Every "best BJJ YouTubers" list on the internet is a scrape. The same handful of large channels, ranked by subscriber count, written by someone who has never trained. Nobody asked the creators anything, and nobody asked the people watching them either.

So we did both, in two directions.

First we put the question to two rooms full of practitioners, the BJJ EVERYTHING Facebook group and r/bjj: who do you actually watch? Then we opened a questionnaire to the people making the stuff, asking them to introduce themselves in their own words and to pick the single video they would want someone who has never seen their work to watch first. Some names came from the rooms. Some came from creators who found the form and answered it. A few came from both.

r/bjj· 56 comments

The names the rooms returned were not the famous ones. The most-recommended creator appears on none of the lists currently ranking for this question. Neither does the second.

The nineteen profiles that follow are the people who answered the questionnaire. Every quote is theirs, published with their permission. After them is everyone else, verified but not interviewed.

"Explore different martial arts, test my skills in unique challenges, interview the public about martial arts, and dive into the history and practicality of different combat disciplines."

He is the only person on this page for whom making the content is itself the whole job, and he gave up a great deal to make it so. Eli Knight, further down, also does jiu-jitsu for a living, but he teaches for it and films because of it.

It started as documentation rather than a career. "I was a BJJ nomad traveling the world competing for a couple years as a blue belt, and thought it'd be cool to document it."

He is also the bluntest person we asked about the actual problem with making jiu-jitsu content, and it is worth putting next to everything else on this page.

That is the reason his videos look the way they do. He is not making content for the mats, he is making it for "anyone, from a jiu jitsu nerd to your uncle who doesn't know anything about martial arts but probably watched UFC one time."

The cost lands in the edit. Asked what the hardest part is: "Editing. It takes me editing the whole day every day for a week to get one video out. I've spent a month editing a video before."

His answer on whether the work made his jiu-jitsu better is the only one that credits the comment section, which almost nobody would admit.

On filming other people he is relaxed about being told no. "Some people just don't wanna be on camera, and that's totally fine. There are plenty of other people who do. Just be nice and cool to people."

What he is proudest of that flopped: "A video about car jitsu. I thought it was cool. The numbers say otherwise."

What is on his camera roll that will never get posted is the best answer anyone gave to that question: "A giant eastern European guy bulldozing me in an IBJJF Open in Europe. He was some kind of rebel who had been tortured by enemy forces from another country at one point, and had 2 broken arms. I was bewildered."

Josh Beam BJJ

YouTube video

Trains at:

Follow: @joshbeambjj on YouTube · @joshbeambjj on Instagram · @joshbeambjj on TikTok

"I make travel vlogs where I visit unique gyms and communities around the world, with the goal to understand new cultures and lives through Jiu Jitsu."

He runs two channels on purpose, and the reason is the most useful thing any creator told us. carsahh is match commentary and sparring footage, built for beginners who want to hear how someone thinks during a roll. Carsahh EX is the travel work, and he writes it to be watchable by people who do not train at all.

The split came out of a failure. He made a vlog about competing at IBJJF No-Gi Euros and posted it to the commentary channel, because the travel channel did not exist yet. It underperformed badly. "The commentary lovers didn't enjoy the vlogs," he said, and that was the moment the two audiences became two channels. He still rewatches it: "I still watch it from time to time to inspire myself and remember how far I've come."

He answered our questions from Peru, and the answer to what he wishes people understood about making BJJ content is worth quoting at length:

"I'm sitting in Peru right now as I type this eating ceviche that costs $3, accommodation covered, flights covered, and a four figure deal to help with expenses AND make money off this trip. This all happened because I put so much effort into building relationships and being a good friend to everyone."

That philosophy is also his answer to filming etiquette. Asked whether a gym has ever told him no: "A few times, but like I said build your relationships and your reputation will speak for itself."

He got into it for the money, and says so plainly. "I wanted to make money off jiujitsu while doing it, and that brought me to YouTube." The first thing he posted was "a really trash vlog at a camp in South Carolina with Ricardo Liborio." Asked whether it is a living now: "As of July and August I'll be making more money from content than any other thing I've ever done. We'll see about after that though lol."

On whether filming everything has hurt his actual jiu-jitsu, he was the least conflicted of anyone we asked: "So much easier. Get your reps in."

