Wife just got her purple belt!

[Merryprankster]

Yesterday, Carlos Sapao Oyazuma gave my wife her purple belt in BJJ. She was pretty excited about it.

Of course, she's complaining she doesn't feel like she deserves it, but I think we all do that.

[Yao Sing]

The big question is does she have shoes to go with the belt? Looks like it's shopping time! :D

[Charles T Rose]

cool!!!!the first "serious" level belt in BJJ.

[Merryprankster]

LOL Yao Sing!

[rogue]

That's great MP.

Yao Sing, that was sexist, very funny but sexist.:D

[Chief Fox]

I'm totally ignorant when it come to BJJ. How much training does a purple belt represent?

Congratulations to Mrs. Merryprankster!

[Radhnoti]

Congrats to Mrs. MP!

Great that you and your wife can share an interest like that... :)

[Merryprankster]

That's where I met her.

Believe me, it IS great...you don't have to explain it or curb your training time. No fights about it. Ahhhhh.

How much training time it represents is going to vary by individual. I got my purple belt about 2 years into my training, which most would consider rather fast, but I had a wrestling background. I also stayed a purple belt for just under (or maybe just over) 4 years.

Nicole has been seriously training BJJ since about 2001. We both average around 4 to 5 times a week.

A purple belt is half-way up the belt scale: White, Blue, Purple, Brown, Black.

A purple belt could be likened to a black belt in many other styles, in terms of how many hours you've put in.

[Chief Fox]

That's awesome man! Congrats again to Mrs. MP. I'll be attending my first BJJ class this week. :)

[Mr Punch]

Yao Sing, that was sexist, very funny but sexist.:DI don't think so... I don't know any men who would want to match their belts to their shoes! :D


That's where I met her.That's really cool!

I teach my gf a bit of wing chun but we often end up grappling...

Maybe we can learn something from that! :D


A purple belt could be likened to a black belt in many other styles, in terms of how many hours you've put in.Really? So how many hours on average? Or do some schools recommend a minimum number whether people know the curriculum or not?

I took approx 1500 hours to get my aikido BB (EDIT: actually maybe much more), of which probably half were randori and sparring with other schools. I would guess that most people in the HQ of my school who aren't so interested in the martial side take about half the time and maybe ten percent randori with no sparring.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

tell her congrats from all of us man.

your wife could take me. thats hawt.

[5Animals1Path]

Tell your wife she's a one in a million kinda gall. Congrats.


(Not that other women couldn't, just that they don't.) :)

[Merryprankster]

Oh, I dunno. 1500 hours sounds about right-ish. 1.5-2 hour practices, 4 or 5 times a week, lets say 48 weeks a year what with holidays and work travel and such, 5 years. Roughly speaking.


So that's what...

240 weeks, 6 ish or so hours a week on the low end, 1440 hours?

Yeah. 1500 might be about right.

But, it's ability based in the sense not only of what you know and how hard you worked, but how you hang with other people. If you're beating all the blue belts in your club, and holding your own against purples, then a promotion is probably on its way.

There's not really a set number of hours or techniques. It's more how you match up, like the above, and no school I have ever seen has ever set anything up like that, except perhaps for certain absolutely basic requirements with respect to knowledge, but you'll still have to demonstrate you can use them in live grappling as above. Not a test per se, just observation over time.

It's harder for women to use that as a gauge though. There just aren't that many BJJ women, and an athletic guy who trains hard for 6-8 months is very difficult for all but the most exceptional female BJJers to deal with.

It's also a pain in the ass because some guys just refuse to lose to a woman. They don't use it as an opportunity to try and work on something, or refine movements or anything. If they can't win using decent technique, they'll start "Gold's Gym"-ing it.

But you should see the look on the faces of the new guys when they get tapped... :D It's priceless. You can lose incoming students that way...and that's fine by me. If you can't handle that, I don't want you there anyway.

[metsubushi]

Congrats! And what a lucky fellow.

[Mr Punch]

Good points Merry.

I forgot to say congrats! I always do that - too gobby for my own good!

Congrats!