The Unspoken Rules Of A Healthy Place To Train Jiu Jitsu

Looking for a Jiu-Jitsu home that pushes hard without breaking people? We unpack the unspoken rules that separate healthy academies from chaotic ones, tracing the invisible standards you feel the moment you step on the mat: safety with intensity, mutual respect across every belt and body type, and an ego climate that puts growth ahead of image. If you’ve ever wondered why some gyms keep students for years while others churn through white belts, this conversation lays out the signals to watch.

This episode explores what “safe, not soft” really means controlled submissions, clean transitions, and partners who respect the tap. We talk about respect that flows both ways, from professor to brand new student, and why first impressions last longer than any technique from your early classes. You’ll hear practical partner tactics that raise the whole room: offering real reactions without spazzing, matching intensity to the round’s purpose, asking about injuries, and dialing back brute strength so technique can breathe. Cleanliness and courtesy get their due as the quiet engines of trust: washed Gis, trimmed nails, covered cuts, daily mats, and staying home when you’re sick.

We also dig into psychological safety creating space for questions, bad reps on the way to good ones, and taps without shame while keeping standards high. Leadership sets tone, but everyone maintains it, from upper belts who model humility to teammates who welcome newcomers and avoid drama. As a litmus test, we look at families who train together; when parents trust a room with their kids, culture is usually strong. By the end, you’ll have a checklist to gauge your environment and a mirror to ask: Am I adding to the culture I want?

If this resonated, share it with a teammate who makes your room better, then subscribe, leave a review, and tell us the strongest unspoken rule at your academy. Your input shapes future episodes drop us a note on the Caffeinated Jiu Jitsu IG community or via the show notes.

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Transcript

Welcome And Show Intro

Intro/Outro 0:05

The blend of white belt enthusiasm, black belt wisdom, and the damage of caffeine for that extra. Dive deep into the world of Brazilian jiu-jitsu as we explore the journey, techniques, challenges, and the sheer joy of the sport from a white belt perspective. From intriguing interviews with renowned coaches and professors to playful fun episodes that'll have you chuckling mid-roll. We've got it all brewed and ready. And into your ears. Here's your most.

