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As one of – if not “the” – the fastest growing sports in the world, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academies can be found in nearly every major city in the world. However, as ubiquitous as they’ve become, the size and depth of the training environments can vary greatly.

Some of the more well-established academies will invariably have larger facilities, with a deeper student body population. Generally, the bigger the academy, the more training partners you’ll have in any given class. More often than not, you’ll get to pick and choose your partners at will. Or, at the very least, you won’t “be stuck” with a drilling partner whose size and/or belt level may not provide you with the kind of training you want or need at that particular moment.   

However, that’s not to say that smaller academies don’t offer their own advantages. Indeed, many offer a unique and intimate experience that could facilitate a jiu-jitsu journey that’s everything you could ever want. Here are a few of the benefits a smaller academy might offer, and how you can maximize those benefits and get the most out of your training...

This past IBJJF World Championships was quite the roller coaster! As usual, the event was packed with the best of the best in the world, and the matches showcased epic battles between well-established veterans and fresh new faces. 

This World Championships featured a number of incredible upsets, but as you all know, one of the beautiful things about jiu-jitsu is that nobody is always on top. One day can be all yours, and the next it's somebody else's. It keeps us humble, and it keeps us hungry for more. 

That being said, we can't be more proud of the amazing performances of all of our Kingz athletes. They went out there and represented all of the qualities that we value: drive, persistence, resilience and passion for the gentle art. 

Jiu-jitsu has become so ubiquitous in today’s world, that’s hard to go anywhere without seeing a jiu-jitsu academy, or running into someone who either does it, or knows someone who trains. It’s really quite amazing. Unfortunately, with such rapid global expansion, the community tends to lose sight of the roots of the art.

Sure, nearly every Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner will have a cursory knowledge of its origins, and anyone worth their stripes will know of the Gracie family and the fact that they played a big part in its expansion, but few will know much more beyond that.

If you don’t have the time to do your own in-depth research – you have families, jobs, school, etc. – you should know just a few more details about the history of the "gentle art." So here’s a short cheat sheet of things to know, starting with its origins in the ancient martial traditions of Japan, to its transformation in Brazil, and finally to its global prominence today.

Academy promotions can happen at any time of the year. There’s nothing that dictates when they should occur. Indeed, promotions of single individuals within a jiu-jitsu academy can happen any time. Not everybody will be ready to rank up at the same time.

That being said, there has been a trend toward academies holding organized promotions twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter. As we come into one of the major promotion seasons, you’ll see many of your friends – and, hey, your foes too – ranking up.  

So we thought now would be a good time to give some advice on how to stay on track as far as ranking up goes.