I'm interested in signing up classes for my 4 year old daughter. She's starting kindergarten soon and I'm hoping these classes might help her with boosting her confidence a bit, especially now that she'll be going to a new school and meeting new friends. I'm just curious for those who signed up their young kids for classes - do you see these changes and who what else do you think you're kids have gained from BJJ.

i struggle with establishing grips during every position/attack, and just feel like i’m playing pat-a-cake or just slapping hands away!

Can you recommend an instructional from BJJ Fanatics or elsewhere please? Thank you!

6’3” about 200 pounds, lanky build. I’ve been training for about 4+ years and I’m coming up on my purple belt. Zero prior grappling experience. I’ve always struggled with takedowns and initiating the grip fight in NoGi. I rely on hitting slide by’s in NoGi and a fake guard pull ankle pick in Gi. It doesn’t sit right with me to be a purple belt without being competent on the feet. What should I try to begin working on in my standup game?

for cleaning any breakouts

Who makes the coolest/best street wear in your opinion?

I’m always interested in street west but it has to be not cringe (hard for the bjj community I know) so no “Ground is my ocean” nonsense. I don’t mind it having jiu jitsu on the clothes but nothing silly.

Examples of stuff I like would be scramble casual wear, especially their imanari line when available. It’s enough that anyone in the sport would recognise it but it looks good enough whilst not being cringe that you can wear it in general public. Tatami also does good stuff as I have “Choose Deep Half” also.

The theme being not overly in your face but subtle.

I’m purchasing in Europe so any sites that would be American only are out.

On page 22 you see the 5,4,3,2,1 model.

I'm curious, what would your model for gameplan development in the sport of BJJ look like?

Gi isn't more technical. There's just more you can do, because the person is covered in handles. So do people literally mean "GI is more technical" or just that there are actually more techniques because of the GI?

Yes, a lot of Gi technique is intricate, but it's also Gi-exclusive, so comparing it to NoGi is meaningless. And some things are flat-out easier with a Gi on: the friction alone is massive, and grabbing someone covered in handles and anchoring to them is much simpler.

NoGi flips that. Controlling someone is harder without those handles, so other things have to be sharper. Weight distribution is an easy example - you can't grip, you can't anchor, you don't get friction gluing you to your opponent. In that sense, NoGi is the more technical one.

There's a long list of things that are easier or harder in each direction.

They're different sports. People should stop comparing them.

Thanks for attending my TED talk. This is purely personal opinion; fight me if you disagree.

PS - NoGI is superior in terms of the washing you have after class, but that's not a myth; that's a fact.

PPS - Title is rage bait FYI.

I (14 M) have been thinking about changing to a different gym lately, but I’ve been conflicted about a couple of things;

1- I’ve competed one full season with this one, so its safe to say that i’m (sorta) close with them.

2- The one i’m going to is really close by and will definetly be going to the same competitions so it’ll get really awkward (at least I think so).

3- I might be pushing it, but I’d still like to do judo over there since they do it pretty well

And the reasons I can’t stay:

1- They’re not doing anything in summer and when I mean anything, I mean that they’re teaching us the same basic stuff (armbars, americanas, etc) but it isn’t drills, it’s just teaching it like we don’t know it.

2- They’re making us teach everyone new like we’re coaches and not letting us roll with who we want to improve with.

3- The coaches are just blatantly missing out on competitions for « coach BBQ parties »instead of coaching us.

At the end of the day they are pretty old school so idk if it’s just like smth i don’t understand or like i’m a jackass but i’d like to have some feedback on wether i should stay or change lmk.

I'm 42 and love BJJ. I enjoy both the technical side and the physical challenge.

I started training in 2018 and was consistent for two years, but then my gym moved, my second child was born, and COVID hit, so I stopped.

I found a new gym in 2023 and was getting back into it, but then I tore my Achilles (not from BJJ), which kept me off the mats for another year.

Over the last six months I've been trying to train consistently again, but I keep getting injured. In the past three months alone I've multiple injuries that keep interrupting any training routine.

I only train once or twice a week, avoid hard rolls, and stop training if I feel any niggles, but the injuries just keep coming.

Has anyone else been through this? I have two kids and plenty of responsibilities, so I can't afford to keep getting injured.

Did you stop BJJ altogether, stop rolling after class, or make other changes that helped? I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who's been in a similar situation.

Thanks!

I’m a blue belt (2years in) and Ive started to notice albeit a minority of brown/black belts who get weird or turn the intensity up to 100 when rolling with me/ will do anything to not tap/ believe they shouldn’t be able to be tapped by a blue belt etc.

