Getting promoted from one Jiu-Jitsu belt to another is never an easy task. And there is no set time on how long does it take to go from purple to brown belt.
A BJJ brown belt has a deep technical understanding of the game. And can execute complex defensive and offensive sequences with precision.
Reaching this proficiency level will take years for the average recreational BJJ player.
BJJ is quite a complex discipline, and any promotion is subjective to the instructor, who will evaluate your progress.
However, there are some actions you could take to help your teacher decide if you’re ready for that brow belt.
Let’s touch on some of the points you will need to know to get to the brown belt, which could take you at least a year and a half after getting to purple but could also go up to a few years for most people.
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Table of Contents
- The Purple Belt, What It Means To Reach It, And What Comes Next?
- Is It Harder To Get From Purple To Brown Than It Was To Get From Blue to Purple?
- How Proficient In BJJ is A Purple Belt Practitioner?
- What Makes a Purple Belt More Dangerous Than a White or Blue Belt?
- What Should Be Your Focus To Be Promoted From Purple Belt?
- How Long Does It Regularly Take To Get To Brown Belt?
- Tips To Accelerate Your Path Into The Brown Belt Promotion
- What Does It Mean To Become A BJJ Brown Belt?
- You Reached The Brown Belt. What’s Next?
- How Long To Go From Purple To Brown Belt In BJJ – Final Words
The Purple Belt, What It Means To Reach It, And What Comes Next?
Reaching the purple belt means that you are past the point of looking for that new and sneaky technique to try and tap your opponent.
You have realized that you do not need “more.” Instead, it would help if you reached deeper and mastered the little details on techniques you know to have the set-ups and improve the timing right.
To get to the purple belt, you have to go deeper to be much more effective.
Your transitions will be more fluid, and you will be able to streak and combine techniques one after the other.
Another thing is that you may have gone past the “blue belt blues,” and if you have managed to go through that, you are on your best path to the brown and even black belt.
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Is It Harder To Get From Purple To Brown Than It Was To Get From Blue to Purple?
As we mentioned before, the blue belt to purple belt path is the hardest to go through. And to be able to get past what most of the community calls the “blue belt blues” is a badge of honor.
The purple belt marks that the practitioner has the mental strength he will require to get way farther.
The path of the Purple to Brown is different, as the purple is the “gateway” into the advanced game.
You already have plenty of skill in Jiu-Jitsu and probably have spent as much time in BJJ as others have to reach their black belts in other disciplines.
The Purple to Brown phase is a transitional phase in which you start to learn how to use and apply pressure.
You will not master pressure itself, but that is the pathway to the brown belt, as you will continue to work on refining your game.
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How Proficient In BJJ is A Purple Belt Practitioner?
The purple belt is someone who enters the early-stage advanced BJJ player phase.
He has learned a lot of skills and techniques during the previous years he has been rolling and training. But, there are a lot of small details to look at.
A purple belt has managed to use momentum in his favor and lower his energy expenditure. Someone at this level has refined timing and has a more fluid game when compared to white and blue belts.
Either being a dynamic fighter or playing slow and utilizing pressure, a purple belt keeps working to balance out both methods and use them accordingly.
What Makes a Purple Belt More Dangerous Than a White or Blue Belt?
As a white belt or blue belt, your game is all about learning new techniques and sampling a lot of moves that come your way.
The Purple belt practitioner decides to refine his game without using a gigantic arsenal of moves.
Commonly, they throw away a lot of their game to start mapping out an interconnected game with things they are good at.
They know enough BJJ already to understand where they can excel and focus on sharpening a subset of techniques instead of just having a wide variety.
What Should Be Your Focus To Be Promoted From Purple Belt?
As we mentioned, in the purple belt, the main focus will be refinement, and you will learn how to apply pressure.
To take a step toward the next belt, you will have to look at your game, learn how to apply pressure fully, and balance your game.
As a purple belt, there will be things that you can do with ease, as they are part of your interconnected game, but by the time you get to the brown belt, your time is best spend polishing the other parts of your game, so they are better balanced.
Pressure is one of the defining characteristics of brown belts, as you realize that it is something you can apply from anywhere, not only when you are on top controlling the position.
How Long Does It Regularly Take To Get To Brown Belt?
Getting from white to brown belt can take the regular person as little as five dedicated years of BJJ Training in the best situations.
The IBJJF wants a person to stay at purple for at least 1.5 years before being promoted to brown belt.
Of course, these numbers are an optimistic estimate, as it can take up to ten years or even more to get to brown belt. So we encourage you to keep training and look forward to improving your game.
If you want a personalized estimate you can check our BJJ belt promotion calculator.
Tips To Accelerate Your Path Into The Brown Belt Promotion
The process of improving is organic, and you will naturally achieve it over time, but there are a few details you might want to analyze to have a little insight into the next step you need to take.
Ask your Professor what the following steps are
You can always take the time to talk with your instructor and ask him to assess your game. He will let you know what he believes you should work on to continue growing and improving.
Focus more on improving your game and less on Stripes and Belts
It can be easy to always focus on chasing the next belt and stripe that stands before you. But doing so and just rushing forward may not be the best approach if you want to get there.
To reach the next step, you have to improve. And if you are only driven by getting the next shiny thing or smashing your training partners to look better, you are likely to tunnel-vision your way out of the right path.
If you want to improve for real, take the time to make yourself better at your weaknesses. Get good at the part of your game that lacks polishing.
Focus on rolling and practicing with a goal in mind, and not just looking good.
Work on technique flow instead of variety
As mentioned a couple of times, a purple belt practitioner needs to focus on going more profound within a bunch of techniques instead of increasing the list of available options to become more dangerous.
Use this focus point to your advantage and keep polishing moves that you can link to add pressure and make the whole sequence a lot more powerful and effective during your rolls.
What Does It Mean To Become A BJJ Brown Belt?
Becoming a Brown belt in BJJ shows that you are what can be considered one of the senior students in the academy, as you have developed excellent skills and are balancing out your game to become a proficient BJJ practitioner.
You may also be taking the time to teach your lower-ranked classmates some of the concepts and details that have put you where you are. This is one of the most rewarding things in BJJ.
After all those years grinding on the mats, you’re now ready to share your skills and knowledge to make others improve.
You Reached The Brown Belt. What’s Next?
As we previously touched on, once you reach the brown belt, it is time to master the concept of pressure. And balance your game to be as good as possible in all positions instead of only being good at a few of them.
If you have come this far, you only need to work some more, as you are on the gateway to becoming a BJJ black belt.
How Long To Go From Purple To Brown Belt In BJJ – Final Words
As you may have noticed, this article is very different from the one we have on reaching the blue belt due to how other things are in the higher levels of BJJ practice.
For those looking forward to reaching a black belt, just keep pushing forward and continue to train and grow. But the most challenging part (Psychologically at least) is likely the stretch from blue to purple.
If you have reached purple, you have proven the mental fortitude you’ll require to earn a BJJ black belt when you’re ready for it. So all you need to do now is continue to improve and make your BJJ game more efficient.
If you liked this article, we encourage you to share it with friends, classmates, and other practitioners you know looking to get to their brown belt or just trying to improve their Jiu-Jitsu in general.
Stay consistent as you keep improving and becoming more efficient on the mats.
