By TXMMA Staff // Felix Rodriguez // Emil Fischer // Photos by Mike Calimbas // Part 2 of 3
Opinions from black belt instructors who started teaching before they were promoted to Faixa Preta
“There are black belts with tons of knowledge who don’t know how to disseminate it. On the flip side, there are blue belts with limited fundamental knowledge who can expertly relay that to new students.”– Joey Zente 2nd degree Purple Belt at Lake Travis Jiu-Jitsu Club”
In part one of this three part series the aspects and mindset of non-black belt instructors was explored. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is constantly evolving and areas that once had no black belts suddenly have many home grown talented black belts. In this ever changing climate one question seems to come up very frequently: does belt color of the head instructor matter when selecting an academy?
On the one hand, teaching seems to gradually improve an instructor’s perspectives as time goes on, giving them a clearer and clearer message of how to correctly apply the moves and techniques they teach. On the other hand, people get worn out over time and often a younger fresher instructor may have concepts that the old guard doesn’t. If anyone doubts this, they should look into the evolution displayed by The Miyao brothers when they were brown belts, or for that matter any of the hundreds of brown belts who are and have revolutionized sport Jiu Jitsu (granted this revolution is viewed by many as a dilution of the art, but that is a different matter for a different article).
TXMMA had an opportunity to sit down with several black belt instructors who started teaching prior to receiving their black belts to get their thoughts on this matter.
Josh Mancuso of Team Revolution BJJ Baton Rouge LA has been teaching since he was a blue belt and now holds a black belt under Tim Credeur. When it comes to difficulties with student retention “I never really had this problem because I am a very passionate person when it comes to BJJ and I truly feel that a passionate purple belt will be a better instructor than a Black belt that is just there doing a job. Passion and love for what you do separates people. I have purple and blue belts under me now that I love to learn from to this day because of their extreme passion for BJJ.” Josh also enjoyed a lack of competition from black belts for a while “there were no Black belts near me until I was a brown so I always let the atmosphere that I create and my ability to teach speak for itself.”
Arlington Texas based Daniel Alvarez of Alvarez BJJ (A Bruno Bastos affiliate) feels that lower belts can potentially be good teachers “I don’t have a problem with that at all. I hear people griping about ‘oh he’s going to open a school and he’s only a purple belt.’ It matters who the individual is, if the instructor has the students’ best interests at heart. I don’t see a problem one bit, if they’re there help. You don’t need to be a black belt to help people lose weight. If you’re looking for a place to meet positive people and not just do curls and run a treadmill and you provide that for them, by all means why not? If their technique is good, and they come from a good lineage of an instructor’s, why not? If they’re willing to use their academy to help other people, then I don’t have one problem with that.” However Alvarez does see some potential pitfalls “Being an instructor I think it’s alright, but on the other end people who are not coaches and they’re just students they see a purple belt and say “ Man, this dudes trying to open up his own academy and he’s just a purple belt” When you’re a purple belt you’ve been training for a good 3-5 years, maybe even longer depending on your instructor and somebody on that level has a lot of information to share up stairs. But if they’re just there to make money or they’re just no good and really don’t know what they’re doing and they could really care less about their students then that’s a huge problem.”
Chad Kight of Sugarland MMA is no stranger to starting from scratch. Originally from El Campo TX Mr. Kight has been training for 18 years. His beliefs mirror those of so many others “I don’t have to reassure anyone anything, just know what your doing as a teacher, if you don’t that’s gonna show, and if you do that will also show, the proof is in the pudding!” The beauty of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is that good technique proves itself, regardless of the color of the belt around the waist of the person doing that technique.
The men interviewed for this article all have experience teaching as lower belts so they understand the pitfalls and possible advantages of being a lower belt rank as a head instructor. Growing with one’s students can be a valuable learning experience and at the end of the day it is one more thing that makes a BJJ black belt earned and not given. Jiu Jitsu is perhaps the only martial art in which a lower belt rank can own a school and be respected in the community given the skills and knowledge that many of such practitioners have already attained.
In Part 3 of this series the perspective of black belts who feel that schools should only be run by black belts will be explored.
