Topic: Realistic Expectations
What are reasonable expectations for a 42 year old male in decent shape starting BJJ? Purple belt? Brown belt? Black?! Does it matter?
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What are reasonable expectations for a 42 year old male in decent shape starting BJJ? Purple belt? Brown belt? Black?! Does it matter?
A. It doesn't matter.
B. You should be able to get black at some point. It may take longer. You might not be a world beater. But you should be able to do it. And you never know, you just might be a world champion.
C. You haven't signed up yet? What are you waiting for? You just wasted another day.
Honestly you shouldn't go into it with belt expectations.... just go in with an open mind, enjoy the training, and learning something new. The belts will come in time, everyone wants to get a black belt but that honestly is up to you, if you stick with the training. I have seen some numbers somewhere concerning belts and they are something like this:
Of all the white belts that start 15-20% of those will make it to the blue belt.
Of that 15-20% that make it to blue, about 10% will stay until purple.
Those people that make it to purple, 15-20% will go on to brown.
If you make it brown most of those people reach the black belt.
These numbers are pretty much guesstimates but to me from what I have seen are pretty legit. There are many possible situations that can come into play as to why people don't finish what they start. So I wouldn't start training BJJ worrying belts just yet, have fun, learn something new, make some new friends, and continue to get better and the belts will come.
Last edited by Babalu (2010-04-09 09:35:53)
Thanks for the replies. I've been going for two months now and really enjoy it. Although I've kept in shape over the years at first I felt like the old guy. Now I'm blending in except for some slight greying on the temples ha ha. Had a few good natured comments from the young guys but sorted that out 
.
Physically I'm older but I'm training smarter these days. I realize rest is as important as the exercise itself and I'm pretty sure my sleep is more consistent than most as having three young kids doesn't really allow for a night life. Must train - Pan Ams are coming up 
and just to help you a little bit more, there is one guy, Luiz Humberto "Old Man" Guerra, one of Drac's Black Belts, started training at age 49, and received his Black Belt last year, at 59. He is super tough!!!
..... so is possible... the limitations are in the mind. If you can visualize it, you can reach it!
Be safe and keep it rolling!
As you get older you have to train smarter. It will take longer to recover from soreness, fatigue, and injury. You need to have longer warm ups, longer stretching session, take recovery supplements(glutamine, glucosamine,fish oils, etc), eat better...
These things have helped me a lot. I am still working on better sleeping habits cuz mine are bad!
I second that... I'm 35 and I feel aches and pains constantly. I typically train 4 days a week, so I give myself time to recover. But I do see many in class learning more quickly than me.
My gym has an "old man" class for people 30 and over on Sat/Sun afternoons. It's immediately followed by the kids wrestling class, so it can be a family event. The old man class is super chilled compared to the regular classes, but I feel I learn a lot more training with that crowd as there is far less ego and the older guys seem to have a long-term view and can see the big picture of the game better than younger guys.
So from that perspective - that older guys might be more relaxed and thoughtful about training - I think older guys might have a higher percentage who advance to higher ranks than younger guys. I guess it depends on the person, but that is what I observed.
As it was said before try to train smartly, listen to your body, eat well, sleep well will help to avoid injuries and keep progressing. You can improve on the mats but also with any other resources like the web, books, visualization...
train with as many people as you can... all ages... all sizes... all levels of proficiency...
Wow, some good information here. Didn't know the dropout rate was so high. I think the thing I need to work on more is not overtraining. What is the right amount of rest days will I need per week being 32? Is there a way I can condition myself to train every day, or at least 6 times a week? I want to be on the mat as much as possible, without getting injured.
in some academies, training is much more physically demanding and I think it depends a lot on the instructor. At my academy we have a special cardio focused session every friday where when they time us and we do as many as possible of all the various exercises. (jumping over and then going under the partner, jumping from side to side over a partner etc)
No one will put a gun to your head and say complete the tasks or else. Know your current limitations and then try to build your tolerence to surpass them. Otherwise you may injured a lot or getting sick! LOL!
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