Fighter

Today I want to pay tribute to one of the most under-appreciated pieces of your jiu jitsu kit... the gear bag. Whether it's a backpack or a duffle bag - or even a combination of the two - having a reliable, well-constructed gear bag helps to keep you organized and prepared to get your train on. 

Here at Fighters Market, we've seen all kinds of BJJ gear bags pass through our warehouse, so we've decided to review some of our favorites: 

Kingz Convertible Backpack 2.0

You know Kingz Kimonos as one of the most premier gi brands in the industry today, worn by some of the top competitors in the sport, including Leandro Lo and Kaynan Duarte. When they came out with their first edition of their convertible backpack back at the 2017 IBJJF European Championships, it sold out almost immediately. This year, they made that bag even better. Offering the same awesome features that made the first version so popular, the Convertible Backpack 2.0 is more durable and is now available in three different colorways: black, red, and hunter green. This bag definitely tops are list, and here's why: it has a ton of intelligently designed pockets for all your needs; it has a separate ventilated pocket to put your wet gear (which helps to prevent that "gi funk"); and it converts easily from an already spacious 48 liter volume backpack to a 72 liter volume duffle bag. Essentially, this gear bag is one of the most intelligently designed sports bags we've come across... like ever. 

Fuji Sports Grapple Pack

Fuji has always pretty much dominated the market when it comes to jiu jitsu gear bags. If memory serves, they might have actually been the first brand to offer their own kind of bag. Remember their duffle bags and backpacks made of actual gi jacket pearl weave material? Yeah. Super old school. Their most popular bags have always been their duffle bags, which they've upgraded from time to time and added new features. However, their Sports Grapple Pack has taken a totally different turn from their usual... and we dig it. Basically, this gear bag is the illegitimate love child between a duffle bag and a backpack. Designed to be carried backpack style, it has a very interesting duffle bag-style vertical zipper that allows for easy access to your gis and gear when you're at the academy. It also has a nifty side pocket for your laptop or tablet, and a bottom compartment for your shoes or sweaty gear after training and which can be folded and tucked away when not in use. 

Scramble Kimono Backpack

The first two gear bags on our list definitely have the "look" of a gear bag. Scramble Brand decided to go a different route with their Scramble Kimono Backpack, which has a more subtle look, ideal for commuting from your swanky job in the city to your academy after work. Although this bag has a smaller capacity than the Kingz Convertible Backpack and the Fuji Sports Grapple Pack - with room for a single gi and miscellaneous training gear - it's definitely far more stylish, with nice grey finish, A-symmetrical design features, and a unique kimono lapel-style flap, containing a hidden pocket. The padded back and shoulder straps with the security clasp also make it an incredibly comfortable bag, perfect for your long subway ride to class. 

If you've been training long enough, you know the value of a good gear bag. We don't have to convince you of that. But what we can do is steer you in the right direction, toward a really great gear bag. 

Train on... Oss. 

Brazilian jiu jitsu is not one of these activities with a nice, shallow slope of a learning curve. On the contrary, you're going to get smashed for a good two or three months before you ever feel like you're getting a tiny little toehold of understanding. 

On the one hand, that's part of what makes being a jiu jitsu practitioner so special; because it is so challenging and so many people give up, sticking with it is a source of pride in and of itself. On the other hand, repeatedly getting beaten by anyone and everyone makes it hard to actually stick with it. When you're repeatedly getting smashed on the mat, it's less your body and more your mind that takes the real beating. If left unmanaged, this constant bruising of your confidence may set you on a path toward quitting jiu jitsu before you've even had a chance to realize how far you've come, and how much you have to look forward to in your jiu jitsu journey.

So here are some pointers on how you can manage your confidence when you're constantly getting smashed. Read on: 

Small Victories

Until you've gathered enough tools in your jiu jitsu toolkit, you're not going to be winning very many matches. Especially if your training partners are better than you are - and you should seek those out - you're going to be out-techniqued a lot. If you focus entirely on the outcome of the match, you'll easily get discouraged about losing time and time again. However, if you focus on the little things you do right - the "small victories" - you'll be able to see your growth, maintain your excitement about learning jiu jitsu and salvage your confidence. Finally passing the guard of a training partner that you don't normally pass, executing a perfect scissor sweep, or having the courage to throw up an arm bar from guard... those are all small victories; the things that you couldn't do before and now you can. That's progress, and you should be proud of that. 

Think Long-Term

Brazilian jiu jitsu is a marathon, not a sprint. If you're trying to become an expert BJJ practitioner as fast as possible, you are going to put a lot of undue stress on yourself to continually improve, and win, win, win. This creates unrealistic expectations, and when you don't meet those, you're going to become more and more frustrated, then maybe even quit altogether. If you remind yourself to think long-term, you'll be better able to take each day at a time and to keep yourself from obsessing about your perceived lack of improvement. With this long-term vision, you'll note that there will be ups and downs, but you're always moving forward, closer and closer to whatever jiu jitsu goals you might have. 

