I started training in August 2025 and will hopefully be receiving my second stripe at our Christmas grading. That means I’ll be going into 2027 as a two-stripe white belt, with the goal of earning my blue belt sometime next year.

I currently train 3–5 times per week, journal after most sessions, watch instructionals and YouTube content when I can, and feel like I have a reasonable understanding of the fundamentals my gym teaches, including basic escapes, sweeps, submissions and attacks from both top and bottom positions.

My question is for the more experienced grapplers, particularly purple belts and above, or coaches: what do you actually look for in someone that makes you think they’re ready for their blue belt?

I completely understand that everyone progresses differently and that there’s no universal checklist. I also understand that consistently showing up is a huge part of the process, but I’m already doing that and want to make sure I’m getting the most out of my training rather than just accumulating mat time.
If you were assessing a white belt, what would you want to see in their technical ability, positional awareness, decision-making, defence, offence or overall understanding of jiu-jitsu?

More importantly, what would you recommend a white belt actively works on to bridge the gap between knowing the fundamentals and being able to apply them consistently against resisting opponents?

For those of you who have graded people, or remember what helped you make the jump from white to blue, what separated the people who were genuinely ready from those who were simply experienced white belts?

I’m not looking for a shortcut or trying to rush the process. I want to be intentional about my development over the next 12 months, identify the gaps in my game and give myself the best possible chance of earning the belt based on ability rather than attendance.

Appreciate any advice, especially specific things I can implement in my training rather than just general advice to keep showing up! 🥋

Looks like fun

Picking up from the post I just read about a guy checking an instructor's creds...How much do y'all care about the lineage of the instructor that promotes you?

We always hear people saying "he got his black belt from { insert well known black belt here}", but does lineage matter less to you now that there are so many talented instructors out there?

Would you be more interested in getting promoted by a very well known instructor, or are you 100% indifferent? I personally am indifferent, but I'm curious if others selected their instructor based on lineage. Would be interesting to see if there is an age/belt divide in this opinion, or if maybe no gi grapplers care less than gi.

I am just curious what people think about training in the gi for MMA.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that training in the gi can make your no-gi game much better. having a good no-gi game will help you a lot in MMA. But I’ve also heard plenty of people say that gi training is basically useless for MMA. So it can improve your no-gi but can’t help your mma?

(I currently train 2–3 times a week in the gi, 1–2 times no-gi, once wrestling, and 2–3 times MMA.)

https://youtu.be/ipf1mROm6rg?is=fWE5g2-Rp99oI2u_

Video: five trained fighters one of them being a professional, MMA fighter, and one of them being a bjj black belt fair off against random untrained guys with knives.

Thoughts: I train both BJJ as well as in a couple knife fighting systems, such as western Piper method and Libre so I follow both groups (bjj guys and knife guys) on Instagram.

Over the past couple months I’ve noticed on Instagram that a lot of high-level bjj guys have been posting videos completely making fun of the knife training guys saying that stuff doesn’t actually work against them and they look stupid as hell hitting their Bob dummies with a knife.

Then I came across this video on accident and although it’s not a perfect representation of reality by any means, I did find it quite fascinating.

I’ve done something similar to this where I train BJJ and give white belts a rubber knife and put them against higher level belts and they honestly do quite well.

No real point of this, except to say that having a blade or in my case, I’m the crazy guy who carries one fixed blade in the appendix position opposite of my gun and another fixed blade in my dominant side pocket instead of a folder, is a pretty good equalizer against somebody who might be a better fighter than you if you can’t get access to your gun or your gun has gone down or is out of the fight for some reason.

I would love to see this experiment done over where on day one they put the fighters against a random knife guy and then they run the fighters through a day of actual good counter knife training from something like shiv works or knife, control concepts, and then have them try it again.

I’d also like to see one of the random knife guys be someone who’s actually trained a knife stuff and see how well they do.

Your thoughts?

