Hi, it’s Bernardo (Faria) here...

If you’re competing at the World Masters this week, I wanted to share a few tips that might help you feel a little better, be less nervous about the tournament, and hopefully perform better.

The first one is about adrenaline.

Instead of fighting the nerves or worrying because you’re feeling the adrenaline, accept it.

Adrenaline exist to keep humans alive in dangerous situations. A healthy level of adrenaline can actually help you fight harder, be more alert, and react faster and more precisely.

So instead of thinking, “Why am I so nervous?” try to accept that feeling and use it to your advantage.

The second one comes from my own career.

I’ve worked with a psychologist since I was a purple belt (2006), and one of the biggest mental breakthroughs I ever had was understanding the difference between wanting to be there and feeling like I had to be there.

I remember looking across at opponents in big finals who seemed desperate to win. Of course I wanted to win too, but I tried to focus on something different: I wanted to be there, enjoy the opportunity, and do the best I possibly could.

That change in mindset made a huge difference in my performance.

And the third one is something I think hobbyists sometimes forget:

Win or lose, Monday is still Monday.

Your job will still be there. Your family will still be there. Your normal life will still be there.

And in my opinion, that’s exactly why you can afford to go out there, enjoy the experience, take some chances, and give it your best.

One last thing: don’t make the mistake that almost everybody makes during tournament week, searching for that ONE new move that is somehow going to win you the tournament.

That move doesn’t exist.

The moves that are going to help you win are the moves you’ve already trained over and over again. Trust your Jiu-Jitsu.

I hope you guys enjoy it, and more importantly, I hope it helps some of you who are competing this week. :)

Good luck at World Masters! 👊🥋

I became a purple belt this past weekend after roughly 5 years at blue. 5 years primarily because of injuries, training twice a week, etc.

I was honestly content with being a blue belt for a bit longer to build my game and I don't doubt that my coaches saw something in me that I don't but still feeling like an imposter. I get subbed by other blues and sometimes, crazy white belts. And I feel like there are some other blues that are just much better than me albeit they train 4-5 times a week.

I'm glad I get to skip warmups now but wondering how some of you got over feeling like you didn't deserve this belt.

Edit: I love this sub

I'm a purple belt and when rolling with beginner whites I will go maybe 20-30 percent. I will Def let them work.. But often times, these white belts are super freaking spazzy and aggressive which pisses me the f off. You can tell in the first 10-20 seconds if you are gonna encounter one of those people. For me I will turn it on and go super hard on them. Am I wrong to do this ? I got feedbacks and complains from my coach that the newer students are saying I'm going too hard and I'm like wtf ?? Why is it my fault !? I let you work but U are the one that wants to go spazzy and aggressive on me !

Thoughts guys...

I have started going to competition class and we are always doing situationals from front headlock and turtle. I feel like escaping these positions are very complicated and need to dumb it down somehow. How should I start escaping these positions? Are there any general guidelines that are easy to remember in the moment? (pulling guard is not allowed)

I’m talking about all time. Just to be clear I’m not talking about who has been able to adapt their BJJ best for mma. I’m talking about pure bjj. I would personally say Jacare Souza, with an honorable mention of BJ penn bc of how quickly he was able to win worlds.

I remember, very vividly, my days as a white belt. I got my ass whooped every day, constantly.
I remember specifically getting absolutely throttled by high blue and purple belts. I felt as though I couldn’t do a dang thing and they effortlessly beat the brakes off me.
But now I’m on the other side of it. I’m a 3 stripe blue belt and feel that I have to put in a ton of work with white belts and anyone who isn’t day 1 new.
Is my perspective off? Were those blue and purple belts working harder than I realize?
I just feel confused about it.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's episode of "Are the Mods in the Pocket of Big Moneyberg?"

No. The answer is no. That's all for today's episode, see you next week!

