Should You Pay for a BJJ Belt Promotion 

As a BJJ black belt training since 1998 and still rolling 3x a week.... I have never met a professor that requires that a student pay for a belt. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I wouldn't entertain that at all. I'd train somewhere else.

I had to pay for my Judo black belt. Specifically, I had to go to amazon and pay the $8 for the belt. lol

Our gym has pay for belt test, well under $100 though. For a reference it is an outside of normal class hours test where you must show a set number of skills per position which isn’t scheduled until the coach feels you are ready. This is where we have the impact of the coaches long term view of our attitude, and other more subjective things. Our dojo does not however have any cost associated with stripes or anything like that.

I’m always baffled hearing these stories. I’ve only trained at one place with one coach and hearing this stuff makes me so grateful to train where I do and that is 100% because of my coach and the culture that has been created there.

I just got my bluebelt, my new belt had my name embroided on it, and my coach didnt even let me pay for the belt itself after I asked to, even though Im an adult and fully capable of doing so, as he said he wanted it to be a gift. People charging $150 for a promotion sounds insane, and to me it seems like taking advantage of kids that just wamt to show their achievements.

Some questions that chewie gets from fellow fans about their gyms makes me very appreciative of the coach/gym/environment I'm blessed with training in.

In the last 34 years, I've trained at so many schools, of countless styles, including some of the most famous gyms in the world, and I've never heard of a student paying for a belt promotion. If you're already paying a reasonable monthly fee, and you EARN your belts and stripes, it would be an insult to be charged to be promoted...and it simply sounds disgusting (in my opinion). *EDIT:* I even had an Instructor once, who insisted on allowing me to keep training during a period when life was rough, and I couldn't afford to pay for a few months. To this day, I am thankful, because he genuinely cared about me, not my money. We are still close friends, and even though I live in a different state, we keep in touch like family ❤️

I like how you didn't automatically just say it's good or it's bad. Instead, the answer is "it depends" but you explain why. Great perspective.

At my gym, new belts are $50. But our coach also includes a new gi every year with our membership, so it evens out.

Our gym will sometimes link belt promotion day with a special event bringing in coaches from other gyms to teach a specialized seminar. The last one was like $100 a person but was totally optional, more of a celebration with a seminar attached. Belt promotions have always been free as long as I have been there.

God damn I feel really spoiled. Our coach buys our belts, doesnt hound people for dues, and works with them, mainly younger kids if they cant pay. He travels with us to comps around the country and doesnt ask for anything in return, maybe because he competes in most himself. But even the ones he doesn't, he never asks for a thing. Only that if were going to do this were going to this right. Show up, be focused and train hard. Im lucky as a mfer!

Belt Tests! I never did a belt test from White to Black Belt and was never a fan of them back then. As a club owner I do have belt test(with no fees) and I 'm happy with the results. I only give out a belt test to a student when I know they can already pass it. When they get the test sheet to study, they are more focused and also their teammates(higher and or lower ranked) are eager to help them. This what changed my mind about belt test. It helped sharped the students skills as they are very focused and want to do well on the test. Also it made the team tighter as they worked together to help improve their teammate.

$150! Yikes! I can maybe...maybe understand the cost of the belt but even then its lame.

You're charged for your promotion with your monthly membership.

Chewie, you're such a good dude. When I watch your videos, I don't just feel like I'm learning and being enlightened...I feel like a "friend" is talking to me. You have such a good vibe, and are so caring, honorable and humble. And that's the best compliment a Martial Artist can have. Thank you for being "you" 🙏🏻

i went to a gym where the belt test was $60 but that was also a 1on1 with a black belt so it was also a mini private lesson. in that case it might be worth it but idk my current coach does it free but he does the test with several students at a time.

I’d be the most dedicated, consistent, and best white belt in the dojo. White belt for life! A boss doesn't need to be told they're the boss.

At my gym you don't get charged for promotions and there isn't a formal belt test. Our instructor is so good that as he is rolling and beating someone's ass he is watching you roll to see how your game is improving (not to mention talk trash to you). He will also tell you who to roll with so if you notice him matching you up with multiple higher belts, as he watches how you deal with them, that's your "belt test". It seems like it works pretty well cause at all the local competitions we're always a thorn in the sides of the big name gyms with tons of people flooding the brackets and we always seem to podium.

