1) Clean gi/nogi uniform.
a. Your uniform should be washed after every class without exception. Not washing your uniform increases the risk of skin infections for both yourself and other members of the gym. Always shower and wash your uniform after each training session.
2) No shoes/slippers on the mat.
a. Shoes are not to be worn on the mats, if you step on the mat with shoes on you are spreading bacteria onto the mats which again increases the risk of skin infections.
b. Only barefoot allowed on the mats.
3) Put shoes/slippers on when going to the toilet.
a. Shoes must be worn to the toilet areas. If you go to the toilets barefooted, then onto the mats, this increases the risk of skin infections. Socks are not suitable footwear for the toilets, shoes must be worn.
4) Skin infections.
a. If you have a skin infection you will not be able to train until it clears up. If everyone follows rules 1 – 3 the risk of infections is very low.
5) Nails should be kept short and filed.
a. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a contact sport so long sharp nails increase the risk of causing scratches and cuts on teammates.
6) Bring the correct sports gear.
a. For gi classes: you can borrow a gi for your first couple of classes until you decide BJJ is the sport for you, but you are expected to provide your own gi after this. You can provide your own or we sell gi’s at the gym itself.
b. For nogi classes:
i. Tops: Sports tops/Rashguards are ideal. Normal t-shirts are fine for first couple of classes.
ii. Bottom: Shorts/leggings/spats with no zips. No gi bottoms for nogi.
7) Tapping
a. If you want anything to stop in jiu jitsu, just tap. Say tap, tap the mat, ideally tap directly onto your opponent’s body so they can feel it and they will stop whatever they are doing, you do everyone else the same courtesy if they tap.
8) Safety when sparring
a. Submissions should be applied in a controlled way, it is their responsibility to tap but you need to give them time. Be aware of your surroundings, don’t roll into other grapplers, and don’t roll off the mat. Always try to protect your training partners by using the full mat space available.
b. There is no striking in BJJ, this includes slamming (picking people up off the ground and slamming them into the mat).
9) Don’t spar like a maniac
a. If you have to use so much strength and energy on a teammate in live sparing then you are not being efficient with your technique. This will likely be the case in the first few sessions as a beginner but we as coaches will hope to ensure that we provide students with as much techniques and details over time to prevent this for happening.
b. The gym will have a range of weight classes with both men and women training. We will do our best to match up students with appropriate rounds but in the instance there is a big weight and strength discrepancy, it is on the heavier student to be responsible in not injuring an opponent
c. We as coaches value learning and trying techniques over just trying to win in training sessions. Competition is our goal to win.
10) Sparing from standing
a. If you are sparring from standing, there should be plenty of space without any ground sparring going on near you. When standing, it is your responsibility to protect the people around you from injury. This means stopping and moving into free space when other people are too close. If your takedown would cause you or your partner to land on another participant, then do not do the takedown!
11) Deference (ground sparring)
If you’re rolling too close to another pair and there isn’t an easy space to move into then you defer to the highest grade (lower grades move away and find a new space).