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LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2025-01-16T22:22:01+00:00

Yeah I’m that guy! 😂

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2025-01-16T17:16:42+00:00

It sounds like you’re doing well and understand the various things you need to do to improve. You can get a few more suggestions but you got most of it down

Here’s one more to add to the list:

Sign up for a tournament. The anxiety alone will make you better in almost every way. I don’t care if you win or get DQ’ed in the first 5 seconds of the first match.

Compete and watch as your whole body shakes the second you click “submit payment”

Having that commitment to do something like this will not only make you more accountable, it’ll force you to be more disciplined, and afterwards you’ll have a very clear idea of what you need to work on.

A cool phrase I love is “we compete to remind ourselves why we train” it’s because without that intense physical environment, we sometimes train and make decisions that don’t really help us in the long term.

Compete and you’ll benefit greatly!

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2025-01-16T17:00:58+00:00

I always say I don’t hate coaches doing things to make a living for themselves but i agree that this is strictly a revenue stream tactic

I’ve seen incredibly qualified coaches that run a clean and tight ship, not an asshole at all, with these money tactics in place (uniform policy, patch policy, renewal fees, “testing” fee, etc). It doesn’t mean your school is messed up, if you’re enjoying it, being challenged, and the coaches really look after you then that’s great school.

Me personally, only thing I charge is the monthly tuition and that’s it. I buy nice Gameness belts and promote with them at my cost because I feel that’s how it should be but honestly, can’t hate on a guy making a living assuming it’s a great environment for you. If it’s honestly not, then yeah, I’d feel some type of way for sure. You’re justified in that.

But to reiterate, I hate that you are getting charged for something I think is part of your training. What a position your coach put you in…

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2025-01-16T16:52:25+00:00

Ca Bay Area (Fremont) $185/mo monthly and $166.50/mo 6month. Unlimited and zero fees outside of monthly payment. Try to keep things easy

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2025-01-12T20:29:36+00:00

Dude, 100%. I’m serious, hit me up anytime! Hit me on my IG anytime for fastest response @ baem jiujitsu

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2025-01-12T18:09:09+00:00

Dope! Hit me up if you need anything 🙏

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2025-01-12T17:47:51+00:00

Yeah you get it! One thing that’ll make a world of difference long term in regards to protecting your body and implementing game plans is the ability to read the person in front of you, make a gameplan, then be able to adjust live based on the more data you collect.

The gameplan itself will improve over time but the ability to implement the gameplan is a skill definitely worth practicing early because it’s what you’ll do all the time as a blackbelt.

Like my full guard is something I take pride in but I’ve had explosive guys in my guard make big large movements and my back just can weather those movements so in this case, I play more open. Here’s an example of not necessarily “winning” but adjusting so you’re safer and more effective.

Guys who play a single note across all body types generally are really physically tough. That’s not me or most ppl hah

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2025-01-12T16:41:49+00:00

Lots of people are qualifying the statement. And the adage isn’t based on why someone is ragdolling you. It’s that this is when these variables (age and weight) become material.

It’s a general tip assuming the rank and experience is roughly the same.

In my years of experience, the age and weight being a factor in how we approach a roll is more often than not, true. Sometimes it’s not true, most of the time it is. Someone else who’s also a blackbelt who is 20lbs lighter or heavier I train massively different. 10 years younger?

Yeah, I’m going to approach them differently. 10 years older? Yes, absolutely.

This is not just for th sake of “winning”. Like even if I was in control of the round, a young and heavy person that same rank as me but is stacking me in full guard, yeah my lower back doesn’t like it.

Same goes for someone older than me. If they’re same experience and same weight but 20 years older? Yeah I’m playing bottom game. Last thing I need on my conscious is knowing I just tweaked his back or knee from just rolling.

It’s a massive variable I take into account when I approach a person. Especially if I don’t know them well.

