Brown Belt in Jiu JItsu
A BJJ brown belt can be considered quite dangerous to anyone who doesn’t have any martial arts or grappling training. A brown belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu should be able to easily take down, control, and submit the average individual with ease.
While it’s not quite a black belt and only the 4th belt in bjj, anyone with a brown belt has likely trained for over 6 years for several times a week and has sparred with others at nearly 100% effort in almost every single training session.
There is simply no comparing their vast knowledge and experience against someone who has never trained before.
In fact, I would wager that a bjj brown belt would win in any physical altercation against another person of lesser martial arts and grappling training as well.
How Good Is a BJJ Brown Belt?
Brown belts in bjj should not have any weaknesses. They should be well rounded and effective from every major position in brazilian jiu jitsu. They should also be able to control and submit any purple belt in bjj.
Brown belts have a high skill level that they are capable of setting traps towards their opponents and finding openings even in the most difficult situations. There movements and defenses are coming out naturally already that they are capable of reading their opponent’s next move already.
Besides that, they have a mindset for improvement. They are more than capable of applying numerous techniques with fine tune small details that make a big difference.
Brown belts are also more than qualified to teach other in jiu jitsu especially beginners.
They can easily spot errors in the moves of their students that they are more than capable of correcting. Hence, they are a role model to their students and team mates because of their high level of experience.
Belts in Jiu Jitsu Explained
What are the 5 major belt ranks in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? Just like most martial arts, the first rank is the white belt, and the last is black. Let’s go over one by one each belt type in BJJ.
- White – White belt in BJJ is considered the beginner phase. One just recently started practicing BJJ and is getting to know the basic principles of the sport and its fundamentals.
- Blue – Blue belt in BJJ means that you have already advanced in training BJJ. One has spent alot of time getting to know art of BJJ and now has a wide knowledge with the movements in BJJ (sweeps, takedowns, guard, pass, submissions)
- Purple – Purple belt is the third rank in the belt system of BJJ. You can consider this one as the middle child of the sport. This is where one has surpassed the beginner stage and is now getting ready to take on the advanced level of the sport. Purple belts in BJJ already have a vast knowledge when it comes to BJJ. They are capable of flowing from position to positions and submission to submission effortlessly.
- Brown – Brown belts in BJJ are almost there (at the final belt – black belt)! These brown belts have have spent a vast amount of time on the mats already and already have positions and submissions that they are highly effective with. Since they have seen so many reactions when grappling opponents they are also capable of thinking 2-3 moves ahead against their opponent.
- Black – Black belts are the professors of BJJ. They have likely spent over 10 + years training bjj. Throughout their many years of training they have likely experienced many obstacles and have chose to just show up no matter what. Once black belt is reached, it is considered a rebirth since now when competing against other black belts you are considered a beginner of the sport once more.
- There are black belts who have been at that rank for 1 year and black belts who have been there for 10+ years. They are all now considered your equal and fellow competitors at that level.
Check out this video on what to focus on for each belt.
Related: Jiu Jitsu belts explained by Heavy BJJ
Brown Belt Requirements
What are the requirements to become a brown belt? A brown belt means that they overcame the three belt ranks before. I listed below some of the requirements in order to achieve this milestone.
- Brown belts are comfortable, even if they find themselves in a difficult situation because they have been there countless times before and know exactly what they are supposed to do
- They can move smoothly from position to position and chain submissions effortlessly
- They know how they learn and have found the most effectivee ways to improve their own game
- Brown belts are a threat to every belt level – it is not uncommon for brown belts to submit black belts
BJJ Purple Belt Requirements
A bjj purple belt is actually quite skilled in jiu jitsu.
In fact, at purple belt is when I personally thought “Okay, I finally know what I’m doing.”
In some bjj tournaments, you may actually see purple belts ranked together with the brown and black belts. So they can be considered to be in the advanced ranks especially toward the end of their time at purple belt.
Below are some general ideas on requirements for purple belt (these will, of course, change based on your gym, coach, and goals).
Some of the purple belt requirements are:
- being able to control and submit any white belt or blue belt
- being quite dangerous to any non trained invidual
- having awareness of all basic positions and goals of each
- having awareness of all basic submissions and submission counters
- gain in dept knowledge on their favored positions and submissions by learning to deal with any resistance and counters
- work toward going from defensive to offensive cycles (ie. escape mount and go right into a leg attack)
- actively work on any weaknesses (most often these are wrestling, leg attacks, escapes, and pins)
Read More: BJJ Purple Belt Requirements – Concepts and Techniques Explained
BJJ Black Belt Requirements
Black belt requirements in bjj can be summed by them having a mastery of the conceptional aspects of jiu jistu.
- A black belt should have a masterful understanding of self-defense
- A black belt should be a teacher, someone who represents the martial art well and sets a good example for new students
- A black belt should have a variety of attacking techniques that they can chain together based on their opponents reactions
- A black belt should be able to control and submit brown belts and other lower belts
- A black belt should not have any weaknesses in the
- A black belt should constantly be learning and even though they have achieved mastery they should still maintain a student mentality
How Dangerous is a brown belt in bjj
How dangerous is a brown belt in BJJ? Think of it this way, anyone with a martial arts background is considered capable of self defense.
But if one finds themselves in a street fight with a BJJ brown belt? Then yes, it can be very dangerous for their opponents.
A brown belt has seen almost all the common reactions to their most efficient technqiues. They have fine tuned their movements in the gym while sparring. So when comparing them against an untrained opponent, the opponent has very little chance against defending from a brown belts attacks.
Moreover, a brown belt has a wide range of knowledge about the sport already. So much that, they have a vast amount of techniques to pull from.
Additionally, they are capable of seeing what your next two to three moves will be and will be able to defend it.
A BJJ brown belt can see openings in different positions and know how they can take advantage of it to bring their opponent down.
What’s the difference between a purple and brown belt student?
What is the difference between a purple and a brown belt student?
A purple belt already is progressing slowly towards the advanced level of BJJ and is currently developing their skills better.
The brown belts are already considered at an advanced level of bjj and are tweaking and improving their techniques as they get ready to move to black belt.
How long to get a brown belt in BJJ
How long does it take to get a brown belt in BJJ? Note that each and every practitioner of BJJ has a different journeyand likely different timeline.
But the average one can get their brown belt in between 6-9 years. Some may get it earlier or later than others but this does not mean that they are less better or greater than others.
Other people get it faster due to having a background in different grappling sports like:
- Judo
- Sambo
- Wrestling
In fact, there may be some who get it later because they had to stop due to personal reasons, injuries, or other life constraints.
Related: How often should you train BJJ discussed by Heavy BJJ
Brown vs Black Belt
Brown belt vs Black belt in BJJ.
Of course the brown belt is already advanced, however, blackbelts are the professors and masters of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Also, the brown belts are preparing themselves to become black belts through teaching classes and by mastering their strong techniques and working constantly to bring up their weaker ones.
Furthermore, the black belts are the masters of BJJ. They have immense knowledge and experience of the sport. With this in mind, they have spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours on the mat learning and loving gentle art.
Lastly, while its not uncommon for a black belt to be submitting by a brown belt, the black belt will usually always have more experience and more time on the mat.
Check out this video about what you should learn as a brown belt.
Hopefully, this post has helped further describe a bjj brown belt, and just know that if you keep showing up to training you will be there some day too!
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