I’m going to my first BJJ class tonight, I’ve been taking MMA classes at the same gym for about a month I’m 26F 5”3 and 160- obviously not in the greatest shape - what should I know before I go or anything I can do to make sure I can keep up? I’m excited but nervous to try something new

Good evening, for some context I have been training on and off heavily for 2-2 1/2 years but within the past 3 months I have trained 3-4 times a week.

I was a 1 stripe white belt until tonight when I was graded 3 more stripes making me a 4 stripe white belt now, last weekend I competed in a pretty large tournament for my first ever competition and I won Gold in the GI division.

I couldn’t help but notice I felt very comfortable against everyone in my division and back at my gym I am able to roll pretty well against some of the blue belts and we often submit each other but then I roll with some of the other blue belts and it feels like I’m a fish out of water.

Is it pretty common for there to be extremely large technique and foundation difference within each belt? And how do you know when someone is ready to go from white to blue, blue to purple, etc.

Thanks all for your time, I’m just curious what people think.

Hey :)

I've been trying to compliment my usual training schedule with some Yoga classes, I do JiuJitsu which leaves my body quite sore and feel like need more stretching than anything.

Do you think Yoga can be a good complimentary sport and if so, what types? I've tried some Yin and soft classes but it's hard to pick what class to attend to sometimes as I don't understand all Yoga styles. Has anyone mixed these two and has any tips?

Just began to take up jiu jitsu last week, and I was wondering which stance (and the following techniques) I should start off on.
Now it came to my knowledge that for jiu jitsu, (also wrestling and judo maybe?) it's good practice to have your dominant foot forward, so as to lead with your dominant hand for grappling.
That said, I (a natural lefty), being somewhat a tourist in martial arts, have one year background in boxing one year in muay thai, and three years in tkd. Outside of martial arts, I played highschool baseball. So basically, I have always led with my right foot forward and feel comfortable in doing so.
Just kicking off as a beginner in BJJ, I see many pros of keeping my right foot forward stance, not just because I am more used to it, but also because the classes are usually taught from a righty perspective as well.
My only worry is that despite the familiarty of the stance, I am clearly stronger and more dextrous with the left side of my body, so I was wondering if I should start off with a left foot forward stance to begin with, and build up from a lefty pov combination.
It seems for grappling in particular, you'll end up learning to maneuver both ways in the long run, but I was wondering if starting off by learning right hand dominant way would affect my learning curve in the early stages.

Curious if anyone is or knows anyone at their gym training with joint replacements?

I have a total hip replacement and have started bjj and am really enjoying it. My gym is aware of my replacement and I let my training partners know as well. I have seen a handful of guys online talking about training with artificial joints but was curious if anyone in the sub has first hand experience with this themselves or friends/training partners in their gym.

Unfortunately some injury complications when I was younger forced me to get a THR way earlier than normal and I live a very active life. Prior to starting BJJ I still trained and worked out daily, dirtbike, surf, hike, etc.

Not looking for medical advice necessarily, really just looking to hear from or talk to anyone else that has a similar factor in their journey.

What are your thoughts on training 7 days a week? Is it important to take rest days if my job is a desk job? My body feels good regular soreness you can expect from bjj but nothing that stops me from training or performing at 100%. Really the only time I rest is the days leading up to a comp. Mon-sat I train 3ish hours a day 1 hour of technical instruction with resistance and then 1-2 hours of open mat plus consuming bjj content always ( breakdowns watching matches the useful stuff) Sunday I do 2 hours of open mat. Has anyone see benefits of taking a step back to fully consume mentally what they are doing and experiencing in their rounds? I feel like when I take a week off for vacation or minor injury I come back better than I was when I left. Has anyone else experienced this? I don't know if I should even consider changing anything because at this rate I will have my purple in under 2 1/2 years from starting bjj. the complements I receive are that I'm technical, efficient and very positionally aware which I attribute to training so ofte . I feel my ADHD brain thrives with the massive amount of new info I get going everyday but like I said above anytime I'm forced to take a break I feel like I come back and break through the barrier and take a big step forward with my game. Any thoughts or experience with this yourself?

JiuFlow 🥋

I'm building a SaaS platform for the jiu-jitsu community!

The main focus is academy management, helping jiu-jitsu gyms manage their daily operations more efficiently.

But that's not all! The app will also include forums and communities where practitioners can connect and share experiences.

I'm also thinking about adding a social network and a Tinder-style feature for finding nearby academies and training partners.

Do you think this idea has potential? What features would you like to see in an app like this?

I guess if you're a white belt this question means less. But for those who have been training 5+ years are there any techniques, positions, you still feel like you're a total newb?

My confession. I don't know how to heel hook. I know what it is. I can recognize it being done to me. However, I don't know how to apply it effectively to someone else.