Promotions Shoutouts At Ironwolf

Defining A Healthy Training Environment

Unspoken Rule 1: Safety First

Unspoken Rule 2: Respect For Everyone

Unspoken Rule 3: Check The Ego

Unspoken Rule 4: Be A Good Partner

Cleanliness, Hygiene, And Courtesy

Learn Without Fear And Ask Questions

Leadership Sets Tone, Team Maintains It

The Environment Should Improve Your Life

Families As A Culture Litmus Test

Pod Fade, Limits, And Consistency

Community Invites And Closing CTA

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Excited for this solo episode and the topic that we're going to be discussing. But first and foremost, I want to give a shout out to all of those at Ironwolf Academy who received their promotions this weekend. There was a big promotion ceremony at Ironwolf. I unfortunately missed it. I had a baseball game with one of my kids, so I was unable to attend. But for those of you at Ironwolf who are listeners and were promoted, congratulations or received stripes. Congratulations on that as well. And you know, speaking of Iron Wolf or Academies in general, it brings me to the topic of today's uh chat and our time together here in this episode. And the topic is really the unspoken rules of a healthy place to train. I think we can all agree that not every place that teaches jujitsu is automatically a healthy place to train. And I think most people who have been around the sport long enough to know exactly what I mean. It's not something that you have to be a black belt with, you know, 10, 20 plus years to understand. You can walk into two different academies, and on paper, they may look almost the same. They both have scheduled classes. They may have a Saturday class. Both have very structured and clear belt systems, both have um their own kind of mat etiquette, if you will. Both have people who are training hard and who are dedicated, but the feeling in one room versus the other can be completely different. One place feels or may feel safe and focused and respectful and sharp, right? Really crisp in its kind of presentation and structure, and the other can feel the opposite. There can be a lot of tension felt, ego-driven atmosphere present, may feel a bit chaotic or clicky. You know, I it that's kind of night and day difference, but people don't just stay in jujitsu because the technique is good, it is, but it's not the only reason. People stay where they feel like they can grow, where they feel respected, where they feel safe enough to learn and to make mistakes, and where the culture makes them want to keep coming back. And today I want to talk about some of the unspoken rules that I've kind of noticed and come up with of a healthy place to train. And these aren't going to be the posted rules that you see on a board somewhere hanging over the mat. Um, talking about the standard you feel when you walk into a place to train, the invisible stuff, the culture, the tone, the things that make a place just not just tough, but healthy. Because the truth is, a healthy place to train is built less by what's written on a wall or plaque and more by what's consistently modeled on the mats. So let's get into it. What is the first unspoken rule? And that first unspoken rule of a healthy place to train is simple. People need to feel safe. And let me be clear: that does not mean easy. Safe does not mean soft. Safe does not mean that no one there trains hard. Some of the best rooms are intense rooms. They're very competitive. They push you, they expose your weakness and any struggles you're having in your techniques. But there's still a difference between training hard and unsafe training. A healthy place will understand that difference. In a healthy training environment and room, people apply submissions with control. They don't crank things just to prove a point. They respect the tap. They don't treat every round like a personal fight or they have a personal vendetta against someone. They know how to push without becoming reckless. And that's super important. They understand that the goal is not just to win one round today, the goal is to create an environment where people can come back day after day, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, and they can have a safe long journey just like you are hoping to have. And if your training room is built on chaos, if every role role, can't talk tonight, role feels like a physical gamble, if you will, people may stick around for a little while out of maybe pride or excitement, but eventually that catches up to people, and people start getting hurt and injuries pile up, trust disappears, people start avoiding certain uh certain partners, and newer students will see that immediately, and they'll get they'll get scared off. And from there, the room really starts breaking down. A healthy place to train protects the longevity, if you will, of their students and their members. And it values the idea that your training partner is not some type of obstacle for you to get through. They're part of the reason why you get to train at all. So one of the on un one of the unspoken rules is this train in a way that helps people train again tomorrow. And another way to think about it is a healthy place to train is one where people can get better without feeling like they have to gamble with their body every class, and in intensity builds toughness, but recklessness will destroy your training partner's trust. And that will you'll be very surprised at how infectious and contagious that recklessness can be when it comes to destroying trust. And you know, ask yourself a question. When when people roll with you at your academy, do you do they feel challenged or do they do they feel unsafe? And I don't think it's a far stretch to to ask your training partners, especially those that maybe you've trained with for the first couple times next week or the week before. Maybe it's your for if you're a male and it's your first time you've