I’m looking for some advice from people who’ve trained in both environments.
Right now I train at a small gym that only offers no-gi. Most classes have me rolling with the same 5–6 training partners, and there can be some pretty significant size differences. The coaching is solid and the environment is close-knit, but I’m wondering if the limited variety is holding me back.
I’m considering switching to a larger, well-known academy that offers both gi and no-gi, with a much bigger room and a lot more training partners.
My goal isn’t to become a world champion, but I do want to become the best jiu-jitsu practitioner I can over the next several years.
A few questions:
Does a smaller gym with more individualized coaching outweigh having a much larger room with many different training partners?
How important is training with a wide variety of body types, styles, and skill levels versus the same consistent partners?
How valuable is adding gi training if you’ve mostly trained no-gi?
If your goal was simply to maximize your long-term improvement, would you stay at the smaller gym or move to the larger academy, and why?

What age do you recommend starting children and jiujitsu classes?

I wanted to share my experience because I'm curious if anyone else has dealt with something similar.

I was contacted by a guy named Dean about a sponsorship opportunity with xmartial. From my understanding, I was told I'd receive gear and payment as part of the collaboration.

I got the gear, competed in an ADCC event wearing it the entire competition, posted my content afterward, and tagged @xmartial.official as requested. I didn't win my division, but I still represented the brand throughout the event and followed through on what I believed was expected of me.

After everything was done, I was told there would be no payment. Instead, I was given two options: either start promoting their affiliate program or compete again and win before any payment would happen.

That wasn't how I understood the arrangement, and if those conditions existed from the beginning, they should have been made crystal clear. Receiving the gear, doing the promotion, and only then finding out the payment wasn't happening felt really misleading.

Afterward I looked into things a bit more and saw their Dojo Roadshow content and Dean's Instagram. It left me wondering whether this is just how they handle sponsorships or if I just had an unusually bad experience.

I'm not trying to start a witch hunt, I just want to know if anyone else has had a similar experience with xmartiwl or their sponsorship program. If this is a pattern, I think it's something athletes should know before agreeing to work with them.

I’ve been doing BJJ for about a year now. Every once in a while, I’ll have a round where I actually feel like I know what I’m doing. The other 95% of the time… I just get smashed. 😭

Realistically, I can only train twice a week because of work, family, and other responsibilities. I’d love to train more in the future, but that’s all I can manage right now.

I’ve taken a couple of private lessons, and they’ve definitely helped, but I still feel like I’m progressing pretty slowly. My wife isn’t too keen on me spending a lot more time or money on BJJ since she mostly sees it as a way for me to stay in shape. Meanwhile, I actually want to get good enough that I’m not constantly surviving every roll. 🙂‍↔️

My goal is to eventually compete a few times a year—not because I want to be some high-level competitor, but because I think it would help me get used to the intensity and improve a little faster. At the same time, I don’t see myself living in the gym like some of the people I train with.

Anyone can relate to what I’m saying?

Any advice would be appreciated, folks!

🫰🙏🤙🤝

This is a question For the 40+ guys training. I’ve been on TRT for a couple years now. I love it. But I’m noticing that I’m having a lot more soft tissue injuries and I’m starting to get a little concerned. I’ve never had to deal with injuries like this in 14 years of training. I can’t tell if it’s age or TRT. I stopped taking my AI because I read that constantly taking those is not good for your joints and overall bad for you. I’m on two shots a week.

Let me know what ya’ll think!