Earning your stripes

Last night the Meerkat was proud to receive his first stripe from Eddie my BJJ instructor. I had to fight for it and show that I’m not completely terrible. It was a very nice and I must say unexpected reward, and of course I got the obligatory three rounds of belt whipping from my class mates as celebration.

BJJ grades are awarded on an ad-hoc basis by the head coach. No such grading is performed but they are given when the instructor feels the student has reached a certain standard. Higher belts are usually awarded at prestigious events by well known figures.

There are only five belt colours, each with about four stripes to indicate intermediate stages between belts. They are a good way of indicating skill status of the student and a one-stripe white belt rank would be a fair indication of my ability – ie I can usually whip the behind of a novice, but struggle against a two-striper.The thing I like about this system is that it really works. There is no point trying to belt chase – you would easily get found out. How many high grades in other systems have you seen that you thought, blimey, they couldn’t punch their way out of a paper bag! Ok Ok I’m not going there – flaming is not my style – mind you, sharing our BJJ dojo last night was a kids karate class and as I walked past, I got shudders remembering my own junior karate days. It seems just so, needless.