rolled with a female practitioner, it's uh I think it's okay to to ask if if you went too uh hard or or rough and vice versa, right? If you are a female rolling with uh a male training partner that you haven't trained with in the past, so um safety is the very first unspoken rule, it has to exist. There is no gem that is gonna survive that gets the reputation of being a unsafe place to train. The second unspoken rule of a healthy place to train is that that need of respect respect has to go both ways, and I think this is one of the clearest signs of whether a place is actually healthy or just looks good from the outside because it's easy to respect the the coach or the professor, it's easy to respect the black belt, it's easy to respect the toughest person in the room, but the real question is how does this place treat, say, the new white belt? How does it treat the older student? How does it treat the person who is smaller, maybe less athletic, less experienced, or just trying to find their footing and where they fit in this new martial arts that they have decided to take a take a journey journey with. Newer people are seen and they're acknowledged, they're greeted, they're helped, they're challenged, yes, but not um humiliated, right? Not taken advantage of uh taken advantage of. And that that matters because respect creates it creates emotional safety, not just physical safety, emotional safety. And that are the emotional safety, the kind that lets people relax enough to learn. The kind that lets someone be new without feeling ashamed of being new, because it we all know that even after you've been going for a week or a month, you still feel very new to jujitsu and maybe new to the academy. A lot of these people, especially the higher belts, have been going to the school or academy for years, you know, five, ten, maybe fifteen or longer years, depending on how old the the school is. So there's a lot of um history and there's a lot of bonds built in that school. So showing that that person a high level of respect that's new on the maths of your academy is super important. And you you can still have an academy, or you can you can be in a hard room and still feel respected. In fact, the best rooms do both. They push you, they don't diminish you, they correct you, but they don't belittle you. So you can still have a an environment that pushes you to get better in jujutsu. It can still be an academy that has an environment that promotes and encourages uh practitioners to compete. And you can still have all of that without losing or showing losing respect or showing disrespect for practitioners who maybe don't want to compete or who only come a couple times a week or maybe a couple times a month. A healthy place to train makes people feel like they belong in and are including in, included in this process of learning. And you can tell, you can tell a lot by a place by how it treats the least experienced person in the room. And I've been in many rooms or training academies where I have been the least experienced person in the room. And a truly healthy place to train makes that person, someone like myself, feel challenged, but again, not diminished. And most people remember their first few classes very clearly. You know, first impressions or lasting impressions is so true in jujitsu. And not because, of course, they remember every technique, it takes a while before you actually start remembering the stuff that you're shown in your first few months, but because they remember how they felt on the mat with the people and how the room and the vibe was. I would say one of the fastest ways that respects disappear is when ego becomes the loudest thing in the room. And that brings me to the next unspoken rule of a healthy place to train, and that is ego. Ego cannot be the loudest voice in your academy's environment room or on the on your academy's mat because ego changes the energy of a room, an academy, fast and not in a good way at all. Ego shows up when people can't tap without feeling embarrassed. It shows up when someone treats every role like they have something to prove. It shows up when people care more about looking good than actually learning. I think it shows up when someone gets caught and immediately starts making excuses instead of just accepting the moment and improving. And the problem with ego is that it doesn't just affect the person carrying it, it affects the entire room. It it makes it makes its rounds weird, it creates tension, it makes people less honest, it makes newer people feel like they have to to perform instead of learn. And it takes all the focus off of learning. And in a healthy place, people understand something something important, and that is training is not a stage, it's not a place to preserve your image, so to speak. It's a place to get exposed, to make mistakes, to ask questions, to be submitted, to reset, and to come back better the next time you train. And that doesn't mean nobody is competitive. Of course, there's competition, and of course, there's pride, of course, there's an intensity, but the healthiest rooms keep ego underneath the larger goal, and that goal is growth. And I'll give you an example um from myself uh in what I'm talking about here. So if you're a higher belt and you've been doing jujitsu a long time, and you've trained with me, especially if you're a black belt, um during a role, sometimes I will I will talk trash. And I will talk trash because I know that I am about to be decimated, and it's not mean, it's not arrogant, it's um it's more than just, but it doesn't come across as uh there's an ego, ego violation here. And on the flip side, if I'm rolling with someone that is less experience and I know that I have the upper advantage and that more than likely the round's gonna go my way, I won't say a word because I don't want it to come off as some type of ego trip. Now, of course, I don't do this every single