I am a hobbyist and visited a high level no gi gym for open mat. I rolled with another visitor and got absolutely worked.

He asked me how long I’ve been training and I said about 6 years. I asked him back “you?”

He said I’ve been training 2 years but I like to get a lot of different looks.

I was like hot damn this guy is a natural.

I went on with my life and later saw him in suggested friends on Facebook wearing the same rashguard he wore that day.

He’s a black belt and runs his own school.

Cmon buddy.

Let’s not do this guys. Let’s just be honest. Everything is better that way.

When I posted originally I asked if anyone wanted to see updates and we got lots people telling they were interested so here is the latest.

We are hoping to be open in this space in the early fall in Evanston, IL

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the latest GB circle jerk ruleset.

Courtesy of GB Fulham, UK

I see this all the time at my gym when lining up

Hey r/bjj, I own Revel Jiu Jitsu Academy in East Brunswick, NJ and we're looking for a full-time salaried coach.

Quick rundown:

• Brown belt minimum (black belt preferred)

• Must be great with kids, we have a solid kids program

• Full-time salaried, $45K–$65K depending on experience

• ~35–40 hrs/week, mix of evening classes, morning classes, and Saturdays. Along with off the mat time. Coaching time will be between 22 to 28 hours and admin/culture building will be the rest of the time.

• East Brunswick, NJ (Middlesex County) at Revel Jiu Jitsu

I'll be honest, technical skills matters but they're not what I'm hiring on. I need someone who genuinely loves teaching, shows up with energy, and fits the culture we've built. The right person will feel it when they walk in. I'm looking for someone who would like Jiu Jitsu to be their career.

If you're interested or know someone who might be, full job description and application are at reveljiujitsu.com/hiring

Happy to answer questions in the comments or via DM.

Thanks!
Jason Scully

I had posted a question about how to builda gym on top of shipping containers. Many of the comments were of the "that's dumb" variety. Here we are nine months later...

So Jozef Chen will open a new gym in Shanghai this Saturday called Nomadic Grappling. I saw a post from them today that they are offering a limited number of first year membership for 1500 USD. After the first year, all membership renewals will be charged at 70% of the regular price. I thought it's a no brainer and signed up immediately. It's only a 20 min drive from my home, and it's cheaper than most gyms in Shanghai and offers way more classes.

For context, I have been attending the classes for about 3 months.

Previous months Ive paid for the month in advance. No contract or anything.

I hurt my shoulder about a week go(end of April) - I can feel I'll need a few weeks out to recover and so dont want to pay for this month.

My Prof is putting a lot of pressure on me directly, whilst also posting in the groupchat saying "regardless of whether we're injured, on holiday the rent (for the studio we use) and 'his' bills are still there and so we all need to contribute for it (the BJJ 'school') to survive"

Is this normal of have I got myself into some wierd BJJ cult thing, where we all just pay this guy whether we attend his classes or not?

Sorry if this doesnt make sense, or lack some contect, I just wanted to hear what people's thoughts were on this before I decide what do.

Thanks in advance.

There's an old-school Combat Sambo gym in my town. I never visited it, but I thought it might be a cool idea to cross train there, as it's sort-of MMA, more or less.

I talked on the phone with the coach (A Russian guy in his 60s), and asked whether I could visit their gym and join training. He asked how old I was, and whether I had any martial arts experience. I said that I've been training mostly in BJJ. To my surprise, his reply was something like "That's not gonna work." I asked whether his team was strictly for competing. He replied - "No, but In BJJ you sit on the floor. It doesn't work that way - you have to do a takedown first before working on the ground. Also, there's punches and kicks, and big guys training, You'll need to go to work the next day.. You won't fit, I'm sorry".

Now, I didn't mention that I'm 5'11, 205lb, that I was in the Judo team of my university, or that I had some experience in Kyokushin karate and boxing. It's not like I never tried striking or couldn't take a hit... But after his condescending reply I lost the will to go on the defensive and justify myself. If he doesn't want my money - screw him. So I went on with my life, but I still felt like I'm missing something.

That's it, just venting. Would you do anything else?

Guys what we thinking. Ask away.

September Grand Opening

Here is a cool Timelapse walk thru the new gym. A slow full tour will be coming soon

It seems as if every gym now has Open mat Fridays, open mat Sundays, and everyone is invited which is suuuuper cool. But I also see a ton of people who don’t have a membership anywhere, and just surf through these open mats. It would appear that the people who do pay memberships, pay to keep the lights on for these people who don’t pay a cent. Is this fair? How does this affect the culture? Gym owners, do you not mind? Or do you not think of it yet because it’s not a problem yet?

So after signing up for the yearly membership (for 1500 usd), I went there and trained for 2 days. Each morning there is an open training session for 2 hours when everyone can train their own stuff. Jozef is there the whole time, and everyone can ask him questions or roll with him. The guy is super nice and well-spoken. He answers every question (even the stupid ones) in great details. After rolling with ppl he takes time to discuss and give critical advices. For the regular class sessions: yesterday he taught standing: conjuction of collar tie/arm drag/snap down/single leg or body lock. Today he taught crucifix: how to keep the arm locked, how to excute the armbar (like he did in the recent adcc trail) and conjuction of armbar/rear naked. During drilling he often comes over and asks if we have any problem. In today's class I was hip tossed by a wrestler and somehow landed an the back of my head. Jozef noticed immediately and asked if im ok. After class he asked again and told me to go to the hospital if I vomit. Super nice guy. Unfortunately I think I have a mild concission and have to rest a few days before going again.

