The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Be Sure to Follow These 11 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) Mat Rules | PPP #102

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

Sharing the 11 'mat rules' as shown on a poster in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) gym I train in that can help new BJJ players get off on the right foot of their BJJ journey. The source for the list is Chokebrand.Find the poster at https://www.redbubble.com/i/postcard/Mat-Rules-Poster-by-CHOKEBRAND/23763217.V7PMD

Hey everybody, welcome to People Process Progress, episode 102, Mind the Mat Rules. A bit of a retread here, just like episode 101 was. This was the second episode I did of the Up in the Morning podcast. The focus of this is there's these 11 rules on a poster in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym that I train at and thought it was a good reminder for some of us that have been training or a primer if folks have heard this podcast, other podcasts that support and promote jujitsu, Brazilian jujitsu for other folks, that it's a primer on how to prepare, how to groom, what to wear, what not to wear, how to act. So I hope this is

helpful. It's pretty short. It's about 13 minutes long. Thank you so much for going to people process progress.com for checking out the continuing to check out the show. We'll have more guests, more project management, incident management, all that good stuff. But for now, I'm glad you got up in the morning with me. It's time to lace up, chalk up, tie that belt, and get ready to roll with Kevin Pinnell. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to episode two. I'm your host Kevin Pinnell again. Let's jump into the Matt Rules According to Choke Brands poster that's hanging in the jiu-jitsu gym I train in and probably many other gyms around the world. You can find it online. Let's get into it. So the first of these is very important both for practical reasons and

just as an adult taking the class and to help teach your kids, respect the instructor. So the first of these is very important, both for practical reasons and just as an adult taking the class and to help teach your kids, respect the instructor. So for adult classes, typically you'll have high level belts, black, brown, purples maybe. And the instructor is the one that's going to share this knowledge of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with you, which is awesome. And it pays to be on time, to not talk when they're talking. All the basic rules of being polite to other adults apply here, right? Don't ask 50 what-if scenarios when they show a move. You know, those kind of things. The best thing to do when you're new, when you're starting out,

is to keep your ears open and your mouth shut. Now, that doesn't mean don't ask questions, and other folks that have more experience than me certainly would want you to ask questions, but asking 20 questions when everybody just wants to get to the drill again is a lot be on time right if you're new or your experience being late is disrespectful whether it's in the business world particularly in the jiu-jitsu gym the second thing from the choke brand matt rolls pay attention poster is respect your teammates right there are some

shitty things you can do to people in general, particularly in jujitsu, elbowing the thighs when you're new, trying to get out of something or twisting their fingers or whatever. Just don't do it, right? And it's not a competition in the gym. Yes, you're going to roll hard. You might get cauliflower ear and bloody nose at some point and whatever. But the whole point is you're going through this hardship together as teammates of the same gym, right? And so you're not trying to actually beat this person up. You're not trying to win, be the champion of the gym. There's always going to be someone that's going to get you.

So respect your teammates just like you would want others to respect you. Now, a very practical point, this third thing, don't wear shoes on the mat ever. So we practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu barefoot, whether we're in the gi, that's the the kimono, the classic kind of pant and top and belt, or no gi. So that's in like tight shirt, rash guards, they call them and fight shorts or shorts. So we don't want to do that. We don't want to bring all the stuff that we've walked around with our shoes on onto the mat. Then we're rolling around our faces on it or our gis or not gis or whatever on it. And it's a respect thing too, too right the mat is kind of a sacred place that i that's my word not other folks where we get knowledge where we go through hardship and it really is that and we'll get more

to this as the podcast goes along how it's affected me and other guests that we'll have on but don't don't disrespect the mat it also you know the mat up. It's not a wrestling room with wrestling mats, but mostly cleanliness and respect for the mat, respect for the place that you train. The fourth thing is also very, very practical in this poster. Wear flip-flops or shoes in the toilet. Why? I don't want your poop feet on the mat where I'm going to get rolling on and my face rolls on it. It's disgusting, right? Doesn't jujitsu sound great? So one piece of supply that you will need for sure, if you start and you keep

with jujitsu or other grappling things that you're barefoot or other martial arts is flip-flops, right? And so you'll want to, I wear my flip-flops to the gym. If it's super cold, I'll maybe put socks on. I'll look like the dad guy with socks and flip-flops. If not I wear my gi pants, my flip flops, a rash guard, and then a sweatshirt over it. I put my gi top and belt on when I'm there. But my flip flops are always just outside of the mat between me and the bathroom or me and the other place. So you can go off the mat, put them on, go to the bathroom if you need to, put them off before you get back on the mat and do that.