round, or you know, I'm not talking trash every round, but my point is is you can have fun during your roles. Like uh, you know, I have uh a few training partners that that I, you know, that are upper belts that I or fellow blue belts that you know I kind of talk trash to when when we roll and have some fun. But you can you can have that kind of fun without ego being a part of it, right? And um if a you know a lower belt gets you in a move because you made a mistake, another thing you have to watch out for, this is how ego can creep into your academy. Don't make excuses if if you messed up and someone got you in a position that uh maybe he or she shouldn't have gotten you in uh because of level of experience or what have you, leave your ego out the door, congratulate them, and realize that that was. And tell them and let them know that hey, that was that was a great move. So have fun, dear in your roles, watch out for ego, understand what can come across as an ego violation, and you may not even uh realize it. So just pay attention to that. And when growth, let's talk so so when we're thinking about growth, when growth matters more than appearances, people get better. When ego matters more than growth, I think we as practitioners tend to probably get stuck. And we usually make the room worse um while while we're at it. So that's you know unspoken rule, what is it? Number three, is check your ego. So safety, respect, and ego. And when thinking about ego, ask yourself, are you are you trying to learn in the room or are you trying to manage how people see you? Right? So watch out for ego. I would say that that's probably one of the biggest red flags in an academy is when there's a heavy amount of ego on the mat. Another unspoken rule is good training partners are what make a place truly healthy. It's the people, right? It's you know, coaching matters, instruction matters, leadership matters, and that's all uh, you know, kind of from the head shit, right? Your professor or coach, but day-to-day, what most people experience is their training partners, and that's who they drill with, that's who they roll with, that's who we learn around, and a healthy place to train is usually full of people who understand that being a good training partner is part of the job. And I was very, very lucky when I was training at Alliance to have an amazing training partner in my early days of jujitsu. And you know, we this guy was a blue belt, and I was a white belt. We trained in the 7 a.m. class, and a lot of times it was just him and my uh, you know, him, the professor, and myself. And, you know, I was I was not a challenge for him on any level, I can tell you this. But he set um great pace, great tempo. He allowed me to work at times. He made me pay for my mistakes, but he was a good training partner with no ego, right? He respected the level that I was at, and it really created that that safe environment. So um this this unspoken rule of good training partners making a truly healthy place, I I think it's number one of the unspoken rules. So what does what does that look like, right? What does it mean uh when we're thinking about uh training partners being so impactful? It means giving giving real reactions without being reckless, it means not turning every drill into a secret competition. It means not um well, let's use the word spazzing. I think we all have heard the term spazzing out in jujitsu. It means knowing when to add resistance and when to let someone work, it means not using all of your strength to shut down a newer person who is trying to learn. And uh so I'm not a heavyweight by any means. I'm not a small man by stature, but uh I it when we think about using not all of your strength to shut down a newer person, I notice when I train with uh, let's say heavyweights or someone ultra heavy who may be a purple belt or even a blue belt. But I notice that they they hold back some, right? Not not from the technique, they don't hold back knowledge and technique, they hold back their their brute strength, right? So, you know, they don't rip the the Kimorra from you know mount or side control. They don't go 500 miles an hour and let the the weight of the world be be pushed down on me. So if you are noticeably stronger and more athletic than your training partner, being a good training partner is relying on technique and allowing them to use their technique. And I I think you know, I'm spending a moment or two on this because this is important because I know the impact it's had on me uh training with partners who have shown reserve. And then I know there's been training partners who haven't, who have used their size, strength, and athleticism to uh just crush me. And I remember as a white belt not getting absolutely anything out of that role or out of that experience, other than feeling deflated, defeated, um, wondering if jujitsu was for me, really wondering if the claims to jujitsu is for smaller people to take out bigger people. Yeah, there were times where I called bullshit on that, let me tell you. And sometimes I still do, but the point is whether you're a heavyweight, lightweight, featherweight, whatever, meet your training partner where they're at and always focus on technique, both for them and for you. And also, you know, being a good training partner, it also means being aware of the purpose of the round. Is this supposed to be a hard round? Is this a competition class? Is this technical work? Is this fundamentals class? Is your partner coming back from an injury? Is this person brand new? All those things fall into kind of what I was just going off on uh a tangent there. And you know, one of the things I want to uh kind of touch on is definitely when a partner is coming back from injury, every person I roll with, I try to remember to ask, hey, do you have any injuries? Is anything hurting you today? Is there any areas I need to we need to kind of stay away from? A good