How to Prepare for Your First Jiu-Jitsu Class

Walking into a new place is intimidating. A martial arts gym maybe more than most. What’s it actually going to be like in there? What are the people like? Is there some unspoken set of customs you’re about to bumble through? Do you bow? Do you shake hands? Will you look stupid? Will you get hurt? If that’s the loop running in your head before Saturday morning, this is the post to scroll on your phone before you walk in.

Good news: nobody in the room is watching you the way you think they are. The mat is full of people who were in your seat a few months ago. Better news: a little prep is the difference between an awkward first day and a class you actually want to come back to. Here’s the whole list.

What to wear and bring

If it’s a gi class (gi = the cotton uniform with jacket, pants, and belt that you’ve seen in every BJJ photo): you need a gi. A lot of gyms make you buy or borrow one before you walk in. At Journey we hand you one free with our 2-week intro, so you don’t have to sort that out before your first day. Wear a plain T-shirt or a rashguard under the gi top. Rashguards are the tight athletic shirts grapplers train in. Either works. Bare chest under the gi is bad etiquette and worse hygiene.

If it’s a no-gi class (no-gi just means training in athletic clothes instead of the uniform): wear a fitted shirt and athletic shorts or leggings. No zippers. No pockets. Both catch fingers and toes, and a snagged finger on a zipper is a real injury, not a cute one.

Other things to throw in your bag:

• Flip flops, slides, or Crocs. Bare feet on the mat only. Shoes or slides everywhere else, including the bathroom and water fountain. Foot traffic from outside tracks in junk that doesn’t belong on the mat.
• A water bottle.
• A mouthguard. Bring it for gi and no-gi alike. You may not use it during your first class’s drilling, but you’ll want it the moment positional sparring starts, and you don’t want to be the person hunting one down mid-class.
• A spare set of clothes for the drive home.

Hygiene and safety before you walk in

This is the part nobody warns you about, and it’s the part that earns you respect from your training partners the fastest.

• Trim your fingernails and your toenails. Short. A long nail snagging someone’s gi is the most common gym injury, and yours hooking someone’s skin is just as bad.
• Take off all jewelry. Rings, watches, earrings, necklaces, piercings. Anything that can catch on a grip or get torn out.
• Tie long hair back.
• Shower before class. Wear clean clothes. A freshly washed gi or rashguard every single session. Never re-wear unwashed gear. Skin infections like ringworm and staph spread through dirty mats and dirty gear, and clean gear is how you avoid them.
• Shower as soon as you can after class too.
• Don’t eat a big meal one to two hours before. A light snack and water is plenty.

What actually happens in class

Show up 10 to 15 minutes early. There’s paperwork, a quick chat with the coach, and time to change. Walking in at start time is stressful, and you’ll miss the introduction.

At Journey, adult classes skip the warm-up. You go straight into a technique demonstration with the coach, then break into pairs and drill it. Drilling just means practicing the move slowly, taking turns. Your partner lets you work the technique on them, then you switch.

After drilling we do light positional sparring, which is a controlled version of sparring where the coach gives you a specific situation. Something like “you’re stuck under side control, your job is to escape.” You aren’t free-rolling against a stranger trying to submit you. That’s a separate thing called open sparring, or “rolling,” and you’ll work up to it. For a clearer picture of how the next four weeks unfold, here’s what a real first month of BJJ looks like .

A few words you’ll hear:

• Tap. This is how you tell your partner to stop. Two firm taps on their body, the mat, or yourself, or just say “tap” out loud. Tap early and tap often. Tapping is not losing. It’s how you train your whole life instead of getting hurt on a Tuesday. No ego.
• Guard. Any position where you’re on your back with your legs between you and your partner.
• Side control. Your partner is laying across your chest, pinning you. You’ll meet this position a lot.

Tell your partner before you start if you have a bad knee, sore shoulder, anything. Tell the coach too. Nobody is going to think less of you. Hiding an injury and then aggravating it is how good first days turn into six-week recoveries.

You’ll be more tired than you expect. Take breaks. Drink water. Sit out a round if you need to. Every black belt in the room was a white belt who paced themselves and kept showing up.

Start your 2-Week Trial — $49 (free gi included)

If you’ve trained somewhere else before

If you’re coming in from another gym, the room you walk into has its own culture on top of whatever ruleset you trained under. Ask the coach what submissions are on the menu before you spar. Don’t assume.

At Journey we coach to the Grappling Industries ruleset, with IBJJF guidelines for events . In the gi, that means no heel hooks. Ever. At any belt level. The IBJJF rulebook bans heel hooks in gi competition from white through black belt. Gi grips make twisting knee injuries far too easy to cause.

Heel hooks live in no-gi, and at the upper belts only. If you want to hunt them, that’s a no-gi conversation.

A few other visitor habits that travel well:

• Match the technique to your partner’s experience. A purple belt cranking knee bars on a white belt is bad reading of the room, even when those subs are legal for your belt.
• Pair up with someone your size. A 220-pound visitor across from a 130-pound woman is doing nobody any favors. Pick a closer match or dial intensity way down.
• Watch the warm-up. Follow what their upper belts do. Visit with humility.

What’s next

If a new room is what’s been holding you back, three things will make the difference tomorrow morning:

1. Clip your nails tonight.
2. Pack your bag tonight too. Clean shirt, water bottle, slides, spare clothes.
3. Walk in 10 minutes early and tell the coach it’s your first day.

That’s the whole list.

If you’re still gym-shopping, this post walks through how to actually pick a BJJ gym in Madison without getting roped into a long contract. If you already know you want to try Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Madison, WI , we built a 2-week intro for exactly this situation. Free gi, no long-term commitment, and your first day is drilling and positional work, not someone twice your size trying to choke you.

Start your 2-Week Trial — $49 (free gi included)

Not ready for that? Meet the coach first (free, no pressure) and ask whatever you want before you commit to anything. Or browse the adult program page to see how the schedule works around a 9-to-5.

See you on the mat.