I was thinking the other day about how a certain percentage of BJJ practitioners end up changing schools. There are a handful of reasons why that happens. It’s not an everyday occurence though.

We’ve touched on how many people have changed their Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy in older BJJ Polls, but today’s poll is a little different twist. For many of us where we started our BJJ journey is a bit like being born – you look back and you have the parents you do because you have the parents you have! Many of us did not do a ton of research before beginning BJJ. We just walked in to the nearest (or only) school and got hooked. And so there we are.

But at some point in our BJJ careers, we have the chance and information to reflect and see that there might be more BJJ around than we knew about, and opportunities for different or better training environments. As such, what about you? If you could turn back time and start training jiu-jitsu somewhere else, would you change things?

Blas wrote in to us here at The FightWorks Podcast, saying:

I asked a question to my former Jiu Jitsu Coach in Texas if he considered himself a Martial Artist.  Much to my surprise he said no…he said that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is the Anti-Martial Art and thus doesn’t consider himself to be a Martial Artist.  This is coming from a black belt.  So I pose a question for a toll possibly.  How many of you BJJ players out there consider yourself to be a Martial Artist?  I’d be curious to see the answer. 
 
Regards,
 
Blas

So what about you? You train Brazilian jiu-jitsu right? And do you think of yourself as a martial artist? Let us know by voting in the poll above and feel free to leave us a comment as well.

This week’s poll came to us from Jason (if anyone’s suggested it in the past and it slipped my mind, I apologize). This is a very interesting poll idea and gets to the heart of many debates in our jiu-jitsu community. Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a constantly evolving set of techniques and as time goes on, there are more techniques and things to focus on when we train jiu-jitsu but the same number of hours in a day. So some things will likely be set aside along the way.

Many have argued that self defense – the fundamental reason for Brazilian jiu-jitsu – has been abandoned in the average BJJ school in favor of techniques and moves that are only worthwhile in a BJJ tournament. Perhaps the most vocal in this belief is the crew at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, California, lead by Helio Gracie’s eldest son Rorion Gracie.

Please don’t over-think this and say, “all the techniques I learn are self defense techniques because you never know, that crazy flying coconut-plata submission I just saw on YouTube could work in a street fight!” When I say “basic self-defense techniques”, you know which ones I’m speaking about.

As always, leave your comments on this below after voting!

You know that one of our favorite sources of poll questions are you, The Mighty 600,000. We recently received a voicemail from a listener to the show who said:

Hi, this is Josh from Pasadena and I’ve got a poll suggestion. It goes, “How much sportive aspects of jiu-jitsu cross over into street self-defense situations percentage-wise?” …It’s a very interesting question. It’s a very big debate and I think a lot of people would like to vote on something like that.

Cohost Dan and I agree that this is indeed a very important question. It cuts to the heart of what Brazilian jiu-jitsu is, right? We tweaked the wording of the suggestion just a little bit and came up with “What Percentage of Sport Jiu-Jitsu Techniques Are Street or Self Defense Applicable?” Even if the poll isn’t perfectly crafted it’s a starting point for conversation on this important topic.

So please vote in the poll by letting us know which option most closely reflects how much you think sport jiu-jitsu will work in a self defense situation. And feel free to leave a comment too to explain how you made your choice!

This Brazilian jiu-jitsu poll came to us courtesy of one of the listeners to our BJJ radio show Aaron! Aaron contacted us and said:

Like most of the Mighty 600K I’m addicted to BJJ and try to get to as many classes as possible. However, family commitments (wife and two young kids) and night BJJ classes often create a logistical nightmare for me. Thankfully, I still manage to get to a few classes a week, but classes before work or even at lunch would allow me to get in much more training. I was wondering how common this is with other clubs…

He went on to suggest we explore what most jiu-jitsu school’s schedules look like using the above options. Thank you for the poll idea Aaron!

This week’s BJJ Poll comes to us from David, one of the Mighty 600,000. He writes,

Hi Caleb,

I tore my rotator cuff last October and had subsequent surgery in December.  After a grueling rehab I am finally back on the mat. I am able to use both arms while practicing positions but I have to stuff my arm in my belt when I roll.  It’s extremely frustrating but it forced me to look at jiujitsu in another perspective and I am back on the mat. I would be interested in knowing how others have dealt with their injuries and subsequent return to the mat.

Thank you for the poll idea David!

Make sure you let us know about how you cope with a jiu-jitsu injury by voting in the poll and leaving a comment on this post!

What is your experience like at your BJJ academy? Do you have to ask permission to train with higher belts? What’s that like? Vote and let us know in the comments section below too!

Another excellent poll suggestion from Ross in Northern California! Thank you Ross!

In this month’s episode of Gracie Magazine, there’s an article about Helio Gracie’s distaste for red meat. This prompted Chris, a member of the Mighty 600,000, to contact us here at the to The FightWorks Podcast headquarters:

I just recently read the latest Graciemag, and they had an article in there about whether or not it’s good for your jiu-jitsu to eat red meat. Everyone knows Jake Shields is a vegetarian, and he’s an awesome grappler. I was just wondering how many people out there who do jiu-jitsu are vegetarians or vegans. Perhaps this would be a good poll question?