I don’t believe in charging for belt promotions. Except for the cost of the belt itself. $25-$30 max. But to charge $150 even $75. That’s a Jujitsu Cult and it’s not the gym culture I would want to be part of. Too many gyms forget that I am a paying customer already. At $150 per month I likely already paid $1800 to $3600 to train for my blue belt. I am 100% with Chewjitsu here. Unless it’s a special event with guest instructor and catering. If you charge for a belt, that’s no culture I want any part of.

At my school we will usually only get promoted at a "graduation seminar" held twice a year. for that we pay something between 60 and 90 bucks depending on if we join for 1 or 2 days. there will be world class guest professors doing the seminar and, since everybody is there, also the promotion ceremony. so we kinda pay for it but get extra vaue, too

I disagree with not testing. And I know that the vast majority of gyms don't test because I've moved around a lot but my gym tests and I'll tell you why I think it's necessary. If you let most people do and work on whatever they want they'll usually take the path of least resistance and avoid things they aren't very good at it while they refine the things they enjoy or come naturally to them. Unfortunately. I've seen this lead to having higher belts with a lot of holes in their game. Maybe they have little to no passes for half guard or their mount sucks or they don't know how to deal with certain guards. The test we do is vague and extremely helpful. Our coach makes sure we have x amount of escapes from each position, x amount of passes from each position, x amount of leg takedowns, x amount of throws, submissions etc. He makes us do all of this and then we get scored on each of them. Then we do several rounds of rolling with no breaks and we're scored on a plus, minus or even system depending on who submitted who more in each round. I find this system both fair and valuable to the coach and the student. I may have had like 2-3 escapes in a given position or even just 1 and it forced me to add another and really work on it. Same for throws and passes. Don't overlook the value and power of testing. I think it just makes for stronger and more well rounded graduates.

Man, it seems wild to me that a dojo out there would charge for a STRIPE on your belt. I feel like I was lucky enough to have a dojo that seemed to care more so about my progress in jiu jitsu, rather than how much money I'm giving them. Got my blue belt recently, didn't have to pay for it, or the promotional event (though it was just a little ceremonial event during open mat, it was nice) I get it I guess, some dojos gotta make money, just hope that the people attending it are getting their money's worth.

My old coach from White to Black Belt charged for $30 stripes and $60 for a belt. I never bothered me as I felt I was getting my money's worth with all the cost of training. As a club owner I don't charge anything for belt promotions as I have put all my expenses in the membership so my members have a clear view of the total cost of training.

Curious to hear an update on this one. Wondering if OPs coach is actually having an event or something

Yes, some corprate schools will charge for a belt test... if you want to test with a out of town special guest black belt, just like paying for a seminar. It depends on the school, many schools give you a belt promotion if you beat all the lewer belts in comp, some will promote you if you follow the lesson plan and learn the moves, others will promote you only to keep your money, and other will not promote you inorder to make the school look good in competitions.

I tested for my blue. It was all free though. The gym I am at now charges $50 for belt promotion, but it also has very low membership costs, so I don't really view it as an issue.

Chewy, the BJJ community needs more people like you.

My first gym, they charged $15 for each stripe and $30 for the belt when promoted.

The most similar thing i had to this experience was a blue belt. He recently promoted having to buy his own belt because he lost the white belt the instructor gifted him when he started

I agree with you 100%

At my gym they charge us $30 for the belt when you're promoted. Super reasonable and we all don't mind supporting to help keep the gym successful.

The second money is even brought into the same sentence as a belt promotion, if forever calls into question the integrity of that academy and its promotions.

I didn't even know that paid promotion was a real thing!

