Chris Haueter has explained why academies once barred students from no-gi until purple belt.
And, well, he argues that learning to grapple in the gi builds control and pressure that no-gi-only training can lack.
Speaking about the old-school approach, he recalled that early years belonged to the gi:
In my early days, you didn’t get to do no-gi until you were a purple belt. Based on the belief that you had to learn the complexities and control that you get from the gi.
And I noticed people who do no-gi only lack that control. And they lack the pressure. Generally speaking, there are exceptions to all this, right?
Haueter also tied the gi to the humility of the belt system.
Wearing a white belt means accepting that you are starting over, he said, and he can argue either side on how much rank matters:
Putting on a gi, you had to wear a white belt. You had to humble yourself… That’s part of the journey, right?
And like, I’ve been in debates where I could argue both sides of the value of marking your rank.
How in one way it’s all bul**hit and another way it’s incredibly important.
And if you’re going to compete, how do we divide the novice and the expert? And the best way is belts.
Haueter suggested that colored belts would lose significance if Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ever reached the Olympics, where only black belt would count:
And should Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ever become an Olympic sport, the only belt that will matter is black belt. There’s not going to be a purple belt Olympic Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion.
That’s all practice. All the colored belts are practice.
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