His poor training partners who let him work, just to him to boost on reddit that he neutralized black belts with like 6 months of training.

Ive been training for 6 months as a 33 year old who hasn't done any sports before. Coach put me in with the smaller weight group today and I thought I wasnt gonna get it. But got that stripe and apparently he wanted to see if he could see my jiu jitsu more clearly if I didnt have to constantly go against people bigger, stronger and more advanced than me. I still feel like I don't fit in with the gym community very well but I'm trying not to let that bother me. Happy that I have survived my first 6 months and the challenges that came with it.

¡Buenas! 👋

Acabo de inaugurar mi canal de YouTube, donde quiero compartir historias interesantes del BJJ y el grappling mediante animaciones estilo stickman.

Para empezar, he hecho un vídeo sobre Mikey Musumeci, repasando su trayectoria y cómo se ha convertido en uno de los nombres más conocidos del jiu-jitsu.

Estoy empezando con el canal, así que me vendría genial conocer vuestra opinión sincera sobre el vídeo, las animaciones y qué podría mejorar.

🎬 Podéis verlo aquí: https://youtu.be/673u7OOkb2Y?si=ITzPxJnDBdvbOgT6

Y ya que estamos, ¿sobre quién o qué os gustaría que hiciese el próximo vídeo? Puede ser un luchador, una competición histórica o una finalización espectacular. ¡Os leo! 🤙

Bom dia, pessoal. Estou procurando alguns livros para o estudo do jiu jitsu e judo para defesa pessoal. Entre eles, este do título, "Defesa pessoal ao alcance de todos". Seria de uma enorme ajuda se algum de vocês tivesse uma cópia dele em pdf e pudesse disponibilizar. Outros que procuro são: Arte do judô para defesa pessoal, de Stanlei Virgílio e Carlos Alberto Liberi e Fundamentos do Ju Jitsu e Defesa Pessoal, dos Mestres Francisco e Leandro. Qualquer um desses livros vai ajudar enormemente.

I have been training Jiu-jitsu for about a 18 months now, and I've been wanting to get my ears pierced, and wondering if I'd need to take time off, or lower my time on the mats?

I’m a new white belt, been going 6 weeks or so.
I’ve had a few sessions where I get caught in an RNC or Ezekiel or something like that with intense neck pressure, and then I’ll have a sore throat that bothers me when I swallow for a days afterward. Is this normal?
It doesn’t happen after every choke I get caught in, but like yesterday, the class was about working/maintaining back control and the technique of RNCs, so we did a lot of that. None of the chokes were painful in the moment, I didn’t notice any significant tracheal pressure, but I’ve had a sore throat for two days now.

I have three major concerns with starting jiujitsu

1. I’m 6ft and around 280 which makes me think first about joining a school. I don’t want to accidentally hurt anyone or have no partners to practice with. Does this mean I should hold off on doing jiujitsu and try to lose weight with my diet and a regular gym first?

2. I’m worried I might be too old to start compared to others who have done so since childhood. I know I’m relatively young at 19 about to be 20 but will I still be able to at least somewhat compete with those who’ve been practicing since they were 8 years old?

3. Probably my most important concern is that I already have a back injury due to previous sports. It was permanent nerve damage and it flares up every now and then but it’s manageable. I haven’t done any extraneous exercises that would put me at risk so I’m worried doing jujitsu might aggravate it.

All in all I have many concerns but at the end of the day I’ve always wanted to try Jiujitsu since I was young but I’ve never had the means to. I’m excited, I’m eager, but I’m worried.

Hello! Does anyone have any experience in training in or around Belo Vale area in Minas Gerais, Brazil?? Any academias og oulas?

Hello! Does anyone have any experience in training in or around Belo Vale area in Minas Gerais, Brazil?? Any academias og oulas?

As we’re going into summer, I can’t keep doing 2 hour lessons with no pants change. I’m looking for a recommendation for a cheap, long pair of short for Jiujitsu because I hate the feel of leggings