History of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Belts Explained

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Kenpo belts are different also.They have the red bar at 5th degree professor.

I have no idea what the belt part is for. I have black belts in the striking arts. Not so much in juijitzu.

I heard the specific colors get progressively darker (white to blue to purple to brown to black) to match how your original belt would darker if used for so many years (it would eventually turn brown and then black). Don't know if this is true or not.

In jujitsu is het wit geel oranje groen blauw bruin en 1e Dan tussen wit en geel oranje en groen kon men een half jaar doen maar blauw bruin en 1e Dan was 1 jaar dit is voor ervaring en de tijd dat het nodig om te laten bezinken

Please don't spread Gracie myths.

belt system is cringe

I think we wear the ponteira on the left side because the other tip of the belt normally has the bjj school's logo. When we wear our gi the way it's supposed to be worn (left side over right side), the bjj school's logo at the bottom of the gi is on the right corner. I think it is just to have the logos on the same side.

I've been told the Ponteira is on the left side as when you line up, or in a circle, you generally have higher ranking belts/stripes on that side. So it's pointing to the higher ranks you want to achieve and also pay respects to.

In my Gym we wear the pontera on the Right side

My Professor is a Royler Gracie black belt through Gracie Humaita. Their rules are the red bar is for teachers, the two white bars are the "Professors Bars" and you get them after a year I think. Then your first degree is after 3 years

I was told that colors were from the idea that the white belt gets dirty / bloody / worn over time and eventually turns black. Not sure if thats truebor not but seems logical...

As for why there aren't that many colors in jiu jitsu specifically for the adult system, it is because the kids ranking system took all of the colors and only left a few of them. The other reason why for those specific colors for adult system is because its supposed to signify your belt getting darker until you get your black belt. WAY WAY back in the day when students were only wearing white belts. Their belts would get super dirty from them wearing it all the time, and sometimes their belts would turn the color black.

The colors are in that order to represent the aging of the belt and practitioner/player. The belt gets darker with experience. Let it soak in and you will get it.

His name is spelt with an H for “Helio,” but the H is silent. Every time you say his name wrong it makes me cringe.

This is a really good breakdown. A lot of people have crazy theories about Helio and Royce's reasons for wearing the Navy belt but you actually got it right. Same with your explanation about the academy's distinction between the white bar and red bar. It seems there are very few people who actually get these reasons right. Great job. (I have a Blue Bar by the way)

I've always wondered if the color order has to do with how easy it is to dye the belt to the next color

The white bar on the black belt was already stablished on the first "Guanabara Jiu Jitsu Federation". The bar for the black belt was stablished as: balck belt with a white bar as someone that just reached the black belt. The black belt with just the red bar was an assistant black belt instructor or as aomeone working to be a black belt "professor". The white stripes on the sides of the red bar came when someone was a full black belt professor. All of that is on the first "Federaçâo de Jitsu Jitsu da Guanabara" manual.
With time, people stopped to use the white bar as everyone that reached the black belt was thought to be an instructor already. Recently the white bar started to be used by competitors again.

Thoughts: BJJ colours are more adult colors. 3 belt colours with sport-tape makes the costs low, in stead of 6 a 7 colour belts.

Black belts weren’t just for teachers. The first black belts were to see selection with ease for safety in Judo. The blackbelts were skilled in the breakfalling so the teacher didn’t cost time for select a uke in teaching. So a black belt was at first a good uke. Pretty thought deeply.

This was pretty cool. I remember being at a seminar with Eli and was afraid to ask about the blue bar. I didn't want to look like an idiot.

I recall capoeira cord’s colors had something to do with how you can dye the same one.. so starting white you can dye to blue, and blue to brown to black..? Maybe has something to do with it..

I do a 400 year old style of Japanese jujitsu called ryoi shinto ryu, which doesn't have a belt untill you are a black belt. We wear a kendo style gi top and hakama. Traditionally you would all wear black fabric around your waist to store a sword but most of us only use it im demonstrations or photos.

In judo the blue belt is the first advanced belt. This is followed by purple then brown. Some schools today now just use degrees of brown first second and third degrees before student receive their black belts. These belts symbolize exposure to the entire judo curriculum which each new belt a progression toward mastery.

I have always heard that the same colors were used in bjj because a blue belt is the stage where the student should be able to beat an untrained opponent in a street fight the vast majority of the time, thus is in line with judo’s notion of blue purple and brown belts being advanced belts.

I appreciate the mention! This is a great breakdown of the history in a concise and easy-to-follow manner. I get so many questions about why I have the ponteira azul, so I’ll be sure to use this video as a reference to steer people toward 🙌

Very interesting thank you for sharing this piece of history.