---

Still here? Cool, cool. What you see here are a few screenshots from modmail and DMs that we've received regarding The Big D. You see, The Big D has a reputation to maintain regarding things like "definitely not being a scammer" and "a bona fide prodigy who 100% didn't pay people to give him a black belt, wear his weird face on rashguards, and publicly gush about how smart and dedicated and talented he is."

In furtherance of the maintenance of this reputation, Derek, his simps, and a purported lawyer (whose message I unfortunately couldn't find) have variously modmailed and DMd mods of r/BJJ about the removal of posts with blasphemous, defamatory comments like "Unfortunately I've met Derek. He's dishonest and a scammer." and "His black belt is as real as his wealth."

The mods of r/BJJ have responded to these requests - if we deign to respond at all - with snide contempt and laughter.

What you see in the screenshots are three modmails to us requesting removal for various reasons. Especially interesting is the first one. After being denied their request in modmail, this user reached out to one of the mods privately via DM, claiming to be The Big D's personal assistant. They asked again for the removal of certain threads. The mod responded saying that we'd consider it if Derek released a statement regarding the controversy and evidence that he actually earned and deserved the black belt. The user responded that they'd forwarded the request to Derek, and pleaded for the temporary removal of the threads pending a response.

The response from Derek and/or his personal assistant never came and let it be known that we - your humble, dedicated moderation staff - never kowtowed to the demands of the 1% who sneer down upon us mere peasants from their penthouse suites with their gilded toilets.

And though no one has ever (to my knowledge) offered any mods money in exchange for favors, know that we would never bend the knee in the face of such bribery. Though they may offer us riches untold, surely tens of dollars, we would never remove the posts where you, our cretinous ungracious butt-scooters beloved BJJ brethren, heap insults upon the name of the ogrish, sock-wearing, pompous buffoon that is Derek Moneyburg. May his deceptions be made manifest and his (hilariously fake) name descend into the depths of ignominy where it surely deserves to lie for all eternity.

I'll be visiting SE Asia for 45 days and i'm looking for some gyms to drop by. Please let me know if you know of any gyms at these countries/locations

Thailand:

- Bangkok
- Phuket

Cambodia:

- Siem Reap

Vietnam:

- Ho Chi Minh

- Hoi An

- Hanoi

Philippines:

- El Nido

- Manila

Indonesia:

- Ubud
- Gili

- Uluwatu

Any recommendation is welcome 😄

In rdlr, you can create a full system of just wrestle ups through situp guard, and just inversions, with the sole exception of when people step back away from an invert, in which you are forced to sit up. Is there a benefit to just playing a game in which I do a forward bump single leg when they pressure in and a backwards off balance single leg when they don’t, versus doing a heel grip invert when they pressure and an underhook invert when they don’t? Is it necessary to mix these systems or is it better to choose one?

If you could only train 3 x weekly, and you had a basic game plan/system you're trying to improve, would you do 2x class and 1 randori, or 2x randori and 1 class? The class I'm considering cutting for a second randori is a fundamentals class with no live or positional starts, just practice with minimal resistance.

How nervous do you get before competition doing master worlds first tournament at blue haven't competed in 4 years competed 4 times at white belt wasn't nervous at all leading up for some reason but It finnaly hit me today that im actually doing it what are some useful strategies for dealing with it thank you

Straight to the point:
I trained for about 4/5 months on this BJJ gym, the teachers(old black belts) were my dad's friends and they were really awesome to talk to, but.. when I first started out it was BRUTAL, man: 30-40 minutes of intense warm-up in a "crossfit" more than 40 reps for each person counting out loud.

I'm not going lie, i'm not a really "fitness" guy but for god's sake man!

It is normal? I'm just lazy? I just quit because each workout was a russian roulette to see if I would make safe home

For those in Southern California that had gone to pretty much any tournament in the last 20 years...

Kenny Jewel of Grapple TV has passed. He's photographed events and even put on events himself (2 Gi or not 2 Gi) He was a friend to absolutely everyone who ever met him. He will be missed greatly.

Is this something that you just have to get used to, or is there a way to fix this?