Choose Your Training Partners

As a female athlete, and usually the smallest person on the mat, I've spent many a training session - and still do - getting out-muscled. This is fine. No matter who you are, there will always be someone out there just a little bit - or a lot a bit - stronger than you are. That being said, I never shy away from rolling with stronger opponents, because it just forces me to be even more technical. However, there are some individuals on the mat that I just do not train with, because I know their goal is to win at any cost. They have no problem using their superior strength and/or technique to smash me mercilessly and without conscience. This kind of mentality is toxic for your growth, and death for your confidence. While they are under no obligation to just let you win, your training partners should acknowledge that you're just embarking on your own journey and have an interest in helping you learn. You are well within your right to choose those kinds of training partners, and say "no" to the others. 

Compete

Becoming a "competitor" is not for everyone, but I believe everyone should compete, at least once or twice in their jiu jitsu career. Win or lose, every competition is worth at least two or three months of training, because you come back with a better sense of how far you've come and what you have to improve on. It's hard to see your growth when you're always training with the same mat sharks day in and day out. When you compete, you face someone your own size and experience level, who may have never fought you before and doesn't know anything about your game. So the opportunities for winning - and therefore getting a nice little boost to your ego - are exponentially higher. Even if you don't win, you'll be able to see that, yes, you have actually been retaining some of this jiu jitsu stuff. Which is exciting and only helps to keep you coming back to the mat. 

Regardless of whether you've just started jiu jitsu, or you've been training for a decade or more, you'll continually have to manage your ego and your confidence. The beauty about Brazilian jiu jitsu is that no one is ever on top all the time. One day you could be the best in the world, and another day you could be tapping to a lower belt. It's important to keep in mind that it's "OK".

Hopefully, these tips help keep you moving forward on your jiu jitsu journey. 

Train on... with confidence. Oss. 

If you're the type of person who likes to master a hobby within months - or even weeks - of picking it up, Brazilian jiu jitsu might not be for you. In fact, jiu jitsu is not something that can be learned so easily. Additionally, it quickly becomes more than just a hobby... it becomes a lifestyle. For the majority of practitioners who make it past blue belt, it's as integral to their daily routine as brushing their teeth. 

BJJ is an activity that requires knowledge and practice, so obviously one might ask how long it takes to get a proper understanding of jiu jitsu. However, this is not an easy question to answer.

First of all, obtaining an "understanding" of BJJ is quite relative. The casual observer can gain enough of an understanding of jiu jitsu to know what a sweep, pass, arm bar and choke looks like. But when it comes to understanding the intricacies of a particular sweep, or how one position connects to another, then to another... that takes years of practice and dedicated implementation. For many, obtaining the coveted black belt can take anywhere from six to 15 (or more) years. Even then, many a brand new black belt has been known to say that their real journey of learning the gentle art had just begun!

For those who don't shy away from the long haul, getting a sufficient understanding of jiu jitsu is dependent on 1) how you define an "understanding" and 2) how you learn. I can't address your answer to number 1, but I can give you some tips regarding your number 2:

Be Consistent - An understanding of jiu jitsu - of anything really - requires the cumulation of endless hours of practice. However, if those endless hours are piece meal and inconsistent, you can be guaranteed to have a long, slow journey toward your next belt. Being consistent allows you to easily build off of the previous sessions and build a strong foundation for the next session, without having to go back and review something that you had forgotten because you took a few weeks off.

Identify Your Learning Style - Not everyone learns the same. While jiu jitsu is a very hands-on practice, recognizing how you learn will allow you to modify your individual practice to favor that learning style or supplement your in-class instruction with something that enables you to learn the techniques more easily. 

Study - As much as you'd like to - especially after you've gotten the "jiu jitsu bug" - you can't live on the mat. There's only so much hands-on training that your body can take before your overstrain yourself. So studying is indispensable to your journey. Luckily for you, many high-level professors and academy owners offer online websites full of video instructionals. And of course, there's also YouTube. 

Wherever your journey takes you, and however long it takes, know that your journey is yours and yours alone. 

Train on. Oss.

As a female BJJ practitioner, I don't feel entirely qualified to write about this subject... but I'm game for just about anything, so here we go anyway! XD

To wear, or not to wear, a cup in BJJ... that is the question. I'm sure Shakespeare would have asked the same thing if he had been born in modern times and become as addicted to the gentle art as we all have. He would have probably written something far more eloquent for this blog, too. But, alas, he's six feet under and you've just got me. Lucky you. 