training partner has a sense and level of awareness. They don't make every round about themselves, they know how to adjust, they know how to match energy without hijacking the room. And when a room has enough people like it, it changes everything. People improve faster, trust goes up, newer students last longer, injuries go down, and the room becomes a place where people actually look forward to training. I mean, all the people every time or every school that I've been a member of so far, I've always looked forward to going to training, not just for the the good cardio and learning new techniques and getting better at jujitsu, but also to see the people. These are I've always felt like these are my people, my friends. And um really, you know, we we all know the difference between someone who gives you a hard, honest round and someone who makes the entire exchange and role chaotic. One helps you grow and the other just just makes you survive. And being being a good training partner doesn't just mean show up and rolling, or doesn't just show up and rolling. It it also shows up in in all the basics and how we interact with each other. So let's talk about something that sounds basic, but honestly, it's pretty foundational. Um, and that's cleanliness and courtesy. A healthy place to train is not just healthy in attitude, it has to be healthy in a practical sense too. That means clean gear, trimmed nails, basic hygiene, covering cuts, taking care of skin issues responsibly, staying home when you're sick, that's a big one, especially if you're you have kids who who trained jujutsu. Professors need to make sure that their mats are cleaned daily, paying attention to the details that keep the room safe and respectful. And I know this part isn't full of insights and glamour. It's not that deep philosophically. Um, but it's a side of jujitsu. It matters, and it matters a lot. And these simple habits communicate something important. I respect this room and I respect the people in it, and I want to keep them healthy, I want to keep them safe. When people ignore these things, it tells a little bit of a different story. It says, intentionally or not, that their convenience matters more than shared environment, and that erodes trust really fast. Healthy, healthy culture is often built on very unexciting habits done consistently and showing up clean, taking care of your gear, handling your responsibilities, being considerate, those things may not feel dramatic or important, but they but they are part of what makes a place feel solid, safe, and healthy. And giving you a little um insight to how I um adhere to this, if you will, or this presents itself in in my day-to-day training. Every um before every training session I go to, I make sure I build time to take a shower, to make sure I uh put lotion in areas that need to have lotion, such as my feet, especially. I make sure my I do a nail check. I make sure I have on deodorant, body spray once I get I get my ghee on, or I make sure also that, and people wash your gis, keep them clean. I never wear the same ghee twice in one week. You may think it's not smelly, but it is. So uh, and then of course I I I try to make time at least within an hour, two hours after training, uh, once I'm home, that I take a shower to make sure that I wash anything off that might be lingering from uh training, uh dirt, grime, sweat, things like that. Um remember, respect is not just in how you roll, it's it is in how you show up overall. And sometimes culture breaks down because people ignore these basic things of trimming the fingernails and not wearing a smelly rash guard and um not taking a few moments to freshen up. And maybe, maybe you work construction or uh law enforcement or something that keeps you outside and sweaty throughout the day. You know, uh maybe it's about keeping a extra bar of deodorant in your, I don't know, your uh your gym bag or your car, your glove box, or something like that. Something as simple as just putting deodorant on before you come on the mat if you train during the day. Um but you know, just keep that in mind that one of the unspoken rules of a healthy place to train is good hygiene and taking care of yourself so your partner has a pleasant experience while you are dripping sweat all over them. So let's talk about the next um unspoken rule, and that is people should be able to learn without being afraid. There's a difference between uh feeling unsafe and being afraid in the context that I'm using the two. It's one of the most important unspoken rules of a healthy place to train. And I don't mean I don't mean without any type of challenge. I mean without fear of being mocked, fear of being dismissed, or made to feel stupid, dumb, every time or any time they don't get a technique or something something right, or they have to ask questions. Because if we're being honest, jujitsu is already kind of hard enough, and it's it's confusing, it's humbling, it's physically demanding, it puts people in vulnerable positions. And especially in the beginning, most people feel awkward, they feel overwhelmed, and and really feel behind. So if the environment of the school, the room adds shame on top of that, a lot of people are never going to settle in enough to really learn anything. And they'll eventually leave. A healthy place, a healthy place makes room for people to ask questions. It makes room for people to fail. It makes room for people to drill something badly before they drill it well, and and it makes room for people to tap without embarrassment. And that does not mean standards are low. That's important. It's important to have standards. Healthy places can have very high standards, they can be very disciplined, they can be demanding, but they create a pathway, if you will, for people to rise to a standard instead of making them feel crushed by it. Anytime something feels like a hammer, I don't see how that thing comes or becomes