"at least in the U.S. the standards were not as quick as I understand they are in Japan."
"most did NOT make shodan"
Yes I knew it's harder to get promoted in North America. Coming out of concentration camps, the original instructors didn't want to make it easy for you guys I guess. No humor intended.
I met an American dude who was purple in BJJ and brown in judo. I told him that his purple belt has a lot more value than his judo belt and he took my comment as an insult. I had to explain to him that in terms of difficulty in acquisition, judo shodan = BJJ blue belt in everywhere else.
American federation goes against the policy kodokan made on promotions and they don't seem to give efforts in correcting or adjusting their standards in accordance with the world's highest authority in the sport.
Matt Hughes once made an arrogant assertion, something along the line of ”failed wrestlers choose judo” as an alternative. I'd disagree. But when brown belt is all an adult can hope for after 4 years of committed training in a competition team, one must realize American judo is providing the pretty discouraging environment for athletes with serious mind. And you tell me Rousey couldn't last more than a few days in Japan and ran from the dorm while her colleagues were asleep?
As I wrote, the belt literally means nothing in Japan. 5th Dan matters to some perhaps but black belt itself never wows anyone. Police academy will let you come in wearing the rusty black belt that you earned 6 years ago in middle school (although they're gonna make you feel like a piece of shit soon) and nobody cares.
.......Hardly relevant to the São Paulo murder. The peasant in me craves for people's attention and wrote thoughtless information with 2 shitty links in red.
Not sure if you're referring to my purple belt thread from last year, but I'm BJJ purple and Judo brown:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/got-my-purple-belch.4214951/
I don't take offense to anyone's subjective opinion, but I hope you realize you're coming off fairly pretentious with your blanket belt equivalents. I'm in agreement belts don't REALLY matter but by that same logic, belt equivalents are about as justifiable as MMA math. Belt standards vary across federations and gyms and there's a huge range even within the same gym. Presuming to tell someone the equivalent value of their belt THEY earned (what does that even mean, if belts don't matter?) is in poor form without knowing their individual training background.
In my case, I considered myself an average Judo competitor who got ~15 hours mat time/week for 4 years (on top of varsity HS wrestling background) and at the end of that, I had the points for ikkyu but due to paperwork, am officially still a nikyu which isn't even brown in many countries. Throughout that time, I competed a lot. I was KTFOed from an uchi mata ippon at my second senior nationals. In another match, I left the mat on a stretcher and neckbrace and rode an ambulance to the ER. My right ankle has a permanent mobility impediment due to a bone fragment injury. I had matches with national and international level competitors including a guy on the Russian national team and lots of guys from the U.S. OTC. I trained and competed through injuries for 4 years and of course had competition wins over browns and blacks.
FWIW I think Matt Hughes' assertion has a ring of truth in the U.S. The reason I switched to college team Judo is because I wasn't good enough to make my college D1 wrestling team, but still loved to train and compete. I also competed in ammy boxing and club freestyle wrestling. Scholastic wrestling is much more popular in the U.S. and many Judo competitors (more than half our team) came from a wrestling background.
I'd also dispute your assertion that a Judo BB comes with a Happy Meal anywhere outside North America. Maybe it's like that in Japan (I don't know), but the gym I trained at in Germany was anything but. Every brown belt at that club was a fucking killer. I've trained and competed against many Canadians and their federation standards seem to be comparable to the U.S. Comments from several UK Judoka on this board seem to indicate similar standards.
At my BJJ gym, the new Judo coach was on the Brazilian national team and he and our main BJJ coach are teaching each other their respective arts. It's been about six months and our BJJ coach started Judo guy at blue (which makes sense to me). BJJ coach is a 2nd degree BJJ BB and was a pro MMA fighter for >10 years including the WSOF and PFL and was a main training partner and cornerman for two UFC fighters including a former top-5 contender. Judo coach started him at white and after 6 months, promoted him directly to yonkyu (orange under Brazil federation belt system) but told him to expect about 2 more years of consistent training before ikkyu brown. I will say I think this is ridiculous. My BJJ coach is a fucking monster both on the feet and on the mat. Most of his takedowns are wrestling based and maybe his gi grip fighting and gi Judo throws aren't yet BB level but to me he should have been given an ikkyu brown and maybe let him marinate there for 1 or 2 years before shodan.