We recently reported that a BJJ kids academy located in Maine, USA, Stonecoast Brazilian jiu jitsu for kids, which is led by a legit black belt Shaun Durfee, is promoting children to an unverified rank of “junior” BJJ black belt.
This was met with a massive backlash both on reddit BJJ and on facebook BJJ pages.
The reason being that BJJ has a specific belt system for children, and unlike Taekwondo or some forms of Karate, doesn’t hand out junior black belts.
This has happened in the past though and the BJJ community massively disapproved.
Stonecoast bjj facebook page:
Now the intrustor, Shaun Durfee, released a video where he justified his decision based mostly on the fact of wanting to keep the kids motivated:
Jay Jack (Shaun Durfee’s instructor) also made his own statement where he explains in a very colourful manner, that he supports his student:
Many BJJ practitioners are against junior black belts:
Why you should never have ‘Junior Black Belts’ in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
And some support it:
BJJ Black Belt’s Point of View: ‘Junior Black Belts Make Sense’