And again, especially when you go to the toilet, right? If I walk around maybe the changing area with them, but not really, I'll keep my flip-flops on. If I'm not on the mat, my flops are on. It's generally a good rule. Fifth thing, don't wear jewelry on the mat. So I take my wedding ring off every time, not to hide anything, but because I don't want my wedding ring to then pull the skin off my finger, right? There's some folks that wear those rubberized rings, which is cool to me. It just, you know, mine fits and I can move it a little bit. So I don't want the injury from that. It's hard enough to do jujitsu without jewelry, certainly necklaces, earrings.

Earrings in particular, man, you could get really hurt, get your earlobes ripped out, all that kind of jazz. So don't take your jewelry out there. If you're wearing something, I would take it off for sure. Trim your finger and toenails for Pete's sake. It's not, we're not Wolverine and Sabretooth from all my comic book lovers out there. We're not two animals with claws fighting. It sucks to get scratched by fingernails, right? That's the gist of it. And again, we're all sweating like crazy. We are rolling into each other. So you're going to get a scratch, then it's going to get dirty, then it could get stuff in it. Just, you know, that's one thing you need to do weekly or however often, whatever tempo

your finger and toenails grow is check them, make sure they're trimmed. They're not going to cut somebody. That's also part of the overall respect for your teammates and your instructor is not hurting them with something like that. It's just, you know, and it's a practical hygiene kind of thing. In addition to that, cover up any cuts. Now this is hard. So if you've ever done any sport where you've had tape on you, particularly jujitsu, the tape doesn't stay on a lot, right? So it's really hard to cover up

your cuts and have the tape stay on them and not get blood or whatever elsewhere. So if you have a really bad cut, you probably shouldn't go roll or train. You could maybe warm up, do some drills, but if you're going to get into rolling and you have like bandages or anything on you, I wouldn't do it. It's going to get jacked up for small cuts. I have used tape. Maybe if it's on my finger, cause it stays on a little better, but even then tape gets sweaty and it comes off and maybe it's because of, you know, don't tape as my fingers as much as other people do. The other thing you can do for small cuts that will burn like crazy is get yourself some of that liquid bandage or new skin or whatever it looks like fingernail polish but it's made to be like well liquid bandage and so you put it on there it burns like i said like putting pure alcohol on a cut because it's kind of what it is

but it also will form then a hard crust on there kind of like a scab so you need to do a little bit before you go to class so it dries off make sure it's dried really well and it kind of what it is. But it also will form then a hard crust on there kind of like a scab. So you need to do a little bit before you go to class. So it dries off, make sure it's dried really well. And it kind of has that hard and that holds pretty well. And it protects it from infection or anything like that. But again, it's your call. But trim those fingers and toenails, cover up those cuts. Don't train if you're sick, right? I mean, what better time to do that? And of course, some folks have questions about even training at all now. That's your personal choice and your family's choice on whether you're going to go train or not and a calculated risk, what you will accept, what you won't accept. So if you're sick though, you're coughing stuff up, you know you could be infectious.

Do not go to the gym. Crazy disrespectful. You could make everyone sick. So practically, you can make people sick that could then lose time at work, lose time training for sure that then affects the instructor. So it goes all the way back to that first thing of respecting the instructor, right? You go in there sick and coughing and snot everywhere, and then you're going to get that on your teammates. It goes all the way against all the other stuff we talked about. It's no bueno, so don't do it.

