BJJ Poll: How Often Do You Get to Roll with a BJJ Black Belt?

by Caleb on June 5, 2010

This one comes to us from – no surprise here – Ross in Northern California!

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Sonny Parlin June 5, 2010 at 11:38 pm: I switched teams six months ago and ever since I’ve been rolling with a black belt almost every time I train. It’s improved my game so much.
Morgz June 6, 2010 at 4:46 am: Great poll — would love to hear you guys speak in depth about how this affects people’s rate of improvement. I started training about 4 and half years ago, and at that time, the only black belt was the school owner / head instructor. There were no brown belts, no purple belts. and about 10 blue belts. Now we have 2 black belts, 3 brown belts, 10-15 purples, and tons of blue belts.

I think it must have been much harder for the “advanced” guys to improve back when I started. They were close to purple belt level, but had NO upper belts to train with other than the instructor. As a new white belt back then, I was fortunate that I at least had a good number of advanced blues to push me.

Now a new white belt off the street has TONS of advanced students at all belt levels to push them when they roll, and help with additional instruction. It’s my opinion that guys starting now may in fact be able to improve more quickly than guys who started years ago and did not have very many advanced team mates to help them.

Morgz
matthew glover June 6, 2010 at 10:51 am: I get to roll with a black belt numerous times a week. I feel it really helps progression. If you want to be the best you have to train with the best.