Jeff Glover recently spoke out about the modern standards for black belt promotion in BJJ, and he’s clearly not a fan of the direction that the sport is heading in. It’s something that comes up fairly often and has actually been mentioned by several different generations of BJJ black belts in the past. As the next generation comes up, they might do certain things or follow certain trends that veteran grapplers don’t approve of. That then causes them concern for the direction that the sport is heading in, although whether that concern is actually warranted or not remains to be seen.
Many older competitors and coaches complained about the rise of the berimbolo or the huge advances in the modern leglock game, but both of them were pivotal moments in the technical development of the sport. Now, it’s impossible to be an elite competitor without having an in-depth knowledge of those two areas, at least from a defensive point of view. Glover himself was actually criticised once upon a time, because his Donkey Guard was a position that earned him some ridicule from certain sections of the BJJ community. Glover wasn’t complaining about any specific technique or trend that you see on the mats in Jiu-Jitsu though, he directed his attention towards belt promotion specifically:
“Black belt in BJJ used to have value. Now we are giving black belts to 50 year old women who would get destroyed by a teenager with zero grappling skills. The days of the black belt are gone and not coming back. Let’s just give everyone a black belt who trains long enough right? What a joke it’s become.”
He’s not alone of course. Other older competitors and coaches have spoken about the sport being watered down over the years, and some of them even reference similar scenarios. The earliest days of Jiu-Jitsu were almost exclusively reserved for men, so much so that the first woman to reach black belt in BJJ wasn’t even promoted until 1990. Even though women did join the sport at a slightly higher rate as the years went on, it wasn’t until very recently that it started to reach an even wider mainstream audience. Some people see the greater number of people participating in BJJ as a positive thing, but others like Jeff Glover don’t approve of what they see as declining black belt standards.