Carsahh

YouTube video

He came back three days later and filled in every question he had skipped, which is how we know that the submission he most wants back is not a competition clip. "The one time the head of FloGrappling submitted me, sorry Ben." He also has a technique named after him by accident: "The Sunsetter triangle has been my day one. It's a hip bump triangle but I started calling in the Sunsetter as a white belt and it caught on."

The most common message in his inbox is from someone about to compete for the first time, and his standing answer to it is the shortest thing he said to us: "Remember you asked for this. You wanted it. You took action to be here, so own it."

He left one more thing, unprompted, for anyone reading this who is thinking about starting.

Trains at:

Follow: @carsahh on Instagram · @carsahh on YouTube · @carsahhEx on YouTube

"i travel to jiu jitsu gyms and events, documenting the people, culture, and communities that make the sport special."

He is the smallest creator on this page by a factor of thirty, and he gave the most considered answers of anyone we asked. He writes in lower case, does this alongside a full-time career, and describes it plainly as a hobby.

He also does the same thing Carsahh does, and has arrived at the opposite conclusion about it.

The full answer, on whether filming has helped or hurt his own jiu-jitsu: "visiting so many gyms has exposed me to different coaches and techniques, partners to roll with, and styles to test my game against. at the same time, filming can be distracting, and constantly traveling means I lose some of the consistency that comes from training at one academy under the same coach... you need a coach who knows your game, training partners who push you consistently, and a community that holds you accountable. local gyms are the backbone of jiu jitsu, and I think it's important that we support them, not just financially, but by being active members of those communities."

Asked why he started filming at all: "i feel that those who deserve the most recognition are often the least likely to seek it. i want gym owners, members, and leaders in the community to feel seen and encouraged for all of their hard work and dedication."

On the hardest part of the job, he offered something nobody else did:

"most people don't know this about me, but i have terrible anxiety. every time i walk into a new gym, my heart races and i freak out. it can be intimidating on its own to walk into a new gym. on top of that i need to earn the coaches trust that i am there to represent their gym well, im not trying to highlight clip their white belts for views."

Which leads directly to the clearest statement of filming etiquette anyone gave us. He always asks. Some gyms have said no, and every one of them changed its mind after watching him train first.

"i have no issue with a gym saying no. being cautious of filming is the right thing to do as an owner or coach in my opinion. if someone tells me they don't want to be filmed, i make note of that and make sure they're not in my content. it's all about consent."

He also keeps a rule we have not heard from anyone else: he never posts his own submissions from a gym he is visiting. He is there to represent the room, not to farm clips out of it.

rollwithmekmg

Instagram post

His three recommendations for a traveling grappler, all chosen for the same reason, that their open mats draw people in from other gyms: Rolling Oak in the North Bay, Ralph Gracie Berkeley in the East Bay, and 10th Planet Sacramento. The best open mat he has ever dropped into was Combat Therapy in Santa Rosa, one of the first gyms he ever filmed.

Trains at:

Follow: @rollwithmekmg on Instagram

"Entertaining jiujitsu content of either grappling strangers, Bjj breakdowns, or competition days."

He is the only person here who is not at least a purple belt, and the only one still in school. Asked whether the content pays: "I'm a college student right now, so this is how I make my money during the school year and summer. But it's not a lot lol." Alongside that he has a Gold BJJ sponsorship and a product he is building in public.

He started because his older brother was posting on YouTube. The first thing he put out was, in his words, "a crumby highlight reel."

His answer on filming etiquette is the one every traveling grappler should read before walking into someone else's gym with a camera:

The full version: "Usually I ask the guy I'm rolling with if he minds if I film. Also I don't like to film on the first day dropping into a new place unless I sent an email or dm previously." Given that his content is largely built on grappling strangers, that restraint is the whole reason gyms keep letting him back in.

On what he wishes people understood: "Anyone can make good content, it's about reps the more you do the better you get. Also it's about luck, but the more you do something the better of a chance you have to get lucky."

And on the part nobody talks about, which is running out of things to film: "my days are mostly the same. I'm starting to think I need projects instead of daily life to post."

The best open mat he has ever dropped into was Pure MMA's Fourth of July session. "Had hundreds of people and great vibes, I made a video on it."

sarnella_bjj

Instagram post

Most common DM he gets: people telling him to pull up to their gym, or asking to grapple him. Favorite submission to film is an armbar. Favorite one to actually hit is a rear naked choke. Asked what is on his camera roll that will never get posted: "Lots lol."

