Red Flags of a Bad Jiu-Jitsu School

Nowadays, finding a quality Jiu-Jitsu school that fits your goals isn't hard to find.

There's nearly a dozen or so schools and academies in every city, and learning Jiu-Jitsu has never been accessible.

Even still, there may be times where the school you're attending... OR the one you're considering may not be all it's cracked up to be!

[mattc]

Red flag: instructor wears gloves and an ear piece, doesn't roll live, thinks there's a way to survive in detroit

[werthermarciales]

This video is primarily geared towards how a beginner can determine whether they're receiving legitimate instruction, but another big red flag is if the school's culture prioritizes winning exchanges in training over the safety of your training partner

[geronimojiujitsu]

Well said, I agree with this 100%. Lack of a confident head instructor is a major red flag. When there is multiple blackbelts that DO NOT TEACH but they have there blue and purples running the whole program, id second guess that school. People are not paying for students instruction. They are paying for the head instructors time. NOT his 2 - 3 year students.

[macleod]

Big fan of no belt tests. Just give them a belt when they earn it.

[ConsciousEntitySound]

"There is no one person in Jiu Jitsu that has a complete knowledge of everything that is out there"

John Danaher: *Hold my beer*

[Kolohe]

I've been with Gracie Barra for 6 years going on 7 and we love cross training, we love it when people share the knowledge. And yes, it's a huge red flag if your professor or black belt doesn't roll. We have a black belt that's 63 years old and he rolls with everyone no matter if you sub him once or one hundred times dude keeps the pressure on. And much respect to this video you hit on all points.

[FightingPost]

My professor is 70. He still rolls with us and kicks our butts 🙌🏾

[sarahpak]

I trained at a Kung Fu school, they found out I was taking Jiu Jitsu classes and in front of everyone, the Sifu called me out and said I’m not allowed to do Jiu Jitsu since I’m training Kung Fu. He said it was “disrespectful” 😂 I very diplomatically quit and kept going to Jiu Jitsu…. BYE 😘 looking back, I’m pretty sure it was a cult lol, but I did not drink the cool-aid

[mikegold]

I used to train at a nightmare school. Looking back it’s hilarious that I stayed as long as I did. The instructor was legit, but he should never be a coach. He let little kids into the adult class so all his attention was focused on kids, the gym was filthy, and I mean gross filthy. Your feet would be black after training because the Matt is dirty, and there was always big clumps of hair on the Matt, plus trash and bottles all over the gym, but to top it off they even had a rat problem. One time a rat ran across the Matt’s. Our highest ranked guys were blue belts who barely trained and skillset wise were white belts. He pretty much handed out belts to certain guys so the gym looked better than it was. Without being cocky I beat everybody who was there. I wasn’t tapped in years. I started cross training and he was happy with it, but then he got mad because he saw how much I enjoyed the other gyms. I finally switched because the competition at the new gym was way better, and the gym was actually clean. My old gym was just awful and I normally wouldn’t trash on them but the coach talks bad on everybody who ever left. I tried going back to talk because I still had friends who went there. I asked about popping in whenever I could and I’d help the guys out and give them rolls, and he said sure but I have to pay a Matt fee. I knew this guy for 7 years and he was going to charge me to roll with children and white belts. He just treated me like a stranger after I left. But my new gym is amazing and I’m finally getting good training.

[donrahstar]

Coach is the first one on the mat last off. A good coach still learns something from every experience on a mat

[InGrindWeCrust]

I agree with the no cross-training 90%. The other 10% of the time, it's inexperienced students confusing themselves because they're learning too many ways to skin the cat before understanding why, and make it more challenging to teach them.

[DoggosAndJiuJitsu]

I didn’t realize how lucky I was. I gotta disagree with belt tests in general. Like you said, an instructor should know their students.

[roballister]

i'm a 4 stripe white at a Gracie Barra and been training for 2 years. i'm still being kept at a white. but i don't mind. bc here and there on Sundays I'll walk into an open mat at a different school, and I've legit rolled purples, browns, and even black belts. Just last week, I rolled a purple in and got a submission in 10 seconds. And it's true, you do get stares as a visitor if you're a blue/white getting submissions on browns and black belts. Now, I'm happy where I'm at lol.

[daikatana]

You sound like a reasonable man, I wish we had a school like you up here. I quit BJJ for one of the red flag reasons you stated, plus it is cost-prohibitive in my neck of the woods. Thank you for this excellent video, God bless.

[pp]

I’ve been training for nine years consistently. You did a great job of explaining that.

[bigtimepimpin]

Great info. Things I learned... Brazilian instructors are all the world champion, but watch out if the world champion instructor NEVER teaches the class, his students do. The class is an hour long but in the first 30 minutes they've only done calisthenics etc. This was the case with Gracie Barra. And the instructor doesn't look at you roll because they are fucking off on their cell phone.

[randyupladek]

Great advice! I’m honored to be Team Renzo Gracie since 2005 and I’ve seen every walk of life and skill level get welcomed and humbled . 👍

[specksbrudda]

My largest issue was a massive kid like feel. They where huge on the kiddies class, which was fine, but I noticed it creep into the teaching. trained there fir a year, and it was non stop gi chokes, no wrestling work, and just really corny work. started a new Schoo, and wow was that a shock.

[Torpedoman]

So glad that my gym is a family and we don’t have any of these problems stated in the video!

[sergiothespanishnightmare]

If you don't feel comfortable in the place and you don't arrive to your personal goals and expectations and beside the people around you don't feel very well and the ambience is not familiar for you (especially if you wanna be a competitor), go out from that place, the life is very short for to waste your time in a place that is not for you, your money and especially your time matters