White belt advice

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I have spent about 14 months training in BJJ. I did 6 months before I quit and then I came back to the sport a couple years later. Let me talk about the mistakes I made:

• I wish I trained in Gi and No Gi. The average person reading this will want to grow as a BJJ player and probably isn’t going to go pro a la Gordon Ryan (more on him later). Check out this article by Andre Galvao to get more reasons why you want to train both.

• You need to go to at least 3 classes per week if you’re a white belt. Anything less and you’re wasting your time. Every player I’ve met that progressed fast spent time on the mat. What you’re doing is building up momentum and if you quit in 6 months (like me), you will lost that momentum. Obviously everybody is different with their recovery times, age, current injuries, and work schedule.

• I wish I set mini goals when I was first starting out. There’s so many little details in BJJ that take time to develop. Some examples are being more conscious of your grips, balance, and breathing.

• Overestimating how hard this sport was going to be.

• One of the reasons why I quit was because I thought the sport was a bit “bromantic”. I’m not going to elaborate what that means, but you live and learn. I’m very grateful for all the lessons BJJ (and martial arts too) teaches.

Common mistakes I think white belts make:

• Relying on their closed guard. You will need to develop it but some people use it as the safe position to play from. Stephan Kesting seems to agree with me (youtube link).

• Comparing themselves to other players. Welcome to life, not everybody can be a former D1 athlete or learn biomechanics easily. Those who keep showing up and slowly improving will eventually get what they deserve.

• Not being aware of other matches around them. Well this kind of applies to other belts, but especially for the beginners. I’ve seen people get kicked in the head. Just a warning please don’t let that scare you off!

Fundamental moves you will need to master

I’ve been to at least 50 fundamental classes. The moves I commonly see being drilled are shrimping, bridges, bridge and rolls, break falling, and technical standups. Once you can master your own body you can move your opponents around.

Picking a dojo

I’ve trialed at least 10 gyms. As far as I know every gym will give you a free trial, it could range from 1 session to 2 weeks in my experience. Everybody has a definition of their perfect dojo. Some people may live in the boonies and the closest dojo is a bare bones operation. Ideally hygiene should be on point (i.e. clean bathrooms, clean mats, clean equipment, etc). Hopefully the professor is cool and not a jerk. I’ve heard of some professors forbidding students from going to other dojos which IMO is insecure. The class schedule should fit your schedule.

Very useful resources to check out

We live in the information age and I have heard from some of the older guys I roll with how it’s easy to learn BJJ nowadays with the advent of youtube. This is just a small list of youtubers/BJJ/MMA personalities that are awesome (in no particular order):

Khabib: One of the best MMA fighters of all time. Infamous for his Russian sambo wrestling shirt.

John Danaher: One of the best BJJ coaches in the world. Coached current no gi BJJ superstar Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon, and Nicky Ryan (Gordon Ryan’s brother). If you have the money buy at least one of his courses (not an affiliate link). In the future when I have time I may review one of his bundle packages. Wikipedia.

The Gracie family: The Gracies are like the Michael Jordans of the BJJ world. They are polarizing as well. The patriach, Helio Gracie, helped popularize the sport as well as played a role in developing the MMA. Wikipedia.

Gordon Ryan: Joe Rogan has high praise for Gordon. Wikipedia.

Nic Gregoriades: Wrote The Blackbelt Blueprint which is a good read. In the future I may do an indepth review but a short review will have to suffice. Nic covers how to learn BJJ, concepts to practice when rolling, cross training other sports, tournament advice, and more.

Mastering the 21 Immutable Principles of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by Paulo Guillobel. If you only had to read one book, in my opinion this would be the one. Paulo uses analogies to make the learning process efficient. This is a book you can flip over after your rolls to see what you can improve.

JohnThomasBJJ: Youtube personality with a lot of excellent content. Example: Advice I Wish I Had as a White Belt. Very insightful comment I found on that video:

Summary:

- Focus on learning, not submission

- Even if you lose or got submitted you always are going to have a good day if you focus on learning

- Break BJJ down into specific techniques and not general concepts

- Find a partner that you can grow with

- Use the wealth of free online content online

Other interesting youtubers: chewjitsu, jordan teaches jiu jitsu.

With books, videos in my opinion are far superior for displaying technique. I don’t think you can learn technique from just looking at pictures.

Must have equipment

Rash guard, mouth guard, knee pads, ear protection (if you don’t want cauliflower ears), flip flops. I initially thought rash guards were a waste of money but when you get your skin dragged against the mat you will buy a rash guard. I also recommend flip flops because walking around barefoot in the changing rooms and off the mat is a huge no-no. That’s how bacteria gets on the mats.

Pros like Nic Gregoriades and Jeff Glover swear by the balance ball and I’m personally on the fence about recommending it. I’ve used the balance ball and it seems to improve my top balance. I have also asked people in my gym about their opinions about it and I have gotten mixed responses. I advise you to try out the balance ball for balance and guard passing.

As a beginner you need to be aware of skin infections. Several reasons for getting an infection include rolling with people who aren’t clean and the mats aren’t clean. If you want, you can look into Defense soaps, which is a type of soap specifically made for martial arts. I haven’t used it and the worst skin condition I got was getting mat burn. There’s approximately a 4 hour window for taking a shower. I wish I could find the source to that bit of information but can’t.