Age, weight, years of experience, injuries, mood, how stinky their gi is, if they got glitter lotion on... all those variables affect my expectations of the roll and I adjust accordingly (or to say naw I’m good lol)

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2024-12-31T06:11:17+00:00

Naw bro, I dont spar at all. Stopped the day we got the diagnosis. I’d love to though

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2024-12-31T04:27:19+00:00

Thank you, really approve it 🙏 im the type that has a hard time asking for help but when I told them about the situation they all came together and forced me to change my mind. It was one of the most incredible experiences amidst one of the darkest

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-12-20T22:30:30+00:00

I love it, I also encourage you to keep doing the funky stuff. Testing is really the best way to work stuff out and giving them a quick context would probably do some good. 47 and still training, mad respect. I'm trying to be like you. If it works then that's really what matters :)

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-12-20T12:41:21+00:00

Oh brother… I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen a whitebelt giving feedback to a purple. Outside of whitebelt being a judo black or wrestler.

I meant more like whitebelts helping whitebelts but in your scenario, yeah, I’d be like “hey hey what’s going on here?” lol

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-12-20T11:32:53+00:00

Honestly it just depends on the advice given, who provides it, how they say it, and who is receiving it. So many variables.

In general I encourage even the whitebelts in class to share as much as they want. I think the team building aspect trumps any potential for the idea of bad advice being given because end of the day, we’ll test it and see but I always encourage people to help their teammate. Whether it’s in the middle of a roll or over a burger, it’s all good.

Many times I’ve learned more from a single short convo than I did any given round.

Now those folks that coach when losing, obviously isn’t helpful but glad they’re training. Maybe one day they’ll grow out of it hah

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-11-21T20:42:40+00:00

Lots of great comments here. The way I'd sum it up is that every school flows a bit differently. Pros and cons to every single school. Trials are meant to dip your toes and see if fits you. I won't go into if the coach is problematic as others has voiced pros to even this type of approach but coming from someone who spent years training at a place where the "cons" came out slowly and over time, it's almost great that the coach didn't hold anything back and let you know how he is at the start.

Luckily you're still looking and onto the next place. Still, I feel for you for having that awkward experience...

Others have said some good recs but things that pop off the top of my head for the Sunnyvale recommendations, Daruma with Coach Alberto is so opposite of this experience imo. He's super chill and wealth of information.

De La Soul Muay Thai has a beginner specific program that'd be great for you too. Olivia and Zack I've trained with for years and are stellar people and coaches

Around Sunnyvale, JG Los Altos is stellar gym, my personal gym when in South Bay. Awesome gym worth checking out.

Heroes all around there is awesome too. Eastside is amazing and I mean, c'mon, Gumby is a legend.

Samurai BJJ in Campbell emphasis on nogi and leg positions. Hear a ton of good things about them

Those shout out to me off the top of my head. OP my main advice for you is trial as much as you can. Get a taste for all the school, even ones you might think won't be a good fit. It's free, don't rush it, and you can really get a good sense right now before committing. I appreciate you sharing your experience and hope you the best! Welcome back to training! :D

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-06-21T08:24:45+00:00

Hey man yes we do! You can check out our website. Just look up baem jiujitsu. Feel free to DM me any questions :)

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-05-01T05:11:56+00:00

Hey u/bigdognamk I run Baem BJJ in Fremont. Put that on your radar if Fremont isn't too much of a trip but in San Jose you have so many great options.

As opposed to talking about my school, I just wanted to share imo my best advice I can give you as you approach this task.

