbated by a lack of imagination on top of poor techniques. So what can you do about that especially when you have a few inches over your opponent?

When playing the Body Lock Guard pass, it helps to focus on the grip. Your long arms mean you cover a lot of territory and no matter where the adversary hides their limbs, you can reach them. Your grip technique could be a palm to palm or just go for all fingers. Wrists also work if you can get a really tight grip on them. Your next move is to use your head on their shoulder. 

Don’t go for the near shoulder. Your guard pass should always focus on the other side. The one the opponent least expects or is prepared to defend. So readjust your base using your head for balance and make your way between the rival’s knees controlling them at the same time.

Needless to say, it takes a lot of practice to get this one down. If your opponent gets a whiff of where you’re going with this, they would clamp down and shut that door in your face. And as with every variation, experiment with it until you find what works with you. Long limbs here certainly give you a better advantage.

Slick Tripod Pass

This technique works well against the Half Guard. As we all know, this is one of the toughest guards to pass. Even a mediocre player who knows what they’re doing can make your life difficult with this one. So as a lanky player, how do you crack this one? 

Use your height and your imagination to get around the stubborn opponent and find an opening that you can exploit. Easier said than done, you say. Well, not if you focus on the knee shield and slyly get a grip on the other leg. With the gi securely in your hand, use your other hand on the collar. Those two grips allow you to rise to your feet while using your head to keep the opponent down. Your body is in a tripod shape.

You now have access to the opponent’s leg. Press it down to the mat with your own leg and move your arm to the side of the opponent. Your head maintains its pressure at all times to prevent the opponent from blocking your offensive. 

For every action, there’s a reaction. You go rough on your body and it pays you back with ailments and disfigurements of every kind. Perhaps this applies more in BJJ where combative contact with the opponent is the norm than in other sports.

So much so that the phenomenon known as the cauliflower ear in BJJ is more common than you might think. On average 30% to 40% of practitioners get it.

The one part of your body that you’d expect to be safe from the malignant treatment you get on the mat would be the ear. And you couldn’t be more wrong. While the ear doesn’t play an active role in your techniques, it still bears the brunt of many mishandling and mistreatment. 

So how does an organ that is no more than a bystander in this whole process gets so crushed and reshaped into this grotesque design? More importantly, as an aspiring BJJ practitioner what can you do about it and how do you prevent it from happening to your delicate ears? We got the answers to these questions to make your BJJ journey as gentle on your ears as you’d hope it to be.

What is it?

The cauliflower ear is a symptom that many BJJ practitioners get after years in the sport. People are usually born with elegantly shaped ears with intricate shapes and grooves and curves. We tend to take them for granted but if someone goes the Van Gogh way (misses an ear) it becomes their distinguishing feature. That’s how important it is to have two symmetrical ears hanging by the sides of your head.

The ear is made up mostly of soft bones and loose skin. They are sensitive by nature and don’t respond well to rough treatment or mishandling. Now rough treatment and mishandling are the middle names of BJJ. You’re not walking onto the mat to have a friendly chat with your opponent. You want to grapple with him, apply a few headlocks and neck locks to force them to submit. And in the middle of this kerfuffle, the ears pay the price.

First, the blood vessels rupture under the ear skin giving it an unhealthy ruddy glow. Then the soft bones get crushed and realigned into clumps. They pile over each other like they’re seeking solace in each other’s company and in the process redesign your whole ear.

What started as a delicate design with smooth curves and contours morphs into a swollen and unappealing lump. Think the face of a boxer after a few grueling rounds against a tough opponent. Nothing but bruises and bunions. And of course the pain. Your ears become raw and sensitive as they take this gruesome shape.

Causes

So who’s the culprit? As it turns out not all techniques and guards in BJJ cause the cauliflower ear. And that’s the good news. The bad news is, some techniques cannot be helped. When your opponent gets you in a headlock, you’ll do your best to escape this bad situation but your ears are the ones who will carry the scars for a long time to come.

