Will training for years and years until you earn your BJJ black belt turn you into a mythical god with superpowers? Or will you be like that martial arts instructor in Napoleon Dynamite or your local Karate master?
How Good Is A Black Belt In BJJ?
A BJJ black belt is an expert at grappling. They should be able to easily defend themselves against an attacker in a street fight no matter the size of the opponent. In the gym, they will display mastery and be able to easily submit lower belts while exerting minimum effort.
A BJJ black belt is a serious martial artist. By the time they have received their belts they have spent thousands of hours perfecting their techniques and often up to a decade of consistent training.
A BJJ black belt is a master of the art. They have deep knowledge in all aspects of grappling. They are comfortable in all positions and have no problem submitting other BJJ players with a variety of techniques.
If a BJJ black belt was an animal they would be a lion or a killer whale. They are an apex predator with no other animals above them in the food chain. They can take out white and blue belts literally with one arm and using 10% of their power. It is often boring for black belts to train with these low-level students because they literally can make any move work and submit them at will. To a black belt rolling with a belt is like playing a video game on super super super easy mode.
While they have to use a little more effort to dominate purple and brown belts, they still easily can rack up submissions over these experienced practitioners. Black belts prefer training with these upper belts because at least they can put up a bit of a fight and make the black belt work a little bit before they eventually fold and give up a submission.
To a white belt, the difference between a purple belt or brown belt and a black belt is often indistinguishable. All of these upper belts can submit the white belt at will and easily dominate them with minimum effort. What separates a black belt from these upper belts is being able to anticipate the moves of their opponents, planning their moves 2 and 3 steps in advance like a high-level chess player, deeper knowledge of positions, and superior speed and timing.
A black belt will often see a move coming as soon as you start thinking about it and just as you start moving their body will instinctually counter your move. They are also masters at setting traps and getting you to play into their game so they can lead you down a path that leads to you giving up the submission.
While brown and purple belts know a lot about BJJ and have very strong fundamentals their knowledge is just not as vast and deep as a BJJ black belt. While a purple belt may know 5 counters to a specific position a black belt may know 15. A brown belt may have a strong knee cut pass that works on a lot of good BJJ athletes but a BJJ black belt can immediately identify 3 things that can improve the brown belt’s passing technique by 20%. This enhanced level of knowledge separates the master black belt from the advanced students.
Black belts also just operate at a speed that is far superior to other belts. After spending years and years training they have developed reflexes that allow them to fire off attacks and counters without having to think about anything. This gives them a huge speed advantage over less experienced athletes and helps them seize small opportunities that are only open for a split second in time.
Outside the gym, a BJJ black belt is just as dangerous. A BJJ black belt just like he toys with white and blue belts in the gym is able to toy with attackers in a street fight. They should have no problem hitting whatever technique they feel like on an attacker.
If they feel like blast doubling to mount and quickly finishing the fight with an Ezekiel or maybe clinching, taking the back, and choking the guy out with a standing rear-naked choke it doesn’t matter whatever weapons they feel like employing they should have no problem using.
When a guy who has spent the last 10 years training how to choke and break people’s bones fights a drunk guy who has spent the last 10 years eating cheeseburgers it typically doesn’t work out well for the drunk. The drunk often gets a deer in headlights look after he realizes he has bit off more than he can chew and then the fight outcome comes down to how much mercy the BJJ black belt shows.
You definitely don’t want to mess with a BJJ black belt in a street fight. Unless you have years of experience in MMA or a combination of boxing with wrestling your chances of lasting more than 1 or 2 minutes is very low. If you see a guy with cauliflower ears it is best to walk away because you could get yourself in some serious trouble and end up getting seriously hurt.