valuable or has any value for someone trying to learn it. The healthiest rooms know that learning requires things like repetition, patience, and humility. And you can't get those things when people feel like they're constantly being judged for being in the freaking learning process. Right? I mean, when can when you showed up your first day kindergarten, they didn't give you number two pencil sharpened uh college rule notebook paper and said, Hey, here's a book that you can't read. You need to read it and write or write a book report. No, no, that didn't happen. It just like, you know, your early education, everything was progressive. Um, one thing built on the other. And I hope you felt safe in that type of learning environment when you were in school, because you must feel that type of safety and that type of fearlessness when learning jujitsu. And I would I would ask, I would say ask yourself this question Does your training environment make people more willing to learn or or more afraid to look wrong? And if the answer is the latter, I highly encourage you to think about where you're training and if it's the place for you. Because if you're afraid to ask questions on a technique, you could get hurt, you could hurt somebody, and we're talking about like life-changing injuries for some of this stuff, especially when dealing with things like leg locks and heel hooks and um arm locks, deep arm locks, behind the back arm locks, like these things. If you don't understand the mechanics as they are taught, and if you don't have a coach that takes a few moments to talk about these things in depth and allows you to ask your question and encourage you, uh I it one of the things that the professor at Ironwolf does, and I've seen it at other academies uh too, if if no one asks questions, everybody just kind of gives the nod, he'll ask one of us a question about what he just showed. And what are thoughts to get to draw out some questions? Because especially in fundamentals classes, every at least half the class should have some type of question about a technique. Uh whether it's something, hey, where did uh you put uh what grip did you make on this collar, which side did you grab, which side did sleeve hold, did you hold, uh whatever it is. There always should be an atmosphere where people can ask questions. And I don't I don't think I've been in a class since starting jujitsu. Not not a single one where no one asked a question the entire time. Whether it was an hour class, hour and a half, two hour class, even open mats. They're full of questions. So um, you know, an environmental. That is free from fear and allows for people to ask questions. And another unspoken rule of a healthy place to train is leadership sets the tone, but everyone maintains it. Uh, you've heard the term everyone is a safety officer. It's the same mentality in a uh healthy place to train. And this matters because people sometimes act like culture is the only is only the coach's responsibility. And yes, leadership does matter a lot. A lot. The coach, the instructors, the upper belts, they they usually shape the emotional tone of the room. They model what gets rewarded, if you will, what is or what gets corrected, what get what gets ignored, and and and what the standard actually is. A healthy place usually has leaders who model consistency, humility, and accountability. I would say safety and respect as well. And they don't just teach moves, they teach tone, they teach standards, they show people what it means to train hard without losing control of, say, one's self. But leadership, that type of leadership alone is not enough for your academy because a coach can set the standard, but the room is built every day by the people on the mats. And the upper belt who helps instead of postures, the teammate who welcomes the new person, the competitor who brings intensity without recklessness, the student who doesn't spread drama. We could probably do an entire episode on toxic academies and the situations that made them fall apart. The person who cleans up, pays attention, and respects the environment. Culture is not what one person says, it's what the group consistently lives out. So if you're a part of a gym, you are part of the culture and bear a little bit of the responsibility of creating that safe environment and that great place to be. You are either reinforcing what makes it healthy, or you are contributing to what makes it weaker or unhealthy. And there really isn't a neutral setting. You know, I'm not saying that you have to be the most um verbal or vocal person about everything in the academy, but whatever norms are communicated and put in place, you should absolutely be the biggest advocate for them. Maybe ask yourself, when when you walk into your academy, are you adding to the culture you say you want? Are your actions creating a safe environment without fear that generates respect? Are you a good training partner? Do you leave your ego at the door? Are your nails trimmed? Right? What are you doing as an individual in that community to make that place a great place not just for others, but also for yourself? It's important that you as a member of that community feel like it's a place that you can train and you have some of that responsibility. So the final unspoken rule of a healthy place to train is that the right environment should make you better in more ways than one. Yes, obviously, it should improve your jujitsu, your timing should get better, your decision making should improve, your awareness should sharpen, your your skills should grow, but the best places do more than that, really. A healthy place to train should also make you make you more patient, make you more disciplined, humble, make you resilient, make you someone who's trustworthy. It should make you a better teammate. And this is all the things that you take with you off the mat. You know, so many people get into martial