When I started my first martial art that had a belt ranking system, I wanted to know if I would keep those bell ranks forever. After all, being promoted is a symbol of achievement that I didn’t want to give up.
Being demoted in martial arts belt rankings is rare. Belt rankings can be stripped for incompetence at their belt rank from training at a previous school or behavioral issues in which a student poorly represents their martial art. Sometimes kids are temporarily stripped of rank as punishment.
Now that we know it is possible to be demoted, let’s look into the circumstances in which being demoted can occur in martial arts or why you might self-demote when visiting or switching martial arts schools.
Can You Be Demoted in Martial Arts Belt Ranks?
You can be demoted martial arts even though it is rare. Typically belt rankings are awarded for time spent training and your overall knowledge of the martial art. Since you don’t really lose that knowledge or the time that you spent training, being demoted does not really happen often.
Martial arts belt rankings are typically registered with the martial arts organization to which a martial arts school is associated. Since an official demotion process would require paperwork and time to complete, going through the process is rare since there is both red tape and a decent amount of effort involved in the undertaking.
Typically a martial arts school or organization will only strip a belt rank if the student in question is poorly representing the school or the martial art. For instance, a well-known black belt who is accused of or convicted of a crime can be stripped of their belt rank by the organization. In fact, Putin was stripped of his Judo and Taekwondo black belts in 2022.
Should You Demote Martial Arts Kids as Punishment?
Demoting a kid in martial arts as punishment is usually a counterproductive action. If you take away a child’s achievement that they have worked for diligently, you are negating their effort and might end up driving them away from training in the martial art.
Giving a child a belt rank in their martial art alongside responsibilities and a leadership role in the class boosts their confidence and engagement. Taking these things away will not give most kids a positive outcome or more motivation.
Should You Wear a White Belt Visiting Another Martial Arts School?
In some more traditional martial art schools, wearing a white belt is standard practice for visitors to the school. If you are visiting the school yourself, talk to the school owner or the instructor in order to determine what their standards are for visitors
If your normal martial arts school does not have very high-performance standards for your belt level, it might be a good idea to wear a white belt anyway so that you do not have issues with your performance not reflecting belt rank standards for your martial art.
Can You Be Demoted in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
You really do not see people get demoted often in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Occasionally, teachers will demote students who are poorly instructed by a prior instructor or the student self demotes when they change Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools if their previous school had poor standards.
Even if a student is lacking in the skills that typically go with the belt level, most instructors will simply let the student grow into their belt instead of taking their previous achievements away from them. This is really the more polite way to go about a lack of skill in the student, it spares their feelings and the student still gets to the skill level they need to be at anyway.
Final Thoughts
There are many reasons why emotions in martial arts do not really occur very often. Between the difficulty of contacting the governing body of the martial art and doing the required steps to strip someone of their rank and the fact that it is not usually good for students’ continued training you really will not see it happen in most circumstances.
It might be appropriate to self demote if you are a student that did not attend school with good training standards and simply start over and do it right at the new school. Since demotions are punitive in nature, and most martial artists are hobbyists it really doesn’t make sense from a business perspective to demote students, especially since you can just teach them the skills and behaviors you expect for their belt rank.
For more check out Do You Have to Earn a White Belt in Martial Arts?