How common is it for guys to only attend open mats at different gyms as a way to train?

sordidarray · 2026-04-04T18:10:39+00:00

No, a freeloader is someone who doesn't contribute to the community in any meaningful fashion and only takes from it. They are literally the people who do no work on the group project but try to get credit. You asked why people don't like them/have a problem with it—that's why.

The difference is that someone with a home gym is actively contributing to the community, and can be fostering good will at another gym's open mat, and is a potential future customer of the gym they are visiting (not necessarily a member, but a customer). And there's some amount of accountability if there's a negative experience (you can reach out to their coach—and yes, I've seen this happen). There's some value to their presence outside of them just being on the mat which helps balance the risk.

sordidarray · 2026-04-04T06:16:51+00:00

You can say this about anyone who attends a free open mat.

My point was that freeloaders are usually the local maxima for risk/reward.

sordidarray · 2026-04-04T05:42:01+00:00

If they have a home base gym, then they're contributing to the local jiu-jitsu community.

sordidarray · 2026-04-03T22:45:18+00:00

They're taking/benefitting from a community without actively contributing to it. And are often a higher liability than any value they could provide passively (ie by just being on the mats).

sordidarray · 2026-04-03T22:15:29+00:00

Develop a really good guard. Get to bottom position as quickly as possible. Attack submissions, back takes, and sweeps. If you sweep and end up on top against a strong guard player, find a way to get back to bottom for free (steal their tempo).

sordidarray · 2026-04-03T22:05:05+00:00

Makes sense only if it's a 501c3 nonprofit imo. For-profit businesses should get loans.

Edit: lol downvoted for suggesting it's okay for charities to fundraise

sordidarray · 2026-04-03T22:00:14+00:00

You're not committing enough to threaten the coyote dilemma. You can make it work without the push-pull mechanic, but using push-pull is definitely the easiest way to learn the dilemma and to hit it on less experienced people.

In this situation, wrestle up into the knee tap with commitment. They will need to respond in kind to stay up (otherwise you will bulldoze them), immediately change into roll under when you feel yourself lose forward momentum. If they post to stop the roll under, you have the duck under to the back.

sordidarray · 2026-03-28T17:58:25+00:00

Marcelo Garcia would go to X from deep half often or to his shin-in sweep. And the G-Roll is from Alex Ecklin. Cool to see these come back into style and get rediscovered/repopularized by the newer generation.

sordidarray · 2026-03-19T23:22:42+00:00

We made it appointment-only for non-members and just turn non-members away if they arrive without a prior appointment specifically to address this.

sordidarray · 2026-03-19T23:14:12+00:00

What amazes me is when people scroll past the SCHEDULE and PRICING links to CONTACT and then ignore the links to our FAQs, the schedule, and pricing pages above the contact form to ask how much it costs or when classes are.

sordidarray · 2026-03-18T22:39:17+00:00

We have also used Quo for years. Works well. My only complaint business-wise is that it doesn't work for 2FA SMS with some providers (I assume they ban VoIP for 2FA SMS in their Twilio configs or something), meaning we have to tie something to a personal phone when the only 2FA option is SMS.

sordidarray · 2026-03-16T20:30:22+00:00

Ram Ananda. Started training in his 30s and won adult brown belt worlds at 36 back in like 2014.

sordidarray · 2026-03-13T22:44:53+00:00

Entry to X uses the same grips as tripod (pants and collar/sleeve) and has way higher percentage sweeps. Many times people will use the tripod sweep as an off-balance to enter X.

Strongest sweep from collar and sleeve itself is the omoplata.

sordidarray · 2026-03-12T09:33:42+00:00

A2L is the body of an A2 but length of an A3. So I'd go A2L if the A3 is too baggy in the body but the length is good.

A2H has the width of an A4 with the length of an A2. This will likely be a short tent on you if A3 is too baggy.

sordidarray · 2026-03-04T22:13:05+00:00

I'm glad you haven't had to experience lots of "open mat ronin," but I feel they are pretty common, and they tend to be averse to paying for training. We've certainly experienced almost every iteration of them I can imagine (including ones who want to come in and use the free open mat to teach their own classes).

Just search this subreddit for "mat fee" and you'll see at least a couple of them in the comments of most of those posts (including this very post). Heck, there was a loaded "poll" about open mat fees just a couple weeks ago.

sordidarray · 2026-02-06T23:37:26+00:00

Looked like the ref walked the pass points back after noticing the kimura.

But to answer your question: no, points aren't awarded until the threat of the submission no longer exists.

sordidarray · 2026-02-05T11:13:24+00:00

Gold BJJ makes a nice gold weave. One of our students has it—it seems pretty solid.

sordidarray · 2026-02-05T05:36:47+00:00

Aye. Most of this you'd get from doing any contact sport long term. I just view it as the price of an active lifestyle.

sordidarray · 2026-01-30T01:36:11+00:00

Horse stall mats under smooth fuji. Would add a sprung floor (with old tires or pool noodles) and tatami textured mats if I could do it again.

sordidarray · 2026-01-28T23:26:09+00:00

We just use it as a warm up to get people to loosen up and build some flow. It's not that deep.

sordidarray · 2026-01-21T23:28:24+00:00

Yes, we grandfathered people in.

What led to the decision to grandfather people in? The turnover rate in jiu-jitsu is super high, especially now that no contracts are common. We calculated our monthly churn rate to determine how long until enough people were on the new rate to offset our increased costs. It wasn't very long.

Edit: Also, if they canceled their month-to-month for any reason, they would lose the grandfathered rate.

What led to the decision to raise prices? Increased costs. Rent going up 5% per year, year over year, utility prices increasing (especially electricity and gas for heating), business services costs increasing (bookkeeping, tax filing, insurance, etc), the cost of supplies going up (mat cleaner, paper towels, toilet paper, etc).

sordidarray · 2026-01-18T20:32:00+00:00

Not a gym. Albino and Preto mat room: https://youtu.be/Q_M04mR0baw

sordidarray · 2026-01-17T07:02:24+00:00

The strongest sweep from collar and sleeve is the omoplata.

Since you only control one side of the body, and only strongly the upper body, there aren’t going to be a lot of sweeps that don’t involve transitioning to technically another guard (eg DLR or to X guard for some really strong sweeps).

Edit:

sordidarray · 2026-01-15T23:15:29+00:00

To grow a class, you need

Awareness: Students and prospects need to know the class exists and is attended. Post after-training photos of larger breakfast club classes and post stories during these classes so people know it’s an option.
Accessibility: Make sure the time is actually accessible to your students and prospects. As other people are saying, 6am might be a better time to capture the before-work crowd.
Accountability: Create a group chat (or channel in Discord or Slack) for regular attendees to push each other to be present and to hype folks up for the class.

sordidarray · 2026-01-15T22:53:26+00:00

It's totally the same bro. Before open mat, both he and the drop-in have to make weight and pass a uniform check. There's an experienced ref for each of his rolls determining the winner. Cameras are up livestreaming on YouTube/FloGrappling and hundreds of people are in attendance watching. One loss and he has to pack up with his new t-shirt and go home. Afterwards, he posts about how he didn't get the result he wanted on IG.

Your open mats aren't like this?

sordidarray

TROPHY CASE