And as you can imagine, when your opponent got you in a neck lock you can’t just ask them politely to go gentle on your ears. As we all know the gi isn’t made of the gentlest material. It’s coarse and sturdy to withstand the gripping and grappling. And when your ears are locked between the pincer-like grip of a gi wearing opponent who got your head secure between his arm and rib cage, you know that your ears are as good as gone.

Many people think that cauliflower ears are the result of bad training or mistakes made by the BJJ players during class or competition. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Many BJJ champions have cauliflower ears. It’s something that happens whether you’re good or not in BJJ. In other words, it’s not you, it’s just that the sport doesn’t take kindly to your ears.

And it’s not just a matter of aesthetics. Your hearing gets impaired and you can no longer use earphones. So does that mean that this is an escapable situation? When you sign up at the academy you’re as good as sacrificing your ears on the BJJ altar? Not necessarily. There are precautions you can take to safeguard against cauliflower ears. But before we get there, let’s talk about the treatment.

Treatment

One of the common ways to treat the ear is ear draining. This is a simple process that players do themselves. See after an injury, the inner ear gets blocked with blood and secretions (what we normally call ear wax) which over time can damage your hearing and cause hearing loss. So one way to prevent that from happening is to drain the ear regularly.

To drain the ear you’ll need a needle and Polysporin cream as a protective lubricant. Wash your ears thoroughly to prevent infection and give it a good coating of the cream. Gently put the needle in and suck out all the piled up secretions. Next, target the swollen areas in your ear and suck out the blood. It’s more like bloodletting. 

Now you use this method at your own risk. I haven’t met a medical doctor who recommended you operate on yourself and there are many ways this could go wrong. So it’s not an ideal treatment and I mention it here only because some practitioners use it. In my opinion, it’s better to focus on protecting your ears and preventing injury than to seek dangerous and unproven remedy methods.

Better still is if you take your injured ears to a sports doctor and let them have a look at it. Doctors with experience dealing with Judo, football, boxing, or other combative sports will have a fair amount of experience with ear injuries. But as I said, it’s better to prevent the injury than try to treat it. So how do you protect your ears and keep this dreary disease from deforming your face?

Prevention

As we have already stated, not all causes of the cauliflower ear in BJJ are avoidable. You can’t tap the opponent on the arm and ask them to go easy on your delicate ears. A headlock is a headlock. It’s rough and the pain is excruciating. So what can you do about it?

There are two ways you can go with this. When it comes to the unavoidable parts, wear ear guards. They act as a cushion that keeps your ears safe and comfy while the hammering on your head continues. The market is full of many good ear guards and they are not expensive either. You just put them on and tell your opponent to have at it. It may not look good and the optics are certainly not in your favor. 

But when you think of the long term deformity that going into battle with bare ears entails, then the less than cool ear guards seem like the better option. Ear guards come in different colors and styles to match your gi so in a way you can use them as accessories to make a fashion statement. And if your vanity gets in the way, think of the pain of injured ears and how losing your hearing will feel down the line.

Using ear guards is the easiest way to deal with the cauliflower ear malady. But even those nifty accessories may not give your ear the full protection you need. During the scuffle, they might come off leaving your ears open to the relentless assault of the gi. So what is the other option?

You need to be judicious with your training. Just as you’d go easy on your hands during your grappling classes, you need to pay attention to how much mistreatment your ear gets every week. 

Let’s say you go to class 5 times a week. You’re showing great progress and the stripes on your belt are a good indication of that progress. That’s all good, but now your body is showing signs of fatigue. The scars of the onslaught are showing. Remember the golden rule in BJJ, always listen to your body. If you find it common to wake up in the morning with achings and pain, then you need to take longer breaks between classes. 

Or just add some variety to your training. If your neck and shoulders ache, then maybe stay away from upper body techniques for a while. Or you could limit your offensive and defensive techniques to once a week instead of 4 times a week. 

