Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

I've been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for 12 months at a decent gym with good coaches. My X-guard sweeps has improved significantly and I've developed a real understanding of stripe promotions. first competition experience has been a consistent positive. The one thing that has genuinely frustrated…

I've done gym, running clubs, and team sports. The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu community is different. There's something about shared struggle around kimura and stripe promotions that creates a genuine bond. People at my gym remember everyone's name. Higher belts and better athletes make time for beginners.…

I've been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for 7 months and the moment armbar finally clicked was a turning point. Before that I was going through the motions. After, the whole game opened up. My coach breaks things down well and has a good understanding of tapping out, which made the difference. The c…

I had zero athletic background when I started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. First class I was completely lost — everyone seemed to know the language of open mat and I didn't. My X-guard sweeps was nonexistent. I nearly didn't go back. I did go back. And the first grading 17 months later was one of the proud…

I trained Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for 13 months and then stopped. I want to be honest about why, because most reviews only come from people who stuck with it. finding a reputable Gracie lineage gym was a bigger issue for me than I anticipated. My gym also had a culture problem — a few people had develo…

I'd been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for two years when I picked up an injury that kept me out for four months. Coming back was harder mentally than physically. My kimura had regressed and positional hierarchy I'd taken for granted needed rebuilding. the chess-like mental game was what brought me …

I want to separate the sport from my specific experience. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a discipline is genuinely compelling — the armbar, the depth of stripe promotions, the chess-like mental game. All of that is real and valuable. My gym, however, has been mediocre. Coaching quality varies session to se…

I got into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after watching Gordon Ryan compete and thinking I wanted a piece of that. Reality check: what they make look effortless takes years of work. The guard passing I admired on screen took me 10 months just to do passably. But somewhere in that process I stopped caring abo…

Around the 13-month mark in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu I hit a wall. My progress with armbar wasn't improving and I felt like I was spinning wheels. It's apparently common but that didn't make it less frustrating. What helped: going back to fundamentals with my coach, spending more time drilling open mat …

After 9 months of training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu I entered my first competition. I lost. It was the best thing that's happened to my development in the sport. Competition exposes gaps in your game that rolling or drilling never will. My X-guard sweeps fell apart under pressure. My understanding of ro…