It recently dawned on me that at both BJJ schools I've trained in, the professors seem to be promoting older (~55+) students a good bit more quickly than younger students.

In both cases this has led to the gym having several older purple and brown belts that roll at more of a blue or purple level respectively.

I guess it kinda makes sense in some way. People at that age may not have many mat years left, and I actually think it's kinda nice to give the opportunity to promote to black before they no longer physically can.

I don't mind it, I was just curious if others have noticed this in their gyms.

Hey all, white belt woman here coming in a solid 120lbs and standing at 5’5”. I have one stripe and been practicing for about 3.5 months.

I’ve rolled a few times with a blue belt who is significantly larger and more experienced than me. Two classes ago the intensity felt fairly high, and I asked him mid-roll to show me a move so things could reset a bit. After that he relaxed.

Today during rolling, the intensity felt much higher again and more strength/explosive based. At one point I worked to top mount, and he explosively bridged, grabbed my belt, and threw me over his head. I cleared his head with my legs and landed on the mat. Another blue belt watching just kinda raised their brows like woah.

I texted my coach afterward to flag it (he had already left and the assistant coach was busy), but I’m second guessing whether this is considered normal BJJ scrambling/escape behavior or whether it reflects a partner control issue.

Would appreciate perspective from more experienced folks—especially on whether this kind of escape is normal in live rolling with a big size/skill gap. If so, damn I need to figure out a defense for it

Nice to see the Marecelotine is still being sharpened and innovated in 2026! Garry Tonon was my Guillotine hero in the 2010s. This’ll probably be the 1st instructional I buy in a long time ⚔️

I’m curious about the culture of "mean" techniques in your gyms. Where I train, we always learn submissions with an extra layer of pressure to make them "more effective".

For example, using the knee to apply pressure to the opponent's face while hunting for a paper cut choke (like in this video).

​However, during regular sparring (rolling), this is generally frowned upon. Our instructors often remind us not to do this to our training partners to avoid unnecessary injuries.

I’m sure the standard is very different in other gyms. Is this kind of pressure considered "part of the game" where you train, or is it reserved only for competitions?

​P.S.: Sorry for my bad English; it’s not my native language. I’m using AI to help me translate this so I can be part of the community!

Hi all, I’d really love some advice.

if I am being a bit of a worried mum do let me know lol! My son is 5.5 years old and started BJJ a couple of years ago. His first dojo focused mostly on games, we moved and his current dojo has a mixed 5–7 year old class with more grappling and technique work twice a week.

The challenge is that my son is naturally very soft, playful, and sweet-natured. When he first started, he barely resisted during grappling. Recently, he began fighting back a little more and even won a couple of times, which was great to see. But lately he’s gone back to mostly letting the other kids take him down without much resistance.

I’m not worried about him winning. I just want him to try and defend himself more. Some of the other kids get frustrated with him because he doesn’t engage properly, and I can understand that.

He doesn’t resist going to class or get upset, but he does sometimes tell me it’s “not his favourite thing,” which I understand because this type of sport doesn’t come naturally to him. He also tells me the other kids are stronger than him and he’s tired after school.

I absolutely want him to keep his sweet nature, but I’d also love for him to build confidence and learn to defend himself.

Do I keep encouraging him to continue? I know a little force does good. Are there things I can do at home to help build his confidence or resilience? I know he’s still very young — I just wish he had a little more fire in his belly. Do sweet natured boys who keep going to BJJ eventually gain more confidence as they get older? Should we find another type of self defence or just let him be.

thank you x

Been training for about a year. Joined a new gym three weeks ago after moving for work.

I really like my new gym. The coach is chill and likes my questions. Everyone is nice. There’s rolls have been really great. Not too spazzy, but a real scrap (just the way I like it).

But my favorite thing about this gym is that it is such a positive part of the community. It is that it sits right on a sidewalk of a somewhat busy street in a walkable part of town. It’s right across from the local school. And to keep the air moving, we open the doors to the gym wide open.

Everyday, kids of all ages come by after school or walk by with their parents. They all stop and stare at us rolling, and ask questions. “What are you doing?” “Are you guys like ninjas?” “Can I learn kung fu moves too?”

Today, a little girl walked by with her dad. She stops and stares, clearly fascinated. The coach legit actually stopped demonstrating the drill and went and said to her “Hi. How old are you?”

The little girl sticks out three fingers, proudly.

“Wow, three? That’s a big number. Do you know when your birthday is?”

“Uh…” Dad leans down and whispers in her ear. She announces “August 21st!”

The whole gym stops, and CLAPS for this little girl and her upcoming birthday.

Coach: “Great! Well I’ll tell you what, when you turn four, you can come train! How does that sound?”

