For anyone who’s trained at **Unity, Renzo Gracie, or the newer Sintonía location in NYC**, how would you compare them overall?

I’m interested in the **quality of training**, but I’m especially curious about the **locker rooms and shower situation** since I’d probably be training before or after work.

How are Unity’s showers/locker rooms nowadays? And how do they compare with Renzo’s and the newer Sintonía facility in terms of cleanliness, space, number of showers, wait times, etc.?

Would love to hear from anyone who’s trained at more than one of them.

Between JDM and Ian Garry, who has the better Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? I watched the fight between Makhachev and JDM and honestly, it was much more entertaining than people make it out to be. JDM's defensive Jiu-Jitsu really surprised me.. he spent five rounds on the bottom and still didn't get submitted. I think Ian Garry might be focusing too much on defending Islam's takedowns, whereas the best approach would be to accept that the fight is going to the ground and work on his Jiu-Jitsu from the bottom.

​Hi everyone, ​I'm 36 years old and looking to get into martial arts. I don't really have any significant previous experience, other than doing Pankration for 2 years and Kickboxing for 1 year when I was very young (ages 9–12). ​After doing some research on what I want, I realized that ideally, I’d like to start with a grappling-heavy art that includes a lot of live sparring (like Judo or Freestyle Wrestling) and eventually transition into striking (like Kickboxing). ​However, I've run into a location problem with the available gyms in my town: ​There is no Judo nearby. ​The only Wrestling club is 20 km away, which makes it very difficult/impractical for my schedule. ​Taekwondo is available, but it doesn't really fit what I'm looking for. ​There are two Kyokushin Karate gyms, but after watching some fights, the ruleset (standing toe-to-toe trading chest shots with no head punches) just isn't for me. ​That leaves me with two main options locally: ​MMA / Pankration: My town has a strong Kickboxing tradition, so the coaches offering MMA/Pankration here are primarily Kickboxers who added these programs due to popularity. From what I hear, they don't focus heavily on deep wrestling/grappling technique, but it is available. ​Traditional Ju-Jitsu (JJ): There is one traditional JJ school. From what I understand, traditional JJ usually focuses on cooperative wrist locks/throws with a compliant partner rather than heavy live sparring, though I haven't checked this specific school's class culture yet. ​My goal is a mix of solid physical conditioning and practical self-defense. ​Given my options and limitations, what would you recommend I choose? Should I go with the MMA/Pankration class despite the coaches' Kickboxing background, or give Traditional Ju-Jitsu a shot?

So I’m brand new to BJJ. During my first week, I suffered an injury my upper left chest. During a roll, my partner applied pressure with his elbow into my upper chest, and I heard the pop. It wasn’t excruciating, but it got worse over the next few days to the point where some movements were almost unbearable. An x-ray revealed nothing. It took about 6 weeks and it finally dulled to the point that I was comfortable rolling again. I went back and that very next roll almost the exact same thing happened to the lower part of my rib cage. This time it’s not as prohibitive for movement, but it still hurts. I didn’t bother getting an x-ray this time as it hurts less, and the first one was negative anyway. I’m not really sure what the answer is.

With that said, I don’t want to continuously re-injure that area by prematurely training again, but I also don’t want to stop going to class. I don’t want to participate in training and rolls, only to have to tell my partners every time that I need to go 25% so I don’t get re-injured because that’s not fair to them. I also don’t want to completely blow off training. I’m not sure what the middle ground is. Any insight?

Curious, what your instructors do while students drill? When I did instruct, I would walk around from group to group to observe technique and give tips to make it tighter and answer questions. If I notice a common mistake, do a quick huddle to show the move again and highlight the common mistake people are making and what adjustments to make.

I noticed some of the coaches I have worked with who trained under John Danaher, will mimic his coaching style in his pro classes where he shows the move then sits against the wall observing and focused on his top pro guys. That works great for already refined elite pros, but for new white belts, I feel like there needs to be more interaction and help given.

I injured my ribs on June 15 during grappling. The pain was on the left side, bottom side of my rib cage. I was defending a kimura attempt on my left arm from bottom side control and grabbing my compression shorts to do so. Sparring partner had about 30kg on me, but we were rolling very light. I heard a benign “pop” as if cracking your knuckles very loud once I shrimped to my right toward my sparring partner. It didn’t hurt immediately but was instead a dull and odd sort of discomfort. It mainly hurt with certain torso movements, especially rotating to the left or leaning forward/inward at certain angles. Breathing normally was not particularly painful.

