For me it was because I would get bullied at school

I’m coming up on 4 years in BJJ and have been mostly into nogi since I started as a very grappling heavy MMA guy. I recently switched to a new MMA gym and one of our main gi coaches is an old school Brazilian guy with a very legit lineage and extensive pro MMA career and he talked me into giving the gi a try.

I was shocked how much of it felt insanely intuitive, more intuitive than a lot of nogi stuff I’ve been doing for years. I thought that all of the new grips and moves would feel like drowning in the ocean, but I shocked myself with how much I picked it up. I’ve even subscribed to the Roger Gracie TV app (thank you to the awesome random Uber driver that recommended that to me!) to speed up my learning of the gi specific techniques.

I’ve only been doing the gi 3 months now but I’ve already to the point where I’m able to tap out most of the white belts and a few of the blue belts with consistency, something I don’t even always consistently manage at nogi practice. (People at my gym are scary) I feel like I look weird doing that as a zero strip white belt and hope I don’t look like I’m sandbagging. I’m really excited to hopefully do my first gi competition in the near future and see how I do. After years of being extremely mid at this sport for multiple years I feel like I finally found something I have natural talent at that I had been completely neglecting for years.

Anyone else have their Jiu Jitsu game absolutely skyrocket after learning to love the gi?

Thought you might like some small details on the hip bump sweep. I've always found it to be highly effective, especially against stiff or tall opponents.

Never done CLA but strikes me these are basically the same? So if my regular class has a good chunk of positionals it’s basically just a question of how much time gets allocated to drills that makes it any different to a CLA (as both have free sparring too)?

Did you really miss gi? I like both gi and nogi but the gym I train at doesn't really fit my schedule anymore. There's a nogi gym nearby that has a way better schedule but I kind of think I'll miss doing gi.

I’m a purple belt who’s been on and off for years because of kids and other life stuff, and the thing I’m struggling with most coming back is open guard. I’ve learned at least a dozen positions and plenty of techniques from each over the years, but I can’t put it all together.

When I was younger, my “open guard” was basically trying one thing and then bailing out into a single or double. In my late 30s, that’s not really a viable plan anymore.

The problem is that open guard isn’t one thing. I recently had pretty good success at improving my half guard, I could get there in rolls (whether I was aiming for it or not), try things out, think about it as a discrete position, and bail out if it went wrong. Open guard feels different. I’ll try a lasso, they block it, so I switch to X or De La Riva. Then they strip a leg and I end up inverted or something. It feels like I can't focus on just one position and have to learn everything at once.

How did you build a coherent open guard game?

Hi all,

Travelling through Japan and want to get a couple of sessions in whilst I am here.

Any recommendations in:
Osaka
Kyoto
Hiroshima
Tokyo

I know about Carpe Diem in Tokyo was planning on heading there. But any other suggestions?

If it’s Gi then would need to rent, no gi is all good too!

Cheers!

My wife and I were abroad for over a month and it was fantastic. Unfortunately it been the longest I have gone without training since I started and the itch is strong. We have trained while on vacation before and not only is it fun it’s a fantastic way to make new friends. That to me thinking what are the best counties to train abroad? Not do a full camp but just full of decent gyms, get some rounds in and relax.

If I mess up a takedown I always end up in a guillotine since my gym is full of front headlock obsessed souls. I’m good at defending from closed guard and forms of high elbow.

But I cannot figure out arm in. I am always in the position where they have their shin across my belly and leg over my back and I cannot figure out a reliable escape from here. When I rolled my arm that was trapped blocked me from rolling all the way so I ended up on bottom. If I don’t roll they off balance me and chain attacks or sub me anyway

Those more knowledgeable than me please help give me some decent concepts and ideas of reliable escapes from this certain position

I've done judo for a long time and BJJ for a bit as well, and help teach BJJ in a judo club, so I always have an interest in how to apply judo in a BJJ context.

I recently sat down with some data from the judo subreddit on the most used throws in international judo competition, and looked at what is most commonly throws, and have thought about how these best translate to BJJ.

On the one hand, a throw might be used a lot in judo, but presents certain issues in BJJ (a bit like danaher talks about in his feet to floor intro) - a great example is soto makikomi , which I'd never advise anyone to use in BJJ. On the other hand, I find that if a throw isn't used much in judo, one needs to be able to explain why it's valuable in a BJJ context - a good example is collar drags which don't rank very high in judo usage, but danaher promotes it due to safety and relatively low technical difficulty.

So here is my top7 of what I think BJJ ppl can use from judo - very keen to hear thoughts.

A quick note: I don't consider technical difficulty of the throw as a major variable, as I find it to be misunderstood. Osoto gari is often called the first throw you learn but the last you master - any throw is relatively easy to learn mechanically, but getting it to work at a high lvl is hard.

Also, my grouping doesn't match the judo grouping, but I think for the layman it's maybe easier to understand this way

1 - small leg sweeps (defined as ouchi, kouchi, kosoto, and sub variations). These rank as undisputed no1 in judo currently, and they translate great to BJJ, there's almost no risk off a fail. Main minus is you most often land in a guard.