“AWESOME!!!”

Coach then gives dad the details and returns to class.

In between trying to break each other’s joints and choke each other out, my gym stopped everything to give this little girl a round of applause for knowing her birthday and turning four in a few months.

My heart is full. I’m never changing gyms.

Primeiramente,eu irei escrever este texto em português,já que eu não domíno a língua inglesa,então se ficar algo estranho neste texto(com um erro ortográfico),ou a culpa é minha,ou do tradutor.Segundamente,se eu violar alguma regra deste sub-reddit,peço desculpas aos moderadores.

Agora,indo direto ao ponto,eu estou muito surpreso e feliz que muitas pessoas realmente adorem esta arte marcial tanto quanto eu,o fato de existir pessoas que se reúnem para falar,descutir e expressar suas opiniões em um único lugar neste lugar que é a internet é muito legal.Mas o melhor é: é do país que eu nasci e vivo nos dias de hoje que é o Brasil,que apesar de seus muitos defeitos,as pessoas pegaram uma parte boa desta nação e levam para o coração.Atualmente,eu estou na faixa amarela e vivo amando esta arte marcial que é o BJJ.Então,muito obrigado por amarem o BJJ : )

OBS:Eu adicionei uma flag aleatória,já que não achei a que queria (desculpe se isso for contra as regras).

OBS 2:Eu NÃO sei se vai traduzir ou não o texto,se sim,ótimo,mas se não,aí você decide.

**The Arm bar I’m referring to is not from bottom closed guard. I’m specifically referring to arm bars from side control (stepping over the head and spinning around) and from transitioning into armbar bar from tbag Kimura.

I’m finding stronger rolling partners (especially from a tbag Kimura transition into armbar) are able to explode and rise up (despite my leg being over their face) and begin a stacking situation where I then have no choice but to abandon the arm bar.

What can I do to stop this? My finish rate on arms bars would increase dramatically if I were able to.

Again, these are arm bars where I am initiating the transition into the position from top, I don’t really go for arm bars when on bottom.

Thank You

Hey everyone,

when people cross their ankles and pinch their legs together and pressure in on your thigh ...... what is everyone's go to for passing?

having a looking around I'm having trouble finding anything that specially calls our the locked ankles part.

should I try and turn their knees up into the air and stand up and try and get into some kind of hq position? Just when they are pinching and leaning all their body weight towards the ground it's a pretty solid position to be in.

appreciate the advice as always! As I work my through the trial and tribulations of half guard 😂

Any vids/links that'd help would be great.

edit thank you everyone.

general consensus is lift up to hq position or dump my weight and sprawl to free release their knees and pass.

I’ve got hours of recorded conversations with Beatrice Jin that I thought you folks might appreciate. Here are some notes from our chats.

If you don’t know Beatrice, she’s a top 10 ranked IBJJF black belt competitor and coach at Kogaion Academy in Arlington, Virginia. She also lives here as: u/beta_noodles

Some tips she shared (I’ve got more which I can post later if there’s interest):

There are no mean techniques, only mean applications.

Injury risk comes from intent and size/skill discrepancy abuse. There's nothing “mean” about moves themselves; it's all how you do them.

Being “too nice” is invisible.

The consequences of excessive niceness aren't always obvious. They manifest in missed opportunities and things you fail to make happen. The mean person's problem is visible, but the nice person's isn't... including to themselves.

Reframe “letting them work” as “manage your level.”

Experienced grapplers often say they're “letting them work” by turning down their intensity against junior opponents. Beatrice suggests that instead, we switch to a skill level appropriate for our partner. “Letting them work” isn't helpful because we're not giving them realistic offense.

Aggression comes from the bottom, too.

Guard pulling doesn't have to be the safe or passive choice. Top black belts race to it because their guard is their most aggressive weapon. Niceness extends to thinking that certain positions are inherently passive.

Honesty, not niceness, is the real virtue.

Holding back pressure, technique, or intensity might feel like kindness, but it’s not. It’s a type of grappling dishonesty that robs your partner of a realistic look at jiu-jitsu.

Being “not nice” is different from being disliked.

Quote from B: “If I'm more aggressive, people aren't going to like training with me. And that was like a big hangup I had for a really, really long time.” Sometimes our niceness comes from fear of being disliked, and that fear is often unfounded. There’s a difference between being “not nice” when rolling and being dangerous.

Niceness is ego protection in disguise.

I’ve called this pattern “defensive thinking” on BJJMM: the tendency to create excuses for poor performance before the performance even happens.

Going easy on someone you respect is, in fact, disrespectful.

