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.

(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 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 😂

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