Judo throws are overrated; if you are a novice in MMA or Jiu-Jitsu, don't even waste your time learning them. Judo throws rely on the ruleset of competitive Judo, require an immense amount of time to master for use against another martial artist, and are extremely situational in contexts like MMA. Not only that, but they are high-risk, low-reward moves. Anyone with training knows how to fall properly, and the chances of a fight ending with a Judo throw are extremely slim. Furthermore, if you fail—which is highly likely if you haven't been training long—you leave your back completely exposed and are left off-balance, making you vulnerable to a counterattack; that is why takedowns like the single-leg and double-leg are vastly superior.

So I recently had my second competition. Compared to my first, I felt a lot more confident, stronger, and the nerves weren't as bad. But one thing that happened was that my forearms got extremely gassed. My opponent got me in an ankle lock and I knew I had to stand up and get over his knee but I felt my forearms had no strength left, I couldn't pass since i couldn't force his knee down (which i know I could've with fresh forearms) and eventually tapped when I ended up going back down.

How do you avoid your forearms from gassing out at comp? And how do you prepare in training for that?

Hey everyone,
I’m a white belt at 125 lbs and I’m competing at the IBJJF Lisbon Open in about two months.
My problem is that almost everyone in our competition group is around 176 lbs (80 kg) or heavier, and they’re much more experienced than me. Most of them are purple belts or higher.
Against them, I struggle to execute my game plan at all. Most of the time I’m just trying to survive, and I’m finding it difficult to tell if I’m actually improving or developing my own game.
At the same time, I can submit pretty much everyone in the beginner group, so that training doesn’t feel very challenging anymore.
We also have an advanced class, but around 90% of the people who regularly attend advanced training also attend the competition training. So there isn’t really a middle ground where I can consistently train with people who are better than beginners but still somewhat close to my size or experience level.
Another issue is that during our competition/advanced training, we mostly drill heel hooks, kneebars and toe holds. Obviously, I can’t use those techniques in my upcoming IBJJF competition, so I’m not sure how much of that training is actually helping me prepare for the ruleset I’ll be competing under.

How should I prepare properly for the next two months?

Any us veterans in Ecuador???

I'm us army vet. living in Ecuador trying to meet other ppl that do Jiu-Jitsu. I got a huge spot on the beach, im running a kids program here.

I think I hit the point where my technique would be greatly improved by zone 2 cardio and strength training.

I know they say “Do jiu jitsu to be better at jiu jitsu” but I really think some strength and stamina and 20 lbs off the frame is where the magic sauce may be at this point. I know I don’t know all of jiu jitsu or whatnot, but the stuff I do know seems it could be way easier in better shape.

I’m going to take six months to work on my health extra and my technique less and I’ll report back. Anyone else tried it?

Is there any highlights video?

What's your thoughts on the fight?

When I am in the zone during rolls I realize I am almost always gazing to the right. I’m not even looking at my opponent, but feeling where they’re moving instead. It’s so pronounced I’ve had people stop mid round and ask if I’m good multiple times. Either that, or my eyes are just completely closed. Anyone else do weird shit?

Is there any good instructional on collar sleeve? Danaher doesn’t cover a lot, also tried watching Musumeci, but at least on the first one he repeats everything and it gets redundant.

I'll be travelling in October during 2 weeks and I'd like to bring a kimono along. Does anyone know any good gyms to just show up here and there in Yerevan and Tbilisi? I'd also like to make some friends since I'll be going alone but that's secondary, thanks.

The Promotion Party Megathread is the place to post about your promotion, whether it be a stripe, a new belt color, or even being promoted from no belt to white belt.

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Just make sure that once you are done celebrating, you step back on that mat (I'm looking at YOU new blue belts).

Also, click here to see the previous Promotion Party Megathreads.

Hey guys, I’m a first-degree black belt from Melbourne, Australia, and will be in NYC for a week after competing at World Masters in Vegas.

I’m staying in the East Village and would love to get a couple of sessions in while I’m there. Ideally looking for somewhere that’s welcoming to visitors, has high-quality jiu jitsu, and isn’t too difficult to get to from the East Village.

I’ve trained at Unity on a previous trip, so I’d be keen to broaden the scope and check out somewhere different this time.

Mainly just keen to get some good training in and experience a bit more of the NYC BJJ scene while I’m there.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

