r/BJJWomen•
levvianthan

I love the people I roll with but my gym isn't a good fit anymore

Advise From Women ONLY

I have a very cliche "how can I bite the bullet and just switch gyms" problem that I guess I need to get my thoughts out about on reddit.

I've been doing bjj for a little over 2 years and I average 3 sessions a week (4 if you count open mat) I love bjj its really fun for me and I really really like all the guys at the gym that I go to. Except... for the head coach. But he's easy to avoid bc there are other black and brown belts who teach classes and help me out a lot. (TLDR: i'm friends with his ex and he did her real dirty in the breakup. it has nothing to do with bjj but he definitely knows my opinion even though we keep it professional)

Honestly the problem I have is that the head coach is the only one who gives out stripes or belts and its also a gym that requires a belt test or for you to do well at a comp to get a new belt. I don't really care for competing because I hate all the attention being on me and honestly I just ain't got that dog in me. So i'll admit I AM a little bit bitter about how if I stay at this gym I'm never going to advance just because I refuse to essentially pay for a belt. I'm not convinced I'm necessarily at blue belt level now, and I don't know that I care about it that much, except there is something that feels fishy about how men who have been training less than me recently got theirs and I didn't. I was also traveling and a few people at the open mats I dropped in at were surprised I'm not a blue belt. I don't know maybe I'm full of myself and reading too much into it.

The other issue is that the women's class at this gym recently disbanded and all the regular women left with it. That has left me as the sole adult woman on the mats 90% of the time and makes it hard to gauge my progress. I joined this gym because of the community of women here and now that's disappeared except for me and a couple other stubborn b*tches lol.

There is a gym that I'm able to cross train at for really cheap and I think what I really need to do is let go of my annoyance about belts and go there more often except for the specific class i know my bros are going to be at. I am also currently in a bit of a life transition period and I'm skeptical if I'm even going to be living in the same area in the next 6-9 months (i'm trying to go to grad school next year) so I'm kind of thinking I'll suck it up, stick it out at this gym just for my bros, and then head out when i move.

But what do yall think? should I leave now? would you?

Posted Jul 25, 2026, 7:40 PM UTC

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