to all the experienced dudes out there :

to progress the quickest, do u think a beginner should focus on sparring same-level partners at the start, or should he always spar ones who r better?

how big should the gap be, to find the sweet spot between learning from a better fighter & just getting mauled?

had my 1st training yesterday. sparred a couple experienced guys. got shit on, as expected.

i feel like u may not learn much if the gap is too big, especially when ur a complete noob.

so what would be the best sparring-partners selection approach, to progress the quickest?

which approach fastened ur progeess the most?

Currently training about 3 times a week. But going to try to train 5-6 times now

If you could train 6 days a week how would you structure your training? Probably 3 gi and 3 no gi

Currently been working a lot of de la riva, single leg x and x guard right now.

Yo! For some context I’m looking to get into bjj as like a hobby and as something new to learn. I’ve wrestled in the past and am looking for a grappling experience.

I’ve been looking around my area for good gyms and I recently visited a very reputable group that had just opened a location near me. It seemed geared towards younger kids and also one of those places where you really have to pay your dues for the whole experience. Overall I got priced at 240 per month with somewhat unlimited classes ( I would honestly be able to get about 3-4 maybe per week) but essentially I could show up whenever.

What are your guys thoughts on it? 240 a month is a decent push for me and I’m definitely going to keep looking around. I’m just looking for some insight on what good pricing is usually around.

Thanks for your time

It’s much better for my schedule to go twice on 2 days per week, and then a standalone session on another. I’m mostly doing fundamentals classes so they are not absolutely killer from an exertion perspective (only a few rolls at the end). Any objections to getting my five sessions in this way?

Related, is five overkill (I’m pushing 40)?

Here are a few small details on the Hip Bump Sweep, which is one of my favorites from closed guard.

For context, this was my first comp ever and it happened to be stealth submission only national comp - and I had to do advanced ( 1 year 6 months plus ) division because my coach want me to get more rounds and he was confident in my skill set.

I achieved silver submitting all my opponents except one which we eventually tied on points but they gave him the gold for fastest submission in the bracket even though in our match I had four submission attempts on him and I have dominated the whole match from taking him down passing and getting to the mount and controlling the mount but he was defending so good and eventually swept me where he ended in my closed guard - now coming to my question which I believe would show my lack of experience ( I asked my coach but he told me not to think about it and to enjoy the rest days until we back to the gym but here I am lol )

When he ended in my guard he kept stacking me for like more than 3 minutes while his coach is yelling at him to just hold me down and stack me. I did get few arm bars where I popped his arm but he was good and got out twice however whenever he escaped he doesn’t try to pass or anything he just runs straight to my guard and stack me as shown in the picture - I tried the shoulder lock with the butterfly grip and elbow to his chin and I could hear him in agony but he still just keeps on holding on and stacking I even was talking to him like let us play Jiu jitsu, I opened my guard multiple time but he just doesn’t want to let go of his cross face.

And yes Ofcourse I was trying to make angles and push from the hip but it was hard with the way he was stacking and I couldn’t get any pendulum sweep and such because he kept a wide stance

In that position what one can do differently ?
I’m open for any suggestions and such

A small rant: I hate that they just played the system they knew all they had to do was draw and stall this match since we both submitted everybody in the bracket and our points were tied and all he had to do was survive but for the love of the sport like WTH!

I want to start doing Jujitsu and I don't go around wearing my sexuality on my sleeve but obviously over time, people usually pick up on it by things you don't say just as much as things you do say.

Would this be an issue with close contact with other men? I'm hoping not but something I'm anxious about

Or just focus on mat time? Blue Belt. I’ll get grief for this, but my main sport is golf (2 handicap) and bit worried about messing up my fingers in the GI. That said, I’m no spring chicken at 42 so also thinking through explosiveness/injury risk in No GI.

Thoughts?

To dominate on the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) mats, developing a specific type of grip strength—one that combines explosive power with muscular endurance—is essential for executing submissions, controlling lapels, or preventing opponents from escaping. In BJJ, raw hand strength is not enough; you must condition your tendons and forearms to withstand the friction and isometric tension of the gi.

• Pull-ups or isometric hangs using a gi: Drape a gi (or an old jacket) over a pull-up bar. Grip the lapels or sleeves firmly (using a pinch or pocket grip). You can perform full pull-ups or simply hang, holding the position (isometrically) for 20 to 40 seconds.

• Australian pull-ups (incline rows) using lapels: Attach the gi to a low bar or a fixed structure. Lean your body back and perform rows, maintaining constant tension on your grip. This fatigues the forearms in a way very similar to trying to break an opponent’s posture from the guard.

Below are the best exercises, categorized by their level of specificity and transferability to combat:

Australian pull-ups using lapels: Attach the kimono to a low bar or a fixed structure. Lean your body back and perform rowing movements, maintaining constant tension on your grip. This fatigues the forearms in a way very similar to trying to break an opponent's posture from the guard.

Specific exercises (using a gi or towel)

These movements directly mimic the actual demands of a grappling match, placing pressure on the fingers and wrists through the texture of the fabric.

