Why isn’t sparring included in the blue belt qualification test?
Sparring is an incredible, powerful training exercise that will be used extensively in the Master Cycle to sharpen your reflexes as you climb through the ranks. But, due to the sportive nature of sparring – jiu-jitsu vs. jiu-jitsu, no punches, etc. – if it is conducted by a student who has not yet developed a profound understanding of the techniques and principles that govern street fights, it can negatively impact their long-term growth in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Here at the Gracie Academy, we used to gauge each student’s readiness for promotion to blue belt by their performance in sparring sessions. Over time, however, we realized that although the students who were getting promoted were very comfortable in sparring sessions, any time they participated in a training exercise in which punches were thrown, they had little clue what to do. Then, it dawned upon us that the reason the students’ street reflexes were so weak, was because, since the beginning, their sparring partners were not atta
