We know, we know. You think about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu all the time, even while travelling. Be it a business trip or a vacation you’re on, the matter of the fact is: you’d love to get in a couple of rolls while on the road.
But how should you drop in at another BJJ school? Here are a couple of useful tips from Ryan Young, from Kama Jiu-Jitsu.
DON’T DROP IN OUT OF THE BLUE
It’s incredibly important that you don’t just “drop in”. Meaning, don’t appear at the school out of the blue and request to train there. Instead, make sure that you let them know that you’d like to train in advance.
The best way to do this is to have your instructor contact the owner of the other school (if they know each other). If this isn’t possible for whatever reason, then send an email or give that other BJJ academy a call ahead of time, informing them about who you are and what you want to do.
But if even that isn’t possible (perhaps you’re already in that foreign place and you only have a short span of time to get to the school and train), then introduce yourself on the reception and let them ask you to train by themselves.
HAVE A CLEAN GI
Please, please carry a clean gi (and no gi) to training. You don’t want to be that guy from out of town that’s stinky – no one will want to train with you and they surely won’t be too ecstatic about seeing you again.
If you’re going to have more than one training session, then your best bet is to either find a washing machine somewhere in town (maybe your hotel has it?) or to loan the equipment from the school you’ll be dropping in at. But make sure that you ask them to loan it, not borrow it. This is common courtesy.
DO THE TECHNIQUES THE WAY THEY DO IT
If the instructor is demonstrating a technique differently from what you’ve been taught in your own BJJ academy, just go with the flow. Learn and apply the technique that this instructor has taught the class; you may find that it works better than the way you’ve been doing it so far. And even if it doesn’t, you can always resort to the technique you’ve known previously, after you return to your own gym.
OFFER TO PAY A DROP IN FEE
Always, always offer to pay a drop in fee. Even if you’re a black belt. All BJJ schools will appreciate this, even the ones that will outright refuse to charge you anything.
Yet again, this is common courtesy. It really doesn’t matter whether you’ll pay or not; but what does matter is that you’ll be showing respect to the school. To its owner and to its coaches – as well as gratitude for their welcome.
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