As someone who practice BJJ for many years, I have noticed many do’s & don’ts in class whether it’s from the coach point of view or our point of view. Personally, one my major pet peeve during rolling is to roll with a partner that have bad body odor or smelly clothes. Of course there are certain case where it is unavoidable especially when it comes to body odor but it is part of our job to ensure we are fully clean to roll or it may affect our partner mood or health.
Prior writing this post, I did checked with few other BJJ Stripes writer & founder on their thoughts on What is the Huge NO NO in BJJ Training. These are the list of NO NO in BJJ Training from our point of view :
1. Bad Hygiene
It can be from body odor or clothes that you wear. Do wash your clothes or Gi to ensure it’s fully dry. Rolling with clothes with bad odor may bring bacteria that might cause infection to your skin. Bad body odor also will affect your training partner mood to roll. PS : Sometimes I avoid rolling with people with bad body odor. I’m sorry but it is uneasy to roll with them. Using body spray or perfume will help to solve this ?
2. Huge Ego
This happens all the time in all gym. It can be from individual that just started to train or some huge ego that train really long in the gym. This may cause injury to their training partner when they roll with ego. There are cases that they refused to release the submission when their partner tap.
3. Talking While Your Coach is Teaching
Remember guys, your coach dedicate his or her time to teach us. It is important for us to respect the class & your coach whenever he or her is showing some move or talking. Do not distract the class in any way with your load noise.
4. Showing Up Late
If you train BJJ before, whenever someone walk in late most of us will look at them. This will not only cause distraction but it will also ruin the class flow especially when it comes to pairing. We may be late sometimes due to unavoidable circumstances but it is important to be early to do some warm up or stretching.
5. Having a Sexual Intention
We are there to train. Sometimes we may have opposite gender to pair with us & it is important not to have any sexual intention towards them. Especially to the guys, we should take care our female training partner. Do not make any sexual joke or bad intention to them. Do not take advantage of them too. If you spot anything or encounter something fishy, you should report this to your coach or the respective gym.
6. Wearing Inappropriately
It applies for both guys & girls. Wearing tight compression may reveal something that cause of female training partner to be uncomfortable. You may consider to wear MMA or grappling shorts to cover it up. For girls, you may want to avoid loose or too revealing outfit.
7. Leaving Early
We start the class together, we should finish the class together. If there is any unavoidable situation, you may leave early. But this should not be your excuse to leave early if you want to avoid rolling with your training partner.
Conclusion :
BJJ is all about respect, humility, improving & having fun. It is important for us to do our part as the community to avoid the don’ts in BJJ. Feedback is also important for all of us. If you spot any of your teammates or friends doing any of the action above, do talk to them on this. If you are on of the above, do your part to improve yourself.