I feel like belt promotions should be accounted for in the usual membership fees, it feels really scummy to make people pay *specifically* for a promotion beyond the material cost of the belt itself. You're going to be attending that gym for years to get that promotion, your fastest promotion is likely white to blue, which is usually around 2 years, so that $150 fee can be covered by only $6.25 more a month. The only reason I see for charging so much for a promotion is if you're really just selling the coach's name attached to it in order to attract people to drop by *just* to promote, which is very lame but could make a lot of money. To be fair to loyal students, if a gym is trying to sell it's name on promotions I think a "long standing member" clause (ex. students who have trained there for 1yr or longer get free promotions) could be a reasonable way to make it fair.

I do nogi at a mma gym. I payed £10 for the white belt tatami fob we use. But promotions and stipes are free. Also they are given out when the coach feels like it. I never see it coming. 3 stipe blue belt, 2.5 years training.

Yeah, I'm mixed on the whole issue. Coming from a more tradition martial arts background, I dislike belt ranking anyways (i like the you're white until you're black menthod). But talking with my coaches, they charge for tests because they experimented with it. They once tried just rolling the cost of testing into monthly tuition (a 3 hour test outside of regular hours, more seminar esk). Everyone was welcome to come, but since people didn't have a monitary stake in testing, they didn't come. But once they charged for the "test", people were more motivated to come and train hard. Guess it could be a local culture thing, I've found that in my area, there aren't a whole lot of people internally motivated to train hard and test themselves without some extra push, but money motivates, so i guess do what you need to do to get people testing... Edited for clarity and some typos.

Far better just to roll the costs of any tests, exams, etc. into monthly gym fees or some yearly membership fee -- you can even scale these based on your student's belts. 1. Fees are a more reliable and better source of revenues. 2. You don't get the reputation for selling belts. 3. Students feel they rightfully earned the belt vs. bought them. Imagine if someone just pays for their belt and gets slaughtered in a tournament. 4. Students aren't doubly upset if they fail their tests or think they failed because you just want more money to test them again. 5. You aren't discouraging people to not test or advanced due to money. 6. You don't have strict rules, experience, or exceptions. Do you charge kids for belts? How about someone from another gym? How about someone absolutely crushing your other students but who is fine staying as a lower belt because of the costs? What about someone who is older, doesn't compete, but is a good person around the gym? You honestly should have the flexibility of promoting, or not, people based on their skill. 7. It can cost you in the long run. Normally more senior students are happy volunteering to help newer students, drive others to tournaments, come out and help with kid classes, etc. What if they don't or start asking for pay? That changes the entire dynamics. 8. You could lose business. Folks might not like the feeling of paying and learn about other clubs which don't charge. Then what?

0 stripe white belt here, but I do have a master's degree in business and work as a software engineer. I want gym owners and employees to be fairly compensated. If you took the risk and are wise with your business practices you should get the financial reward. Every industry has its set of ethics and I think this falls within that. The belt system in any martial art is meant to show a combination of skill, knowledge, and participation in the art. It's not about who can pay the most. When business income is tied to belt or stripe promotions it runs the risk of conflating where the revenue stream is coming from and the quality of service provided. If there is a difficult year, then there is temptation to push students that aren't ready into the next belt just to get income up. Doing that dilutes the quality of the services rendered, or gives the perception of lower quality service. In this case the service is the instruction and guidance to help students improve. Now, if the focus is on quality of service and the revenue stream is well-aligned with that service, then the belt promotions don't need to be used as a source of income. Having some sort of party/catering where the cost is relatively aligned with the market seems reasonable. You don't charge $35 for the food. You charge what any other buffet or BBQ place would charge. Another "icky" part of this is about what you do with someone that wants to do a "belt test" but doesn't demonstrate the quality the instructor expects? Do you still charge for participation in the belt test? At my gym they put them through a series of scenarios, ask them to demonstrate a few moves from different positions, and then follow up with a shark tank (15 minutes for blue belt and 25 minutes for purple). For the black belt promotion I saw he was not asked nor expected to do the same. He was a brown belt for many, many years and always avoided going to the belt nights that happen every few months. Well, the gym owner got him to come since the brown -> black belt was there for his son's promotion to purple. So then he surprised him with the black belt. He didn't need to prove himself. He is a good example of what it means to be a black belt. So, to sum up - charging for the belt test/promotion seems icky and too much like a mcdojo, but from a business perspective it also seems unwise. A business that charges for that (anything more than maybe small fees to cover costs) likely doesn't understand the relation between their business services and their revenue.