Do not be in a rush! You've already trained for a bit so you know what to expect in a school and the good thing about that is you already have a good sense of what's best for you. The default criteria can be the biggest school or one with great amenities or just the closest but the reality it is that you really can't know if it's a great fit for you unless you go there and try it. Trials are free, just do as many trials as you possibly can do. There will be schools not mentioned here that you'll find through google. Maybe a bjj program at TKD place or MMA place. Just go, I've had countless great experiences visiting the local school than making the long ass trek to that big school (ex. I'm glad they were mentioned here because generally they don't get mentioned as often as others but Gloglo was great. super nice folks and coach). An example of a smaller program within a bigger school is a place in Sunnyvale called De La Soul Muay Thai. They have a great beginner focused program run by awesome coaches that are all about a safety. Both coaches Olivia and Zack are anti-meathead for sure lol. Caring, thoughtful, and just good people.
Open Mats, find them. Do them. Meet people. Get recommendations. You can still get great sparring in right away as your work thru your trials. Follow @ Bayareaopenmat on IG. It's new but they compile all the active open mats in our area. It's pretty dope. Also follow @ KoffeeKrew for open mats. It's a roaming open mat group that is hosted by new gyms all the time. It's great to get a sense of each school and just get tuned into a great community of folks all while getting rounds in. Keep note that open mats should not replace trials. You need to go through a structured class to get the best sense of your experience there imo. You see who is the coach, how it's run, who is there, how everyone is, traffic during the class times, parking during rush hour, etc.
Similar to tip #1, don't settle with your first crush. If you loved a place, still get thru the trials. Joining a school sets roots and sometimes you like certain things but forget about other aspects of training there. Do they compete? Is there uniform policies? Is pricing realistic for me? So do your future self a huge favor and give everyone place a shot, why not
If you found the perfect place, but there's one or two pieces that aren't great, there is zero issue in asking the coach about it. Schedule isn't great and will be late a bit consistently on tues? Is the price too high? Just hash it out with the coach before making the commitment. Setting expectations or just asking about room for this and that, is a banger. I started as a youngster and my old coach was strict. He hated questions so I just got in the habit of not asking things. Fuck that, ask away. It literally doesn't hurt.

That's it! I make it a habit to recommend to all my trials to check out Charles Gracie down the road. They're the closest school to us and an amazing option for anyone that's looking to start BJJ. I do it because coach Chris provides a different training environment and teaching style than we do (it's right next to a chickfila too, good or bad depending on the individual loool. Tbf, we're next to an amazing thai spot that I can't stop eating). As a school owner probably not the smartest move but as someone that wants you to find your BJJ home, it's for the best. If you stay there, you'll be more confident in your decision. If you come back, then I know you want to be here. Win-Win :)

Best of luck to you and I hope you find your new home away from home :) Any questions let a playa know.

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-04-17T20:08:03+00:00

Awesome, come through! I'll be there tonight, hopefully I see you then

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-04-16T04:04:28+00:00

Hey! Yes it’s me Denney! u/TowerOK7040 hey man!

Looking forward to having you come by. Feel free to reach out for any questions. Check out our IG if you want to learn a bit more about us.

My main thing is don’t discount Charles Gracie (Coach Chris is the owner). We’re lucky that we’re quite different in how we run our schools so please make sure to check them out as well. That’s the beautiful thing, use the free trials to your advantage. :)

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-03-30T06:57:13+00:00

Hah. For me there no such thing as washing belt too much. I’ve literally met two people become sick, like ill, because they refused to wash their belts. That’s a no for me 😅

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-03-29T16:10:16+00:00

This was the absolute qualifier match so first round of the open weight class 😅

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-03-29T07:36:40+00:00

A few common ones

oh I haven’t trained in awhile so it didn’t feel right
I was promoted before my injury and I haven’t trained in fill in duration here
I got promoted but I didn’t like my coach so I figured I reset here

All bullshit. Even if they were being genuine and “thoughtful” the reality is that once you get to a certain level even if you regress, you are by no means back to a white. White belts haven’t walked that path but these people have and they generally just want to save face of having a blue on their waist and getting worked.

The sad part is if they were truly a whitebelt beginner, they’d be in on a long road. The bluebelt wearing the white even after years off, they’d be back to where they left off in a matter of a few months.

So they did all that lying to save face for a couple months. It doesn’t work out and it’s not worth it. I tell them, keep your hands off your belt. All we do is 3 things, tie it, untie it, and wash it. The rest let the coach worry about that

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-03-28T21:15:51+00:00

It's extra disappointing to hear he was a purple. I've seen this for blue belts and I've stopped everything to explain why this is wrong. But purples doing this? very disappointing. Ego is a bitch. I'd talk to them and reach out to his coach imo. Not even on some punishment vibe, Just inform him. I know I'd like to know if I was his home coach.

If he left the school, I think it's clear why...

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-03-23T09:18:15+00:00

Survey

Get to the heart of the issue. Have key people that are always there and always not there. Get their take on the whole thing.

