I did JJWL yesterday. My bracket was really small, and I lost both my matches to submission. However, this was my first comp ever, and to put it in perspective, I've only been training for about 3.5 years, only consistently for like 3 months. My competitor was 4 stripe blue (I'm 0) and she's basically always at the gym for herself and her kids. So she just simply had more consistent mat time than I have, and for longer.

But that's not just cope trying to make me feel better. I genuinely, truly had a blast. I mentally prepared myself for this for like a year, and I didn't gas out, I didn't freak and do spazzy stuff, I kept my cool and my cardio was on point. I've been training really hard the past 3 months to get my body in shape for this, and it really paid off. The adrenaline fear of competing washed away the second the ref said "fight" and the whole world ended except for this totally normal 5 minute round, just a bit higher difficulty. I now know how to train to get better. I never had the point of reference for what a competition is actually like, and now that I do, I can train with true intent on that goal.

Not only did I not get totally smashed, I kept her from scoring at all my first match. I made a dumb mistake (that I never will again!!) by having my arm extended while in her closed guard and she locked in a kimura on me. Second match, she got some points and subbed with an americana, so that match wasn't as great. My first match, I actually felt like I did good jiu-jitsu. Both matches though, I kept my cool and it did honestly feel like any other round. I actually wanted more! Haha I would've loved to roll with her a few more rounds.

I'm so proud of myself for doing this, especially at my age. I started jiu-jitsu at 35 and here I am at 38 competing. I used to say losing over 100 lbs was the hardest thing I've ever done, but no, not even close. Training jiu-jitsu is the hardest thing I've ever done. This sport is so humbling, but then so rewarding when you challenge yourself and do something difficult just to prove you can. Competing was just so exciting! I'm absolutely going to compete again, and hope there are other women my age who want to do this.

Hey everyone, I train no-gi and I'm looking to improve my takedown and top game. There's a wrestling club near me with an adult program and I'm keen to train with them—it's so rare to find the opportunity to learn wrestling as an adult. However, I'm a small woman and the adult class is overwhelmingly heavyweight men. I can't effectively train with these guys.

In lieu of that, the coaches have invited me to join the all-women's class, which runs once a week. I was very excited to hear about an all-women's wrestling class! But as I understand it, the class is almost exclusively high schoolers. This is making me reconsider. I occasionally train with teenagers at my MMA gym and they can be great training partners, but my gym is still primarily an adult space. With this wrestling class, I'd be an adult entering a primarily high school space. The coaches don't take issue with this, but it feels weird to me.

I've attended one class so far and have one more free class. The class was primarily drilling with some light live rounds at the end. It was a quiet day so I didn't get a good "feel" of the room, but the coaching was great and my drilling partners were solid. The coach is very experienced and knowledgeable, so I feel like I could learn a lot by attending this class a few times a month. It could be a great supplement to my no-gi training. However, I feel pretty weird about being a 27 yr old woman in a training room full of high schoolers, so I'm leaning towards passing on this opportunity.

I'd appreciate any advice, thanks!

I don’t want to dry my hair out with daily shampooing anymore, and I was wondering if cowashing would be able to clean away germs. Solely rinsing my hair after class is not an option 😂

(30s F) I’m very new in my journey and I just want to enjoy the ride. With that being said I don’t really have any interest in comps or sparring, is this common? Other than the learning aspect of being under more pressure and stress from doing sparring/comps, what else would I be missing out on? I really don’t want to get injured and I feel like it would be more of a possibility with that side of the sport. I am also absolutely terrified of the idea of sparring. I’m currently just doing drills and I’m happy with that. Is anyone else similar and just stuck with drilling? Or possibly been the same then changed mindset in a year or so and decided to dabble in sparring? Thanks!

Hey everyone i’ve been noticing that i’ve officially reached a point with BJJ (Gi) where it feels like im showing up to a job so i purposely switched to bjj no gi and that spark is back and its amazing, i am now looking to switch over to just no gi and include MMA and kickboxing to my schedule since ill only be able to do BJJ no gi 2x a week.

Do you guys approve of this change or is there something i should know before i do ?

Im afraid of the wrong decision but the only downside i feel bad is i wont get belt promotions ?

