BJJ Blue Belt: How Long does it take? 7 Ways to get it Fast
There are five major belt colors in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: White, Blue, Purple, Brown, and Black. Additionally, there are Coral Belts and Red Belts, which represent the highest ranks in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and only a few people around the world have the honor to wear these. The Blue Belt is the second belt in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu belt ranking system.
But how long does it really take to get promoted for the first time and receive a BJJ Blue Belt?
On average it takes 23 months to get a Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu according to hundreds of BJJ practitioners on Reddit. This timeframe varies from person to person since there are many contributing factors to belt promotion time.
Make sure to check out our Belt Promotion Time Calculator!
BJJ Blue Belt FAQ
How Long does it take to get a Blue Belt in BJJ? – The Numbers
There are several Reddit threads discussing how long it took everyone to get their BJJ Blue Belts. We read through many of them and collected the data from 200 responders on how long it took them to get their BJJ Blue Belt.
We also looked for factors that lead to a faster or slower promotion and plotted the data for you. Since everyone’s path to their Blue Belt in Jiu Jitsu is different, the answers would obviously vary a lot. However, you can’t argue with statistics, so let’s jump right in.
Scatterplot: Time to BJJ Blue Belt
In this first plot below, we can see the raw data and we can immediately conclude that most practitioners receive their BJJ Blue Belt between 0 and 40 months of training Jiu Jitsu since most dots are located below the horizontal line marked with 40 (months).
Nevertheless, there are quite some outliers that took much longer. The average time to receive a Blue Belt was 22.82 months.
Histogram: Time to BJJ Blue Belt
If we add up how many times each number of months was mentioned, we get the frequency for each duration. The histogram below visualizes this data. This makes it easy for us to grasp how long it takes most people to receive a Blue Belt in BJJ.
For example, 88 of the 200 BJJ practitioners reviewed on Reddit received their BJJ Blue Belt within 3 to 16 months. In the Histogram, it again becomes obvious that the majority of practitioners received their Blue Belt within 42 or fewer months of training.
We should keep in mind that the collected data might be biased since many of the BJJ practitioners on Reddit are very motivated since they spend their time off the mats reading and writing BJJ related Reddit posts.
On top of that, some of the data points might be duplicates in case one person answered in several different threads. If you want to dive into more data and statistics on belts in BJJ, we recommend visiting Beltchecker.
Reasons for Fast or Slow Promotion to Blue Belt in BJJ
Even more interesting than the raw numbers are the reasons for speedy or late Blue Belt promotions. All the following factors were extracted from Reddit data and are ordered by importance (number of mentions).
Reasons for a Fast Promotion to BJJ Blue Belt
Reasons for a Slow Promotion to BJJ Blue Belt
How to get Promoted to Blue Belt fast in BJJ
Work hard
If you want to receive your Blue Belt as fast as possible you must put in the work, that’s what most practitioners agree on. Train hard, train a lot, and compete frequently which will make you better in many ways. It surely helps to be obsessed with the sport even outside of training hours.
Choose the Right School for your Needs
You should always do your research before settling for a school. For example, the school you choose influences your risk of injury through their code of conduct as well as your rate of learning through the quality of teachers, curriculum, and many more.
Finally, try to stay with one school for as long as possible after finding the right choice for you to reap all the benefits.
Stay Injury-Free
Stay injury free, we cannot recommend this enough. It will make more training hours possible and enable you to progress faster.
I know, I know… easier said than done. You can’t avoid every injury. There are no guarantees, at some point it might unfortunately happen, but there are things you can do to prevent injuries in BJJ.
How common are injuries in BJJ? How to prevent injuries in BJJ? Click the links to check out or in-depth articles on these important topics.
Shortcuts
If you really are just doing it for the belt, you could find a school that has a favorable promotion policy, but e wouldn’t recommend selecting a school based on promotion policy alone. It might end up harming you more than it will help.
You train BJJ because you want to get better, right? Belts are made for holding up your pants. Anything worthwhile in life must be earned.
BJJ Blue Belt in the Jiu Jitsu Ranking System
The Blue Belt is the second belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s ranking system. A practitioner must be at least 16 years old before being eligible for promotion to Blue Belt according to the IBJJF.
There’s no minimum time required at White Belt, but the subsequent Blue Belt has to be worn for at least 2 years to be ready for promotion to BJJ Purple Belt.
Celebrities that have a Blue Belt in BJJ
There are many celebrities that achieved the rank of Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Check out our articles on their Jiu Jitsu journeys:
- Demi Lovato
- Tom Hardy
- Charlie Hunnam
- Joey “Coco” Diaz
- Vin Diesel
- Kelly Slater
Does your BJJ belt really matter?
We have seen the data but what should we take away?
It is interesting to go through the data on promotion times, calculate the time to our next promotion, and it’s fun to get promoted, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter.
Don’t get distracted by belts and promotions. Just train, improve, and have fun. The belts will come at some point. You will see that they are not as important as you might have thought.
Nevertheless, belts and stripes are a nice sign of appreciation of your hard work and dedication by your coach and fellow grapplers.
