Kids' jiu-jitsu belts by age: IBJJF kids age divisions

Under the IBJJF system a child starts at white and may then hold belts from up to four colour groups, each opening at an age: grey from four, yellow from seven, orange from ten, green from thirteen. Each group has a white-striped, a solid and a black-striped belt, thirteen ranks in all, and none of them carries a minimum time. At sixteen the child moves to the adult ladder. The age that counts is the tournament year minus the year of birth, not the birthday. The IBJJF belt ages, graduation periods and competition divisions below come from the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation's General Graduation System (the June 2026 revision) and its Rules Book (version 6.1, June 2024); the starting ages academies print come from the city guides. An academy may use colours outside this chart, and the last section says what to ask when it does.

The belts a child may hold at each age

The ages are floors, not targets. A twelve-year-old may be a grey belt; a seven-year-old may still be white. What the federation fixes is the earliest age at which each colour group may be worn (Article 2.1.1).

Age in the tournament year	Belts the child may hold	IBJJF division
4 to 6	white; grey-and-white, grey, grey-and-black	Mighty-Mite 1 to 3
7 to 9	the above, plus yellow-and-white, yellow, yellow-and-black	Pee-Wee 1 to 3
10 to 12	the above, plus orange-and-white, orange, orange-and-black	Junior 1 to 3
13 to 15	the above, plus green-and-white, green, green-and-black	Teen 1 to 3
16 and 17	the adult ladder: white, blue, purple (brown from 18)	Juvenile 1 and 2

The order inside the children's ladder is fixed (Article 1.1): white, then the grey group, the yellow group, the orange group, the green group, each group running white-striped, solid, black-striped (the stripe is a band of colour along the belt's whole length; the short black bar near one end is where degrees go). The federation fixes the order and the age floors; the pace is the professor's (Article 3.2.2), and no rank on the children's ladder carries a minimum stay.

How the age is counted

The federation does not use the birthday. Article 2.2.1 defines the athlete's age as the current year minus the birth year, so a child born in 2019 is seven for the whole of 2026, including the months before the seventh birthday, and moves to Pee-Wee 1 on the first of January. The Rules Book's General Competition Guidelines apply the same formula to competition divisions (§1.1). That is why a child may be listed in a division that looks a year ahead of the age on the school form.

No minimum time, and three ways academies pace the stripes

Article 3.1.1 sets no minimum period at any children's belt. What the federation offers instead, in Annex I of the same document, is three suggested stripe (degree) systems, and the professor chooses:

• Quarterly: three degrees on each belt, one every three months; the fourth promotes to the next belt. One belt a year.
• Triannual: two degrees on each belt, one every four months; the third promotes. One belt a year.
• Monthly: eleven degrees on each belt, one a month; the twelfth promotes. The first four stripes are white, the next four red, the last three the colour of the next belt. One belt a year.

Annex I §1.4 also suggests, as an option, a monthly-degree schedule for the first two belts only: six months at white and six at grey-and-white, both completed within one year. So a child who receives a stripe every month and a new belt every year, and a child who receives one every three months, can both be on an IBJJF-shaped system. Ask the academy which system it follows; the kids' post lists the other questions to put to a children's programme.

What happens at sixteen

Article 2.2.3 moves every child who turns sixteen in the current year to the adult ladder, and the new belt is determined by the old one: a white belt may remain white; a grey, yellow or orange belt must become a blue belt; a green belt becomes blue or purple at the professor's decision. At sixteen and seventeen (Juvenile 1 and 2) the white and blue belts carry no minimum time (Article 3.1.2), and the brown belt is only available in the adult division, from eighteen.

The children's belts also shorten the adult road, on one condition: the earlier belt must have been registered with the federation. Under Article 3.1.3, for athletes aged eighteen and older, previous IBJJF registration at grey, yellow or orange reduces the blue-belt minimum from two years to one, and previous registration at green or at juvenile blue removes it; the federation counts the period from registration at the belt (Article 3.2.1). The full adult table, with the fixed periods after black, is on the BJJ belt order page.

The competition divisions and how long a match lasts

The General Competition Guidelines in the IBJJF Rules Book (§1.3) set a division and a regulation match time for every age. Divisions are by single year for children and teenagers; the adult division starts at eighteen, has no upper age (§1.2), and is timed by belt.

Division	Age (year minus birth year)	Match time
Mighty-Mite 1, 2, 3	4, 5, 6	2 minutes
Pee-Wee 1, 2, 3	7, 8, 9	3 minutes
Junior 1, 2, 3	10, 11, 12	4 minutes
Teen 1, 2, 3	13, 14, 15	4 minutes
Juvenile 1, 2	16, 17	5 minutes
Adult	18 and older	5 minutes at white, rising to 10 at black

The starting-age post sets these divisions beside the ages academies actually print for their children's classes, which begin lower, at three in several cities.

When an academy's colours are different

The IBJJF system binds IBJJF registration and IBJJF events, not what an academy does in class. The city guides record different class age bands and programme names from one academy to the next; those differences do not by themselves establish a different belt system. If an academy uses colours outside this chart, ask which grading system it follows and which IBJJF rank the child would register under. Recognition by the federation remains subject to its graduation requirements, whatever the academy's answer.

Questions readers ask

What belt should a 7-year-old have in jiu-jitsu?

There is no should. At seven a child may hold white or any belt in the grey or yellow groups; the yellow group opens at seven and the orange group not until ten. A seven-year-old white belt and a seven-year-old yellow belt are both inside the federation's rules.

What is a grey belt in BJJ?

The first coloured group of the children's ladder, open from age four to fifteen, in three belts: grey-and-white, grey, grey-and-black. It does not exist on the adult ladder; at sixteen a grey belt becomes a blue belt.

Can a kid get a black belt in jiu-jitsu?

No. The black belt is an adult belt: the federation's floor is nineteen, or eighteen for an athlete who has won the adult world championship at brown belt (Article 2.1.2). The first coloured rank on the adult ladder is blue, available from sixteen.

What age division is my child in?

Subtract the year of birth from the year of the tournament. Four to six is Mighty-Mite, seven to nine Pee-Wee, ten to twelve Junior, thirteen to fifteen Teen, sixteen and seventeen Juvenile. Mighty-Mite through Teen each have divisions 1, 2 and 3 by single year; Juvenile has division 1 at sixteen and division 2 at seventeen. The birthday does not matter.

Do kids' belts count toward the adult belts?

Yes, in the minimum times, if the earlier belt was registered. For athletes aged eighteen and older, previous IBJJF registration at grey, yellow or orange reduces the blue-belt minimum from two years to one; previous registration at green or at juvenile blue removes it. The federation counts the period from registration at the belt. The professor still decides when the promotion happens; the federation only says when it will recognise it.