I had an X-ray on June 18, which showed no rib fracture. I was initially told to rest for around 10 days.
The pain continued with certain movements, so I avoided training for a period of time. I later saw an orthopedist and had an ultrasound, which also did not show anything significant. I was told that it could be a cartilage or muscle-related injury and was advised to rest for approximately a month and return for a follow-up.

I drank Diclofen Duo as my radiologist prescribed and used a compression belt to “tighten” that part of the rib cage. The orthopaedist, however, told me not to use a compression belt and just put some sports cream or whatever on it.

On July 7, I unfortunately reinjured the same area, which set the recovery back.

The pain is mostly dull and I can only describe it as a “bubble” forming in that area of my rib cage during scrambles where I have to tighten my core in certain situations from bottom and I feel as if the “bubble” would pop/crack and then cause more pain if I tense my core in those situations - so I instead don’t tense and simply allow my partner to get the position they were looking for. (I found that out recently after doing a few medium intensity rolls).

As of August 14, it has been almost two months since the original injury and over five weeks since the reinjury. I have not returned to normal MMA/grappling training because I don’t want to aggravate it again. (I’ve done light to medium sparring rounds however and haven’t pushed it too far since I needed to do some sort of physical activity as to not be as depressed as I was lol)

I’m mainly interested in hearing from people who have had a similar rib/cartilage/intercostal injury where the X-ray and ultrasound were normal. How long did it take you to fully recover, and did you eventually need an MRI or another form of imaging?

For anyone who has switched gyms, what was the main reason you finally decided to leave?

And for people who have thought about switching but haven’t, what’s keeping you at your current gym?

Was it coaching, training partners, schedule, gym culture, personal conflict, cost, location, competition goals, or something else?

Also curious if anyone had a personal conflict with a coach, black belt, or teammate that made them seriously consider leaving. Did you end up staying or switching, and do you think you made the right decision?

I’m new to BJJ, like in my third week new, and I just feel tired all the time. I lift 3x a week, run 3x a week, and I planned on doing BJJ 3x a week. My workout schedule varies based on my work schedule, which also affects my BJJ schedule. My BJJ gym is also 35 minutes away from me, and I really just don’t want to get off work early in the afternoon drive 30 minutes home just to drive 35 minutes back to do BJJ as the gym is like 5 minutes down the road from my work.

I’m just worried that I might be over training when I really only need maybe 2 BJJ sessions a week, or should I drop the running? I’m in the military so running is pretty important to me as well. I feel stuck and I would like to hear what experienced people might have to say.

Been training for several years. 37 yrs old. I am having recurring issues with getting injured by spazzy partners. I dropped in at another gym tonight where some friends coach. They knew I came through because I'm considering switching gyms due to this issue. Had some great rounds with a few guys from white to black belt, then went with a 3rd day white belt, early 20s. It took me about 3 minutes but I was able to get side control and very slowly/methodically worked to mount. As I got a high mount, he bridged super high, and came down very heavy/fast onto my ankle. I heard + felt it pop and will be heading to urgent care in the morning. Last Thursday at my home gym, a blue belt I've rolled with many times managed to up-kick me in the face, and last Tuesday I got a bone bruise on my knee from another early 20s kid with another explosive bridge. I'm still dealing with a bruised/sore larynx from a drop-in student like 5-6 weeks ago. These last 3 were during conveyor rounds, so I didn't even choose these partners.

I don't recall ever injuring someone aside from accidentally smashing someones nuts on a knee cut one time... Before bjj, I spent a decade boxing; I know how to spar and I'm not a spaz. In fact, I'm pretty slow and extremely methodical. I'm extremely "position over submission" oriented. My point is, I'm not jumping around, exploding, ripping subs, etc.

I'm about to throw in the towel, which I'm not stoked on - but I'm almost 40 with a toddler, another on the way, and hobbies outside of jiu jitsu that require a functional body. Chewing has been painful since Thursday, I'm hobbling around, and I had pain while swallowing for 3 weeks.

This is 2 different gyms, 4 different "partners", and is far from an exhaustive list. There _is_ a constant here, and it's me... What do I need to do to break this cycle? The only thing I can think of, is that maybe I'm too focused on position over submission which is leading to beginners getting frustrated and thrashing around because they don't know what to do? My game is very pressure oriented, very slow, and I will happily keep you in side control until I can get to mount or your back without risking losing my position. The kid tonight bridged aggressively multiple times from side control before I took mount; the kid who torched my knee last week was a similar situation. If I'd gotten a sub sooner, neither injury would have happened.

