BJJ Red Flags

If a gym has any of these run for the hills

Coach hurting people

Whether it’s in sparring or demonstrating technique. The coach should have the highest level of control in the room. Accidents happen but there should be no situation where a black belt or BJJ coach hurts one of their students or training partners.

Doesn’t allow drop ins

As a gym owner I love having drop ins. You get to connect with other people in the BJJ community, share some technique/stories, it’s usually a great time. If a gym does not allow drop ins I would say that coach has an odd reason for it. Sometimes they just don’t want a visitor coming in and beating them in front of their students. Or maybe they don’t want a visitor beating all their students.

I travelled to Kelowna, BC and there was a Gracie Barra gym literally 5 minutes from where I was staying. I was excited. When I looked up the website it said that drop ins were not allowed. The gym was for GB members only and I was not a GB member, just a lowly BJJ black belt who’s dedicated 17 years to this. I drove 30 mins to go train somewhere else. I personally would avoid ever going to a Gracie Barra gym because of that experience.

Don’t allow cross training

In the old days of BJJ if you trained outside your home gym you were banned from your BJJ school and labelled as a traitor (“creonte”=Portugese word for traitor). This has changed a lot over time. I would say most gyms now allow cross training. First of all, you are a paying customer so you are free to go and spend your money how you want. If you ask your coach if they mind if you go train at a different gym for a class and they tell you “no” I would say that’s a major red flag. If you go eat at McDonald’s they are not going to ban you if you go eat a meal at Burger King.

Bullying

A lot of BJJ gyms have playful banter. Guys enjoy cracking jokes. But don’t single out one person all the time. If you see any mental or physical bullying you should leave the gym and go train somewhere else. Bad attitudes in general should not be tolerated.

Mats not being cleaned

I shouldn’t have to explain this one but I will. If you gym doesn’t even bother to clean the mats their level of “I do not care about anything” is very high. Dirty mats will lead to skin infections which can be spread to people who aren’t training in the gym. Mats should be cleaned after every class with no excuses. We are rolling around in each others sweat people, come on.

No sparring

The part most people enjoy about BJJ is the sparring. I was shocked to learn from a student they went to a gym with no sparring. To me that is a red flag. How can you actually get good at BJJ if you don’t ever spar against real resistance.

Classes start late

This one drives me crazy. Have respect for people’s time! Life is busy. We only have a short amount of time to train. If your coach regularly shows up late, if you get to the gym for your scheduled class and the doors are locked, if the coach is on their phone instead of paying attention to the class you should leave and go to a BJJ club that actually cares about their students.

Coach doesn’t spar with students

How is your coach supposed to be an effective coach if they never roll with you? There may be some cases like a John Danaher who is too injured to roll. But most coaches are physically capable and enjoy rolling. If a coach develops a few favorites who they only seem to roll with ”that person” it’s also a red flag of being a poor coach.

Uniform policy

I personally don’t have a uniform policy and I think it’s kind of dumb if you do. Why? Well for one a lot of people might not have extra money to buy the necessary gear. Maybe they already bought some training gear and didn’t know their gym only allows for white gi’s, or maybe you have to buy the team gear set before you are allowed to train. There’s gyms around who will not let you train unless you are wearing their team logo. I would rather more people train BJJ and it be more accessible for everyone.

Attendance based promotions

You’re just a number to them. They probably don’t know your name, what you are good at, or anything about you. A good coach really gets to know their students and will know when the time is right to promote them to the next belt level.

Please follow the writer Josh Presley on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok & Facebook @PresleyBJJ for daily BJJ content, and tune into The Great Canadian BJJ Show Podcast on Spotify or the podcast app. PresleyBJJ.com