So what about you? Let us know about your eating habits as a BJJ person in the poll above, and definitely leave a comment here if you have any feelings on how diet affects your jiu-jitsu!

We received this question from a listener to The FightWorks Podcast here in Southern California, who called our toll free number 877-247-4662 and left us this message:

I’m calling you from Los Angeles and I got a question for you regarding rolling with people from your school of the opposite gender. I know at our school we have some smaller, petite female jiu-jitsu players that are also good looking. I know sometimes they don’t feel comfortable rolling with other guys. They only roll with guys they know that they can trust either to not smother them or to not, you know, be discourteous. I’d like to know how many jiu-jitsu players out there of the Mighty 600,000 feel comfortable rolling with jiu-jitsu players of the opposite sex.

So that’s this week’s BJJ Poll!

I look forward to hearing what the results of the poll will be, as well as what some of the comments will be on this post. I know there is a noteworthy cadre of female jiu-jitsu bloggers out there who weigh in on related topics all the time. This should be a good one.

Make sure you vote and leave your comments here on the site!

This idea for a poll was emailed to us by Jake, one of the Mighty 600,000. It’s an excellent poll idea because it furthers our understanding of how people experience Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Please let us know if you are affected by nerves, anxiety, or “butterflies in your stomach” when you train BJJ by voting in the poll and feel free to share your story in the comments below the poll!

This one comes to us from – no surprise here – Ross in Northern California!

This poll idea was suggested by Liam over at The Part Time Grappler. I feel like I have a pretty intuitive feel for how many Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners smoke but I do not like to guess when we can get actual numbers. Thanks Liam!

We got a voicemail this week on our toll-free number (877) 247-4662 that went a little like this:

Hey Caleb this is Jason from jiujitsumap. Love the show and thought I’d give a poll idea. How about one about whether you wear socks or not at the gym. It seems to be a hotter topic than I thought as I looked at grapple socks and posted a few comments on my thoughts on wearing socks. Please consider it!

Yes that sounds like a good poll to me!

So how about you? Are you a traditionalist, going barefoot? Are you a former wrestler, and you brought your old wrestling shoes to the jiu-jitsu environment? Or do you wear any of those new foot socks when you grapple?

Give us your vote and let us know in the comments section of this post!

Another poll suggestion from Ross! This is one that I’m curious about, as Cohost Dan and I have been discussing this one for years. Let us know what it’s like where you train, and don’t be shy about leaving comments!

Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners warm up at the University of Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego.

I know that sometimes when a student reaches achieves the black belt ranking in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, some schools stop charging them to come to the school. I suppose the reasoning is that they have paid enough over the years already and now their presence is valuable enough to the school that they should not have to pay for classes anymore. Maybe it is also to minimize the desire for those new black belts to go to another school or to start their own! Who knows.

In any case, what is it like where you train? Let us know in the poll or in the comments to this post.

This week’s poll idea comes to us from Jon in South Carolina. Jon said, “I thought it would be an interesting topic for discussion. I know it is a touchy subject for a lot of people.”

Agreed! How about you? How often do you train at schools that are not your school? Let us know by voting and in the comments for this poll.

This week’s poll question comes to us courtesy of Rob, one of the Mighty 600,000. It gets to the heart of what you believe Brazilian jiu-jitsu is.

What do you think? Should participation in Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments be a required component of one’s jiu-jitsu education? Let us know your thoughts by voting and in the comments section for this post. I know Cohost Dan has quite an opinion on this that we’ll go over in our show on May 2…

This poll comes to us courtesy of Liam over on Part Time Grappler. He writes:

I’m married myself and started BJJ before getting married, so I actually asked the jewellers to make sure my model and size fits in such a way that it couldn’t catch any flesh or cloth under it nor cause any scrapes. I hope you use the idea as it would also answer how large a percentage of the listeners are married

When I wrote Liam back and thanked him for offering this poll idea, he said he would be “chuffed” if we used it. I don’t know what chuffed means but I presume it’s a good thing. Thanks Liam!

We got this idea for a poll from one of the Mighty 600,000 in Southern California. He writes:

[Where I train] we do 8 months till you get your blue belt, 2 years as a blue belt till you get your purple belt year and half for till you get your brown and year and half till you get your black, how do others schools work with their promotion. I have been seen some blue belts at some tournaments that were blue belts when i was a white white belt and i am getting ready to be a purple in 2 months and i see the same blue belts lol… What do you think??? Should the IBJJF regulate a school or professor to make it known that this guy got his belt at this time.

Currently the IBJJF does offer some pretty strict guidelines about when certain belt promotions are possible, but they do not mandate a promotion after a specified time frame. This would certainly prohibit perceived sand bagging at tournaments, and remove instructors’ discretion about when a student is ready to be given a new jiu-jitsu belt ranking.

What do you think? Should the IBJJF adopt a policy like the one described above, where a student will receive certain belts after a given time period? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below after you vote!