He is also the only creator here who runs an open mat you can just turn up to. It is on the last Wednesday of every month at Core, it starts at 7pm, it is gi and no-gi, and his words were "all are welcome."

Trains at:

Follow: @sarnella_bjj on Instagram · @Sarnella_bjj on YouTube

"Documentation content." He started filming because he wanted "a memory bank of my Bjj journey," and the first thing he posted was, by his own account, "the worst highlight reel ever."

His YouTube channel description is the whole ethos in one line:

He also runs a college jiu-jitsu program, which is the piece of his work he is proudest of and which has drawn the least attention. Asked what he made that did not perform, he named his first college program video.

He is the shortest answerer of the three and the funniest for it. What he wishes people understood about making content: "If you wanna make it keep posting." Hardest part: "Editing." Whether a gym has ever told him no: "Yes. And I said okay and just trained like normal." Whether the content pays: "Side income." Whether it made his jiu-jitsu better: "Better."

Most common DM: "How to get better." Favorite submission to film is any flying submission. Favorite to hit is a rear naked choke. On what will never get posted: "No comment."

The best open mat he has ever dropped into is Carbon SG. His parting request, in full, was: "Send me groceries."

bjjstrugs

YouTube video

Trains at:

Follow: @bjjstruggles on Instagram · @bjjstrugs on YouTube · @bjjstruggles on TikTok

"Anything and everything jiu jitsu from skits, opinions, etc."

He is the only person here who did not decide to do this. His coach did.

What he posted first was a highlight video, and it "did horrible." So he switched to comedy skits, in his words, for longevity. "And hey it worked."

Asked who the content is for, he did not narrow it at all: "Everyone. People that train and people who don't train."

The question that got the best answer out of him was what he is proudest of that did not perform. He named a video about post-practice poops, and he is still annoyed about it: "I thought that was gonna be a banger cause I feel like that was relatable."

He is also the only creator here who says making content made his jiu-jitsu better for a reason nobody else gave. Not reps, not review. Pressure.

That cuts both ways. Asked what the hardest part is, he did not say filming or editing: "Training around, it definitely gets in the way when your thinking about content and then training and forgetting the drill because your thinking of a video."

No gym has ever told him no, which he attributes to asking first. "Not yet. But I would completely understand, I would make sure with the owner first."

On what he wishes people understood: "A lot of work goes into a 10 second clip let alone any of these clips." And, separately, the most honest line anyone gave us about the grind: "I wish I could keep pushing out content but it's hard when you want to be original."

It pays a little. "I do this for the love of the game, but mostly just side income." The most common DM he gets is people asking him to buy them a rashguard, plus oil check comments. The creator he thinks nobody talks about is Jiu Jitsu Johnny.

The best open mat he has dropped into was Pure MMA's Fourth of July session, hundreds of people, and he made a video about it. The gym he would send a traveling grappler to is his own.

He picked one video for someone who has never seen his work. His entire explanation was "No words needed": the reel

His parting message, unprompted, was for the reader rather than for us: "I want to tell people that if they have a dream go out and chase it!"

Follow: @adriandoesjiujitsu on Instagram

"I teach proper gym etiquette."

That is his own one-line description of an account whose entire premise is the dirty move of the month, and the joke is the point. He is a black belt under Steve Rosenberg at Dteam Jiu Jitsu, and the wristlocks and borderline techniques are a delivery mechanism for a running commentary on how people behave in a gym.

He is also the only person here doing this with an explicit business plan attached. Asked why he started: "Brand awareness to prepare to someday open my own gym someday."

That is a long game and he knows it. Asked whether the content is a living, a side income or a money pit, he did not pretend: "Not much money in this game. Playing the long game for my own gym. I get free merch but have to pay for props and beer for people who help."

His advice is the flat opposite of the usual creator wisdom.

Asked whether a gym has ever refused to let him film, he answered in character, which is to say by grading their etiquette instead: "Other gyms have always showed my great hospitality and let me go barefoot in the bathroom to the mats or shoes on the mat."

Whether it made his own jiu-jitsu better: "Better. I get to have fun when I roll trying moves that humiliate my white belts."