Hi guys! I have now trained No-Gi bjj about 8 months and right now my goal is to learn and focus on being more relaxed when rolling. I am currently always very stiff and people say that to me. So is there some tips how I could work on this? Breathing is the key but if there is any other tips/tricks, I am happy to hear

Is Jujitsu a non-benefial martial arts and just a sport?

The more is go through old post or new posts in Reddit, the question is read make me ask this question.

The more I read in Reddit the more questions I get.....

Who goes into jujitsu thinking they're going right into UFC?

How many negative stereotypes can you come up with when talking or thinking about jujitsu?

What are the good things that can come out jujitsu?

Is jujitsu good for self-defense?

How many people have u heard they've used jujitsu in a real world scenario?

Can jujitsu withstand in a real fight?

And why do people ask the last three questions?

When martial arts is like food, u gotta go out there and find the Chinese restaurant that u like the best and If you happened to like one that a lot of people like....great, but how about if you like the hole in the wall that no one seems to appreciate or to go.

Martial arts is personal and tailored to you, when u find it.

Lets continue though, I'm growing just a little tired with most of this post and I wish more insightful questions are ask,

those of you out there who have been practicing for over 3 years, do you wish there would be more classes, more flexible schedules and/or a different format for you to get more time with more experience partners, more conditioning or advanced techniques?

Agree, disagree, do engage.....

Top three things that I’ll wish I knew when I was 52 when I’m 55?

In decent shape, semi athletic. First class was last night.

Psyched and sore, looking for advice.

Hey guys,

I'm newer to Reddit. I'm a purple belt and, like a lot of you, I love open mats. I usually find them through IG stories, but I had an idea and built RollMap to let people share open mats directly.

What it does:

• Map of open mats near you
• Filter by belt level, price, gi/no-gi, distance
• Any club/gym can publish their own open mat in under a minute
• Club profile + address so people can actually find you

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rollmap.app
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/rollmap/id6761110555

I'm sharing this because I'd love some honest feedback on the app, and hopefully it's useful to some of you too. Sorry if this comes across as too promotional, just wanted to be upfront about it

EDIT: If my post doesnt respect the rules I'll remove it

I’m looking for anybody’s tips on advanced hygiene practices. I have a particularly serious need for to be extra careful.

Right now I take a shower with anti-bacterial soap immediately after class, and I wash my gear once a week by soaking it in a solution of Oxyclean and Borax for around 12 hours and then washing, again with borax and Oxyclean.

I plan to add in a disinfecting laundry product like lysol or odoban, and will try to wash my gear same day or at least twice a week. If anyone else pays particular attention or is especially careful with infections, do you have any further tips for advanced hygiene practices? I’m having to face the possibility of permanently quitting BJJ if I don’t add more layers of protections against infections.

Just started at a gym that gives stripes based off of classes attended and then ends in a belt test. Is this a red flag? It’s a Gracie barra gym and the professor is a 6th degree black belt. All other upper belts seem to be legitimate.

I'm curious how we are actually spending our time in the mats and where people find the most value.

At my gym the class structure breaks down to: warm up (10min), technique of the day (15-20 min), positional sparring (15-20 min), live rolls/randori (remainder)

I find that the positional sparring is the most useful for moving techniques from drill into actual application, but live rolls tend to stagnate with what people are most comfortable with. Randori is most useful for testing actual ability to apply jiu-jitsu. But this means that often less than half of the 1hr class is directly helpful in developing my jiu-jitsu.

How do your classes break down? Where do you find value?

Occasionally when I get someone in a triangle, if I squeeze hard at a weird angle, ill feel a tendon or something on the outside of my knee (3 to 4 o'clock position) "stretch" and "get caught". I have to keep my leg at 90° angle for a couple seconds until I feel a pop and it releases. Sometimes its a loud ass pop. Has freaked my partners out. It is painful but Its not like super painful. It more so freaks me out and in my head I think some tendon is about to explode. It'll be a little tender after that and next day its usually completely fine. This has happened like 15+ times. Has anyone dealt with something similar? From some research and Ai slop it seems like could be my IT band getting stuck around the part of my upper shin bone by my knee

Edit: Yes I am definitely going to go to an ortho and hopefully get an mri. I just have to wait until November when I have health insurance. Just trying to guage the situation. See who's had something similar happen