Rank promotions and special test events keep the instructor on track. Nothing worse than an instructor who ignores vast amounts of the syllabus, or his teaching is only aimed at the higher grades.

Brazil 021 in Chicago does it. $75 / stripe too.

I was pretty surprised we payed for promotions at my school but we also get a nice 1 hour private lesson so i guess I like it, paying for stripes should illegal

This is where Jiu Jitsu gets tougher than the striking arts. The belts and tests are charger for. Now, 500 dollars is typically the price for a 5th degree masters test. But the fact that you have Jiu Jitsu schools that don’t charge for that sort of thing, or avoid the traditional style testing all together is refreshing. I think for places who want a person to actually learn no test is a great idea. I think passing a test isn’t necessarily a great gauge. But your instructor always knows your progress. And it being a business you would be inclined to make the margins add up. I can agree with someone in that position also. But it’s great to hear about schools like that, doing things a bit different. I like it.

How about when you are charged something for an annual promotion (no testing, etc). Just a fee to be apart of it. I would be inclined to skip the ‘ceremony’ to skip the additional charges of the extra fanfare of having all these blackbelts from sister dojos show up.

My answer to this is simple. Hell to the naw, to the naw, naw, naw. Hell Naw!

My gym doesn’t charge at all for belt promotions. We’re also a gym that doesn’t do stripes either. I’m pretty much on the cusp of blue belt now and my instructor’s sole criteria for that is enter you’ve been training for more than a year and can you roll with his experienced blue belts and not get annihilated by them.

I pay a monthly membership to my gym and it's a relatively small gym but thriving right now. We pay additionally for seminars of course but other than those 2 charges we don't pay a penny more. I'm a recently promoted purple belt and never had to pay for my blue or purple. My coach recently promoted a bunch of people including 3 new black belts. I would be shocked if any of us were charged. We earned our belts because our coach thinks we are worthy of them not because we paid him. Way too "McDojo" like.

I like the way you do it il not going to lie i have been alittle huffy at times its cause ill say it a new person comes in and starts to do a move that nobody else kinda learned the defense and thinks there the man after the roll for me i was like dude wait till i know the defense im going to get you. Hahahaa but i would feel like that would be a normal thing to do cause im competitive and i feel like white belts they roll to get the coach attention and im like im there for fun so ill roll like 60% almost like a flow roll should i just ask hey should i roll full blast every roll cause i did with one guy and i felt like a bully cause i looked like alex pereira stone face lol i did destroy but at what cost tho didnt feel like i was respecting my fellow student what you guys think?

I volunteer my time to teach judo. Dojo charges $15 per belt test, none goes to me Basically pays for the new belt.

I don't do bjj anymore but in my academy they used to charge about 5 dollars for the test because we flew in a high level instructor to oversee it. In judo we pay 3 to 10 dollars to the national federation for the exam.

I've been training for a while and have been to a lot of gyms. I have never heard of an instructor charging students money for belt promotions on top of tuition. To me, this is dishonorable.

Krav Mag is the absolute WORST for belt charging. They have an expensive compulsory seminar before, then even at yellow belt which is at most a 30 minute test, more high price, all in large halls with hundreds of other people testing. I charge the cost for venue, plus belts and certificates, plus a little extra for my time and that of my team. £15-50 depending upon grade. I think a separate event is justified because you want to test their applied knowledge under pressure.

No, I’ve never paid my boss for a promotion. I’ve seen gyms have $100 seminars directly before promotion and inconspicuously say that the price includes both so you feel pressured to paying and attending. Usually in December too when everyone is already using up more of their budget for shopping.

3:04 yessss! 💯💪

I feel our local monthly prices are a tad high, but no belt fees or anything. I did laugh because you sign a contract that says you can't make bad reviews LOL, I was gonna tell them it is illegal but tbh I love the school, the owner is just kind of a penny pincher.

My son (10) has been taking for over a year….his gym has never charged for anything other than the monthly fee ($90). The one thing I have noticed his coach doesn’t give stripes or belts out very easy so my son has 7 stripes on his white belt. My son asked when will he get his grey belt… I said when you earned it…he said cool.

