So I've studied BJJ for about 2.5 years on and off. Last year I stayed consistent for most of the year until my kid was born. I just got promoted to Blue belt last weekend and now I'm feeling super under qualified. Is this just something I need to push through? Did anyone else feel this way?

Had mine yesterday (first day as blue belt and coming back after 6 weeks off due to illness. Yes I need to update my flair). No excuses, just context. To say I got worked over would be an understatement. White belts going extra hard against me and my cardio was crap (which is saying something because my cardio has always been crap). Tapped a bunch of times and struggling to survive. Final roll was against a competition blue belt. Butterfly swept me four times, at which point I'm just wheezing trying to put together any defense before getting choked. I forgot everything about my training after I got tired (flat on back, non-active legs). Came home, got inside and literally took a nap at the front door for nearly an hour trying to feel less nauseous.

So, how about you all. What is the worst session you've ever had?

Just a random thought, re watching the highlight slam of that match.

Hi all, What do y’all do to maintain yourselves and prevent injury? I’m looking at calisthenics and mobility work as BJJ absorbs the rest of my disposable income, so no extra gyms will suffice. Im also considering cutting back training from 4-6 days to 2-4 days a week. I’m 23 and enjoying BJJ, but just trying to prolong the fun and delay/ fully prevent injury if possible.

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some advice on a couple of gyms in my area. I live downtown and don’t drive, so my gym options are pretty limited. There’s a new gym opening downtown, Profectus, and I’ve been hearing a lot about it, but I’d love to get some feedback, especially from anyone who’s trained at their other locations in Tennessee.

For context, I used to train at Liberdade, which I liked, but their class times were a bit limited and their schedule was heavily tilted towards Gi classes. I’m more into No Gi and I’m hoping to find somewhere that offers more of that.

If anyone has any experience with Profectus or knows of any other good gyms nearby (preferably with a focus on No Gi), I’d really appreciate any recommendations!

???

Got stacked really hard onto my neck yesterday and now everything hurts. Likewise shortly after I started I cracked my ribs and had to take a month and a half off. I’ve been doing BJJ for about four months and half that time has been spent recovering from injuries gotten at BJJ.

Is it normal to get hurt so much just in training? I’ve never done a contact sport before so I’m just not sure whether my partners are being unsafe, whether I just need to push through it, or whether I’m just exceptionally fragile due to having never done it before. Is it normal to get hurt so much when you start BJJ?

Hey guys, I will live in paris for the next 5 months and i've been looking for the best jiu jitsu there. Can you please help me which team from the both do you recommend and why? I'm of course planning to take trial classes at both places but I'm afraid that it won't be enough for me to make up my mind so please help me if you have experience with any of the 2.

Or is it pretty much always going to be predatory/an abuse of power?

Money isn’t a problem, but I already pay for membership 🤔🤔

Tournament Tuesday is an open forum for anyone to ask any question, no matter how simple, about tournaments in general. Some common topics include but are not limited to:

• Game planning
• Preparation (diet, weight cutting, sleep, etc...)
• Tournament video critiques
• Discussion of rulesets for a tournament organization

Have fun and go train!

Also, click here to see the previous Tournament Tuesdays.

Not sure if this is a personal thing or a rite of passage, but when I was a white belt I trained aggressively 5-6 days a week on both gi and no gi. Trained with minor injuries, black eyes, a fever, you name it. I was so hell bent on getting good so I can get my blue belt as soon as possible. Now few months in to my blue, I have lost absolutely any sense of colors on belts — unless pointed out to me my belt is still white in my head and could not care less what others are wearing unless black and teaching. I have also lost the aggression. I roll more relaxed now and pretty much chill on the sidelines. I dont feel the need to prove myself anymore and dont care if I get tapped, nor do I have the internal drive to have hard rolls. I kinda want to have that "fire" again but I wonder if this is all part of doing the sport long term.

Im closing my 40's. Have bad knees and a traumatic health event in past that i am currently recovering from.

I used to train over a decade at well known big gym at big city. But my family had a big health crisis and we moved to smaller town. Best decision ever health wise.

Now that we are getting our life back on track i have started to priorize my well being. There's a small local gym where mostly like to train for fun and i sometimes teach a class or two. There's small core group and not much variation, but im ok with that.

