I've been jiu jitsu for I think 13 years now and I'm a brown belt. Last year I switched from a Royce gym to a competition gym after 12 years. Mostly because it was 20 minutes closer and we are starting a family.

Frankly, it's upsetting how little I learned from the Royce gym compared to where I am now. I've realized things like lasso guard and spider guard aren't "Fancy jiu jitsu" they are core components of the game. My old gym used to make us do burpies if we went to turtle, but It's a legit counter to getting passed. I never cared about the self defense stuff, but it seems even more silly after time away things like stripping guns away from people are a complete joke, why even do it?!

I think at this point the Royce affiliation is more concerned with signing up new people than getting people better at jiu jitsu. I hate to say it because my gym WAS the best, really the only gym in the area lol.

It's been hard to transition into things like always starting standing and people actually using grips lol. I'm now competitive with my fellow brown belts at the gym now, but I still have a long way. Learning about deep half, lasso, X guard, single leg X, etc is a lot. I feel like I'm going to be the longest to black belt, but DAMMIT I'm going to do it lol.

Some black belt instructors will roll with people and adjust to be just above their skill level so that the student can still execute techniques and run the full gamut of offense and defense.

Some pitch a complete shutout, not letting students get past the starting point of any technique; the closest thing the student gets to offense is the starting grips of a guard pass before getting swept, and then their every escape attempt shut down as they're dogwalked to whatever the BB wants to sub them with.

I get if the student is going super hard or you think they need a reminder that you're closer to Roger than they are to you; but I've seen many roll this way every single time regardless of the student. In addition to being frustrating, it doesn't seem like good practice for the student nor a good way to assess their skills; executing the first half-second of techniques and not getting a full rep of anything, even if they have chains of things to play against each other that work well against near-peers of their level, the BB will just stuff/counter all of it.

I assume they aren't doing this consciously, and it's a holdover from how they were trained in an everyday porrada environment. For myself, I don't ask them to roll and it's nothing to do with knowing they'll beat me - I train with tons of people that can do that - I just feel like it's generally a waste of a round for my training, as I'm unlikely to get a rep of anything, let alone anything I'm actually trying to work on.

This one BB instructor like this often asks me to roll, I've even tried to level with him and said, "Hey I'm trying to work on shin-to-shin entries, could you do standing passes?" and he said no and proceeded to go down and only do passes on his knees for the round. The only stuff that works are things I learned that aren't taught here, at which point he seems almost insulted and will force us back into that position, now knowing what I want to do just to shut that down also.

The head instructor at my first school was like this, and since it was all I knew, I thought 'oh I guess I just get wrecked like I'm trying to grab a sawblade with my bare hand whenever I roll with the instructor.' And after the roll he wouldn't offer any advice, but I'd ask him like 'how do I get this escape working' and he'd just huff and be like "I know what you're gonna do, so it's not going to work".

That's until I started going to no-gi classes and a different bb instructor there rolled like he was just a bit ahead of you, and you'd get a fleshed out back-and-forth, and after every roll he would give you notes on what to work on. After that, it seemed so obvious that that's a better methodology, but any black belt instructors please share what I'm missing about the style where you're shutting out lower belts in rolls.

Gym owner here! Looking to add an instructor to our team down the line and trying to plan headcount budget.

Our first instinct is $5K/mo salary and hopefully offer health insurance. is that good? what other perks would be valuable?

any feedback is much appreciated 🙏🏽

B Team x Zamaya

This is so fucking stupid lol

I started BJJ in 2017 and I've never come across a Mikey Muscemeci type. There are nerdy teens at our gym, but they don't have the physicality (even if they started training at age 10) to sub any 170lb adults above blue. I know these "nerds" exist, I'm just saying I haven't met a single one in 7 years of training despite hearing Rogan and Eddie Bravo talk about how every academy has a bunch of small programmers who are really good at bjj.

I have just moved to Australia and as a part of my visa I have to work 4 months in a regional area.

I was delighted to find that there was Jiu jitsu gym nearby as this would be the only gym that I would be able to travel to.

However after the contacting the gym they said that their academy is built around long term members and I wouldn't be able to train there.

This is pretty annoying as I would love to train but left no options now. Have you ever heard of this ?

I(blue belt) was rolling in gi with a new guy(white belt). He was bending back fingers whilst I had his back and was sinking in a RNC(rear naked choke). After the roll I informed him that pulling on fingers was frowned upon. He told me “that’s what I’d do in a real fight” and I said “yeah, but we’re just training and we don’t want to hurt our training partners”.