In my experience, the vast majority of jiu jitsu practitioners do not wear a cup. Sure, there are the occasional blokes who choose to strap on an athletic cup under their drawers, but it's relatively uncommon. There are a few reasons for this: 

• Cups were designed to protect from accidental hits to the groin areas... which is pretty prevalent in more high-contact sports like football, MMA and other striking martial arts, but not so much in BJJ. Yes, while the occasional stray knee or elbow can come into contact with a man's bits a pieces during jiu jitsu training, but it's really relatively rare. 
• The discomfort of a wearing a cup during jiu jitsu training far outweighs any protective benefits. Jiu jitsu - probably more than any other sport in the world - involves a lot of strange positions and contortions of the body. As such, having a hard piece of plastic in that area for groin protection will cause more discomfort than it's worth. Additionally, if your cup doesn't quite "fit" as well as it should (they don't exactly come in a plethora of sizes), you risk pinching some delicate skin while you're trying to berimbolo to the someone's back. 
• Wearing a cup during jiu jitsu competitions is illegal. This is principally because that bit of hard plastic can cause some serious damage to a person's elbow or spinal column with enough applied pressure. If you can't wear it during competition, why wear it when you're training for a competition? 

And finally, from the female - or even general training partner's - perspective, training with someone who's wearing a cup is incredibly uncomfortable. I already have to contend with my male training partners' superior strength, but if I'm in a terrible position, the last thing I want is a piece of hard plastic digging painfully into my back. 

Whether you choose to wear a cup or not - and I hope you choose the latter - make sure you always train safe, and with respect toward your fellow training partner. 

Train on. Oss. 

Nothing's worse than an ill-fitting gi. It's one thing to have ill-fitting street clothes, but you don't normally have people grabbing and pulling you into Del la Riva guard on the street.

In jiu jitsu, it's important to have a gi that fits well. If it's too baggy, your opponent has plenty of material to grab and wrap you up in. If it's too tight, it restricts your movement and you won't be able to pass, sprawl or invert as freely. Simple enough... but when the vast number of gis are sold online, finding a gi that fits well right out of the package is no easy feat. 

Of course, there's no substitute for trying a gi on before you buy. That's when physical store fronts (Fighters Market has one in San Diego) and pop-up stores at the major IBJJF events come in handy. But if you're not in San Diego or a competitor, you have few other options than to shop online.

Here are some tips to help you out: 

Don't Let Your Ego Get in the Way

Just as with your regular everyday clothes, it's easy to think you're a size smaller or bigger than you are, based on how you'd like to see yourself. But as I mentioned before, you don't want to make this mistake with a gi. How do you know if it's the right fit? For one, your gi pants should be large enough that you can do a full squat in them without the material stretching too tight around your thighs or your backside, but not too large that the hems go well past your ankles. Likewise, your gi jacket should be roomy enough around the shoulders that you can easily rotate them, and the lapel ends should be able to cross when you close the jacket around your middle. However, you don't want the sleeves to be too long that they cover your hands, or too wide that your opponent can easily grab them. 

Check the Sizing Guides

Almost all gi brands will have a sizing guide that you can reference to find the right size. Most of the time, these guides are limited to height and weight, which - as you can probably guess - isn't always the best. If you're an average body type, yeah, these sizing guides will be fairly useful. But how many people really fit the average? So take these sizing guides with a grain of salt. There are some gi brands that also include arm and leg length, and others that include even more specific measurements. Especially if you're shopping on an e-commerce site like Fighters Market, it's wise to check both the sizing guides posted on the site, as well as the sizing guides that the brands post on their own websites. And know that these days, a lot of gi brands offer alternate sizes, like L and H (for long and husky) body types. 

Know that All Brands are Not Equal

If you've already bought a gi or two, and you're looking to buy more, maybe from another brand... you must know that all brands are not created equal. If you're a size A1 in one brand, you may not be a size A1 in another. And if you are a size A1 in both, one may not fit exactly like the other. This is because most brands have their own pattern that they use, which is sized up and down accordingly. So when you're buying gis, keep this in mind and don't get upset when the gi you've ordered online from a new brand doesn't fit exactly as you're used to. 

Return... But Wisely

To accommodate the inconvenience of not being able to try on a gi, online gi retailers offer returns - sometimes free, sometimes not. Before you purchase a new gi, it's important that you check the website to see their return policy. Of course, you definitely want to avoid the lengthy and irritating process of having to buy a gi, find it doesn't fit, return it, and wait for a new one to arrive, but if it's unavoidable, it's unavoidable. Just practice wise returning, as I've already detailed in a previous blog post. 

Finding the right size gi is a pain, especially when you're just starting out on your jiu jitsu journey and you don't have as much experience doing it. But hopefully this article has given you some useful guidance. 

Train on... Oss.