Favorite submissions to film, inevitably, are wristlocks and trash compactors. The creator he thinks nobody talks about is Rich Castro.

dirtymovesjiujitsu

Instagram post

Follow: @dirtymovesjiujitsu on Instagram · @dteamjiujitsu on Instagram

"I make jiujitsu memes and comedic skits."

He did not start there. He started by filming competitions, trying to push people to try the sport, and the comedy was a discovery rather than a plan. "After making a couple funny reels and seeing those take off I realized that I could also motivate and entertain through my humor."

He is the most cheerfully unbothered person on this page about numbers.

The thing he wishes people understood is the cost of the job to the training, and he is more specific about it than anyone else we asked: "If you have the 'content creator brain' of constantly thinking about what's next content wise it can make it difficult to be in the moment when training."

No gym has ever told him no, and his answer about why is the most generous version of that question anyone gave: "A gym is a second home and to have some random dude show up and ask to film at your home would be… weird haha so I wouldn't judge or be upset."

It is not paying yet, but the direction is right: "It started off as a money pit, turned into a slight side income and I'm looking to hopefully make it a living soon."

Asked which creator nobody talks about, he nominated himself. "FOLLOW ME! I'm still an underdog."

burro_bjj

Instagram post

Follow: @burro_bjj on Instagram

"I make mostly humorous content about BJJ ranging from whiteboard reels to skits, while documenting my journey competing at adult black belt."

The comedy came first, and from further away than jiu-jitsu.

Her first viral reel was about how to write a stereotypically insufferable Instagram caption after competing, which tells you the register.

Her answer about what she is proudest of that did not perform is the most quietly brutal thing anyone sent us, and it is about the competing rather than the content: "I spent the past eight years putting hours into training, lifting, studying, rehab and recovery for a 20 sec caio terra ankle lock highlight reel that looks goofy and no one finds truly significant. In truth all of these competition achievements are a dime a dozen and its hard to stand out clawing it out to be the best."

She has a firm view on where BJJ comedy goes wrong: "It doesnt need to be dirty or 'gay' to be funny. Just like all other comedy, good content tells a story or makes a point in a new way."

Making content improved her jiu-jitsu by lowering the temperature of it. "Better. It helps me relax and build skills outside of just trying to out porrada everyone."

She also runs one of the few standing women's open mats in this article, at Kogaion, twice a week, and has done for four years.

berimbozo

Instagram post

Trains at:

Follow: @berimbozo on Instagram · @berimbozo on YouTube

"I make bjj content that is relatable, simple and humorous to help people learn."

He started for the least romantic reason on this page, and it worked immediately.

That was December 2023, when he moved to Mississippi as a military spouse. His very first post did 1.1 million views. His own assessment: "Got lucky."

He is a stay-at-home parent, and the content is a side income he does for the love of it.

His answer about what people misunderstand is the longest and least sentimental thing in our inbox, and it lands on personality rather than craft: "You can understand the algorithm, the formula of hook, pacing and all that shit, but if you have no personality, and it comes off as acting no one will care. You have to truly be yourself to build a following." He found his own register by dropping the teaching voice entirely: "I just started talking online the way I do to my students. Like an impatient 80s 90s father."

He also noticed the thing most instructors never admit. "I noticed that only educational content always bombed. So you have to find a way to make it stick."

On whether it improved his jiu-jitsu, he is unequivocal and it is a coaching argument: "Made it way better in my opinion. I believe if it doenst look smooth and crisp while teaching and talking, you don't know it well enough."

He trains at a base gym where the population turns over constantly, which is why the faces in his videos keep changing. He asks everyone before filming. "More often than not, since we get tons of visitors they ask to be in my videos."

Follow: @black_belt_randy on Instagram · @Blackbeltrandy on YouTube

"I make content about self-development through Jiu-Jitsu and fitness."

Her origin story is the funniest admission anyone made. "I hated my job at the time and loved strength training. I thought I was going to be a famous fitness YouTuber. My first post was me posing in a bikini at the beach."

What she does now is a long way from that, and she is the only person here whose stated goal for the content is what it does to the audience rather than for them.

She is also the only creator who named long-form as the thing she is proudest of precisely because it is unrewarded: "My YouTube in general. There's a lot of resistance to doing long-form content, so whenever I post there, I'm generally pretty proud."

Making content improved her jiu-jitsu through the explaining rather than the training. "Trying to be consistent in content creation made me ask more questions, think more about the game, and helped me become a better communicator."