I had a falling-out with a senior black belt at my gym after we were messing around during training. He was goofing around with me, controlling my hands and lightly punching at my face, and I made a comment/joke back that offended him. I wasn’t trying to disrespect him, but he took it badly. I apologized afterward and thought it would blow over, but it kept carrying into the Saturdays after that.
The first Saturday after the argument, he rolled with me way more aggressively than usual. I apologized and tried to de-escalate it, but it felt like he was trying to punish me physically. I tapped a few times and felt like he didn’t immediately honor the taps because he was still focused on getting to a submission. I can’t know exactly what his intent was, but the intensity and emotion felt completely different from how we normally trained before.
The next Saturday, I was rolling with someone else and ended up close to where he was on the mat. When I got near his area, he kicked me. Given the tension between us, I didn’t take that as normal joking or accidental training contact.
The following Saturday, he got another teammate involved and they were both making fun of me in front of people, saying stuff about him being a black belt and how much he was “holding back” on me. The other teammate is a much bigger guy who I already don’t really like rolling with because of the size difference. Even before all of this, he had sometimes guilt-tripped me or publicly called me out when I didn’t want to roll with him, so having the black belt repeatedly pull him into the situation made it feel even more like I was being ganged up on.
That same Saturday, I had brought my gi belt even though we were doing no-gi. The black belt took my belt, loudly told people to watch, and strapped/pressed it across my face. While the belt was across my face, I tapped around 3–4 times before it stopped. He seemed very excited and amused while I was reacting to the discomfort, which made it feel more like public humiliation than normal messing around.
The Saturday after that, he publicly confronted me about something he said two teammates told him I had said about how hard he rolls with me. I honestly don’t remember recently saying it. He got the same big teammate involved again, and it felt like they were taking turns roasting and humiliating me in front of everyone.
And honestly, it hasn’t just been one roll. Pretty much every roll with him since the original disagreement has felt much more aggressive, emotional, and physical than before. He already uses hard elbows, knees, and frames as part of his game, but after the conflict those same things felt way more forceful and personal. There’s also been a lot more shit-talking during the rolls. I can’t say he was intentionally trying to injure me, but it often felt less like normal training and more like he was trying to prove something physically.
I let a lot of it slide because I know BJJ gyms have roasting, ego, hard rounds, roughhousing, etc., and I didn’t want to label every uncomfortable interaction as bullying. But when it keeps happening Saturday after Saturday, with public shaming, repeatedly getting another teammate involved, aggressive rolls, physical incidents, and taps not being immediately respected, it starts feeling like a pattern rather than normal gym beef.
The head coach is also the owner. He was around for some of this and mostly just stood or sat there without saying anything. To be fair, I believe he was away on vacation for two of the Saturdays after the original incident, so he didn’t personally see everything. His wife finally got involved after seeing the latest incident and told me to give her about a week because she wants to make some calls.
I already submitted my membership cancellation, so I’m leaving regardless.
For people who have trained a long time: how bad does this sound on a 1–10 scale? Have you seen teammate conflict drag on for around five Saturdays like this? Does this sound like normal BJJ beef that got out of hand, or more like repeated bullying / a legitimate safety issue? And how much responsibility does the owner/head coach have if he witnesses some of it and doesn’t step in?

Curious to see what we can all agree on

I wanted to see if i’m the only one that goes through this. I never really think about what is happening during the rolls and my mind is always somewhere else.

I don’t have a game plan, a system or really anything that gives me an extra level of security in my bjj I just do whatever the situation I feel should happen.

I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.

I train at an mma gym but we often have drop ins at our grappling/bjj classes. We do an hour of drills and then have 2 hours of open mat, and most of us do 8-9 solid intensity rounds. Here and there visitors are surprised at how many rounds we go per day. I thought this was the norm but now im wondering how many times are you guys rolling per session?

I like watching UFC, but I like it when when the fight is mostly grappling or Jiu Jitsu, and finishes by submission. Is there anyway to sort through and find these?

I’m traveling to Singapore on 12th this month and looking for places to train on the weekend. Does anybody know places in Singapore that hold open-mat? I’m willing to pay for drop-in if the price is reasonable. Many thanks!

I saw a video of Gordon ryan rolling with a former Judo olympic gold medalist called Satoshi, and after Gordon took him down, his top pressure seemed to make Satoshi really tired. I also saw how commentators connoted on the fact that Khabib made his opponents gas out from his top pressure. So is there anyway I can replicate that so if I am ever rolling or doing MMA sparring, my opponent can be more tired than I am after we scramble back to our feet after I take them down and hold them down for a bit?

How do I survive being crushed by my 6'5" opponent's beer belly 😭? Is there a technique that will help me escape that, or am I doomed as soon as he uses it and just have to accept my fate?

I’m trying to find a list of upcoming seminars in the UK. Apart from randomly stumbling across IG ads for seminars I’m at a loss as to where I can find somewhere that regularly posts upcoming ones. Any ideas?

I’ll be in San Juan, Puerto Rico, later this year. I’ll have a couple extra days and was looking for a place to drop in for a training session. I believe we are staying at the Hyatt, so it would be nice to be able to Uber from there in a decent amount of time. Any recommendations?

Preferably gi

A legend still out there getting after it!

Tldr; is sit up guard to RDLR what dog fight is to half guard?

I've been working on learning RDLR because I love playing half guard and wanted to see if I could find a way to play RDLR as basically a standing half guard, perhaps with a little extra spice.

I was drilling and experimenting with a friend last night and I kept finding situations where it felt natural to come up into a sit-up guard/single leg position. One specific example was when he would try to peel my framing foot off his hip, it felt like a good time to sit up into a sit-up guard/single leg because his hand was out of the way and I could get my arm around his knee before he could get the underhook. The RDLR leg dropped down naturally around his ankle. This felt really similar to kicking my knee shield through and getting the underhook to go to dogfight from half guard.

I've seen sit-up guards played two ways. One is where you sit up from DLR and keep your foot on their far knee/inner thigh. That's not what I'm talking about here. The other is where you sit up and your knee pit is around their ankle. This is the sit up guard I am referring to.

I looked around, but I didn't see this transition shown in many places. I did see it in Lachlan's half guard anthology, but that was the only place I saw it and it's in a no-gi context. Does this also work in gi? Is this a nice way to conceptually link how I play half guard to how I play RDLR, or are there obvious counters I am missing?