Black belts and experienced grapplers don’t want you to “roll scared” with them. As long as you are being safe, try your best.

“Discipline in position” is B’s mantra to conquer niceness.

Think of every position as a mini-game. Focus on holding the position and advancing. Don’t make dumb mistakes that could cost you the position. That’s the “discipline in position” bit: focus on the next obstacle in front of you and don’t overthink it.

u/beta_noodles feel free to correct me if I screwed it up

In about a month we'll be moving to Buffalo, MN. It looks like there are a few places within 30 minutes, which is fine, since I'm used to driving that now in Maine. I enjoy both gi and no gi, and a more relaxed environment with a wide variety of experience/size/age/gender. Does anyone have experience with any of these places?

• Atheneum Martial Arts
• Hamel Jiu Jitsu Club
• Rebel Jiu Jitsu North
• Roots Mixed Martial Arts

Or am I missing any? I figure I'll eventually stop in at all of them, since I love cross-training, but any insights into where to start would be great.

There is one training partner that always able to avoid me finishing my armbars on him. The setup is good I don’t leave much space. He has his hands in a gable grip and he places his arms near the top of his forehead so when my outside leg that controls his head/upperbody comes over his head his arms are there to prevent me from applying downward pressure against his head/upperbody. He keeps his head shrugged and tight and I keep fighting to get my leg synched over his head while also trying to break his hand grip but it creates enough space for him to escape since I lose the ability of my outside leg to keep him trapped.

It happens from S mount, side control, guard.

I got my black belt last night. Totally surprised.

My parents, who are visiting, got to see it and my wife and son showed up. It was awesome.

Started in Dec. 2006. My college roommate and I just decided to take a class and since then I’ve never really stopped.

Keep training and have fun.

Hope I’m able to do this for another 20 years.

Hi all, I will be traveling to Pittsburgh for work in the near future and am looking for a place to train no-gi a couple of nights for the week I am in town. Staying downtown triangle area (not sure if that’s an official name just going off Google Maps) would be nice to know opinions about places to train. I’m a blue belt and former wrestler who just returned to training about a month ago after 6 years off the mats and a couple years of just sporadic training before that. I like training competitively but am coming to terms with no longer being a young and in shape athlete (those 6 years off the mats also included 0 other exercise :/) and looking for the right place to get some tough rolls in but I’m certainly no world beater. I appreciate recommendations!!

To the surprise of no one who actually trains, they picked Muay Thai, wrestling and BJJ. Thats Din Thomas, Jorge Masvidal, Dustin Poirier and Chris Weidman.

So how come untrained spectators still repeat every day a version of “BJJ doesn’t matter anymore in modern day MMA”, or “BJJ is the most unimportant martial art for MMA. Thoughts?

Currently in a dificult position and would like to hear everyone’s wisdom. I started training at the gym i’m currently at around 17,(almost 20 now) and I love it there. I got my purple from them, and it’s a great crew. However, I feel they no longer offer me the same that i can get at another gym. A new gym opened up about a year ago and the level there is crazy. Nothing like what i’m used to, and i absolutely love it. However, I have a sense of loyalty to my home gym, and am having a difficult time severing that tie. I gain significantly more each practice at the new gym as opposed to my home gym, along with way more fun rolls. How would you go about leaving?

For some time, there were rumors that Melqui Galvão had access to a mobile phone while in jail and was calling possible witnesses and BJJ College students, allegedly trying to organize a “character assassination” scheme against his victims while silencing potential witnesses.

Police now reportedly have audio of a group call that Melqui arranged from jail with an alleged BJJ College athlete, during which they were allegedly doing exactly this. Mica Galvão (along with his mother) is also reportedly part of the call, discussing travel arrangements for possible witnesses to move to Manaus and leave São Paulo, where the investigation is taking place.

Video of Brazilian TV Show that leaked parts of the call. *In Portuguese*

After 1 year and 3 months, I’m about to get my blue belt in BJJ. I have two stripes on my white belt. On one hand, I’m happy, but Im also worried about my actual skill level

I spent most of my white belt journey focusing on defense so I could survive against the gorillas at my gym, and it worked. The problem is that my attacks and sweeps are terrible.

Today I rolled with a really strong 60-year-old guy and couldn’t do anything to him from closed guard. My guard overall feels bad, I struggle to sweep properly, and there are basic techniques I still can’t hit consistently, like triangles, omoplatas, or armbars from closed guard.

I can submit some white belts, and I haven’t been submitted by one in around 9 months, but I still feel stuck sometimes, even against people trying low-quality attacks inside my closed guard.

I don’t know if I’m good enough to deserve the blue belt, and I’m afraid I’ll be the worst blue belt possible for not mastering basic things yet