10/08/2026
Did you know?
The white belt in Jiu jitsu represents the beginning, but the belt system itself is actually newer than the art.
Jiu jitsu has roots in traditional Japanese martial arts, but the modern colored-belt ranking system came largely from Judo founder Jigoro Kano in the late 1800s. Early on, students were mainly separated into beginners and advanced practitioners. Over time, different belt colors were added to make progress easier to recognize.
When Judo and Japanese Jiu jitsu spread to Brazil in the early 1900s, that ranking structure influenced what eventually became the modern Jiu jitsu belt system.
The white belt became the starting rank, symbolizing someone with little or no formal knowledge of the art. Traditionally, the idea is that the belt is “blank,” just like the student’s experience.
What makes the white belt important is that this is where almost everything gets built: learning how to move, breathe under pressure, escape bad positions, control your body, understand leverage, and get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Everybody who becomes a black belt starts in the exact same place: a white belt trying to figure out what’s going on.