On filming other people she has the strictest policy of anyone we asked, and she volunteered it: "If it's my first time visiting a gym, I don't usually pull my camera out. I like to check the energy in the gym before turning my camera on. When I am ready, I always ask the people being recorded if it's okay. I think it's weird to record and post people without their permission."

The most common message she gets is from people about to compete for the first time, asking for advice. What will never get posted is the crying. "I've cried after competitions, after hard practices, mid-stretch. I'm an emotional girlie, but I won't be posting that for the world to see."

kiaya.j

Instagram post

Trains at:

Follow: @kiaya.j on Instagram · @KiayaJ on YouTube · Patreon

"We are the BJJ Podcast that you look forward to because it feels like you are sitting down with your boys."

The partnership started as a straight trade, and they are refreshingly unsentimental about it.

That is the whole format, really. A purple belt and a second-degree black belt talking, with the gap between them doing the work. Asked who it is for: "This pod is for everyone from casuals, to competitors. It isn't a technical pod, though it can be. It is like hanging with your boys on the mats after class is over. We are a vibe."

What they are proudest of that did not perform has a nice symmetry with this article, because the subject is two sections above.

They are the only people here who say the job has stopped being hard: "None of it is difficult at this point. We have developed a system over the last few years. Editing is by far the most time consuming, but that's because we want to release the best quality product to our audience."

And they are clear-eyed about what it pays, which almost nobody in this space says out loud: "Very few people are making a living on the content side of things. We are married with families and careers. It pays for itself and makes us a little side cash, but we aren't quitting our jobs, yet."

BJJ Balance

YouTube video

Follow: @bjjbalance on Instagram · @bjjbalance on YouTube · bjjbalance.com · @kennydoesbjj · @oss_nation_bjj

"Dumb BJJ comedy videos."

He is the only person here who was in the directory below before he was in this section. We found him ourselves, wrote him up in one line, and then he answered the questionnaire.

The origin is an accident, and he tells it without any varnish: "I was filming my rolls and wanted to start posting it as I had all this footage. I had one viral video of my choking a guy unconscious and it snowballed from there. I leaned into making comedy videos as I just found them funny."

He is also the only person who answered the question about whether content has improved his jiu-jitsu in the negative, and he did it in a way that makes the honest version funnier than the flattering one.

The workload answer is the one every person considering this should read first: "Making, thinking of and posting everyday is a lot of work. I usually plan a weeks worth of content or ideas at a time so it's like having another job."

It does pay, through sponsors rather than platforms, and he is unbothered either way: "Even if I never saw a penny from it I'd still do it because I'm having fun."

Asked what is on his camera roll that will never get posted, he was the only person here who answered with nothing at all held back: "Everything will be posted."

adamforsterbjj

Instagram post

He runs an open mat at his own gym, Wednesdays at 7:30pm and Saturdays at 9am in Kent, and the gym he would send a traveling grappler to is the same one: "I'm completely bias so my gym 40 Licks Jiu Jitsu Club."

Trains at:

Follow: @adamforsterbjj on Instagram

"Jiujitsu comedy content injected with hints of anime, cats, bowhunting, The Joker, and 80s dance music."

That is the single most specific answer anybody gave to what they make, and it is not a bit. He also got here sideways. Adrian, asked which creator nobody talks about, named him. Johnny found the questionnaire himself two days after the article went up, which makes him the only profile on this page that started as another creator's recommendation.

He started long before jiu-jitsu, and the lineage is exactly what the content looks like.

His first jiu-jitsu post was a TikTok of a slam that got him disqualified from a superfight. "The video actually gained some traction and it was pretty much off to the races."

The hard part for him is not the camera, it is casting: "Coordinating multiple people to help you film and participate in the videos. Lots of my videos are just me because so many people are unwilling or unable to help you film in a gym setting." That is the same constraint Adam Forster named a section above, and between them they explain why so much BJJ comedy is one person talking to a tripod.

What he is proudest of that flopped: a run of Stranger Things parodies made during the show's final season. "I thought they were hilarious."

huntjitsu91

Instagram post

He is the most prolific open-mat visitor of anyone we asked, with seven named across two states, and his answer came with an open invitation: "Seriously if anyone reading this has a good open mat that needs to be checked out please DM me."

The content is a side income for now. "The goal is absolutely to make a living wage. YouTube channel is in the works."

