One of the things that drew me to BJJ was the suggestion that rank only comes when someone is worthy of it. It's safe to say that my eyes have been opened in the last few years, and I have seen people promoted for a number of reasons other than ability (I've also seen some held back despite ability for various political reasons). The thing that really gets my back up though, is promoting people for training a long time (but without the necessary skills)...
Having trained for 6 years, but not being a regular competitor (and when I did underperforming in relation to my ability), I wonder at times whether I 'stack up' with other purples. Not enough to drive me to regular competition though :). I do know that I hold my own well against high level blues (even athletic high level blues!), established purples (even fit, strong purples), and even the odd black belt (OK I got smashed, but not hideously, soul crushingly so).
So when I see or hear about a belt that got given cos the person's been around a while, and yet has little of the necessary requirements for that grade it makes me grumpy.
In some ways I'm looking forward to moving overseas. It means it'll take me a while before I figure out a new context enough to become this jaded again...
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