GYM RULES

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HYGIENE AND CLEANLINESS RULES

The mats get bleached multiple times daily. However, maintaining a clean and safe gym is a team effort and goes beyond just clean mats. Contagious skin diseases such as ringworm, staph, MRSA and impetigo are common in contact sports; to minimize the risk of disease and to maintain a clean and safe environment to train in, please follow these rules below.

 

DON’T SHOW UP TO CLASS STINKY OR DIRTY

Shower before class, use deodorant, brush your teeth and wear clean training clothes to every training session. If you show up gross, you will be asked to leave or use the shower at the gym. 

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BRING A CHANGE OF CLEAN CLOTHES

If you’re hanging out after class or doing back to back classes where you’re sweating a lot, change into dry clothes. Don’t sit around in your sweaty clothes after training. It’s a good idea to have body wipes in your gym bag. Wipe yourself down, and change into dry clothes ASAP. 

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SHOWER IMMEDIATELY AFTER CLASS

Immediately after does not mean going home, making dinner and playing video games before hopping in the shower. Immediately means as soon as you get home. If you are going to work right after or have a long drive back home, you can use the shower at the gym. We also have “Full Guard” spray available at the gym. This is a Hypochlorous Acid spray that is safe for skin and will kill bacteria and fungus on your skin and is meant to hold you over until you shower. You can get similar sprays on amazon and are very helpful in preventing contagious skin diseases. 

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WASH TRAINING CLOTHES AFTER EACH SESSION

Keep your dirty training clothes separate from your clean ones and wear clean clothes to each and every training session. Clean clothes mean they haven’t been worn to the gym before. If your clothes have touched the mats and another person then they need to be washed even if you didn’t sweat and even if they don’t smell. 

Training Jiu Jitsu means A LOT of laundry. 

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WASH YOUR HANDS EVERY TIME YOU USE THE BATHROOM

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CHECK YOUR SKIN REGULARLY 
for any signs of skin infections. Look up staph, MRSA, impetigo, ringworm and mat herpes and learn what these things look like. Stop training and notify instructors immediately if you have symptoms of a skin infection. These are HIGHLY contagious and can cause an outbreak in the gym.  You must see a doctor and treat these before returning to training. 

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COVER ANY OPEN WOUNDS

and cuts during training. It’s a good idea to have liquid bandaid in your gym bag. It stays on during training and is more hygienic than regular bandaids. Notify a coach immediately if you have any open wound, rash, “pimple”, or sore. 

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IF YOU ARE SICK STAY HOME

Flu, cold, sniffles, stomach bug.. anything contagious just stay home. 

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To minimize the risk of cross contamination, please do your part in keeping the gym and the mats clean. This means: 

• Outside shoes come off at the door. Change into your flip flops or sandals. 

• Barefoot on the mats

• Flip flops must be worn any time you are off the mats ESPECIALLY in the  bathrooms. Being barefoot in the bathroom is disgusting as you track that stuff back on the mats. 

• If you are using the gym shower you must wear flip flops in the shower. If you don’t, you might get some contagious foot disease. 

• No food or drink other than water on the mats. No gum.

• Keep the gym clean by not leaving bloody napkins, band aids, your pile of dirty clothes, empty water bottles etc.. anywhere in the gym. 

• You have 30 days to pick up your items you forgot at the gym. After that we will be donating them with the exception of the pile of sweaty clothes some of you leave behind. Those will be tossed in the trash if it’s not removed in 48 hours. 

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WHAT TO WEAR

 ⁃ You must wear proper training attire. This means proper fight/ grappling shorts and a rashguard. Rashguards and pocketless shorts are mandatory and not just a suggestion. Fight shorts have no pockets and rashguards minimize skin contact, stays put during training and wicks moisture off of skin, minimizing the chance of skin infections and mat burn. Women can wear shorts or leggings, leggings must have no pockets. Proper Jiu Jitsu/ MMA attire can be purchased online. For Muay Thai, you will still need shorts with no pockets, you don’t need a rashguard. You can wear any tshirt provided it’s not loose or flowy, most people find under armor style shirts best to train in. 

 ⁃ No jeans, no shorts with pockets, no hoodies, basically no clothing fingers and toes can get caught on to. 

 ⁃ You are not required to buy our branded gear. We don’t care what color gi or what brand rashguard you wear. (Some gyms are strict on this stuff) If you do want to buy our gear, check out our academy webstore. https://zenkofightwear.com/collections/gracie-fighter-caribou

 ⁃ Guys: No leggings or spandex shorts as the top layer. You can wear these as a base layer but your top layer must be flowy. We don’t wanna see the outline of your junk. You also must have a shirt or rashguard on to train unless it’s MMA. 

 ⁃ Girls: No low cut tops, no crop tops, or any other clothing that will cause a wardrobe malfunction while rolling. 

