Most parents who send their children to martial art classes usually have very little experience in the martial arts themselves. This means that the first thing that comes to mind for them is ‘is this safe for my child?’

Below is just some friendly advice. Each suggestion varies from case to case, but if you speak to a great number of people in jiu-jitsu, they will tell you that their injuries occurred because of these reasons. If you avoid certain situations in jiu-jitsu because you don’t want to get injured, it doesn’t make you a ‘chicken’ or a coward....

Technique does not develop itself. Neither is it downloaded into your brain and muscles when you practice it only five times. Repetition is the key to your brain and body remembering anything. There have been studies stating that to be an expert in any field, you must dedicate one thousand hours to it.

No one can deny the gratifying results that BJJ produces for its practitioners. At first, people hesitate because they are either uncomfortable with the full contact factor or they don’t believe it will really help them get in shape.

Like them or not, these rules are out there. Not every gym abides by all of them, but you may find traces of at least one of these rules in your academy.

In this world, money is the means to most things and Jiu-Jitsu is not an exception. You need money to train and jiu-jitsu is not particularly cheap, especially for younger practitioners and students.

The biggest question associated with tournaments is how often one should compete. Thought processes range from one extreme to the other, such as “it is not necessary to ever compete in your life” or “perhaps once is good, just to know what it feels like,” to “if you don’t compete you’ll never get your next belt.” So, what is the...

On one hand, we have practitioners who argue that competitions are necessary for improvement and awarding your next belt, whatever belt that may be. On the other side, you have people who argue that although competitions can help your game, they are not essential to your jiu-jitsu journey. So what is the truth?