2 - hand shoulder throws (means various seoi nage/otoshi, most used funnily is seoi otoshi). These rank as a clear no2 in judo. Danaher talks about back exposure, roll through risk, and technical difficulty of these, but tbh I think it's a decent return on investment, especially as a successful outcome almost always land you in a dominant position (and good judoka often go immediately to an armbar or so)

3 - sacrifice rolls (means hikikomi/Sumi gaeshi and various tomoe nage). These rank highly in judo, and that's even a judo that doesn't involve leg grabs. One should definitely learn these, although I would say one needs to be more careful with them than many say - no, a fail isn't just a guard pull, a skilled top player can use momentum to get around your guard sometimes. They're classified as sacrifice throws for a reason

4 - turning leg sweeps (means uchi mata and harai goshi). They're so heavily used that they're a must to learn, and the momentum means they can be easier to "learn" than no2 above, the downside is that the failed outcome is often with yourself in worse balance

5 - big leg sweeps (meaning osoto gari and variations), harder to pull off and leaves you at more risk than the small leg sweeps, but more devastating outcome. One could a bit naughtily include tani otoshi here

6 - hand throws (mostly tai and sumi otoshi), not my personal favorite but they're a good investment in terms of lower risk than many other turning throws

7 - "wrestling stuff" - because it's mostly about judo I didn't want to write too much here, but one obviously should invest in a good single, double, and a bit more of here (and if one is no-gi, many of the above throws are less useful than more greco style upper body throws)

A lot of ppl shower love on de ashi and other leg sweeps, but other than the above foot throws I mention, they seem to be relatively niche, and I'm not sure how great it is to invest a lot of time in these

That's it :-)

Recently found myself stuck on bottom a lot and struggling to get top position. What's your best instructional/techniques for getting to top? Or even little prompts like keeping your hips higher than your opponent ect....

Have you guys ever rolled with a big, young wrestler who’s insanely fast, strong, and explosive despite his size?

How did it go? Did you manage to control him or did he just ragdoll everyone?

I am allergic to polyester and have some rashguards from FitMint. I like them, but they're heavy. Has anyone had FitMint and liked anything better ?

I'd love to hear what works for y'all. And maybe what setups you like for them.

Follow-up to:

Round 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1uc0hy8/magic_the_grappling/

Round 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1uhti5d/magic_the_grappling_round_2/

Round 3: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1uu2g1p/magic_the_grappling_round_3/

Round 4: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1v114ds/magic_the_grappling_round_4/

Round 5: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1v6tuib/magic_the_grappling_round_5/

Round 6: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1vj9541/magic_the_grappling_round_6/

Round 7: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1vplaj0/magic_the_grappling_round_7/

Round 8: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1vvsc7r/magic_the_grappling_round_8/

Round 9: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1w8rz1c/magic_the_grappling_round_9/

Round 10: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1wl4zpt/magic_the_grappling_round_10/

Round 11: https://www.reddit.com/r/bjj/comments/1x3fr8d/magic_the_grappling_round_11/

Hi! I do only nogi and I've realised I really like half guard bottom. I feel comfortable there and I feel like I can get my game going and treat it like a hub.

The problem is when I pull guard Im not really sure what to do? Use some sort of shin to shin to threaten something else and get to half guard? Go supine and play RDLR and make them come to my half guard? I've also wondered is making half guard the first choice even wise? Should I have a layer of guard before half that I actually use for attacking and not just for funneling people into my half guard?

Thanks in advance!

I've been training for about 4 years and I consider myself a pretty decent blue belt. If you saw me rolling and had to guess what belt I am, I'm fairly confident you'd say I'm a blue belt.

However, I keep running into blue belts at competitions who started as kids and have been training for 12+ years, and as a result are wayyyyy better than your average blue belt.

For example, I know of a guy was promoted to blue belt after 11 years of training. He has since trained for another 3 years after getting his blue belt, won countless competitions, including IBJJF Worlds, and is still a blue belt.

As a hobbyist who enjoys competing, it seems really unfair for people like this to be in blue belt divisions, and I can't help but feel like it just ruins it for the regular blue belts who started as adults.

So my question is: is there a solution to this problem? If you were a decision-maker at IBJJF or another organisation, how would you address it? Or do you think the current system is fair?

P.s. - please don't tell me to "just get better at jiu jitsu". I'm trying my best 😭

To swap Espens position and let him face Tarik in the first round at Euros is an absolute joke. I saw this so many times in the past already, you can't tell me that this is coincidence. What do you guys think? And why the hell Espen has no seeding advantages?

What do you guys consider when signing up for a tournament and which tournament to sign up for, or do you just sign up for any tournaments available in your city. Do you guys care about the rulesets you are competing under or is it just about competing and finally what rulesets do you enjoy to compete in between ibjjf, grappling industries, adcc, naga ufcbjj.