To be fair, it costs money to order a belt, so it's reasonable for a student to pay for a belt beyond their membership fee, as long as the price isn't exorbitant.

I only seen schools charging for belts, if the teacher promoting is coming from the outside to run a seminar. If they don't pay for the seminar, they won't get promoted.

My coach promotes at the end of a class and only charges like $15 for the new belt if he remembers😂 . I'm not sure I would want a huge ceremony for my belt and I definitely wouldn't pay anything for it.

That’s a crazy question to me because where I train paying for promotion is madness. If you don’t show improvement you don’t get promoted bottom line.

Judo Kyu gradings are £15 and you buy your own belt - got a Mizuno on for £17

I had to pay for my blue belt ($50 bucks) and the monthly fees already were $170 per month :/

All gym "charges" for promotion but its more of participation belts. They want you to keep coming to the gym so they will promote you at a certain time(aka 1 to 2 years to get blue, etc..) so by promoting you, you keep paying your monthly membership to the gym which goes back to yes you are technically paying for promotion. I really dislike gym who promote by attendance and number of times you train and have lack of skill. Seeing a 2-year person training as a white belt and still doesn't know how to do some basic moves and get promoted to blue just because they been training for 2 years is just bad. Same with a very talented white belt that trains for 4 months that can rekt all blue belts will not get promoted cuz of time trained at the gym. So in overall, I think you should be able to pay for belt promotion if you feel that you meet the criteria of the next rank belt at the same time you can get promoted without paying and having your professor promote you naturally. thanks Chewy, love your content!!

Ooooo I have feelings about this!

The worst I’ve seen is people paying for the belt, but I’ve never seen anyone pay to get promoted. That’s insane

Been training for 4 years, never seen or heard about paying for a promotion. If I ever got asked, looks like my ass is staying a white belt, in the end I care about the skill set not color of what’s holding up my pants

I have never even heard of paying for a belt promotion until now.

Maybe this is why i was just over looked for promotion Im 33 and I have trained for a year, mostly no gi. I have competed twice and got gold twice. I wrestled in high school and used to do "submission wrestling" after practice back then. I can beat all the other white belts even when they have 50 lbs on me. In this last pronotion i didnt even get a stripe but 2 guys who out weigh me by 50 both got their blue. I beat them every time. No on has mentioned paying for promotion so i dont know whats going on. The gym i cross train at has higher calliber athletes and they were shocked when i told them. My attitude is always good and i volunteer to roll with newbies and girls and even let them gets subs sometimes to be nice. Maybe thats where im going wrong?

Our academy charges $40 for a belt promotion,which I wasn't originally a fan of, but we have a seminar with a guest instructor that day, a big spread of food, everyone comes out and celebrates those being promoted, so it's like a day long party. I don't really mind it.

LCCT in Schaumburg and Barrington Illinois charge astronomical amounts for belts. You have to get minimum one private lesson before the test which is about $100 or more depending on the person. Because some of their clients are fairly well to do. Then they have group test sessions that’s $50-$100 that is heavily suggested. Then the blue belt is $250, purple is $350, brown is $450, black varies from $500-$1000. Again depending on how much money they can squeeze. It always has to be cash and the price often fluctuates last second as everyone has already arrived. They also do it during thanksgiving and deer season and attempt to shame any gringo that hunts instead of accepts the shake down. They built their entire brand off Rickson’s name. Because they are black belts under him. One of the two brothers is decent, Luiz. The fat bald Thiago is just garbage. Spends 1 of the 2 hours of every training session telling stories of how good he is.

I had to pay for a belt test but no way was i getting promoted without knowing my stuff...thats how it should be and i wouldnt wanna pay for a rank outright

maybe 100 if they give you rashguard and belt cause thats what those cost to give you

The idea of mapping out when a student gets each stripe and then belt etc etc gives us something to progress towards. How many gradings a year or ceremonies and how many classes are required or units to complete and how we are progressing. It’s a jiu jitsu SCHOOL!! Schools have a syllabus and curriculum. Not just endlessly turning up and paying money and not knowing where you are. Called it a Mcdojo, i call it school of progression

Paying for the physical belt is fine. But other than that it's not okay.