Don't train with any rash or skin infections. So similar to if you've got some sort of sniffles, not just COVID, but flu or other viral thing or belly upset or whatever, is if you have any kind of rash or skin infection. So in grappling and wrestling in particular, jiu-jitsu, ringworm, staph infections, those things do happen. Gyms these days are super clean. They disinfect or they should be, right, where they're cleaned after every class. So it kills most stuff that's in there. But if you know you have something, even if you're covering it, right, you're sweating

all over the place. It could get on other people, the oils, the whatever, which is gross to think about, is just not something you want to put yourself at risk because maybe you are rolling hard and it gets rubbed and it gets raw and you get a worse infection. Or you give that to your teammate or you give it to your instructor if you're the person they're demonstrating on. So no skin infections or rash infections in the gym. Wash your gi, your training kit after every session. Don't be the stinky guy. Couldn't agree more. So there's a few different thoughts on this. And by thoughts, I think everyone's on board with wash your gi after every session. I do that. And here's a practical tip.

So depending on the size of your gi, the size of you, whether it fits well, it's too big, it's not too big. Wash your gi 100% after every class, I even throw a little oxy clean in there, make sure we get a little extra something. And then the next thing about drying is you can either choose to dry it. Now if you dry it on regular, it's going to shrink. Or you could air dry it with no heat in the dryer, and it will be softer. Or you can hang it and air dry it and it'll be a little crinkly, but it won't shrink. Right. So there's the thing. So air dry, hanging by something, you know, hanging outside or in your house, it's not going to shrink. If you dry it on too much heat, your ghee is going to shrink. Your no ghee stuff is just a matter of wear and tear on the

dryer or not. Right. So that's up to you. But yeah, there's plenty of folks I've rolled with, unfortunately, or maybe me, if I've left my gi in there too long in the washer, you gets that smell. You can't get out, rewash it. You don't want to roll with someone. You're super close to these folks. You're grappling with them. Uh, it's gross. I rolled with folks where they smelled bad and like gag me, uh, which sucked. Um, and then, you know, you could, it's a hard thing to try and tell someone, Hey, like you don't smell so good. Um, so don't be the stinky guy, just like it says on there. could, it's a hard thing to try and tell someone, Hey, like you don't smell so good. Um, so don't be the stinky guy, just like it says on there.

Um, this is the last thing that applies really a lot for no gi training. So we're in those tight rash guards. It's a lot more like wrestling. Um, don't wear shorts with pockets or zips of training. No gi kind of self-explanatory. Or if you don't know you're wrestling someone, you're using your hands, your feet. It's easy to get caught in there to get your own hands caught in there. Um, plus you don't want, you're wrestling someone, you're using your hands, your feet. It's easy to get caught in there, to get your own hands caught in there. Plus, you don't want to ruin your pants. Now, if you're going day one, intro day one, and all you have is a pair of champion

training shorts and a t-shirt, great. Some places give you shirts, like where I first started, a t-shirt at least, but the shorts are up to you. If you're just starting an intro thing, you don't have to go buy fight shorts and grappling shorts and all that jazz, because you don't know if you're going to like it. You may think you're going to. You do three sessions, and you're like, I hate this, because I thought I could do a lot more than I could, whatever the reason is, or it's just not your thing. That's fine. So if you can, if you have shorts that don't have zippers or pockets, then wear those. Maybe not the super short running shorts.

Your call. When you get into this, if you stick with this, which I would encourage anyone to do, one, try an intro program or sign up wherever there's jujitsu school. Go visit it. Check it out. Check out the vibe. Does it seem friendly? All that good stuff.

And then give it a shot. Then invest in your equipment. If you decide to stay, if you sign a contract, all that kind of stuff. So I hope this was helpful to share some information that's on the Choke Brand Mat Rules poster. It's pretty cool, and it's super practical. And I think I've seen folks both do all of these and not do all of these, maybe in the same person sometimes.

I hope if you're taking your first step, you're first finding your why into fitness, or maybe why why jujitsu and that you feel a little better today. Maybe you did five push-ups this morning. Maybe you walked the steps instead of the elevator today. Whatever it is, a little bit each day makes a huge difference and then it's part of your life. It's who you are. It's not just something that you have to do and you'll love it and you'll be healthier. I hope you all will get up, get after it, and I wish you all Godspeed.