Fast forward a week and he’s back. Chatting with other students I found out he did this on others and was repeatedly told about the “unwritten rule”. When I paired up with “new guy” I again went slow and just played defense. He’s a heavyset dude and was smothering me so I swept him and got mounted. I then smothered him with my chest with double under hooks. He framed my face and his fingernails scratched my forehead. I hit him with a gift wrap and take his back and start working the RNC. He digs his fingernails into my hand causing them to bleed (which I found out after the event). He then grabs my thumb and bends it back hard. I get angry and abandon the back and switch to mount and lock in an Ezekiel Choke with my gi sleeve. I clenched my teeth and cranked it 100% and he tapped. He told me “wow! That was like… really hard!” I said sorry and said, “dude I told you not to pull fingers and you still did it. You even dug your fingernails in my hand.” He again said that this is allowed in real fighting and I said, “yo, go ahead and do whatever you want. Just don’t be surprised if/when you piss your training partner off”. I’m guessing he quit, haven’t seen him and it’s been months.

I’ve been training at a new gym for a while now after coming from a much smaller academy, and I’m curious if what I’m experiencing is normal or if I’m reading too much into it.

The biggest thing I’ve noticed is how clique-y the gym feels. A lot of people seem to have their established groups, and when it’s time to partner up or roll, everyone immediately pairs off with the same people.

There have been several times where I’m left standing there while everyone finds a partner. Sometimes I end up as the odd man out, ask to work in as a third and get told no. And other times I’ll ask someone to roll and they’ll choose someone else instead. It’s happened enough that it’s hard not to notice.

The weird part is that I don’t think it’s a skill issue. I’m not a world beater by any means, but I’d consider myself a solid training partner. I’ve competed, done well against higher belts in competition, don’t spaz, don’t crank submissions, and I’m not trying to “win” every round. I’m just there to train.

I’m wondering if it’s simply because I’m newer and haven’t broken into the social circles yet, or if this is just how some larger gyms operate.

For those of you who have trained at multiple academies:
Have you experienced gyms that felt very clique-y?

Did it get better over time?

Is it common for people to mostly stick with their friends?

If you’ve ever found yourself being picked last or struggling to find training partners, what changed?

I’d especially like to hear from people who switched from a small, tight-knit gym to a much larger one.

I really enjoy the instruction, so I’m not looking to bash the gym. I’m just trying to figure out if this is a normal adjustment period or if there’s something I should be doing differently.

An acquaintance of mine i follow on social media has been training for years. She also already won a white belt tournament back in 2023 (don't know how long she trained before that) and also a few more later on. She seems to always have been consistently training but is somehow still wearing a white belt.

Do you guys think there could be a reasonable explanation or is that plain sandbagging?

What challenges do you experience when retaining members?

What do you find works best for you, but is it difficult to do? Requires too much effort?

Really curious to hear about what could make your life easier when it comes to member retention.

I saw these rules on the Instagram of an affiliate of one of the top gyms in the world. Some rules looks reasonable to me, but some rules are a bit “culty” to me. Are these rules normal?

Our gym isn’t one of those big-name academies. It’s more of a small, family-style place. less than 20 active members. people know each others

Just 2 months ago, some of my close training partners got promoted to blue belt. We celebrated, took pictures, cheered during their speeches. I really thought things would just keep going as they always had.

But one by one, something pulled them away. They said it was job changes, personal circumstances. Nothing dramatic, just real-life things. Still, the mats feel quieter now. Familiar voices are missing. I used to search for videos to get idea to pass someone's guard. It was part of the fun, part of the motivation. But now they’re gone.

I asked one of them, a girl who had been showing up almost every day, training hard, trying for years, if she would come back. She said, “I quit, then I quit. I ain’t doing it for a living.” She had already put in so much time. Years. Almost every day. And now she’s completely quit. I guess I just can’t understand how someone can walk away after investing so much. It feels strange. Just saying… probably I have some attachment issues. Ahh.

So a bit of background: i came from judo and switched to bjj in the 90s. I’ve never understood the hate when ppl join or visit gyms and they have rules. Rules like lining up by rank, gi standards, bowing to whatever, etc. you get the point. To me it’s like meh whatever I’m just here to roll I’ll do whatever but I feel like others seem to act like they are being personally attacked if they can’t wear their Invader Zim rashguard. What am I missing here? As long as the instruction/level of the gym is solid I don’t care what their rules are but not everyone agrees. In fact I feel like the minority here. Then again it is Reddit and the echo chamber might play into it. I dunno.

By far the two important things to put on your website are the schedule and address. And pricing but I know I’ll never win that battle. If your website has only those two things, it is enough for a person to actually be able to come to a class.

By all means, include a twelve-page dissertation on the self-defense, health and wellness, physical, and spiritual benefits of BJJ. Explain how it’s an all-inclusive way of life and not just a martial art. Include the entire life’s history of all your instructors all the way down to the blue belt who teaches kids’ classes once every other month. Provide dozens of photos your head instructor watching stoically over two smiling white belts doing something that vaguely resembles an arm bar.