 ⁃ No make up on the mats. 

 ⁃ If you have long hair, put your hair up. 

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SAFETY RULES

 ⁃ All jewelry including wedding bands, piercings and earrings must be removed.

 ⁃ Keep finger and toe nails short for everyone’s safety. No fake nails. 

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 TAPPING OUT

When caught in a submission, tap out. We are training, not winning medals in class. Don’t put your training partner in a position where they have to choose between letting go of a hard earned submission or hurting you. Don’t be that person, they are annoying and people will stop rolling with you if you do this. When you tap, tap on your partner. Don’t tap on the mat as your partner won’t feel you tap. You can also say tap if you are in a position where you can’t move. 

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 RESPECT THE TAP

Never intentionally hurt your partner and let go of whatever you are doing as soon as your partner taps even if they are not in a submission. Once they tap everything stops. Always respect the tap. If you don’t stop whatever you are doing when your partner taps, you will be kicked out whether or not they were in a submission. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t injure them. If you don’t respect the tap, we can’t trust you and if we can’t trust you we can’t roll with you. 

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TAKEDOWN SAFETY 

Takedowns are a common area where injuries happen, usually when people fall or step weird. As a way to minimize injuries, we do not let two white belts do takedowns with each other unless it’s a beginners class where a coach is watching or it’s a wrestling class. If you are a white belt, you can start the round standing with a blue belt and up as they can keep it controlled. If you are partnered with another white belt, start the round from a guard passing position. 

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ETIQUETTE

We are not a very strict gym when it comes to gym etiquette or political correctness. We don’t follow outdated traditions like bowing to the mat etc.. That being said, the following rules are strictly enforced. 

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WHITE BELTS DO NOT COACH, TEACH OR HELP

Do not coach or walk your partner through any technique. Not during drilling, not during rolling. Not ever. Then we have to unteach whatever nonsense you just tried to teach. You are a white belt. You aren’t trained or qualified to teach. Your only job is to sit down and learn. You will get ONE warning and if this continues you will be asked to leave class. This rule is strictly enforced. If a white belt tries to teach you something, the best thing you can do is to ignore it. 

Coaches walk around and help the class while drilling. If you are drilling and your partner is struggling, ask a coach for help. 

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BLUE BELTS CAN HELP IF ASKED TO DO SO BY A COACH.  Otherwise shut the fu#k up. 

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DURING CLASS INSTRUCTION ONLY DRILL THE TECHNIQUE SHOWN

This is the time to drill the technique shown as it is taught by your coaches. Exceptions apply to higher belts. This is not the time for side teaching, It is not the time to drill YouTube techniques. 

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ROLLING TIME IS FOR ROLLING ONLY

Do not stop the roll to ask questions, do not stop to correct your partner’s technique, don’t ask your coaches to teach mid roll. Save your questions for later. No stopping the roll to “catch a breather” or walk your partner through the finish. If you are too tired to continue training you can tap out to exhaustion. 

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SOCIAL MEDIA/ PHOTO/ VIDEO

 ⁃ We sometimes post class pictures. If you don’t want to be in them you don’t have to be in them or we can hide your face. Just let us know. 

 ⁃ Some people like to record their rounds to review and use as a learning tool. You may record your rounds ONLY IF your training partner is okay with it. 

 ⁃ You must also ask your partner for permission before posting anything on social media. Your training partner may be okay with you recording the round for personal use but not necessarily want that content posted online. 

 ⁃ Recording class instruction: Your coach may or may not be okay with being recorded, ask before you do to make sure. Don’t post class instruction on social media. We like to keep our techniques to ourselves.

 ⁃ We don’t control your social media but expect to be kicked out of the gym if you make social media posts threatening violence on anyone. If you are a creep, if you are violent, if you are convicted of any violent crime, sexual crime or any crime against children, if you are a bully or make threats of violence, we will not only ban you but we will also let all the gyms in the area know to keep the Jiu Jitsu community safe. 

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IF YOU FAIL TO FOLLOW ANY OF THE GYM RULES AND ESPECIALLY THE HYGIENE RULES YOU CAN EXPECT THE FOLLOWING COURSE OF ACTION:

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FOR YOUR FIRST OFFENSE WE WILL TALK TO YOU AND ADDRESS THE ISSUE PRIVATELY

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SECOND OFFENSE WE WILL CALL YOU OUT OPENLY IN FRONT OF EVERYONE

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THIRD OFFENSE WE WILL SUSPEND YOUR MEMBERSHIP UNTIL WE FIGURE OUT A WAY FOR YOU TO FOLLOW THESE RULES

IF YOU GET SUSPENDED FOR VIOLATING THE HYGIENE OR GYM RULES, COME BACK AND REPEAT THE SAME BEHAVIOR YOU WILL BE PERMANENTLY BANNED