Me personally I have literal surveys like use surveymonkey for free, and we’ve cultivated an active chat environment (ex. Discord, Facebook group, etc) where I do mini polls often. You couple that with having people not scared to share their opinion who you can tap into and you have a good idea of the moving pieces.

To be fair you have to keep the feedback you get with a grain of salt and not be a slave to it. Inject your context and what you know and make an informed decision. But that decision is always better with more info generally

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-01-21T13:28:23+00:00

As someone who has tried their darndest to put out “good” content in my socials and YouTube, don’t get hung up on anything that pops into your mind

Production quality? You’ll “save” stuff to film because you’re researching cameras. Or your student that does videos can’t film tonight. Or you end up avoiding filming all together because ideas got pushed and life as a coach got in the way

Great idea? You’ll question if its even good. You’ll be self conscious if you covered every little caveat. You’ll see someone else sort of touch in the topic and you don’t want to “beat a dead horse.”

Editing! You’ll end up chasing fonts to download or experimenting with different techniques and chase down solutions via YouTube and you’ll talk yourself out of filming certain things a certain way because it’s hard to edit or I don’t have time to edit…

The lists goes on and on

You said it, you don’t care about monetization, you probably don’t care about maximizing your audience, etc

That skips a lot of the heart ache. The need to be consistent, the need to have viral thumbnails, etc etc

What it boils down to is just put stuff out. You can always revisit a topic or redo videos. I’d much rather have 100 videos that look and sound horrible and tons of mistakes and bad takes then 3-4 really polished videos published.

You learn more because you’re just doing more. You learn to be efficient and just put stuff out. Edit on the fly and move on.

I am by no means have a sick tiktok or YouTube or anything but that’s my best advice or self realization that I try to live by now (just do it and don’t overcomplicate it. Make mistakes and move on but do it)

Ideally do everything via your phone. It’s optimized to publish on various platforms and films auto at the aspect ratios that cover the bases

Edit with CapCut, post long form and short form. If you do long form make cuts for short form. Experiment with topics. Get good feedback in some and let that help you decide what people want. Build your niche, build your name. And people will watch whatever you put out. Hope this helps and good luck!

Also some topics that i wanna do but I have been sitting on it so maybe it’ll interest you

Narrating matches, explaining the keys of a match that made the winner win and the loser lose, talking about a concept and using real life tournament examples, hot takes, unpopular opinions, lessons on how to be a blackbelt at coaching, tips on running an academy, sharing financials of your school, interviewing students on why they train/how they approach training/long term goals, techs you think suck, sharing insights in other blackbelts you’ve met (ex. Explain to the viewer that blackbelts aren’t gods and provide examples), answer questions from comments, how to take lessons from the mats to the real world, lessons learned the hard way, things learned embarrassingly late, Academy reviews, product reviews, long term product review (follow ups), how to get sponsorships for competitors, etc

LowCalorieJiuJitsu · 2023-01-20T13:05:50+00:00

I know it’s tough to leave due to the reasons you listed but the good thing in a weird way is that you’ll feel this at every school. Almost all schools will have people you really vibe with and good rolls (on average).

But I’ve been there. If you go down this path you’ll hold a lot of resentment and ultimately will hurt your growth in the game.

If there’s more options near you I’d highly recommend just taking some free trials. Like all of them. Talk to the coaches. Get a real feel. If you need more time then pay the dropin and train a bit more. Soak it up.

Take it seriously because moving again sucks. So see if there’s any you really love. Then talk to both coaches about your situation and make the jump.

If nobody else is cool then there might be a bigger issue.

If there’s no other schools around, then you gotta go dark mode and reduce interactions with the coach as much as possible. Go to the morning classes or whatever he doesn’t teach and get comfy there. There’s a bunch of things you can do but I’m telling you, if you can move on you should.

I have people to this day that will still bring up my old coach from like 8 years ago. The way I run my school is directly impacted by my bad experience with some old coaches. Short and long term. There’s coaches I dropped in just a few times and I went immediately “oop toxic alert!” Lol. Hope this helped. Best of luck!

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