What Does It Mean to Be a Brown Belt?
As we continue on our journey through the belts, we come to the brown belt. More than probably any other level in jiu-jitsu, the brown belt is often thought of as being transitional. If you’ve established yourself as a purple belt, you have demonstrated an advanced understanding of jiu-jitsu, as well as the ability to play at the advanced level. When compared to a brown belt or a black belt, purple belts have a lot of holes in their game with respect to execution and they often struggle to apply pressure from a variety of positions, according to Rick Ellis of The Art of Skill.
As Rick explains in the above video, purple belts who are working towards their brown belt should focus on rounding out their game and learning how to apply pressure from less dominant and even defensive positions. Rick says that the brown belt is the belt of pressure and the belt of completion.
The Belt of Completion
No one in jiu-jitsu ever has a totally balanced or complete game. Even for those who have been black belts for decades, there is always room for improvement. Moreover, everyone has relative strengths and weaknesses. There are no fighters who are equally comfortable and proficient in every position and with every technique. Part of the fun of jiu-jitsu is the fact that you are always making gains and plugging up minor gaps in your game.
However, the brown belt is when you start to close in on something resembling a complete game. Brown belts are significantly smoother in their transitions and combination, so there aren’t spaces where opponents can disrupt them and throw them off balance. Moreover, brown belts do not have any glaring holes in their game.
As Rick notes, there is a tendency for all people who train martial arts to minimize their weaknesses and build upon their strengths. This is a natural impulse. After all, if you naturally take to a technique or strategy and it continues to work really well for you, it seems foolish to abandon it. You always want your A game to be something that you can rely on.
For blue belts and even beginning purple belts, your B and C games can suffer if your A game is exceptional. As you get closer to the brown belt, that ceases to be true. Your weaknesses become bigger and bigger liabilities, and the parts of your game where you’re not particularly comfortable end up leading to small mistakes that more advanced opponents (high-level purple belts and brown belts) can exploit. Therefore, when you’re training as a purple belt, you should not just spend your time refining what is already a strength; you need to also focus on improving the parts of your game that need the most work.
The Belt of Pressure
Anyone who has been to a jiu-jitsu class knows about pressure. When you’re a beginner, pressure is typically exerted from the top position. As a more inexperienced belt, this is really how you think of pressure since this is how you usually experience it. The person on top is dominant and applies pressure until you relent and submit.
This still holds true for brown belts, but they should also be able to apply pressure from any position, either the top/dominant or the weaker position while defending.
You may ask, “How do I apply pressure while defending?”
According to Rick, there is no one way to put pressure on your opponent from the defensive position, but two practical methods are to take up space and to make solid connections. For example, by firmly gripping your opponent’s gi you make a connection and take up space in a way that disrupts their progress. This forces your opponent to change their strategy in a way that then opens up an opportunity for you. If you make a stronger connection, by establishing control over one of their limbs, you can then use that as leverage. Their options then become abandoning the attack or allowing you to lock up that joint.
For Rick, this ability to constantly apply pressure is really one of the defining characteristics of a brown belt. When you’re rolling with a brown belt, you can never feel comfortable because their defense is strong, they are always exerting pressure, and they know how to destabilize your advances and counter if you give them the opportunity. To advance to the brown belt, purple belts should strive to fill any holes in their game and learn how to apply relentless pressure no matter what position they find themselves in.