Be Clean

Hygiene is important, both for comfort and for safety. No one likes mat-borne infections, and being clean minimizes risks to everyone. That’s why we clean the mats with disinfectant every day. Clean mats are important, but so are clean bodies. This is a close-proximity sport, and no one wants to be in close quarters with someone who doesn’t smell great. You don’t want to be that person. It’s easy to avoid, though! Here’s how:

1. No shoes on the mat. No bare feet off the mat. This is to prevent the bacteria we pick up from walking around from being transmitted to the mats where we roll around. Especially important: never go into the bathroom barefoot.

2. Shower before class if you need to. Not just to prevent infections, but also to be courteous. We all get sweaty, and we all get stinky. That’s inevitable. But start fresh. Deodorant, and breath mints in your jiu-jitsu bag is not a bad idea.

3. Cut your nails. You can seriously scratch someone up if you aren’t careful. You are not a majestic eagle, so please clip those talons.

Be Ready

Turn up on time if you can. Personally, it doesn’t actually bother me a ton if people are late, you are all adults and can attend and leave when you need to without permission. However you may miss important technique details and miss out on the bad chats that we have before class.

Remove jewelry, like rings and piercings, before class. Sometimes people forget this, but especially with gi grappling, it’s important to remove these if they can scratch your partner — or, worse, get ripped out.

Be Nice

It’s a simple principle, but an important one. Being nice can mean a bunch of different things, but here are a few tips

1. When entering the mat shake everyone’s hand that are attending the class and introduce yourself if you don’t know them. You are not expected to remember everyone’s name but eventually they stick.

2. Take time to get to know people before and after class. BJJ brings people from all walks of life and you can make lifelong friends, business partners and even get a sweet mates rates deal on your new fence.

3. Have some damn fun. We are training a sport and martial art that allows us to simulate murder repetitively on people that we genuinely like. If you are having fun, there is a good chance your partner is, and you may just change the way their day has been going. There have been plenty of days I have turned up to training a stressed wreck and left feeling a relaxed and happy human.