Safety Rules

Everything at Golden Jiu Jitsu is built on trust. Every time you step on the mats, you’re putting your body in someone else’s hands. These rules exist to protect that trust.

Tapping

Tapping is the foundation of everything. Without it, we don’t have grappling.

Tap early and tap often. Tapping when you’re caught is not losing. It’s what allows everyone to train tomorrow. Every black belt has tapped thousands upon thousands of times. You cannot get good at this sport without it.

Tap when you’re caught, not when you’re frustrated. Tapping resets the round. Some beginners use it to escape positions they don’t like, not positions that are dangerous. If you’re on the bottom of mount and no one is attacking a submission, that’s not a tap situation. That’s a learning situation. Stay in it and work.

Jiu jitsu works. It will work on you. It works on us too. Tapping to a less experienced training partner doesn’t make you a bad grappler.

Don’t tough it out when you’re caught. Tapping to a submission early is always better than waiting to see what happens. And don’t make your training partner choose between hurting you or letting go

Intensity and Calibration

Training is not competing. We are playing a game, so work to be playful.

Go light and trust your partner. Your training partners, especially experienced ones, are calibrating the intensity for both of you. They’re often handicapping themselves to make the round more useful and interesting for everyone. Don’t feel like you need to use all your strength to keep up. You’re not going to overpower someone with years of experience, and trying to will just make the round worse for both of you. Play light and you’ll learn more.

Adjust complexity or intensity, but not both at the same time. If your partner is struggling, dial back one of them. If things are easy, increase one. Turning up speed and complexity simultaneously is how people get hurt.

Generally, before around purple belt, people don’t have the awareness and reflexes to go at high intensity without risking injury. If you find yourself straining, exhausting yourself, or sitting out every other round, check your intensity level.

Submissions

If you’re straining to get a submission, you’re doing it poorly.

The whole idea behind joint locks is that we use our entire body to apply force to a single limb. Even if your training partner is twice your size, you should be able to apply a submission with a fraction of the force you can generate.

Straining also creates injury risk. When you’re muscling a grip break from armbar control and the grip suddenly slips, you can’t control what happens next. If you were at 10-15% effort and using your whole body, the grip break is controlled and nobody gets a bloody nose.

If someone isn’t tapping, let it go or ask them for feedback. Maybe you don’t really have it. Maybe they don’t realize how close they are. Either way, don’t force the choice between injury and letting go.

Escalation

We play a combat sport. It’s normal to get frustrated. It happens to everyone.

However, escalating an interaction for any reason is not acceptable at Golden Jiu Jitsu. Raised voices on the mats, aggressive tones, and threats are not acceptable. Threats will result in a ban.

If someone is going too hard, use your words and ask them to slow down. If they don’t, stop and talk to a coach. Do not escalate back.

We ask people to spar, we don’t tell them. Ask politely: “Hey, do you want to get this next round?”