The same rule applies to the ear. Not all people are susceptible to cauliflower ears. If your ears give you trouble that’s a sign you need to go easy on them. Focus on other techniques that don’t involve getting your head in the vise grip of the opponent. You might not be able to keep your ears from the path of danger, but you can certainly give them time to heal and recover between each battle.

Stripes have been a mark of distinction since time immemorial. Hence the saying, earn your stripes. Be it the navy, the military, or MMA. Stripes are a symbol of expertise and skill. The more stripes on your arm the higher ranking you are.

Stripes in BJJ are no different. You earn them as you advance on your path. Whether you get your promotions based on your performance in an exam or based solely on your teacher’s evaluation, earning a stripe in BJJ is a big deal. It gets you closer to ranking up and makes the next belt in your journey so much within reach. 

That said, the stripes system in BJJ is far from being perfect. While it makes the work and interval between belts less tedious and acts as a milestone between each belt, they do have their drawbacks. This article sheds light on the history and meaning of the stripes system, how to earn them, and why you shouldn’t put too much weight on them anyway.

How the Stripe System Started

The history of belts and stripes is older than BJJ itself. The first time belts were used in a sport was in Judo. But there were only two colors. The first is white for beginners and the other is black for advanced practitioners. That’s how things stood when Mitsuyo Maeda arrived in Brazil at the beginning of the 20th century. He had great hope that Brazilians would open their minds and hearts to Judo and he only had two belts to offer them in addition to his vast knowledge in Judo.

He was right of course. Not only did Brazilians welcome Judo, but they also loved it so much they refined it and turned it into BJJ. As more colors were added in Judo, other sports including BJJ were quick to adopt them as well. However, the official belt ranking system in BJJ as we know it today was first introduced in 1967.

The stripes came later. Since each belt took on average about 2 years or more to achieve, stripes were introduced to make the long wait less tiring. They gave players hope and motivated them to stick to their practice and keep attending classes since each new stripe was in and of itself a promotion in a way. So how do stripes and belts fit in together and where do you start?

Your BJJ Path in Colors and Stripes

In BJJ your journey starts with a white belt and you make your way to blue then purple before you turn into brown and finally achieve the black belt. There’s also a red belt but that one is rare and is given to practitioners who’ve spent 45 years in the sport. As you can imagine not many players in the history of BJJ have earned the red belt. So in practical terms, black is the more achievable belt that puts you at the top rank of the system.

You get the white belt on the first day you sign up with the academy. You don’t have to prove yourself or show your aptitude or skills. You walk in and sign your name, you get a white belt. It’s as easy as that. But from there, every stripe and belt you earn is based on the time and effort you put into the sport. 

Which is exactly as hard as it sounds. There’s a lot to learn and you need to attend classes about 3 times a week just so that within the next two years you can make your way to the blue belt. Two years is a long time, I hear you say. And it’s true. You’ll be wearing that white belt for 2 years and you can’t tell if you’re getting better or not. Well, not exactly. See, that where the stripe system comes in.

To have a class of white belts toiling for 2 years sounds like asking a lot of BJJ beginners. So the idea of using a different promotion system was introduced. Each belt has 4 stripes. Your progress within each rank is marked with stripes. You earn a stripe for your performance. Get all 4 stripes and you’re ready for the next belt. It’s as easy as that. But that’s not the only advantage of having stripes. Remember what we said about having a class of white belts? How does one tell them apart? How do you know which is the outstanding student and which isn’t pulling their weight? You guessed it. The stripes tell the difference. 

A white belt with 3 stripes on their arm is a more skilled player than the one with just two stripes. So suddenly you’re no longer a homogenous class of white belts. You have marks of distinctions that separate the talented from the rest of the pack.