arts because they want to improve themselves physically, yes, but also mentally. You hear the word discipline thrown up a lot when it comes to martial arts. Like these things are the things that you're taking with you. A more composed person under pressure, it should make you a person who can handle being challenged without without falling apart. Because, you know, this these are the hidden gifts of a truly healthy environment and place to train. It doesn't just teach you how to grapple and how to roll and how to do jujitsu, it teaches you how to carry yourself. And over time, that starts showing up everywhere else in your work, in your family life. And it relieves your stress, it improves your patience, and in how you maybe handle setbacks in your life and how you treat others, the right place doesn't just make you tougher, it makes you better. And that's really that's the point of all this, people. Because when a when a place is healthy, people don't just survive there, they grow there. And at the end of the day, at the end of all this, a healthy place to train is not about having the fanciest facility, the most decorated competitors, or the toughest rounds in town. It's about trust, it's about safety, respect, it's about accountability, it's about having a culture where people can be pushed without being broken, corrected without being humiliated, and challenged without feeling like they're disposable. And the best places to train are the ones where people can can stay and approve or improve and and belong and become so you know whether you're a coach, an upper belt, a competitor, a hobbyist, or someone brand new, the question is not just is this a healthy place to train? The question is also, am I helping make it one? Because culture is not something that we just benefit from. It's something that we build. So train hard and protect your partners, respect the room, want the best for your academy and the community, leave your ego at the door, help create the kind of place you want someone you care about to walk into. Think about this. And this is something to look for if you're if you're if you're academy or school shopping or if you're looking for a place to train, how many of its members are full families? And what I mean by that, the kids train, the mom trains, the dad trains, the entire family unit trains jujitsu there. Because if someone's trusting a place with their kids, with their little ones, with their five-year-old, six-year-old, fifteen-year-old daughter, it's probably a good place. Especially if they've been there for a long time, not just this their second day and it's your first day. But if and if if there's a place that you're training or considering, have a conversation with them. Go out to coffee with the mom and dad and the kids, and just you know, find out why they train there. All you know, all the things we talked about in this episode, and I didn't think this was going to go an hour, but it's a it's a big topic and it's important. And um all of these things that we talked about is what makes a place healthy, and it's what makes a place worth training in. So I want to thank you for continuing to listen to the podcast. Um, there's there's a difficulty to podcasting. I I will say that I am starting to become extremely aware of. And it's it's this thing that in podcasting, um, it's called Pod Fade. And I didn't know what it was until probably about a well, probably about three months ago. If you'll remember in 2025, there was this huge gap of uh between episodes and content, uh content um coming out. And then this year, in contrast, uh we're I am trying to come out with stuff every week, and it's because you know, there's so much, are so many topics to talk about in jiu-jitsu. However, the challenge that I'm facing is that I am limited in the the breadth or the bandwidth of my knowledge because I've only been training jujitsu for about three and a half years, four years. Well, I'll be four, it'll be four years this year. And I'm only a blue belt, and I only have a certain amount of experiences. But the experiences that I do have are the experiences that I try to talk about in our solo episodes and the time together. It's topics um that I try to talk about with our guests, and bring all of this up to say that I hope that these topics are resonating with you and making an impact and benefiting your journey. And if there are topics that you want to hear about, uh you can reach out to me directly on the either Instagram, uh Caffeinated Jiu Jitsu IG community, or in the show notes, you can contact me directly through the show. So um, if this episode did hit home with you, uh send it to a teammate who helps make your gym a better place to train. And if you're proud of your account uh academy culture, protect it because healthy rooms don't happen by accident. And also, if you would like to come on the podcast and talk about your academy and why it's so awesome and the things that make it great, I would love, love, love to hear from you and have you on, maybe have your professor on, your coach, what have you. Also, don't forget to uh all the fun, like, subscribe, all of that stuff. Got so cliche sometimes. But just if you like the podcast and and uh the things we talk about, be sure to write a review. And until next time, which will hopefully be next week, got some exciting guests coming up, have an uh awesome return guest coming back in. Not gonna surprise uh, or I'm not gonna ruin the surprise. Um, one of my as I call jujitsu celebrities, um, that I'm just so humbled to even have the connection and be able to communicate with this person. But they're coming back on, and uh, we're going to talk about, I'll tell you the topic. It's what makes a great coach professor slash leader in jujitsu. And I cannot wait, I'm not going to tell you who it is. I cannot wait to have the conversation with this person. So until next time, keep your passion brewing.