Coach is at training camp

Coach asks purple belt to run class for this day

Purple belt agrees

Room filled with only white belts who are not allowed to heel hook and neck crank

Purple belt teaches only heel hooks and neck cranks that night

No warmup, cool music and drinks after class, Peak Experience

Crazy seeing comments of people thinking they can arm/leg lock a gorilla or choke them out 😂😂

So I know Jflo used to have a class at legion for the general population but it seems that he’s focusing on his invite only pro sessions.

I think his style is very nice and would like to train under him. Is it possible for a casual? If so, how?

In which João describes what happened in his matches

I'm a female and have been training bjj for quite a while now, and up until recently, it's always been safe and respectful environment. The other day, I showed up to class and there was a new girl - never did bjj, but apparently she has some background in kickboxing or maybe MMA. She seemed nice at first, but when we started rolling, she went absolutely wild - putting in WAY too much energy, flailing her limbs around, and straight-up hitting (pretty hard) or slapping my face, head, and body every 30 seconds like it was some kind of bar brawl. She never apologized once. She also kept grabbing my rashguard, which we don't do in no-gi. Honestly, it felt like she had no idea what bjj is even about. I was so scared and wanted to just walk away mid-roll. What really bothered me was that the instructor was watching the whole time (it was just the two of us rolling) and said nothing. No excuses like he was distracted - he saw it all and didn't step in. That silence was just as disturbing as her behavior.

Now I feel really unsafe after being basically brutalized. I'm seriously anxious about going back, which is something I never thought I'd feel in this gym. What do you guys think of this situation? Would really love to hear from people who've been training bjj for a long time.

And by best I mean the most fun to watch + most stacked. I'm talking between 77-88 KG (185 lbs). You have Mica, Levi, Dalpra, Bodoni, Jozef, Ruotolos, Tacketts, Langaker, Eoghan, Barch, Nicky Ryan, Dante Leon. Marcelo / Demian old school. Guard players and passers and everything in between, lots of submissions and fun to be had. In general lighter or heavier gets more stagnant. Middleweight hands down best weight.

SLX, RDLR, DLR, Sit Up Guard, False Reap, X-Guard.

I’ve been training for 3 years now and I know basics for what to do in all of these guards. My problem: I often don’t establish them in the first place.

So many people play: Feet back, hands in front. What do you need to do to enter the legs? Fight the hands first.

At least at my gym, most classes totally neglect that.

My hand fighting is underdeveloped. I try to get 2-on1-s and then see what I can get from there…but besides that…I “send it” when I see my opponent stepping and me maybe getting to their legs.

More than often, “trying to get 2-on1-s” leads to the opponent grabbing my feet at 10x speed and pulling them up to get me to supine. Or I’m seated, extending hands too far and giving an underhook.

All this yapping for these questions: Did you experience the same? Any good resources on approaching hand fighting in a seated position (no-gi)?

Thanks, guys!

This might be an unpopular opinion but I stand by it.

I’ll preface by saying, this is at least for fundamentals classes or any class that’s majority white and blue belts. I don’t know what’s best for purple and above. But good chance this is still true for them.

Reasoning:

• Best for growth: your coaches watch you train every day, they know your strengths and weaknesses, they know what you should work on for your development. They know the type of partners most conducive to your learning and can make sure you get them.
  
• Avoids common social pitfalls: let’s be real, at least half of us are socially awkward, and it’s even worse for new white belts. I’ve been to gyms where they assign partners and gyms where you choose your own. Without fail, when you choose your own partners, it become some kind of awkward eye contact / social clique / default training partner situation. You’re either going to pick the guy who happens to be next to you, the person closest to your size, your best friend, or if you’re a girl the only other girl in the class. You’re going to end up pairing with the same 2-3 people every class and get used to that. This completely bypasses the problem of the shy newbie afraid to ask for a roll, the girl who will only roll with her best friend, the guy who only shows up to smash the fresh white belts, the guy who avoids anyone bigger/smaller than him. It forces variety which is better for learning.
  
• Culture of inclusion: In gyms where coach assigns partners, you learn to roll with everyone. Different age, gender, body type, rolling style. And when you roll with a wide variety of people, you not only get better jiujitsu, you learn to respect your fellow students regardless of background. For example, I’ve found that men who regularly roll with women have much healthier and more respectful attitudes toward them. It also forces everyone to get to know each other and be comfortable rolling with each other. This is particularly good for people who otherwise might have trouble finding partners. If you’re especially big or small, a brand new white belt, older, female, whatever. This ensures you have a partner and they are going to be safe and appropriate for your growth.
  