How you Rank up in BJJ

So how do you earn your stripes in BJJ? Much like ranking up belt-wise, earning the next stripe is based on your performance. However, there’s a big difference. While some academies enforce a form of an exam before the belt is awarded to the student who passes the exam, stripes are mostly a subjective process.

It’s not an ideal system, but then again who better than your teacher to know if you were ready or not to get that extra stripe to adorn your belt? Even in our educational system, exams are not the perfect way to measure the mass of knowledge and skill students have accumulated throughout the school year or semester. So, in a way giving the instructor absolute authority as far as bestowing stripes on students isn’t the illogical thing it appears at first glance.

So how do teachers evaluate their students? Is it a matter of whim? Far from it. Every teacher relies on certain performance criteria that guide them in their evaluation process. As a student, you’re judged based on your skills, attendance, attitude, aptitude, and the time you spent in your current belt. 

Your skillset is by far the most important factor. As you learn more skills, master the required techniques for your current level, and take part in tournaments your performance improves. Your teacher is the first one to notice that improvement. And they weigh in your performance when considering whether it was time to get another stripe.

Just like regular school, your attendance is required. You can’t just win a stripe from home. Remote learning is not a valid concept in BJJ. You need to show up regularly to class. Taking time off is a sign you’re not taking BJJ seriously which reflects badly on your promotion path.

Your attitude is also part of your evaluation process. Students with a big ego who act like bullies to other classmates are shunned at the academy and rarely see their way clear to advancement. This is why black belt masters are known for their humility. They know that no matter how much they learn, they will always remain students. They used their skills for the common good.

Finally, the time you spend in your present stripe plays a role in your promotion. If you’re only a few months old in your stripe, then the teacher will deem it too early to give you the next one. Even if you deserve it, your teacher might hold it back for a while so that it will not go to your head.

How Good is the BJJ Stripes System?

Let’s get one thing out of the way. No system is perfect. This applies to the BJJ stripes system as well. We already talked about giving the instructor absolute authority in awarding students their stripes. If the teacher doesn’t think you’re worthy of a stripe, there’s just nothing you can do about it but keep your head down and try to improve.

But there’s another side to this problem. It’s when the teacher decides to keep a talented student at a certain level so that they win competitions easily and earn medals. Here the student is not the victim but the whole tournament. Imagine a competitor with a brown belt skillset but wears a purple belt who takes part in a match against another purple belt. It’s a common problem but one where the student is very much in on it and willingly takes part.

That said, the stripe system has its undeniable advantages. It keeps students on track and brings them up to speed. Every student can count their stripes to know how far they are from the next belt. As for its motivational value, the stripe system has undoubtedly kept many students motivated at a time when they felt they were stuck at a certain belt for too long.

This is more apparent for students with exceptional talent. Without the stripes to set students apart nobody will go out of their way to excel or learn the techniques or show their personal style or flare. The stripe on their belt gives the student a reason to feel satisfied with the level they’re at on their BJJ journey.

The relationship between BJJ and fingers is a love-hate one. You have to grapple in BJJ but that isn’t easy on your knuckles, ligaments, and wrists. To be fair this is a common issue with many combat sports including wrestling and Judo.

But since grappling techniques are at the heart of BJJ, your hands take a thorough beating every time you step onto the mat.

Does this mean that BJJ players should take hand damage as a foregone conclusion and resign themselves to the fact that they’ll never moonlight as hand models? Not by a long shot. You can still keep your fingers intact and prevent hand injuries if you go to class or the tournament well prepared and ready for what awaits you. Read on to find out all about hand care in BJJ both on and off the mat.

BJJ and Hand Damage

It’s not uncommon to ask a BJJ black belt who’s been through their fair share of competitions about the body part that took the most beating and they’ll look down at their hands and mumble something about how their fingers ache, man. We’re talking about a tough person who has endured so much pain and got themselves out of numerous bad situations on the mat many times before. Yet when it comes to hands, everyone is a big baby.