At my gym they charge $20 for the test. When you advance the belt they put your new belt on, you run around and high five everyone then take the belt off and go home and order your own belt. I feel like if you are gonna be charged for the promotion they should at least provide the belt. I feel like you shouldnt be charged then have to then go and spend more money to buy your belt.

I got promoted to blue on the spot. Professor called me up front. Gave me a blue belt. It was actually a belt he borrowed from one of the other guys in order to promote me. I gave the belt back at the end and the next day I bought my own belt. No money. No ceremony. Just a guy who reached that level then and there. Too many gimmicks nowadays.

The first place I trained charged $25 per stripe and $140 for a belt. I had to pay $100 to get four stripes on my white belt and then $140 a few months later when I got my blue belt. The second place I trained charged $150 for a new belt. They would do promotions at Christmas time. The third place did promotions at seminars so you’d pay for the seminar to get promoted. The place I train at now doesn’t charge for belts and has a big party with a buffet. Awesome.

Wow. No way!

When I got my black belt I had to pay for the seminar of course and the belt was free but if I wanted a certificate I had to pay $300

I dont like the idea of paying for belts but I get why it happens. It's a business decision and they say don't do for free what people will pay you for especially in America it feels like we try to monetize everything under the sun. I wouldn't do it but everyone is free to make their own decisions about where they train and how they run their gym. realistically it just gets built into the cost of monthly fees or seminar promotions either way. the sport is very expensive anyway you shake it

My gym calls it an Association fee $100 for a new belt and $50 for stripes. Always due by Dec 1. Cash only 🙄 🤷🏻‍♂️

This is a self-correcting problem. Refuse to pay and compete as a black white belt. Comps will force your gym to promote you. Or just leave. You’re at a bad gym.

Belts should be covered in the Gym fees.. If you have to pay for a Belt then it is a business not a Gym.

My gym charges $50 for a belt promotion we get a nice school branded belt and a certificate in a nice mountable frame

I have been training for about 5 months in this mma gym they are legit they train mma fighters and I have also trained with ufc fighters so the gym is legit the thing is that they move super shady they have contracts and I have asked my blue belt friends if they have been charged for promotion they told me that yes they charged them but they didn’t tell them at the moment that they were going to get charged they just got surprised with the belt then they got an email saying what they owed it was like 70 bucks super shady stuff the only good thing is the coaches they have nothing to do with these decisions if not I would have been gone.

We dont even get charged the price of the belt

Isn’t the point of receiving a new belt directly linked to your skill level? The fact that you can “pay your way” would be a red flag for me.

My gym. 185 a month, and if you get promoted, you pay 30 bucks for the belt.

Real jiujitsu to get your stripe you progress with your skills to get the stripe not pay

My coach used to give them out of free but then the country went to the gutter so he now charges for the belt itself and that's it, stripes are free.

uhhh F no. Train smash people be happy. All these people caught up with stripes and colors. If your gym requires you pay for a level up find a new gym. All that to day Chewy is on point as per usual

Short answer. No.

Imo no you shouldn't have to pay to be promoted especially if your paying a subscription to said club

I'm thinking if your paying 150 you want a ROI back off 1100. Clubs are business I'm a business. Tbh BJJ for non celebrity is expensive. At 47 over a 17 year old they will gain more value because they have more time .

If i would have walked in to a gym where you needed to pay for a promotion i would be out

I think paying for a promotion tarnishes the legitimacy of a belt. You are running a business of course, but in this day of McDojos it looks bad .

Your paying for your belt every day your grinding on the mat with blood sweat and tears. Other than that you should not be charged for be promoted

So now it's a pay-to-win game ? Just... IDK, i'm in West Europe and I know if a gym doing that it will be boycotted 100%

sometimes i understand why "these gyms" do not want you to crosstrain and see other gyms...

Guys i just bought a black belt of Amazon, never had any other belt.

I've trained at a $50 dollars a stripe gym 💀💀