Club Rules

Your gi should be washed after every class without exception. If your gi smells, that’s a sign that bacteria are cultivating, this increases the risk of skin infections for both yourself and other members of the gym. Always shower and wash your gi after each training session.

Shoes are not to be worn on the mats, if you step on the mat with shoes on you are spreading bacteria onto the mats which again increases the risk of skin infections.

No wrestling shoes are to be worn on the mats, tatami mats are not designed to have wrestling boots worn on them and will damage them over time.

Shoes must be worn to the toilet areas. If you go to the toilets barefooted, then onto the mats, this increases the risk of skin infections. Socks are not suitable footwear for the toilets, shoes must be worn.

Fingernails and toenails should be kept short and filed.

You can borrow a gi for your first couple of classes until you decide BJJ is the sport for you, but you are expected to provide your own gi after this. You can provide your own or we sell gis at the gym itself.

If you want anything to stop in jiu jitsu, just tap. Say tap, tap the mat, ideally tap directly onto your opponent’s body so they can feel it and they will stop whatever they are doing, you do everyone else the same courtesy if they tap.

Submissions should be applied in a controlled way, it is their responsibility to tap but you need to give them time.  Be aware of your surroundings, don’t roll into other grapplers, and don’t roll off the mat. Always try to protect your training partners by using the full mat space available.

If you’re rolling too close to another pair and there isn’t an easy space to move into then you defer to the highest grade (lower grades move away and find a new space). All other factors are not considered, e.g., if a child/teen is a higher grade than you in BJJ, then you defer to that person.

Most sparring will start from knees. There is no sparring from standing in the beginner classes. In fundamentals/ intermediate classes there may be some sparring from standing at the instructor’s discretion, if the instructor has not specifically said to start from standing and it is a quiet class, feel free to ask if its ok first.

If you are sparring from standing, there should be plenty of space without any ground sparring going on near you. When standing, it is your responsibility to protect the people around you from injury. This means stopping and moving into free space when other people are too close. If your takedown would cause you or your partner to land on another participant, then do not do the takedown!

There is no striking in BJJ, this includes slamming (picking people up off the ground and slamming them into the mat)

If you have a skin infection you will not be able to train until it clears up. If everyone follows rules 1 – 4 the risk of infections is very low.