White Belt Jiu-Jitsu › Contents
Start here
Everything written so far, and what's coming, in the order it's useful.
This is all of it, grouped and put in the order somebody would actually need it rather than the order it was written.
Nothing here replaces training with a real instructor. It's for everything around that — the questions you didn't want to interrupt class with, and the things nobody thinks to explain because they learned them too long ago to remember needing to.
Written for somebody who hasn't started, or has just walked in.
How to choose a jiu-jitsu gym
The instructor, the room, the contract — and the sales tactics worth recognizing.
What the belts actually meanBeing written
How long it really takes, what a stripe is, and why comparing yourself never helps.
What the beginning actually feels like, and what's normal.
Is it normal to be this sore?
Yes — everywhere, for a couple of months. How long it lasts, telling sore from hurt, and what actually helps.
How many days a week should you train?
Two to start, a ladder up to three over six months, and why more is rarely better.
The one everything else depends on. If you read one group, read this one.
You're not tired. You're tense.
Why you gas out, why it isn't your cardio, and where the small nagging injuries actually come from.
How to actually relax while you train
The two-second reset before you start, what to watch for, and what to do when you catch yourself tightening up.
Yes, you're supposed to get tapped this much
A tap is information — it just isn't telling you what you think. How to trace a round backwards and find where it started.
The injuries that take people off the mat are mostly avoidable, and mostly a product of how somebody trained.
Tap on time — not early, not late
The punctual tap, why upper belts tapping less isn't what you think, and where stubbornness helps and where it costs.
Pain and pressure are not the same thing
One is information, the other is just weight. Four ways to tell them apart while it's happening.
Chokes and consciousness
Blood and air are different things. Reading when somebody is going out, and why letting go late looks nothing like letting go on time.
Where nagging injuries come from
Rotation under load, in small amounts, over years — plus how to keep training when something is already sore.
Getting stacked
Hips above your shoulders and somebody else deciding the load. The way out is almost always to let go.
The biggest thing you control about your own safety, and it isn't technical.
Why white belts are the dangerous ones
Control is the half of the technique nobody can see — and what to watch instead of hands.
Who to roll with, and how to ask
How hard to go with whom, what to say before a round, and where to save your questions.
How not to be the dangerous white belt
Drilling with resistance in steps, applying slowly enough to be tapped, and staying under eight.
The only technical part, and deliberately narrow.
Surviving underneathBeing written
Frames, breathing, and what to do when somebody bigger is on top of you.
What to leave alone for nowBeing written
The things to skip in your first year, and what it costs if you don't.
The social rules nobody writes down and everybody is judged by.
Mat etiquetteBeing written
Hygiene, class conduct, and being somebody people want to train with.
Gym lifeBeing written
Bags, frequency, recovery, and warming up on your own.
The part that decides whether you're still doing this in ten years.
Is this normal?Being written
Getting tapped constantly, month three, and feeling like you got worse at six months.
The road to blue beltBeing written
The four stripe checkpoints, worked through in order.
Get these as they're written
One signup, two things: the guide to your first eighteen months as a PDF, and then everything else here as it goes up — one idea at a time, no schedule to keep up with, nothing to buy. Useful whether you tied a white belt on last month or you've been at this ten years.
Send them to me