So what is it about the hands that make them such a vulnerable point in the armored body of the BJJ practitioner? To answer that we’ll have to go through an anatomical tour of the hands. Each finger except that thumb has 3 joints. So the two hands have 28 joints between them. Add the wrists and you have 30 vulnerable spots. Each one of those is a veritable weak link in your defenses that your opponent can exploit.

And since many offense and defense techniques in BJJ are closely related to grappling, you can imagine what those sore points go through. It’s no wonder that after each class or training, the player goes home with swollen knuckles, bruises, bunions, redness, and bumps. If you ask them how their hands feel, they’d answer that they feel like they’ve been put through a shredder.

When you consider that age is nobody’s friend and that even the healthiest joints and bones show wear and tear with time, you can only imagine what would become of those hands as the player gets older. They’d probably be a constant source of pain and aching. But that’s not the only impact that BJJ can have on your hands.

Is there a Connection between Arthritis and BJJ?

All that wear and tear can have lasting effects on your body and your hands in particular. One of the often cited examples of hands gone awry in the world of BJJ is the famous player Joao Miyao. It’s fair to say that his mangled hands are just as famous as the man himself. And he won’t stop talking about them. 

The law of nature is where there’s pressure, something has to give. In the case of BJJ, your hands are the first to give in. Use and abuse them on a regular basis on the mat and you might develop osteoarthritis. That’s a form of arthritis that has nothing to do with genetics or the auto-immune system. It’s something you inflict on yourself when you don’t take care of your hands. So how does osteoarthritis develop?

Remember those 30 joints we talked about? They’re held in place by a cushion called the cartilage which is as tough as they come. In normal situations, the cartilage is durable and will serve you a whole lifetime without giving you trouble. But when you put them through hell with excessive training and improper care, you’re really asking for trouble. This cushion wears thin and eventually disappears altogether.

Now your bones are rubbing against each other without protection. Imagine the inner parts of your car engine working without engine oil. That’s exactly how your bones feel without a healthy cartilage. First, there will be a pain, then bone spurs appear and if things get worse, you could develop bony enlargements which are not fun at all.

It’s the gripping and grappling that puts that mechanical distress on your fingers and causes these health conditions. As we all know you can’t progress in BJJ without grappling. So if grappling is a must, what can you do to protect your precious fingers and give your hands a second life?

Does taping your fingers help?

There are two ways you can help mitigate the problems that might develop in your hands and fingers as your BJJ practice gets serious. You can protect your fingers with tape and use techniques that safeguard you against common combat injuries. We’ll elaborate on the latter below. So let’s see what tapping the fingers involves.

The market is full of medical tapes designed specifically for fingers. They’re made with BJJ players and other combat sports and MMA in mind. A review of these products is beyond the scope of this article. Instead, we’ll focus on how to use the tape to protect your fingers before each practice or match.

1. X-taping: In X-taping, you apply the tape around your finger in X shapes. The point where the tapes cross should lie directly on top of the middle joint of your finger. The advantage this method has is it gives maximum protection to the fingers while also providing you with mobility. The tape doesn’t interfere with your movements and you can perform your grips and grappling techniques with ease.
2. Restrictive Taping: You use restrictive taping with an already injured finger. It is supposed to help the finger heal while protecting it from further injuries. The way you apply it is to wrap the tape tightly around the joint or joints of the injured finger. This immobilizes the joint and limits its movements, hence the name. One drawback is your finger might get snagged in your gi.
3. Buddy Taping: With body taping, you apply X-taping not just to one finger but to bind two fingers together. One of those fingers is the injured one while the other acts as support. In other words, you’re creating a tourniquet but instead of using a stick, you use the neighboring finger. It still restricts the mobility of the two fingers but its protective advantages are immensely high.
4. Thumb Taping: With thumb taping, you’re protecting an injured thumb. Due to its unique position in your hand, your thumb carries a lot of the heavy lifting as far as your grappling is concerned. This puts you on the spot if your thumb is injured. You want to keep training but you know that might not be a good idea. Taping the thumb is the least effective type of taping and you should stay off the mat until that digit has healed.