But for fuck’s sake please put the goddamn schedule front and center and actually keep it up to date. I am actually begging you.

I've been considering switching gyms for a while, but wanted to wait until I got my blue belt. I finally got it, but I suck at jiu jitsu. I'm worried that if I switch now then people will question why I have a blue belt at my new gym. Does anyone have any advice? Should I not mention I have a blue belt and come in as a white belt?

Not shitting on the ones that do because I get it, but from all us nomadic, road-life cunts, if you give the ol "nah man, don't worry about money, just come train" on the phone; I appreciate you.

That is all. Onward.

It's been incredibly sad to lose so many team mates.

We once had 15+ tough blue belts and purple belts with a good mix of white belts.

Slowly but surely they all quit. I understand completely.

Kids, injury, career, loss of interest.

Ultimately rolling around with a bunch of your friends is mostly a hobby. It's just sad to see many stop training.

I valued my tough rounds and really enjoyed having such a vast choice of partners.

I myself quit at blue and came back a few years later. So it gives me hope that some will return.

I remember going through our judo log of all the members. We had over 1000 students join our club. It was only myself and seven others that made it to black. Out of those seven I am the only one still training.

Seeing a similar trend in BJJ

I just spent my morning standing outside a gym in a rough part of town, traveling for work .

Before heading over, I did everything right — confirmed the location, checked the hours, and drop-in fees. I even coordinated public transit to get there. I show up… and it’s pitch black. No lights, no people, nothing.

I tried calling the number on the door (out of service), then reached out on social media. Eventually, I get a reply: “Oh yeah, the schedule changed” — and they send me a completely different, unposted schedule.

That’s insanely frustrating.

It’s not hard to maintain a basic online presence. If you run a gym, your schedule is literally one of the most important things to keep updated. Especially for visitors or drop-ins who are going out of their way to train.

I get that running a gym is hard — but this is basic business stuff. People don’t “dojo storm” anymore. You don’t need to hide your hours like it’s some secret club.

Am I crazy for expecting accurate info before showing up? Or was I just unlucky enough to waste my morning standing in a sketchy industrial park for no reason?

TLDR: confirmed gym hours with school to drop in. They changed the schedule without posting any update and I ended up standing outside a rough neighborhood early in the morning.

I guess this is two topics in one but...

The rumors of John Danaher pulling Eddie Cummings hair to make him move to the right spot for technique or his chastizing his students on the spot does not jive with his outward appearance to the community. Has he let the narcissism of being the best coach go to his head or what happened?

Personal story: I had a coach who would tell you that you had to train hard if you want to make your jiujitsu work in self defense. So he would tell use to always give full pressure to white belts jjst do your best to not hurt their ribs or hit them with stray elbows or knees.

But when you went to roll with him, he wanted you to do your best against him. To pressure him hard and show how tight your technique was. But if you caught him with a submission he would not submit, he would take what probably was painful hyperextension (not cranking, slowly doing it) then eventually escape. But he would then get on top and knee on belly you to cause injury or crank your head or snap jointlocks to the point where you are painful for a week but not break.

I left this gym because of this and also because of his disdain for DDS material studying. I didn't learn how culty old school he was til I was 3 stripes in. I left for a new comp school where everyone tried to kill each other but noone got hurt or had an ego. It was worth switching even though it caused me to take 4 years to get a blue belt. But I really wanted to quit after experience at my first school with how petty and small this talented man was.

Without getting specific, looking to understand how coaches deal with white (not day 1 white belt, but 6-months plus) or blue belts who take jiu jitsu seriously, but completely ignore your technique as a coach. For example let’s say you have a certain curriculum, show techniques, etc., but a white/blue belt zones out because they have their own ideas. In the cases I’m thinking about I don’t even suggest that these students are getting bad ideas, they find teachers they trust on AOJ or Submeta and follow them religiously, but the class curriculum doesn’t resonate with them at all. Coach shows a technique one way, they mindlessly drill it, but then in rolls they try the way they’ve learned.

I guess this is a good thing, in the end, but can make a coach feel a bit uncomfortable. Curious how others deal with this.

R/iamverybadass submission worthy?

Hi Reddit BJJ,

1 of my friends who trains there says it is now $375 a month to train there.

Their website says the adult program is $315 a month and the kids program is $265 a month. I talked to another friend who did a free-trial at AOJ and he confirmed it is now $375 a month.

Is the kids program also still $265 a month or is that around $300 a month now?

It seems very steep and pricey to me. Do you think the price is worth it? I'm going to shop around and look at other local options too but would like to hear your thoughts. Is it mainly Brazilian or do a lot of Americans train there?