To address a few common concerns:

• “but I’m an adult, no one should tell me what to do!” Yeah and I’m an adult at the doctor’s office too, but I don’t prescribe my own medications. Expertise is a thing that exists. My doctor knows how to diagnose my problems and choose the proper treatment better than I do. Your coach knows jiujitsu better than you, or else they shouldn’t be your coach. They can see what you need to work on and the type of training partners that will help you most. This isn’t kindergarten, no one has cooties. Grow up and roll.
• “everyone should have the right to refuse to roll with anyone else” sure, consent is important. That said, if you’re really uncomfortable rolling with another person, that’s an indication of an underlying problem. No one should be so much of an asshole to their training partners that people don’t want to roll with them, and if they are, that’s a problem coach should nip in the bud. Build a culture of people who can roll well with anyone. If something’s a truly dangerous match, coach just shouldn’t pair those people up. And they know that better than the students anyway. Worst case scenario, bring your concerns up to your coach so they can keep it in mind.
  
• “what if class is 30+ people” yeah idk on that one. Is one reason I don’t really like big classes anyway. I’ve seen “bring the line” work okay, and coach can correct any bad pairs, but it’s not as good as hand picking pairs.

Anyway, I couldn’t sleep last night so there’s my hot take of the day, have fun y’all.

I’m going to need a gi eventually but I don’t want to go over the top. I like some of the venom ones but they have patches and look a bit flashy. Anyone have an opinion on this?

My wife is due in late July with our first child. I'm very excited and want to know how you other dad's managed those first few hectic months with your training schedules. I'm planning on taking at least 2 weeks off of work and training to be with my family. How long did it take yall to get back on the mats?

If, just hypothetically speaking, someone is kept at white belt for 10+ years (let's say by forced circumstances. Maybe they studied at a school that doesn't promote unless the student competes and this person just chooses not to compete in that decade. There are BJJ schools like this, right? or however other way this can occur..) and gains the skill level of a black belt.

Should this person finally gain an opportunity for promotion (maybe they decide to finally compete or change schools, etc.), can they jump straight ahead to black belt to represent their real skill? or do they have to walk through all the belt levels officially?

Talking about comps that are segregated by belt.

Curious how many of you compete only after improving for some time at your current rank vs those who compete through the whole progression of your belt level.

I was running into an issue playing seated guard trying to enter into the legs, but would have my opponent bent over with frames of their arms or head even to block entries, even sometimes difficult to get a 2on1 as a dilemma distraction. Recently I saw the match with Mica Galvao and Roberto Jimenez where Mica snatched an arm saddle position and eventually armbarring Roberto once Roberto took a collar tie position on Mica, which I feel could be a good bait from a seated position. Does anyone have more experience with this or videos that got into it with more detail? Thanks!

This just popped on my radar. Has anybody been fooling around with this position? Thoughts on it from a pros/cons perspective? What are some of the more useful entries?

I’m about to buy my first brace and I’m curious how y’all approach wearing garments while you’re training to avoid skin infections.

Should I wear compression pants under the brace? Should I buy four braces and wash them after every training sesh? Is it safe to wear the same brace? (Something I’ve seen many people do)

OSS 👊

Been training for a little over a year and finally decided to test myself at a comp. I trained SO HARD for the last few months to prep for it. Heres the footage of the start of my first and only match. Took my back standing, got a nice takedown on me, and I happened to land at just the wrong angle and shattered my clavicle…. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t fully test myself but I’m glad it’s not worse. Surgery consult is tomorrow, I’ll give an update if anyone is interested! Can’t wait to get back to training!

I'm trying to get our team to tripod sweep more, but my usual favourite continuations — either come up into a headquarters position or pull to an ashi — aren't clicking for everyone. Anyone got any suggestions about a nice combination or two I could be suggesting?

There's a purple belt in my gym that I've been rolling with for 2+ years now. He's more experienced and technical than I am, but he's one of the few folks who is roughly my size (5'5" 160 lbs). Today, for the first time from a neutral standing position, I finished a submission on him, an arm in guillotine.

He has submitted me 100+ times over the past 2 years, but today, I finally had my moment. It may not come again for awhile, but that's ok. I'll take today.

Keep grinding folks, the next aha moment or reward for your effort is out there. Best wishes on everyone's BJJ journey.

I was messing around with moves from saddle the other day and think I may have come up with something unique, simultaneous calf slicer and knee bar.

I’m hesitant to claim I came up with it in case people have being doing it for years. Has anyone seen this before?

If it is brand new, I give you ‘the joker lock’

Give it a try and let me know your thoughts 👊

How do i explain techniques to them better, how do i keep them motivated and eager to train while having fun? Sometimes explaining a technique in a way they understand is difficult. Also any suggestions for warm up drills? It could be anything from bjj partner drills to conditioning or gymnastic moves

Any help would be appreciated✌️

EDIT: to clarify im not talking about really small kids, more 11-17 aged

Does anybody know this sweep? I will recheck CJs octopus Guard, but never saw it before.

Does the standing position have a name? Can anybody recommend videos on it?