Hand Pain Prevention Techniques

While finger tapes are a good option, their uses and protection for that matter are limited as we have already seen. A better way to keep your fingers in good shape is to learn to take care of them and not throw them in the wringer. That might sound easier said than done but in BJJ it pays to listen to your body and make several adjustments to your training.

One of the first adjustments to consider is your guards. Guards that rely heavily on gripping tend to be hard on the fingers. Take the Spider Guard for example. It forces you to grip the sleeve of the opponent and keep that grip tight while the adversary is doing all they can to break loose. In this case, it’s your fingers against the whole body weight of the opponent. Not an ideal situation for your knuckles. The same thing applies to the la Riva Guard. You might want to look for alternative guards. I’d recommend the Half Guard, Butterfly Guard, and Closed Guard to put less strain on your joints.

Another technique is to do more training without your gi. While the gi is crucial to acquire the necessary skills in BJJ, you can still learn a lot when you train without it. For some reason, the coarse material the gi is made of puts more strain on your grip and requires more pressure which accelerates the wear and tear of the joints we talked about above. 

And finally, you need to go easy on your adamant obsession with grips. Yes, your instructor will demand that you have a steely grip that keeps the opponent pinned, but try not to go overboard with that grip. Here, moderation works wonders. So try to use that tight grip sparingly and give your hands a break between each deathly grip you use on your rival.

BJJ like every other sport where combat is involved puts you at a high risk of getting injured. It’s not that the sport itself is not safe. It’s usually lack of training or over-practice that can lead to injuries.

Some of the body areas prone to injuries in BJJ are the neck, ears, lower back, knees and shoulders. Those five injuries are the most common one and no BJJ practitioner hasn’t had a nasty experience with at least one of them

In most cases, either you don’t pay attention to your teacher or try to overreach. This is why the rule of thumb in BJJ and all MMAs is to listen to your body and never push it too far. So how do people get injured in these areas in BJJ? What can you do to avoid such setbacks? And What to do if you happen to suffer an injury? Read on to find out the answer to these and other pertinent questions.

Knees

Your knees carry the full weight of your body and that’s no small burden. So how do BJJ players get knee injuries? The most common occurrence when performing leg locks. It’s one of the most popular techniques in the self-defense sport. You use it to take control of the opponent’s body, limit their movement, and open the way for submission.

But as important as the leg locks are in BJJ, there’s a whole lot going on behind the scenes in this seemingly innocuous technique. You’re not just wrapping your thighs around the adversary’s body and locking them in place, you’re calling on all your joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons to rise up to the occasion and help you out here.

Which as you can imagine is easy to get wrong. Push your joints too far and your knees pay the price. It’s the ligaments in the knees that are first to give in. These tough yet fragile parts of the knees are resilient enough but there’s only so much they can do. Keep pushing and they will snap.

The first thing you’ll feel is a searing pain in your knee area. This is more serious than the dull pain you get if you fall on your knees on the mat or your opponent slams their body weight over your knee. The pain here is immediate and demands your full attention. In this case, medical attention is in order. Don’t try to ignore it or roll with it. Remember what Dr. House said about the knees.

Lower Back

While a knee injury is a serious issue that requires weeks of rest depending on the condition of the injury, you can still go back to the mat even before your knee has fully healed and focus your training on the hands’ defense techniques and upper body. The same however cannot be said about lower back injuries. These affect BJJ players of all levels, ages, and body shapes. 

Ask any BJJ black belt about their worst experience while training and the most common issue that crops up is the lower back maladies. Call it a curse if you will, but it seems nobody is immune to this affliction. And it’s easy to see why. All the heaving, contortions, and twisting of the body make every player vulnerable to lower back injuries.

