What a week!

One of the great things in martial arts is giving deserving kids who have worked so hard a well earned new belt, or a stripe on their belt. Not many other sports get to do this. One of my jokes (Dad jokes that is) is that no one ever gives you your Blue Racket in Badminton.

So this is a great motivational tool for us as coaches, but it's also a great sign of progress for the young student. To see a visible sign of improvement wrapped around their waist can give a real boost to someone who might not see how good they're getting.

Here's how the belt system works in Jiu Jitsu.

If you're into charts, you might like that one, but if you're not, let me simplify it.

In many martial arts, you can have a youth black belt. In my previous martial art, there were many underage Black belts at age 10 or 12. This isn't possible in Jiu Jitsu. Instead, there's a kids belt system that runs from White belt to Green Belt.

Each belt can have 4 stripes on it. A stripe is an important way to recognise progress, without graduating the kid to the next level.

Levels for a competitive kid are important. Divisions in each event are divided by weight, age, and experience level denoted by the belt. Unfortunately, this means that it's open to some interpretation by coaches. You may find a kid who has just received their Grey belt competing against someone who has up to 5 year's experience. This is a frustration for many coaches and parents, but it's part of the game.

But we don't hold our kids back. We believe that if they have worked hard, and they have developed their skills, they shouldn't be dependant on levels artificially set by others in other academies. We want to reward hard work! And in the end, we don't coach to develop underage winners, we coach to develop great adults.

So congratulations to all of our kids who got stripes and belts last week! We're very proud of your progress through the martial art of Jiu Jitsu, and we look forward to seeing you on the mat with your new level on your waist!

Keep training!

See you on the mat,

Barry