⭐ "Promosm"

I have a theory, white=clean slate; blue=fresh bruise; purple=old bruise; brown=dirt from fighting; black=your belt is full of blood and dirt; red= you just shed fresh blood everywhere you go

When I started in 2006 all the belts we wore had professor bars. My white and blue belt both had them. Once I got to purple and brown them were not as common.

Yeah...I'm just gonna go with Bruce Lee's philosophy on martial arts belts: "Belts are only good for holding your pants up."

Nice presentation. Clear and concise. As to Kyu rank belts of various colors, I read that Kano Sensei pulled the idea from competitive swimming where swimmers were categorized in ability for competition by colored ribbons worn on the arm. Black was allegedly worn by the very best swimmers so Kano decided to award black belts to the longest practicing and proficient students. (Then again I wasn't there so ; )

parabéns pelo canal! OSS

The white bar is a completely new concept for BJJ and its used for BJJ competitors (BJJ Fighter). The Gracie family in the 80's wore Blackbelts with no sleeve on it.
Some will only give the Professor end stripes if they have been teaching for at least 2 years. It was originally only for Blackbelts, along with stripes in general. The stripes system given to Adult practitioners in America was to keep them motivated, otherwise it was mainly used only for Kids belts. When I started we didn't have sleeves nor get stripes in BJJ. I have been doing BJJ since 1995 and learned directly from the Gracie family.

My little joke: blue- BJJ makes you cool! purple: even cooler brown: da shit! black: ain't no joke! But yeah, I can see how the kept the light blue belt for after white and added brown as a pre-black belt. My guess is purple makes a good color to mark progress, being next in spectrum and darker. Kempo has blue and purple between white and green belt, because they go green, brown, black, to add extra steps. I think those colors make more sense after green! Of course, bjj whitebelt is white through green w only kids wearing the colors. I can see how adding grey after white or orange after yellow make sense, even though not on order on color chart lol! Otherwise, green, blue, purple makes total sense!

In other systems stripes go to the left, as well. When it comes putting on the belt, the Asian arts wrap belt from left to right. In BJJ we do the opposite. I figure the direction is for ceremonial reasons. Like how native Americans pass a sage stick around their body going to the right etc. My question is why do the Brazilians go right to left? I'm guessing because they are south of the equater!

Awesome thank you for this wonderful video. I am liked and subscribed.!
Interesting about the color belt in judo founder Soke Kano , in addition I also heard that another reason he instituted a belt system
Was to make judo safer .
During training and competition, sometimes the skill level of a student could not be determined so there were injuries . So, by having the belts , senior students could gauge what level people are on to avoid injuries for competition in training..
Fantastic video so knowledgeable I look forward to seeing more of your Contant. Be blessed. !

I think Pedro Valente did a really good video on the belt systems. Also Robert Drysdale talks about the belt systems in his book Opening the Closed Guard

The belts get darker from white-black. Like if you wore your black belt for a really long time it would get less white over time... thats my best guess lol

The story I heard about judo colors from both my judo Sensei and my karate Sensei is: back in the early days of training, judokas trained outdoors. Because of this, over time, their white belts would turn green from landing on the grass so much. Then the grass would wear out and the dirt beneath would turn the belts brown. After much more time, the dirt would also give way to the soil beneath turning the belts black.

I don’t know why BJJ chose their colors but I have joked in reference to the judo story that BJJ students have always trained indoors so their belt colors my refer to the progression of the color of their bruises. 😁 I’m probably way off on that but it’s funny to think about my bruises going from blue to purple like bjj belts. 😎

Subscribed. 😎

I love judo,and I practice,5 years Karate Shotokan😢the Sensei gave me two stripes,beight a shodan in Judo,what? I am more confused than before. But it is better start over again,with “white belt”. Sensei Kigoro Kano,dicided to wear white belt when he died 😊😂

I decided not to answer your questions becuase true knowledge is knowing I know nothing at all

Ponteira? Just "ponta"...

The navy blue belt has significance because of the Japanese word “kon”. This word not only means navy blue but can also mean perseverance, persistence, patient and so on. That’s the reason it was used before and in place of the black belt.
Sumo players play with the meaning of colors as well with their mawashi. And judo took a lot from sumo.

4 stripe blue belt gang !

I think bjj just consolidated their belt system. If you look at Judo ranks for adults the order goes as follows: white, yellow, green, brown (3 degrees), and black.

Useless stuff. Only purpose is making money out of it.

Rumor has it Helio gave himself to first 10th dan red belt after his famous victory where he absolutely destroyed Kimura and humiliated Judoka forever

Very informative video 📹
Really enjoyed it 💥✊️✔️💯