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Home » Finding a BJJ School » Does a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor have to be certified to teach?
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Does a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor have to be certified to teach?

- John Q. Whitebelt

Posted by John Q. Whitebelt in Finding a BJJ School | 1 comment

Community Answers

  1. 68
    9-8-14
    Marshal D. Carper says:

    No. Anyone can open a school and claim to teach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They can claim to teach anything they want, and they can claim to be any rank that they want. No organization will step in and fine them or shut down their school.

    Ultimately, you want to train under a legitimate instructor, someone who learned what he is teaching from another legitimate instructor (or instructors, plural) and so on. What we are talking about here is lineage. If you can verify an instructor’s lineage, you can generally confirm whether or not he is credible. It’s not foolproof, but that’s the best place to start. On this front, jiu-jitsu associations make this work easier. If a school is part of a credible association—like Pedro Sauer, Gracie Barra, Alliance, Checkmat, etc—you can fairly quickly confirm an instructor’s credentials.

    Beyond that, Google searches can help. Look for articles written about the instructor or forum threads about the school. Take criticisms and complaints with a grain of salt, of course, but be on the lookout for accusations of fake belts or inflated credentials. This is not a huge problem in the sport, but it happens.

    Lastly, you should not be afraid to talk to your instructor about his training history. As long as you are polite, an instructor should be more than happy to talk to you about their training experience and training history.

    When in total doubt, visit a website like Sherdog.com or reddit.com/r/bjj and ask them about schools in your area.

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