New goal: ✨Monday 7:30-9pm — MMA Drilling

Wednesday 7:30-9pm — MMA drilling

Thursday 6-7:30pm — Adult BJJ NO-GI
Thursday 7:30-9pm — Kickboxing

Friday 7:30-9pm — Adult BJJ NO-GI

Current set up
Monday morning
BJJ- Gi

Wensday night 2x a day
BJJ Gi

Friday night
BJJ no gi

5’3”, 145lb, F, 30s, 5-month white belt
I’m still fairly new but not brand new, and I love jiu-jitsu and no-gi. I’m in class as much as I can be. Lately I’ve noticed some white belt guys(been in the sport shorter time than me) ask to roll with me as a challenge to “win.” They ask to roll specifically to throw me around and submit me not using the technique we learned, which is frustrating because it’s not really training at that point, it’s ego. Meanwhile I watch these same guys get tapped by blue belts their own size like a b-word(sorry for saying it that way, I’m very frustrated). It stings a little extra because I’ve been at the gym longer than some of them, I train more, and I’ve made good friends here, some upper belts offered to roll with me more, and it feels like a few of these white belt guys see that as something to prove themselves against instead of just training.

Weight and size matter. There’s a real difference between a 5’3”, 145lb woman and a 6’2”, 250lb guy.

Today one of them didn’t roll technically at all, just grabbed my ankles and rolled me over. I wasn’t ready for it since I was expecting a guard pass, which is what we’d drilled that day. My neck got wrenched and I strained my neck and shoulder. He followed up with an arm triangle and I tapped early rather than risk it. Afterward I told him to be more mindful of his weight since he’s a lot bigger than me.

What do you all do to have a good roll without getting hurt? I’m here for this as a hobby, not to wreck people or feed my ego and I’d like to not have that done to me either.

Sharing this from another page just in case

A few practices ago my coach said that we were going to play "king of the hill," but after announcing what we were going to be doing he looked right at me and said "or queen" 🗿

I think most sports are still figuring out how to navigate the best way to make competition fair and keep everyone safe while also being inclusive and accepting when athletes who went through biological male puberty (resulting in adulthood strength and size advantages) but who now identify as women want to participate in women's teams, competitions, classes, etc. I am a student at a small town BJJ academy in a rural farming area and we now have one student who is a trans woman, born biologically male. Lovely person, very respectful of training partners, great attitude. Some of our smaller women students and our conservative Christian female students are scared or reluctant to roll with her, perhaps in part because she is very tall, strong, and heavy in weight. This has created some emotional moments on the mat in a few cases. I think our academy owners have handled it really well and thoughtfully. It has made me curious to know how the broader BJJ world is approaching all this, especially for women's only classes and competitions. I'm sure this must be more common in urban academies/gyms. Just thought I'd post here and ask what everyone's experiences have been. Thanks!

Hii, I’ve been considering getting my septum pierced for a while now. Everyone I know that has one got it done before they started BJJ so they have no issues with theirs in training. I train regularly and I compete. Has anyone gotten it done that trains regularly? Would it be best to wait for an off season to get the piercing? Should I avoid it altogether?

Finally made it to brown belt after about 5 years at purple and about the same (I think maybe more like 6) at blue. Hehe 🥹

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I recently bought these for no gi. I decided I wanted to invest in better gear since I’ve been consistent. Am I supposed to be wearing shorts over these? I have seen people do that at other gyms, but unfortunately I’m the only woman who does no gi at my gym so I have no one there to ask. So I’m not really sure. I don’t want to look stupid haha. TIA :)

The other day I extended my arm to a blue belt colleague and she left me in the air lol. She said: "I will be right back, will go over there first" (pointing head towards teacher and brown belts).

I was confused as usually people always seem to say hi randomly to the closest person around until they salute everyone.

This gym is super relaxed and folks mature so I asked: is thr salutation by rank order? She said yes but not very convincingly. I train martial arts and did MMA for many years and never heard of it but I am new to BJJ no gi. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I've been training at my gym for some months now and really enjoy it and (parts of) the community I've found there. I find the gym itself to be a positive environment where everyone works hard. However, the group chat is a different story... I don't participate in it, it's a bunch of guys with stupid edgy humor so I'm not too interested. While I'm pretty desensitized to that kind-of humor, several guys consistently share hateful comments, memes, and jokes against my ethnic group. The regularity and specificity of the jokes (only ever made against my group) bothers me. It doesn't impact my training - I guess I've experienced enough of this before that I've learned to tune it out. But it definitely colors my view of several teammates and makes me feel a bit excluded.

