Category: BJJ Guides

Posted on by — 1 Comment

The Beginner BJJ Buyer’s Guide – All The BJJ Gear a White Belt Needs

So you’ve been bitten by the BJJ bug (or choked by the Jiu-Jitsu chicken? That one needs some work). You took your first BJJ class and loved it, now you’re ready to dive into the deep waters head first. So what should a white belt buy to get better at BJJ?

Here’s our guide to all of the BJJ gear a white belt should buy.

  1. Best Starting BJJ Gi for New White Belts

Your first BJJ gi shouldn’t cost too much. You don’t know if your body is going to change (some people gain or lose a lot of weight when they get into BJJ) and you don’t know what kind of gi you really want (a super light one if your gym is hot and you get uncomfortable rolling BJJ while feeling like you’re wearing a winter coat in a sauna or a super thick heavy competition gi that makes you hard for an opponent to grip)

  1. Best Starting BJJ Rash Guard for New White Belts

A BJJ rash guard is something you’ll want to have early in your BJJ career. A BJJ rash guard serves a few purposes. First, a rash guard guards you against rashes (look at that, it’s right in the name!). Even a really nice high end BJJ gi is a thick, rough, sturdy piece of equipment designed to have your two hundred pound friend hang off it while they try to pull you down, so you need something between you and your gi otherwise you’ll end up like Andy Bernard in the Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race For the Cure. 

The second thing a rash guard does is keep your sweaty chest from dripping on your opponents and keeps anything gross on the mat from your skin. Like coming into class with fresh breath and a lack of body stank (as we mentioned in our What You Need For Your First BJJ Class post), you should think of what you can do to make your buddies want to roll with you. One of the easiest things you can do is not drench them with your chest sweat whenever you’re above them, and a decent rash guard can do that. Additionally, a BJJ gym can host a whole lot of nasty stuff like ringworm, staph, MRSA, and people who pull guard. Keep yourself from catching any of those gross conditions with a good rash guard.

The third thing a rash guard does is keep your options open. If your gym has a no gi BJJ class or an MMA class, you don’t want to be the guy who shows up in a muscle shirt and gets someone’s arm stuck in their shirt over and over so everyone has to watch out for your fashion faux pas to keep from breaking their arm. Show up in a rash guard and you can wear gym shorts or your gi bottoms and be ready to roll full speed. 

  1. Best Starting BJJ Book for New White Belts

BJJ is an immensely complicated sport that can seem really overwhelming at first (and once you get a hold of how much knowledge is out there, it turns into something really REALLY overwhelming, but that’s where the fun is). The best way to acclimate yourself with the basics of BJJ is to do like Levar Burton taught us and take a look, it’s in a book.

A good BJJ book will leave you with a basic understanding of terms, positions, and a few techniques (even if you just leave knowing the names and what the end goal of them are, it will set you up to not feel overwhelmed like everyone else in class is tapped into the matrix like keanu and knows kung fu after seeing a technique once.

We recommend Jiu-Jitsu University by Saulo Ribiero as the most comprehensive yet approachable starting point for a new BJJ white belt to learn the BJJ fundamentals.

  1. BJJ Belt for New White Belts

This one is probably unnecessary, but you will want to check it out. Most BJJ gis come with a white belt in the package for free when you buy them, but just in case yours doesn’t, you might want to buy one so you can fully get dressed at home before you head to the gym. Of course, because most BJJ gis have a white belt with them, your school might have some laying around or you can ask the folks you train with if they have a spare.

  1. Best BJJ Shorts for New White Belts

BJJ shorts are a good purchase if you plan to spend a lot of time doing no gi BJJ. A good pair of shorts will keep you covered during an intense roll better than gym shorts between the heavy ties designed for grappling and the legs that are designed to let you stretch farther than any normal gym shorts (the first time you get stacked in a triangle attempt, you’ll understand the importance), these shorts will be a great addition to your BJJ gear collection.

  1. Best BJJ Spats for New White Belts

Just like BJJ shorts, BJJ spats are a great option for no gi BJJ or wrestling. BJJ spats will keep you completely covered while rolling, avoiding anyone having to stick their head into your gross thighs when they take you down or you having to have someone’s gross head on your thighs when you get taken down. Spats can also keep you from getting gi burn on your knees and legs and can keep your legs clean and separated from the mat, keeping you healthy and ready to roll without even a day off for an infection.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

What You Need For Your First BJJ Class

So you’ve decided to take your first BJJ class.

Congratulations! Welcome to the wonderful world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, where you will learn how to drop people onto the ground, twist them like a pretzel, leave them completely helpless, disassemble their body, and choke the fight out of them. 

All by having those things done to you over and over.

BJJ is a fun sport, and teaches skills that are great for anyone to have, but your first Jiu-Jitsu class can be intimidating. You’re probably filled with questions:

How do I prepare for my first BJJ class?

What should I know for my first BJJ class? 

But most of all:

What do I need for my first BJJ class?

Here’s a list of what you need to get in order to have a good first BJJ class.

Soap

Show up to class clean. You’re going to be in close contact with your new friends, the last thing you want to do is smell bad. In addition to the embarrassment of smelling bad in front of people you just met, make sure you wash your feet before your first BJJ class. It’s an unpleasant reality that when rolling BJJ your face ends up on the same mat as your feet, so rolling with dirty feet can get someone sick.

Just like your friends, you want to protect yourself. We recommend anti fungal soaps that will prevent anything you come into contact with on the mat (and it can happen even in the cleanest gyms) from spreading to you.

Mouth Wash

Similar to soap, mouthwash is essential to making friends with all the people you meet in your first BJJ class. Having stank breath will make people not want to roll with you, and that’s how you learn what works and what doesn’t. So keep a bit of mouthwash with your gym bag or in your car to make sure you don’t advertise your garlic heavy lunch to all your Jiu-Jitsu friends.

Toenail Clippers

The first two items you need for your first BJJ class are pretty obvious (though we all need to be reminded, especially if we come after work) but this one isn’t: you need to cut your fingernails and toenails. When you roll BJJ, you end up grabbing your opponent’s limbs or head in a scramble and fingernails longer than the ends of your fingers can cut people. So before you go to your first BJJ class, make sure you cut your fingernails and toenails as close as you can.

That’s it, no reason to bring anything else to a first BJJ class than yourself, clean and ready to learn.

If you’re nervous about not understanding what’s going on, take a look through the Gracie BJJ Blue Belt Requirements for a good round up of the basics of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Liked your first class? Check out our Beginner BJJ Buyer’s Guide – All The BJJ Gear a White Belt Needs

Posted on by

How To Get a BJJ Blue Belt – The Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Blue Belt Requirements

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), getting a blue belt is one of the first major milestone accomplishments in your grappling career. It’s a sign that you have really learned BJJ to the point that you’re not a beginner anymore. Of course, your road is still very long, but it is a great accomplishment and one that most white belts are focused on in their grappling training.

A major problem for white belts is a lack of information on what you need to know to get your blue belt. Luckily, Gracie University Jiu Jitsu has published the basic requirements needed to be eligible for a BJJ Blue Belt in their system. This isn’t a checklist that guarantees you a blue belt (if you’re that desperate, you can always just buy a blue belt but that’s not really the point) but it is a list of the basic knowledge expectations for someone looking to get a BJJ blue belt.

Mount Techniques

There are four sections to the Gracie BJJ Blue Belt test: Mount Techniques, Guard Techniques, Side Mount Techniques, and Standing Techniques.