However i noticed that these young and hungry blue belts like to go really hard throwing technique out of window and i feel that even if im in best shape of my life, i don't have that explosiveness or grind that i used to have back in the day, to answer any of that.

Like i try to go hard but my body says no, and i just settle on defending and not really getting any advantages.

Is aging just hitting harder on me?

Not sure about this position I was told it was illegal. Basically like in coyote half guard where you use your outside leg to pull the calf back away from the knee to force your partner to turn that direction. Imagine the same thing but grabbing your partners foot and pulling the lower part of the leg out of alignment. Somehow I did it from reverse closed guard trying to transition to a knee bar. I see the danger in it for sure but never heard this rule.

I live in 73049-7332 Jones area what are the best gyms I could go to for really anything except boxing - kickboxing is acceptable. I'm looking to be the best I can be at whatever has the best learning environment which is within one of the gyms I listed below in order of distance. Scrap City BJJ, Raptor BJJ, Top Dawg BJJ, The forge BJJ, Redline BJJ, Veritas BJJ, Pride MMA, American Elite MMA, Mana MA's, killer bees kickboxing and MMA(13 miles away). (I know Lovato's is the best but it's far and for sure out of my budget). I've been to Scrap City for their monthly trial and they were good but it was back when it was just the Ryan fellow teaching so I'm sure much has changed since last year I went, I've also been to The Forge but they only gave me a 1 day trial which is sketchy but it seemed like a more positive environment compared to Scrap City, although there was triple the people for the 530am no gi class.

I started bjj not too long ago and it seems to me that the coach moves too fast. For example, at the start of January she showed us how to do a mounted armbar, we practiced for 30 minutes and that was it. Today, she asked me to do the mounted armbar, which we practiced two week ago for 30 minutes and I forgot how to do it. Same thing happened with breaking closed guard, breaking side mount by swinging legs and rotating my hips, and with various other moves.

On the contrary, my boxing coach won’t move me on to new punches/footwork until I have very good technique. I’ve been doing the same punches and footwork drills for the past 2 weeks! I honestly prefer this as it makes me learn proper technique and not half ass things.

Anyone got footage of this? BJJHeros has this match listed as Rafa’s only loss by points in competition. Simple google searches aren’t getting me anywhere, and I’ve never even heard of a “Capital Challenge” tournament before. Any help is appreciated!

Karelin

So my gym wants me to help them get rashguards. I don't know how to get them lol. I make their shirts for them so they ask me. I already told them before I don't know. Just wondering jf any of you know. If it helps I'm from alberta in canada.

I'm just stumped I don't want to get a thin one either. I like the flowhold ones they don't have neck tags so they might be produced easier??

Please help. If not I'll tell him again. Lol. But I think he really needs help too.

So recently we had new guys coming in mostly with mma background, I am just a wb 2 stripes, but one to whom most people say “how can you just have 2 stripes”. These mma guys seem to wrestle more and always want to fight on top like a raging bull, there is no chill in these young guys in their mid 20’s. I am a bit older almost 40. It’s hard to roll against them but mostly I can submit one or we end up not submitting anyone, I am not counting but they likely win the roll on points. Today a younger brother of a very talented white belt trained with us. This white belt can tap many high belts all the way up to brown. He is big, heavy but moves likes a lighter guy. So obviously his younger brother also inherited this talent but he’s not that big. This younger brother totally smashed me today. But also honestly I just rolled with a black and brown belt and because of their severe pressure I was already quite exhausted. So this younger brother said he never trained BJJ only did some fun wrestling at home with his older brother. His side control was so strong and when I tried to escape he transits very fast to other positions such as North South where again he is so strong. Even with frames in, it felt like I couldn’t move or escape. We also ended somewhere up in mount and I could not escape that as well. Sideways bridging didn’t work, kipping didnt work, knee - elbow escape didnt work. When I go for these escapes he just transits so fast to tactical mount or he just recovers the position so fast and explosive. But yeah, he rolled like it was competition. But even during competition I can handle myself. He felt more like an experienced blue belt than a white belt. I was lucky he didn’t know any submissions so he just stalls and pins, if he notices I am escaping the transits faster than flash. At one moment in North-South I felt claustrophobic and almost freaked out, but I told myself to stay calm and keep breathing, this guy was actually a good preparation for my competition in 2 weeks. What was also kind of weird about this guy is that in every position he smothered my mouth and nose with one hand, but yeah I did not say anything about it to him, so that’s not that important as I still could breath. But allright I acknowledge the fact that he is younger, stronger, more athletic, faster, more explosive and talented. The only thing I can change about that is improving myself. How to roll against these type of guys that completely smash me and I am likely the entire roll under in shit positions feeling pinned. How to slow them down? How to not let them go into transition? What are good guards against these type of aggressive top players?

