Guides
How to start and how to pick a gym, what gear you actually need, how a competition works, what the data says about your body, and the stories and words jiu-jitsu rarely explains. Short pieces with their sources stated: for beginners and for people who have trained for years.
Before you set foot in a gym
Getting started
What to know before you first step on a mat: your first class, choosing a gym, belts, costs.
See all 11 guidesKids
What a parent actually needs: how a kids' class works, the separate belt system, what the studies on bullying really say, and how to behave at the edge of the mat.
See all 4 guidesBJJ and other sports
Wrestling, MMA, krav maga: what they actually train, where they overlap with jiu-jitsu and where they don't — for anyone still choosing.
See all 3 guidesSelf-defense
What jiu-jitsu really trains outside the gym, where it stops working, and what the data says once you actually check it.
See all 3 guidesGear
Your first gi, sizes that don't match between brands, how to wash it so it lasts, and what you actually need beyond that.
See all 7 guidesOnce you are training
Competing
How a tournament works, how points are counted, how weight divisions work — and when a first competition makes sense.
See all 11 guidesYour body
What actually gets injured, why hygiene matters more than it seems, and how to last. Sources stated.
See all 8 guidesGetting better
What separates those who improve from those who just log hours: the game you choose, the notes you take, the losses you accept.
See all 7 guidesYoga for BJJ
Mobility, breathing and recovery for grapplers: what actually helps, and what changes after a few months.
See all 2 guidesJiu-jitsu culture
The words of jiu-jitsu
Kimura, ezekiel, berimbolo: where technique names come from, and who really coined them.
See all 11 guidesThe stories few people know
Oswaldo Fadda, Mitsuyo Maeda, the challenges that gave birth to the UFC: jiu-jitsu history told with the sources usually left out.
See all 10 guidesWe are on Instagram
The gyms on the map, the history of jiu-jitsu and the stories behind the names of the techniques.
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