"Personal safety is about choices and circumstance," says Don Seiler, owner of Kodokan-Seiler Dojo in Minnesota and author of Karate Do: Traditional Training for All Styles. "And while you can't always control the latter, you certainly can control the former. You need to have a complete personal protection strategy and embed that into your lifestyle so it simply becomes habit."

Other self-defense experts agree. "Knowledge is power. You will have more confidence if you know where and how to strike if you need to defend yourself," says Robert Fletcher, MMA strength and conditioning coach and founder of America's Next Great Trainer.

At LJJA, we understand the importance of self-defense for women. In fact, we emphasize it. We’d love to see you take part in this movement!

You generally wear either a gi (sometimes called a kimono) or no-gi attire to practice/train. If you are in your trial classes, you can wear any comfortable clothing and we will loan you the appropriate attire. When you sign up, you will be required to purchase a gi from one of our preferred vendors (WarTribeGear, FujiSports, and Venum). A gi consists of a jacket, reinforced pants, and a belt. Both men and women should wear a rash guard and spandex shorts under the gi.

We also practice and compete (for those who want to compete) without the gi. This is called “no-gi” Jiu-Jitsu or “submission grappling”. The “no-gi” attire consists of fight/board shorts and a rash guard.

No. The majority of people who learn and train Jiu-Jitsu do not compete. Of course, competition can be a reason to set goals and a great way to challenge and test yourself. We encourage anyone who wants to compete to do so, but there is no expectation or requirement to do it. Come learn, get in shape, and enjoy the art. You can decide later if you’d like to compete.

Today is the day you can begin your journey that will change your life.

BJJ is for everyone – regardless of sex or age. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was originally formulated for use by smaller, weaker people to allow them to defend themselves against larger, stronger attackers. In that way, Jiu-Jitsu is perfectly suited for women, kids, young and old. Anyone and everyone can participate!

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is one of the best workouts you can get, and it provides far better results than a typical aerobic workout. It is also much more fun and interactive than most exercise programs, so you end up working out more and harder. Many people practice it primarily for the health/exercise benefits, which increase muscle tone and reduce body fat while improving your balance, coordination, cardio vascular capacity, and muscular endurance.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has an informal approach to belt promotions, in which one or more instructors subjectively agree that a given student is ready for the next rank. This applies to all athletes at LJJA, including kids and adults.

We require that you wash your gi before rolling in it. Wash separately the first time, and then with like colors after that. Don’t iron the prints/logos/patches. Wash your gi in cold water, low/medium spin, and low/normal soil level, then air dry. Never tumble dry your gi unless you want it to shrink, and even then do so VERY carefully.

When you do wash your gi, put a couple of laundry cups full of white vinegar into the basin. White vinegar is naturally antiseptic and relatively cheap; a big bottle of it costs less than 5 dollars. Still, use your other cleaning agents and set the washer to a heavy cycle so that the clothes get agitated. Removal of soil from clothing is a largely mechanical process, so the more violent your washer is the better chance you have of getting rid of the nasties on your gi.