BJJ World Champion Bernardo Faria has revealed what he considers the most reliable method to assess one’s true skill level in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, addressing a common concern among practitioners who question their belt ranking.
According to Faria, competition stands as the most honest measure of a practitioner’s skill level. “When you go to a competition, when you go to a tournament, this is literally the most honest way because you are under pressure, you are fighting a person that you never fought before, there’s all the adrenaline and things like that,” Faria explains in a video.
However, recognizing that not everyone is interested in competition, Faria offers an alternative approach: training with practitioners from different schools. He emphasizes that training exclusively with the same partners can create a misleading assessment of one’s abilities, as regular training partners become too familiar with each other’s techniques and patterns.
The champion also stresses the importance of making fair comparisons when evaluating skill level. Practitioners should consider factors such as:
– Age
– Weight class
– Training frequency
– Lifestyle commitments (work schedule, family obligations)
“If you are a purple belt who trains twice a week and you are comparing yourself against a purple belt who trains twice a day, that’s not fair,” Faria notes.
He highlights that Jiu-Jitsu’s inherent honesty makes it impossible to fake skill level. “The mats don’t lie,” Faria states, explaining that true ability becomes evident as soon as practitioners begin rolling.
For those seeking to accurately gauge their skill level, Faria recommends either participating in competitions or regularly training with practitioners from different academies who match their age, belt level, weight class, and training frequency. This approach provides the most accurate assessment of where one stands in their Jiu-Jitsu journey.
Royce Gracie Explains Why Every BJJ Guy Should At Least Try MMA
In a candid interview, BJJ legend Royce Gracie shared his thoughts on the evolving role of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in mixed martial arts and why he believes all BJJ practitioners should step into the octagon, regardless of whether they aspire to pursue an MMA career.
Gracie voiced concerns that some MMA stars aren’t fully utilizing their BJJ skills. He noted that many, despite securing dominant positions, fail to capitalize on submissions, choosing instead to favor ground and pound tactics. “A lot of the times it’s the influence of the coaches,” Gracie explained. “The coaches start to favor beating opponents up. So when a fighter gets a good position to finish the fight, he tries to beat the opponent up. He wants to make the guy bleed, he wants to show domination by beating him up instead of showing technique.”
For Gracie, the essence of BJJ, the style his family pioneered, lies not in the point-scoring methods commonly seen in tournaments, but in its application as a real-world self-defense system. “The jiu-jitsu the Gracies use, it wasn’t for the tournament to score a point. It was for (–) defense,” Gracie said. “At the end of the day, it’s a fight.”
His message was clear: MMA provides BJJ practitioners with the closest real-world application of their skills. “A lot of people sometimes train all their lives and never have a chance to do it. They never get attacked, they don’t get into a fight in the streets. So by entering MMA, yes, you have a chance to use it,” Gracie stated, underscoring the importance of practical experience.
The BJJ pioneer further emphasized that his father, Helio Gracie, created the art not for tournament points, but for self-defense in actual combat scenarios. “The Jiu-Jitsu my father created, it wasn’t for a points system for a tournament,” he said.