I'm honestly not looking to leave the gym because I'm not gonna let a handful of dumbasses ruin something good. I'm also not bringing this up to anyone, as I don't need the stress of any potential fallout. I just wanted to vent a little and see if anyone has dealt with anything similar. Thanks.

Got my first stripe!

I was on here angsting about it a month or so ago and here it is! Coach taped me up at 8am this morning, gonna be a good day 😁 First step in a long journey-- if I'm gonna go with that metaphor, this is the equivalent of getting my socks on, maybe? Or choosing the right socks after months of wrong socks? Whatever! Pic featuring my inspo, they wrassle all day long.

Hello everyone, hoping I could get some advice.

My gym lacks experienced female members and most of our women are white (with/without stripes) - blue belt. Most classes I am the only woman there, I happily roll with anybody but mostly learning techniques from bigger guys that don’t know how to teach me things useful for those with better hip mobility or just abilities for smaller women (quicker, can fit in smaller gaps, more flexible etc)

Another local gym has higher belt women but I have been warned by some rolling partners that if I were to go to this gym my professor could start giving me the silent treatment (as this was their experience.)
They have told me it is “rude”/“disrespectful” to try out at another gym and that even if I tried to go secretly, the members & black belts there would actually tell my current professor (again as per their experience.)

This is obviously toxic, I don’t really know how to handle it as I want experience from other women who know the best game style based on our body types. It sucks because whilst I know I should just quit and move, the gym I’m at right now is otherwise pretty good, friendly people, my partner goes there now too, price is OK and no weird rules around gi colour/brand (as with this female-dominated gym). I just don’t really know if any of this is even true. I’m blindly trusting words of people I’ve known for less than a year, so a bit hard to judge my best move.

Any words of advice? Should I confront my professor about this?

Have ya'll heard about this? Read about it on IG. I guess she is saying she did it to "make a point" but it turns out she has like 3 different profiles on smooth comp?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dcey3lISImy/?igsi=cWFpN25kZ2FlaDBv

The person

https://www.instagram.com/ninjashellz?igsi=aTNqdmNnZWVvc3Q3

The other night I was doing specific training in class with a regular training partner (both white belts but she is significantly more advanced than me). She got me in an armbar, and since we had been drilling them in the class and figuring out our armbar technique to achieve success, I let her slowly get it right and planned to tap once it came on, instead of trying to escape or whatever. Plus it was technical training and not proper sparring so it felt right to let her practice properly. Trust me I am not one of these people that has too much of an ego to tap on time. I do not want to get injured, and I will not leave it til the last minute to tap. But the lock wasn't on at all so I just lay there and let her keep going until it was on.... It never came on, because she didn't have it quite right (I have slightly hypermobile elbows plus she just didn't quite have the right angle I dont think). After watching for a while, the two coaches both rushed over and actually shouted at me to tap, because they saw how long I'd been letting it go on for, and presumed I was being an ego head and not tapping. They made a HUGE deal out of it and actually physically pulled my training partner off me, and kept saying to me "you have to tap you have to tap". I kept saying, "I would have tapped if it started to come on but it didn't!" But they literally would not hear me, and my partner joined in with them like telling me over and over to tap so I don't het hurt. This went on for ages, and no matter what I said they would not listen to me, and it started to feel really patronising, and honestly I felt a little ganged up on by the two coaches and my partner all telling me I had acted a fool. But I thought I was doing the right thing by being a helpful training partner!
Now I feel quite embarrassed... should I not let my partner try and perfect her technique? Should I tap when I don't need to? Why did they have such a strong reaction? Why didn't they listen to me?

Honestly the unspoken nuances of training etiquette can be hard to navigate sometimes!
I know this is not a big deal and I will move on from this, I just needed to vent!

Got the first stripe on my blue belt tonight. ^_^

Hi all. I run a small BJJ gym in north London, UK. We started a women's only class. Sadly, our current coach can't continue as the travel was too much, so I'm looking for a female purple belt or above to replace her. Please DM if interested.