Changing gyms...and the lineage of your belt?

[efficientjudo]

so just out of curiosity, you hear this guy A is a B's brown belt or black belt, and you know they can trace his lineage of his instructors and that instructor's instructors and so on....what happens if you change gyms in the middle of your bjj journey and let's say you get half of the earlier belts like I don't know till purple from the instructor A, but then get your brown and black from the instructor B? Whose black belt are you? Is it A's or B's?

Seems pretty straight forward to me "I'm a Black belt under B" and if someone really wants to get into the details, "I trained under A until I got my X belt, but ended up moving club and got my black belt under B"

Many well known guys have gone this route - e.g BJ Penn is known to have started out under Ralph Gracie (until at least purple?), but got his black belt under Pederneiras.

 

[nefti]

I understand the sentiment. My instructor also told me he'd feel more comfortable belting me under his instructor - someone famous whose patch we all wear but who I've never even met.

Your instructor is a good man. Alot of guys get territorial with their students

 

[asian-glow]

Your instructor is a good man. Alot of guys get territorial with their students

I actually met his instructor for the first time actually.

I can understand the territorial nature tbh. It would suck to put a ton into a student only to have him move away.

 

[ChickenBrother]

On the other hand if a blue comes in smashing purples or a purple comes in smashing browns and blacks, they'll probably go up faster to avoid embarrassing the new academy

Standards vary gym to gym so much

In your experience have you seen this happen quickly?

I've trained at a lot of gyms due to moving often for work over the years, but my current gym is the only one I've trained at more than 2 years. I think promotion standards here are way more stringent for new comers vs. long-time students. For example I've observed a lot of whites, blues and purples that were realistically about mid-level for their current belt, but they'd been training at the gym for a long time and maybe 2 or 3 years in rank, and the instructor promoted them presumably to keep them motivated to improve. So they end up being clearly the worst at their new belt, and still getting beaten in rolls by about half the students of the lower belt. But within a year or so they improve to the average level of their new belt.

But with new members, seems like coach makes them spend at least 6 months smashing everyone at their belt, and more than half the students of next higher belt before promoted them to that belt.

There also seems to be lower belt standards for older students with kids for example, vs. younger students particularly if they compete (non-elite) or fight MMA. Obviously there's a huge disparity between world level competitors and hobbyists but our gym doesn't have any of the former.

 

[lechien]

Right.
So typically, it is a good to advertise your lineage on your website if you run a gym.
The reason is there were and still are frauds out there.
However, most of the time, if you no longer affiliated with the person that promoted to BB.
Then you might not be allowed to mentions his name to a certain extend.
The lower belts ....well...you can share the information while chatting away after training. I don't really see the need to put it on a website.

 

[Dirty Holt]

In 17 years, I have literally never seen a brown belt who was ready to be a black belt move gyms for the sole reason to get a black belt under someone who has a more recognizable name. If it has happened, it is so rare it shouldnt even be a thought.

 

[Foppa21]

Yeah, I always thought it was a bit weird and possibly just a matter of marketing. Say you go from white to brown with instructor A,and then get black from instructor B, then your lineage is basically with instructor B despite spending probably 90% of your time with instructor A?

Ref: BJ Penn