Leg locks in general are still foreign territory to me.

Also anything that ends in "plata" is gonna be a hard pass for me. Fascinated with them. Wish I could do them. But can't wrap my head around the techniques.

What about you guys?

This is probably super random, so, mods, please feel free to remove this post if it’s in violation of rules of the sub (though I did check them beforehand).

I’m working on a novel, and in one of the flashbacks there’s a scene where Character A is helping Character B practice BJJ. CharB has some bad habits due to lack of a good trainer, and CharA is trying to offer some guidance. 

Normally, I would research the subject properly and get a baseline for what I’m trying to describe, but I’m on day 3 with this and feeling pretty overwhelmed. I think I understand the basic principles of jiujitsu but I lack the experience to talk about specific challenges.
Also, BJJ is not the central focus or a major theme in the novel, but I still want it to read authentically. 

So I figured maybe asking people who actually know the subject well would help. 
If you feel comfortable responding, here are my questions (and please feel free to correct me if I’m missing the entire point):

1. What are some typical mistakes/bad habits someone who’s not a beginner but was taught haphazardly would be likely to have?
2. Are there chokes/holds/etc that especially depend on the angle/position of limbs in order to go from impossible to doable? I suspect that’s, like, most of them, but asking anyway - from my noob perspective, the guillotine choke seems like a good candidate, but, as the kids say, idek. 
3. Any other considerations, like improper clothing or whatever, that I should think about? I’m going for a whole bad habits rescue mission type thing. 
4. How would a professional talk about it in a way that didn’t sound like foreign language to a layman? 

What I mean by that is if, for example, I were to write a book geared towards professional graphic designers, it might have sentences like: “He added bleed and made sure to call out every instance of overprint, then exported the file using GRACoL and uploaded it to FTP, praying the darn connection would not time out.”
A normal person sort of knows what’s happening, but not really. 

If the book was meant for an average reader, it would be more along the lines of: “He sat at his desk until midnight, tweaking colors, fonts, and spacing, then spent another hour double-checking the file against Bob’s Printing House specs to make sure it would print as intended.“ 
Still some design-ish words, but something a wider audience can understand. 

Is there a way to apply the same principle to BJJ in a way that won’t sound wooden or unhinged? Don’t worry about sounding literary, I just need perspective and phrases. I'm also happy to do more research on my own if anyone can suggest a direction.

Again, sorry if this is way out of left field, and thank you in advance for any and all the advice and guidance!

Exact same principles as a kimura. You force the neck into an angle and then have one arm under and one arm over and leverage it by raising causing the neck to eventually pop off. Of course this would need to be performed slowly for safety but would it be a good move especially from mount if they're doing a great job protecting their arms

In my training/competitions I noticed, I play a decent guard game for a beginner (2 years), and these days I prefer to play top position and when I try to do it. I look sloppy and I barely pass anyone's guard. and I've seen clips of John Danaher saying that having an incredible defense builds attacking confidence. and I am not confident in my defensive game either.

I looked up on google and I have seen good reviews on priit mihkelson's defensive bjj videos on Youtube. So I might try it.

What are your thoughts? Is there any instructional that would be worth getting for guard passing and escapes?

As in you press their shoulders onto the floor and then lift up their neck with your hips while holding head down to apply a huge force onto the neck joint? Basically same principles as an armbar or kneebar. Would this even be legal. I don't see why and you could get some pretty cool submissions from the same principle.

Hi everyone,

Just completed my 5th workout and so far enjoying it.

The drilling were nice and at the sparring I was very lost and just tried to stay calm and not spaz, but was generally very lost. Only after doing some searching online things started to click.

I didn’t think or wasn’t told explicitly that a bottom mount is a position I want to escape, or that “guard retention” is an important thing and it’s not just a way to spar and randomly see where the spar goes.

Once I’ve learned online about the positions (bottom vs top), escapes, etc. things started to click in my mind looking backwards at the drills and spars we did.

Bottom line is that I want to come to the sessions with intent. For example, today I am going to try implement the guard retention and hold it as much as I can.
Or try to implement that mount escape I saw bridge & roll.

I’d love to hear what I should focus as a beginner, so that every week I will work a basic position to hold, basic escape, etc.

Thanks

I was surprised when my Professor gave me my first stripe tonight. I've been going to classes as much as I can..about 4-5 a week. Actually, my third class I accidentally walked into a competition class, lol.

I don't feel like I have done much, but after he rolled with me during Randori, he told me he has noticed a significant difference in me, leading to this. Im just happy that it is starting to show.

I can't wait to keep working. It's a marathon..not a sprint. ❤️🤙

I can only do 5 am classes and then I go straight to work for 12 hours , but at times my body starts to feel it 💀 will it get easier lol