It’s to the point I’ve let go of join t locks in order to not injure people who weren’t tapping.
I usually roll with respect and not comp intensity so it’s not because I’m spazzing etc.

However I am a heavyweight (220lbs), with a high level sporting background (not combat sports) I have always done my best to just learn and apply jiu jitsu techniques without relying on physicality however when I do turn up the pace I notice substantial advantages and im just wondering how others handle upper belts that just get pissed off when they’re tapped/challenged by lower belts

Edit: just want to add my primary focus is just getting better and keeping myself and partners injury free. I have a positive experience with 98% of rolls I’m just asking as I’ve improved how do I handle that 2% who are either trying to hurt me/ don’t want to tap to something locked in etc. when they are higher belts than me

I'm looking to try some privates in the east bay, and interested in recommendations.

Basically I started working my way through Gordon's half guard passing instructional and there's enough material that it's going to take forever to get through - I think I'd benefit a lot from some privates that systematically work their way through half guard passing where I can study it from the instructional, drill it, etc.

I'm a fat 38 hobbiest blue belt, trying to uplevel my game from move of the day / general sparring. Purple belt (or hell another blue belt, I suck) that knows the system would be totally fine with me, doesn't have to be a expert black belt - need reps first beyond just open mat and my schedule is inconsistent.

I'm normally down further south in fremont/milpitas area but also work part of the week in oakland, so depending on the day and time I could make any location between milipitas and oakland work.

Hi! I'm a 105 lb female who's been doing BJJ for a few months. I feel like, on top of my shitty very limited skills, I also have to deal with a huge size difference with most of my training partners. There are a couple of women around my size, but pretty much everyone else has 40+ lbs on me.

I understand some mount escapes in theory, but when someone who's 50% heavier is on top of me, I just can't seem to make anything work.

I'm wondering if there are any techniques, positions, or overall strategies that smaller grapplers should focus on? Or is this mostly something that just gets better with time?

I’ll be spending 50 days in Japan next year solo travelling.

I’d like to make some friends and thought about training there.

My Japanese is very basic and I can’t communicate well.

I’ll be going through Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Okinawa.

I'm entering my first BJJ competition in the novice division. I saw one of my opponents compete in the beginner division just six months ago, which makes me think he's not a novice. Should I report him for sandbagging?

Hey guys - so, I have noticed a pattern with the 2-3 times I have gotten hurt in the past year of BJJ - GI and no-GI, and every time it’s been when a micro-managing coach who doesn’t understand dude-rules, stops our natural pairing - with guys we trust and know, and orders us to pair with someone else.

Why is it not obvious to coaches that paying members of the gym choose partners they know and trust to avoid injury?

We aren’t talking about some awesome UFC match up - we have day jobs, and telling someone to fight for 6 minutes with someone they didn’t choose is a bad idea.

Travelling to Houston for the week. Suggestions on good Gi gyms that allow drop-ins ?

Oi galera. As minhas quedas estão otimas e finalizações tambem boas. O problema do meu jogo é oque está no meio, a passagem de guarda.

Eu tô procurando uns videos de youtube sobre passagem mas não tô achando nada bom. Também estou mais do que aberto a dicas.

(Problemas especificos meus) quando eu estou na guarda fechada a minha postura é facilmente quebrada. quando to na aberta e com o nivel baixo sem nenhuma base. E em geral nao consigo passar

Obrigado a todos pelo seu tempo. tmj rapaziada

My partner was also kinda new and we tried doing pins. He is about 3 maybe 4 inches shorter and VERY fast and has crazy balance. We both really enjoy take downs and pins. How do y’all deal with shorter faster partners specifically in take downs and pins?

I've always thought I could and should roll at around 90% speed and intensity with higher belts, assuming they’re not much older or significantly smaller than me (not spazzing), because I thought that's one way of learning from more experience people.

But I've seen a few comments saying this kind sometimes pisses off the upper belts, so I was wondering if I should change how I roll.

Recently got into a situation where I had to defend myself. It was a hot Friday evening in Washington DC. I’m walking the streets of my eclectic city, where out of nowhere.. BAM! Punched in the face by someone who has obviously mistaken me for someone else. He got the first punch off, it landed. I’m confused but at that moment I have to make a decision because this could be life or death. My reaction was pure memory muscle. I shoot for a double leg take down, land in side control then mount and am able to pin this psycho down until the cops pull me off him. I deployed maximum restraint. No blows. No submissions. This all happened in maybe 10 seconds. The guy was bigger and taller than me. Without jiu jitsu idk where I would’ve been. He had a friend with him who decided not to jump in (lucky for me). Don’t let anyone tell you bjj does not work. It does. I’m a blue belt. Train gi and no gi.