News

This past IBJJF World Championships was quite the roller coaster! As usual, the event was packed with the best of the best in the world, and the matches showcased epic battles between well-established veterans and fresh new faces. 

This World Championships featured a number of incredible upsets, but as you all know, one of the beautiful things about jiu-jitsu is that nobody is always on top. One day can be all yours, and the next it's somebody else's. It keeps us humble, and it keeps us hungry for more. 

That being said, we can't be more proud of the amazing performances of all of our Kingz athletes. They went out there and represented all of the qualities that we value: drive, persistence, resilience and passion for the gentle art. 

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Jiu-jitsu has become so ubiquitous in today’s world, that’s hard to go anywhere without seeing a jiu-jitsu academy, or running into someone who either does it, or knows someone who trains. It’s really quite amazing. Unfortunately, with such rapid global expansion, the community tends to lose sight of the roots of the art.

Sure, nearly every Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner will have a cursory knowledge of its origins, and anyone worth their stripes will know of the Gracie family and the fact that they played a big part in its expansion, but few will know much more beyond that.

If you don’t have the time to do your own in-depth research – you have families, jobs, school, etc. – you should know just a few more details about the history of the "gentle art." So here’s a short cheat sheet of things to know, starting with its origins in the ancient martial traditions of Japan, to its transformation in Brazil, and finally to its global prominence today.

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Academy promotions can happen at any time of the year. There’s nothing that dictates when they should occur. Indeed, promotions of single individuals within a jiu-jitsu academy can happen any time. Not everybody will be ready to rank up at the same time.

That being said, there has been a trend toward academies holding organized promotions twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter. As we come into one of the major promotion seasons, you’ll see many of your friends – and, hey, your foes too – ranking up.  

So we thought now would be a good time to give some advice on how to stay on track as far as ranking up goes.

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Another IBJJF Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships in the books... and the Kingz athletes did not disappoint!

Pans has always been a peek into what we can expect at the upcoming World Championships. And if this Pans is any gauge, it will be epic. This year, we saw returning champions add another title to their resume, as well as dark horses putting their names on everyone's lips with epic battles and emotional upsets. 

We are always very proud of every one of our sponsored athletes who go out there and represent us at the world's biggest events. And when they bring home that gold, it's even better. Here's the shortlist of Kingz athletes who brought it home...

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If you’ve been training jiu-jitsu long enough, you’ve been there: burnout. It’s a scary feeling. For some, it’s a heavy lethargy that weighs you down as you try to convince yourself to go train after a long day. For others, it’s a realization that you’ve come to dread stepping on the mat. For all, it’s the loss of that initial joy for the gentle art that motivated you go, rain or shine.

It's real, and it happens to everyone. Multiple times, even. I’ve experienced it at least once or twice every belt level, to some degree or another. You can’t avoid it. The good news, however, is that there are ways to manage it. And here’s how...

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