Whats your final goals in BJJ? Besides getting your black belt is there more that you guys are trying to achieve?

Im trying to participate in the PANS World one day, and win a Gold medal. HBU? No judgement.

I’m planning to get a grappling dummy to practice the techniques I learn in class. Sometimes, I forget the finer details of moves by the next day, so I figure drilling at home will help me retain and refine my skills. I’ve been a white belt for 1.5 years and want to step up my game—not just for a belt, but to feel prepared and confident for competitions. For those who’ve used grappling dummies, what’s the best way to fill it to make it feel realistic? I’ve heard of using swimming noodles and cloth rags—are there any other materials that work better? Also, do you have tips on getting the most out of training with it?

Here are the results of 2,023 open weight IBJJF matches here.

Here is the % of the time the smaller competitor wins (all belts/age/gender):

1 weight classes heavier 48.1% +/- 3.8% 2 weight classes heavier 39.2% +/- 4.2% 3 weight classes heavier 39.8% +/- 5.0% 4 weight classes heavier 35.7% +/- 5.8% 5 weight classes heavier 27.8% +/- 7.6% 6 weight classes heavier 21.5% +/- 10.0% 7 weight classes heavier 12.5% +/- 13.2% 8 weight classes heavier 0% (no recorded wins in 3 attempts)

This data is made possible by the IBJJFRankings.com project currently in development. Part of building next generation ratings/rankings for BJJ means we need to record all match results data. Unfortunately, the IBJJF destroys this and only archives medalist results. Unique insights like this are only possible with data being properly archived for the BJJ community to use in various ways. If they did this, you would see insights into our sport never before seen. They aren't common, which is why this data seems so novel.

Our goal is to push the IBJJF to record and publish all match results, as well as reform their deeply flawed ranking system and adopt our customized for BJJ Elo model for seeding, prize money and invites to special events (Crown, Grand Prix ect)

I'm posting a lot about this project on my personal Facebook page if interested.

Looking for BJJ gym in North Tampa. I'm looking for a place to start. I've already read some good comments about Ybor and Robson Moura, but I'm in Odessa and it will take some time to get there, hence asking about gym recommendations in North of Tampa. Thanks!

Short version of the story is I got my blue belt in BJJ up where I used to live. A little after that I had some personal issues that got in the way of training. After awhile I decided to move down with my parents in Florida. I’m looking to resume my training. I just need to get back in shape and shake off the rust.

how important is it to go to a prestigious school? a school where someone famous will rank you up?

I was clicking around the BJJ Fanatics website today when a pop-up appeared offering me a free Bernardo Faria Jiu-Jitsu for Old Guys instructional. I was not logged in at the time. My first instinct was to make the pop-up go away until I realized it was dumb to turn down a free instructional.

I now have the Promo Code and need to decide which Jiu-Jitsu for Old Guys instructional to get. Has anyone here watched any of these instructionals and have advice on which ones are best?

I previously bought four of Bernardo's older instructionals: No-Gi Half Guard, No-Gi Pressure Passing, High-Percentage Submissions, and Foundations of BJJ (not from his Jiu-Jitsu for Old Guys series). I have positional escapes instructionals by Lachlan Giles and Fabio Gurgel, and Garry Tonon's Exit the System for submission escapes.

Other than Bernardo's preferred gi grips, I don't know if any of these are going to teach me stuff I don't already know. But free is free. Which one would you get if you were in my shoes?

Hey, i just got the new Bob Marley shoyoroll gi and it has 2 big screen printed patches on the back. I always shrink my A2 shoyoroll Gis with a hot wash and hot dryer the first time and works perfectly. Will the screen print get damaged if i do the same?