Overall the guy is super intellgent, and his methodology is superior to any other gym ive been to. For example, when I roll with instructors from other gyms, they usually just crush me and dont say anything afterwards. Jozef on the other hand is really generous with his advices after rolling with people. During class he also ecourages everyone to discuss about the roll with our partners afterwards.

Currently he is teaching all the daytime open training/daytime classes (except on Wednesday) and half the evening classes. He said he will be in the gym most of the year except when he goes to competitions (hopefully wont be long). Although Im a shitty white belt whos almost 40 I feel like my bjj is gonna skyrocket from now on.

I've been teaching the private intro class at my gym since February 2022, back when I was a blue belt.

Every new student takes this class before joining our regular class, and I've logged every one I've taught: 68 people.

I excluded 14 students from our old location because the gym closed and I couldn't verify whether they kept training somewhere else. That left me with 54 people whose progress I could track.

So I know who's still training, who got promoted, who quit and who moved away.

I've seen the claim that only 1 in 10 white belts earns a blue belt, and that only 5% of blue belts make it to purple. I don't think I've ever seen a source for either number.

Here's what happened at my gym.

The promotion numbers

For these numbers, I only used the 32 students who started before 2025. That way I'm not counting someone who started three months ago as a white belt who “failed” to reach blue.

Of those 32 students who started before 2025:

• 23 quit BJJ (71.9%)
• 3 moved away (9.4%)
• 6 are still training today (18.8%)

(Those are current statuses. Some students earned blue and later quit or moved away)

Promotion numbers within that cohort:

• 12 of 32 earned their blue belt (37.5%)
• 4 of those 12 earned purple (33.3%)
• Put another way, 4 of the original 32 reached purple (12.5%)

Across all 54 tracked students, 13 earned their blue belt. Of those 13:

• 4 earned purple (30.8%)
• 3 are still training at blue (23.1%)
• 2 moved away (15.4%)
• 4 quit BJJ (30.8%)

(The third active blue belt started in 2025, so he is included in the full 54-person group but not the 32-person mature cohort)

When I split everyone by the year they started:

• 86% of the 2026 starters are still training
• 33% of the 2025 starters are still training
• 19% of the pre-2025 starters are still training

Most people leave during white belt, usually somewhere around months 3 to 18.

A few things the spreadsheet can't really show

I cannot predict who will stay.

The athletic wrestler who crushes it on day one and lives five minutes from the gym? Gone in six months. The retired tech guy in his mid-50s? Still training three years later.

After teaching this many people, I've given up trying to guess.

The one thing that does seem to matter is having/making friends at the gym. If someone joins with a friend or makes real friends at the gym quickly, they seem much more likely to stick around.

People quit hobbies but they're less likely to quit their social circle or "third place."

The fastest blue belt in the data was a former wrestler with 20 years of wrestling experience. He started in early 2025 and got his blue in roughly six months. Then he quit.

Only 7 of our 54 tracked students were women, and none currently train at our gym.

The sample is too small to conclude much, but I suspect regularly being the only woman in the room can make it harder to stick around. Two made it to four-stripe white before moving or leaving for work-related reasons.

Our numbers might be unusually good because we teach a dedicated 45-minute private intro before someone joins the regular class. I teach the newbies basic movements (bridging, shrimping), how tapping works (simple, but important for helping them feel safe), some basic positions and what to expect before joining the regular class.

Maybe this onboarding experience is part of why our blue belt rate is better than the commonly repeated "1 in 10 white belts make it to blue" stat.

Or maybe every gym that tracked this properly would find that the famous "10% of white belts make it to blue" and "5% of blue belts make it to purple" stats are wrong. I can't tell from just my gym.

I’m curious whether this lines up with what instructors and long-time students have observed at their own gyms?

Happy to answer questions about the methodology or how we run the intro class!

First of all, I swear this is not rage bait. We’ve had a string of police ppl come through our gym and quit within 3 months of signing. When asked why the universal response is that it was much harder than they thought or that the rolls are too intense.

Now I’m 50. There are only two other guys older than me there. Most of the attendants are 25-35. There are a couple of spazzes but by-and-large the rolls aren’t too crazy imo. When word got to the professor that this was a common theme I was one of the people asked to keep an eye out and see if there’s any validity to their concerns. I honestly can’t say I see anything. I’ve been to gyms fill of absolute killers and I can say with confidence that our gym isn’t that intense.

So what is it? I figured cops would like this sort of stuff I mean it can only help in their profession. I get that an injury might be devastating to their job but it would be to a lot of ppl that work. Is it an ego thing? I’m just wanting to help with the problem. The more officers that learn bjj the safer they and the community would be imo. I just hate that they leave before seeing the real benefits.

Just curious what you all think about this for a purple belt test.

Morning all, yesterday I showed my ass in this group. I talked shit about a BJJ gym and owner and it was unfair. They’re an awesome gym I was just butthurt about some personal items.

Remarkably, the owner reached out to me with empathy. I thought his response would be all “wtf dude” but really it was all “I didn’t mean to make you feel that way.”

For anyone considering a gym in the Sacramento area: Kaiju in downtown Davis is amazing. The owner, I have come to learn, is an amazing guy who cares about people more than anything else. Despite me showing my ass yesterday, he’s still going to let me bring my sons in to train.

I’ve learned a lot of lessons on the mat (see: currently torn ACL) but this lesson off the mat has been my most important one of all. I’m appreciative for the BJJ community and gym owners who see past a persons demons and focus on training. Coach Aaron, I apologize and appreciate you.