Your spine is a series of connected vertebrae and the only thing that keeps them from breaking are the groups of muscles that line alongside the backbone. However, those muscles weaken around the small of your back leaving that area open for the odd injury from a deep twist in the wrong direction. The problem with these injuries is that the pain is not immediate as is the case with knee afflictions. Not at all. Lower back pain takes time to show up. Usually, a few hours and sometimes you go to bed feeling fine only to wake up in the morning and you can’t get out of bed. 

This is what happened to me when I got my lower back injury after a BJJ class. I spent the next couple of days crawling on all four like a toddler. Luckily, in my case, it was just a matter of a twisted muscle but some BJJ trainees don’t get off so lightly as far as back injuries are concerned. Many suffer from a herniated disc which is a painful condition and takes a long time to heal. 

You won’t be able to roll with a lower back injury. Rest is the only way to get better and you won’t step on the mat again until you get the all-clear from your physician. So don’t force yourself and be patient.

Ears

Believe it or not the ears take a lot of punishment during BJJ practice. Whether you’re training, a top-ranking practitioner in a competition, or just testing the waters trying to figure out whether to commit to BJJ or not, your ears are vulnerable. There’s a term for it in BJJ. It’s called “cauliflower ears” and it’s worthy of a full article on its own.

The ears are mostly made up of soft bones called cartilage and skin. Soft bones imply they can be bent and twisted which is exactly what happens when your opponent gets you in a  headlock and your ears get squeezed in whatever inhumane shape they happen to be forced into. And the injury shows almost at once. 

Blood vessels in the ear rupture and the broken cartilage form unworldly shapes and clumps in your ear. Naturally, this is accompanied by the suitable amount of pain you can imagine and your ears become too sensitive to the touch and even a gentle breeze will make them smart.

You can protect your ears with headgear. If your ears are injured, you can still train but focus on lower body engagement and avoid any technique especially rolling that gets your ears close to the opponent or the mat.

Shoulders

Your arms play a major role in BJJ. Both offensive and defensive techniques rely on strong arms to get you out of a bad position and perform locks. All that is fine and dandy and you often forget that your shoulders are really just joints that are prone to all the ailments and vulnerabilities that all joints have in common.

Whether you’re rolling and your shoulder joints are pushed into a weird twist, or you’re engaged in arm attacks, you can sustain shoulder injuries in more ways than you can imagine. Keep an active posting up for long and your shoulders will pay the price. 

A shoulder injury is easy to detect. The pain from the sprain or snap echoes throughout your arms and shoulder blades. You’ll feel it at once and you need to disengage and have a doctor examine it. You should also apply ice to the injured area on your way to see the doctor. Your physician will recommend plenty of rest and you’ll need to abstain from BJJ practice until you’re fully healed.

Some players still go to class with an injured shoulder. It’s not the recommended option but if the injury is light and not serious enough, you can tie that arm with a belt and try to avoid getting in contact with another player on the mat. It’s not a perfect solution, but at least it protects you from making your shoulder any worse.

Neck

Your neck sits pretty well balanced over the top of your spine. It carries the weight of your head and relies on a group of muscles to keep the precious load of the spinal cord, glands, and large blood vessels intact. This works in ordinary situations but when your neck is in the vise-like grip of a BJJ opponent intent on getting a submission, all bets are off.

Again it’s a matter of bad practice and lack of experience both on your side and your opponent’s that could land you in neck trouble. If techniques like Mata Leao or the Guillotine are performed accurately you won’t sustain an injury. But if the adversary got you in a neck crank clumsily performed you might even know that your neck is being molested beyond all recognizable BJJ rules and laws.

An injured neck is not a trivial thing. You cannot just ignore it and power through it. You might need months of rest and neck braces and every time you want to turn you’ll use your shoulders rather than your neck. So, yeah, you can’t roll with this one. Stay safe!