I started training bjj 1 year and a half ago. I have not competed. Right now Im a white belt on second stripe. So far my defence is pretty solid according to a lot classmates at my dojo especially the blue and purple belts. My main strength is that I can survive the entire 5 minute round without submitting, however my opponents win by points. Many people at my dojo mostly blue brown and purple to focus on defence as a white belt but others say to focus on offense. My question is as a white belt should my focus be more on defense or offense?

I just took my first jjj class this week. A buddy of mine who’s been doing it for years has been hounding me for the past year or so to go with him. I finally conjured up the balls to go with him.

Me, having absolutely 0 experience with any sort of martial arts training (besides 2 weeks of defensive tactics through police academy about 4 years ago), was expecting to walk in and maybe have some demonstrations or some beginner stuff to work on.

Instead it was “here’s a couple moves. Grab a partner and practice it for the next 5 minutes”. After that it was 45 minutes of just free for all where I just laid on people til they made me tap cause I had no idea what I was doing.

I asked my buddy if that was an average session, and he said yes. I asked him how new guys like me learn anything that way, but him and everyone else I ask who has experience tell me that’s the best way to learn.

I’m kind of nervous that I’m just straight up not going to learn anything that way and am just going to get balled up for months until I say screw it and quit, but am I overthinking it? Does it just eventually click?

Any helpful input to ease my mind is greatly appreciated

I started training in August 2025 and will hopefully be receiving my second stripe at our Christmas grading. That means I’ll be going into 2027 as a two-stripe white belt, with the goal of earning my blue belt sometime next year.

I currently train 3–5 times per week, journal after most sessions, watch instructionals and YouTube content when I can, and feel like I have a reasonable understanding of the fundamentals my gym teaches, including basic escapes, sweeps, submissions and attacks from both top and bottom positions.

My question is for the more experienced grapplers, particularly purple belts and above, or coaches: what do you actually look for in someone that makes you think they’re ready for their blue belt?

I completely understand that everyone progresses differently and that there’s no universal checklist. I also understand that consistently showing up is a huge part of the process, but I’m already doing that and want to make sure I’m getting the most out of my training rather than just accumulating mat time.
If you were assessing a white belt, what would you want to see in their technical ability, positional awareness, decision-making, defence, offence or overall understanding of jiu-jitsu?

More importantly, what would you recommend a white belt actively works on to bridge the gap between knowing the fundamentals and being able to apply them consistently against resisting opponents?

For those of you who have graded people, or remember what helped you make the jump from white to blue, what separated the people who were genuinely ready from those who were simply experienced white belts?

I’m not looking for a shortcut or trying to rush the process. I want to be intentional about my development over the next 12 months, identify the gaps in my game and give myself the best possible chance of earning the belt based on ability rather than attendance.

Appreciate any advice, especially specific things I can implement in my training rather than just general advice to keep showing up! 🥋

Picking up from the post I just read about a guy checking an instructor's creds...How much do y'all care about the lineage of the instructor that promotes you?

We always hear people saying "he got his black belt from { insert well known black belt here}", but does lineage matter less to you now that there are so many talented instructors out there?

Would you be more interested in getting promoted by a very well known instructor, or are you 100% indifferent? I personally am indifferent, but I'm curious if others selected their instructor based on lineage. Would be interesting to see if there is an age/belt divide in this opinion, or if maybe no gi grapplers care less than gi.

Looks like fun

I am just curious what people think about training in the gi for MMA.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that training in the gi can make your no-gi game much better. having a good no-gi game will help you a lot in MMA. But I’ve also heard plenty of people say that gi training is basically useless for MMA. So it can improve your no-gi but can’t help your mma?

(I currently train 2–3 times a week in the gi, 1–2 times no-gi, once wrestling, and 2–3 times MMA.)

https://youtu.be/ipf1mROm6rg?is=fWE5g2-Rp99oI2u_

Video: five trained fighters one of them being a professional, MMA fighter, and one of them being a bjj black belt fair off against random untrained guys with knives.

Thoughts: I train both BJJ as well as in a couple knife fighting systems, such as western Piper method and Libre so I follow both groups (bjj guys and knife guys) on Instagram.

Over the past couple months I’ve noticed on Instagram that a lot of high-level bjj guys have been posting videos completely making fun of the knife training guys saying that stuff doesn’t actually work against them and they look stupid as hell hitting their Bob dummies with a knife.

Then I came across this video on accident and although it’s not a perfect representation of reality by any means, I did find it quite fascinating.

I’ve done something similar to this where I train BJJ and give white belts a rubber knife and put them against higher level belts and they honestly do quite well.

No real point of this, except to say that having a blade or in my case, I’m the crazy guy who carries one fixed blade in the appendix position opposite of my gun and another fixed blade in my dominant side pocket instead of a folder, is a pretty good equalizer against somebody who might be a better fighter than you if you can’t get access to your gun or your gun has gone down or is out of the fight for some reason.

I would love to see this experiment done over where on day one they put the fighters against a random knife guy and then they run the fighters through a day of actual good counter knife training from something like shiv works or knife, control concepts, and then have them try it again.

I’d also like to see one of the random knife guys be someone who’s actually trained a knife stuff and see how well they do.

Your thoughts?

His poor training partners who let him work, just to him to boost on reddit that he neutralized black belts with like 6 months of training.