Confirming that this little label thing on my lapel- is it ok or do I need to remove it?

Also confirming they removed their gi GSM requirements?

I started training way more (roughly 6-8 sessions x
per week) for 2 Months already, and I felt that would help me get even better (Which it has) 2 weeks ago I got really frustaded that I couldn‘t hit everything i‘ve been working on or even defend myself from positions i‘ve focused for weeks, I didn’t give up but spent a lot of time quiet and thinking what was wrong. after taking a 2 day break I realized that while I was training more, I was rolling with higher belts most of the time, and then it clicked, I‘m still a white belt (Irony at its best expression).

That‘s my story but i‘m actually curious to know how you guys realized that you aren‘t supposed or able to do everything you learn.

I have a question regarding a specific situation. When I am playing De La Riva guard, I control the pants grip on the side of my De La Riva hook. However, my opponent sometimes settles into a split squat position, grabs the sleeve of my arm that is holding their pants, and steps their leg back to break my grip.

When this happens, I struggle because I can no longer maintain my De La Riva guard. I am very curious about how you personally react and deal with this exact scenario.

Even if the top player is not necessarily in a split squat position, this situation seems to cause significant problems for the guard player. I actually saw Nicholas Meregali use this type of pass against Kaynan Duarte at the Brazilian Nationals, and it gave Kaynan a lot of trouble.

Is simply giving up the grip the answer? I would really like to maintain my De La Riva guard.

The one that's banned by the ibjjf.
When my leg is lifted from the ground I struggle to replant it. I tried spinning like the reap escape, but they spin with me and end up in a tighter hold

This was my first competition after about 2.5 months of training. I trained MMA for a year about 10 years ago for context.

Had fun!

I’m a white belt, been training for a little over a year and I’ve been out for the whole summer due to an 1njury and then unfortunately right when I thought I could return I got pneumonia. Before I got sick I got one or two classes in and I just felt very unmotivated and my cardio was literal non existent and when I come back again it will be even worse from pneumonia. I went from being competitive with some blue belts to getting controlled by people training maybe two months. I feel like I’m starting for the first time with my cardio being bad, forgetting stuff, and lost flexibility. I know I haven’t trained a lot in total but bjj was really just something I always looked forward to since I started and I feel sad the only sport I’ve been kinda good at and the thing that made me the most happy doesn’t feel the same. I’m hopefully going to get cleared to train next week, did anyone else go through something similar where they just kinda lost their motivation to train and how did you get it to come back. I am not just going to stop training so please nobody say that lol

Hey everyone,
I’m currently living in Spain and looking to take a 1 to 2-week trip somewhere in Europe purely to train hard.

My main goal is to focus heavily on No-Gi and get in two solid, high-intensity sessions a day. I already know about BJJ Globetrotters, but I’m looking to explore other options, specific camps, or just find a great city to build my own DIY training trip.

I'd love to know which European cities or specific gyms have the best high-level No-Gi scene right now. I know places like London, Warsaw, and Amsterdam have great grappling, but I'm looking for specific gym recommendations that are visitor-friendly. Ideally, I want a spot with easy drop-in policies or weekly rates where I can seamlessly jump into morning and evening classes to get that daily double session.

Also, if there are any non-Globetrotter No-Gi camps happening soon in Europe that you’d recommend, I'd love to hear about them.
Appreciate any recommendations or personal experiences you guys can share

I (38m) am 5'8" around 145lb and everyone around me is just bigger... and now I've fallen into a metal state where I just want to stop training for a while... Every open mat I have no choice but to roll with the bigger guys. There's times where I can explode and use my speed, but there's days I don't have the energy... Today was those days when I just couldn't explode, and I stayed stagnant in some position and just gave up... And ended up tapping to lower belts. He just muscles me in every grip battle and shakes off every submission I throw at him. I'm just in a mental funk right now... Tomorrow I might feel different but right now, I feel like shit.... How does one prepare for an open mat against bigger opponents...? Or what's your game plan? Any advice?