Curriculum · The belt path, told straight
Every rank from white to black, the six class types that get you there, and a few pages torn straight from the coach's notebook. No belt mill here. The timeline on each rank is an honest estimate, not a schedule anyone can promise you.
The belt path · White to black
Time on the mat and a coach's judgment decide a promotion, never a calendar. Each rank below carries an illustrative timeline, drawn from how training usually goes, not a promise made to you on day one.
Survive bad positions before you try to escape them. Learn to tap early and reset without ego. Build the vocabulary: guard, mount, back control, the handful of escapes that show up every class.
Illustrative timeline: No set timeline here. Most people spend a year or more at white belt, and that time is doing real work even when it doesn’t feel like progress.
Start building a game instead of just reacting. A guard or two you actually trust, a passing sequence you can chain together, submissions you can get to against someone who knows what’s coming.
Illustrative timeline: Usually 1–2 years of consistent training from white belt, though it depends entirely on how often you’re on the mat, not how long you’ve been a member.
Connect the pieces. Purple belts start linking position to position instead of treating each one as its own puzzle, and start seeing the mistakes in their own game before a coach points them out.
Illustrative timeline: Commonly another 2–3 years past blue belt. This is often the longest stretch on the path, and that’s normal, not a warning sign.
Refine what already works and close the gaps that are left. Brown belts spend real time helping newer students, which sharpens their own understanding of the material as much as it helps the room.
Illustrative timeline: Often 1–2 years past purple. Some people move through it quickly, some take longer, and both are ordinary at this rank.
A black belt is a serious student of the art, not a finished one. Most black belts spend as much energy coaching the room as rolling in it, and keep training because the material doesn’t run out.
Illustrative timeline: Commonly a decade or more of training from white belt. There’s no shortcut through that, and we won’t pretend there is.
From the notebook · Three flows
Three pages torn from the coach's own notebook: escaping from the bottom, keeping your guard, and finishing a pass. The numbers mark the order the sequence runs in, and the red arrow is always the one that decides the exchange.
Class types · What the blocks mean
Every block on the weekly grid is one of these six. Session counts below come straight off that grid, so this list can never say something the schedule doesn't back up.
6 sessions a week · capped at 16 mats
The class every white belt starts in and every higher belt still drops into when they want to sharpen a basic. Positions, escapes, and the handful of submissions that actually get used, taught slowly enough to stick.
Your first time: Come in street clothes or a t-shirt and shorts the first time. A coach walks you through the two positions everyone drills that day before you touch a live partner.
7 sessions a week · capped at 20 mats
White belts through black belts on the mat together, working the same technique at their own pace, then rolling by size and experience, not just rank. This is where most of the room spends most of its week.
Your first time: You’ll be paired with someone patient for your first rounds. Nobody expects a white belt to keep up with a purple belt on day one, and nobody will make you feel like they do.
9 sessions a week · capped at 20 mats
Same jiu-jitsu, no jacket to grip. Faster scrambles, more leg entanglements, rash guard and shorts instead of the gi. A different feel on the same fundamentals.
Your first time: A rash guard or a snug t-shirt works fine your first few times. Loaner gear is at the desk if you show up without either.
3 sessions a week · no cap
No class running, just the mats, a coach in the room, and whoever showed up to roll. Bring your own plan or ask what to drill.
Your first time: Take a coached class first. Open mat assumes you already know how to warm up and roll safely on your own, so the free first class is the better front door.
2 sessions a week · capped at 14 mats
Ages six through twelve. Real technique at a kid’s pace: positions, escapes, and a lot of falling down on purpose, plus the two rules that matter most, listen and control yourself.
Your first time: Parents watch from the bench, not the mat. Bring a water bottle; the gi is optional for the first class, we have a few loaners in kid sizes.
1 session a week · capped at 16 mats
A gi class for women, taught by a woman on staff, at whatever mix of fundamentals and live rolling the room that night wants. Open to every rank, white belt through black.
Your first time: Same as any other first class: come as you are, and a coach scales the round to you. No prior experience assumed.
Every class type above has a free first session in it.