Trains at:

Follow: @huntjitsu91 on Instagram · @jiujitsu_johnny on TikTok

"I teach jiu-jitsu classes, private lessons and seminars."

Everyone else on this page is answering a question about content. He is answering a question about a career that happens to be filmed, and he has been filming it for longer than most of them have been training.

Twenty years. Nobody else here is within a decade of that. He has been training for over thirty, and the belt history is the sort of thing that stops a conversation: "I received my blue belt from Helio Gracie, then all other rank from Royce Gracie." He adds, carefully, "I am no longer a member of his network, but I will always appreciate and respect him."

The audience that grew out of it is not the one you would guess from the lineage. "I have a very mixed following, but I think mostly newer people when they start training. I also have a big self defense following."

What he wishes people understood is the closest thing this exercise produced to an argument about the whole business, and it comes from the most senior person we asked.

The striking part is who agrees with him. Kev, the smallest creator on this page and roughly nineteen years behind him, gave the same answer unprompted: "you dont always need to put others down to lift yourself up. the algorithm, human desire for drama, and the aggressive nature of combat sports can make negativity feel like the easiest path to growth."

His hardest part is the inverse of everyone else's. Adam Forster and Jiujitsu Johnny cannot get anybody to appear on camera. Eli's gym is too full: "Filming is currently the hardest because the gym is busy much of the time, and don't want to be intrusive and film during training."

He has the most-traveled answer on filming etiquette, and it is four words longer than it needs to be for a reason: "I've trained at hundreds of gyms and everyone has always been cool with me filming for the most part."

What he is proudest of that did not perform is a straight technical preference. "I like posting deep half and crucifix videos, but they aren't the strongest performers on my channel."

Knight Jiu-Jitsu

YouTube video

His best open mat is his own, and unlike the others who said that, he made it about the room rather than the level: "The open mats are packed, there is zero pretentiousness, everyone trains with everyone, and the culture is amazing." They were already in the directory, and they take all comers "regardless of affiliation."

Trains at:

Follow: @knightjiujitsu on YouTube · @knight_jiu_jitsu_ on Instagram · @knightjiujitsu on TikTok · Patreon

"I make long form Jiu-Jitsu videos on YouTube."

He is the only person here who declined to name his gym, and he answered everything else at length. The format he is known for did not come from jiu-jitsu at all.

His diagnosis of what was missing is blunt and, once you have heard it, hard to unhear: "most Jiu-Jitsu instructional content is just two people sat on camera. Rather than make the same videos as everyone else, I decided I'd make the sorts of videos that I thought would be more enjoyable." The first one was called The Science of Guard Retention.

Asked who the videos are for, he gave the only answer of its kind we received.

The one he is proudest of that flopped was a piece of advocacy. He made an early video on Oliver Taza before Taza's match with Tainan, because he thought FloGrappling was underselling him. "Unfortunately, it didn't work out."

What he wishes people understood is the only complaint in the whole questionnaire, and it is a fair one:

The hardest part is not filming or editing. It is reading. "Research for a script. I have to watch the instructional, make notes and then watch matches and that's before I sit down to write my scripts." He is also one of only two people who said the work has made their own jiu-jitsu worse, and he was specific about the trade: "Instead of spending hours editing videos, I could definitely be watching more instructionals or training."

Rixty Garami

YouTube video

Both his answers about where to train were the same place, and it is a club that appears in the directory further down as a creator in its own right.

Follow: @RixtyGarami on YouTube

"BJJ Instructor."

Two words, from the highest-ranked person on this page. He was born in Czechoslovakia and arrived in the United States at seventeen as a political refugee. He now runs three New Jersey academies and produced the UFC contender Erin Blanchfield. He did not go looking for a channel either. Somebody asked him.

The audience follows from the premise of his game rather than from any content strategy: "Generally geared towards experienced jujiteiros who have a hard time controlling and submitting larger and more athletic opponents." He weighs 160 pounds, which is the whole point, and it produced the best answer anyone gave to what they were proudest of that did not perform.

His one line about teaching on camera is the argument the entire page has been circling without stating: "Many times there are more than 1 answer to a particular problem, but the one that doesn't require a lot athleticism or strength is probably most efficient."

The hardest part, for him, is compression. "Getting my point across in a short time frame as some of them have several critical aspects." On whether it has helped his own jiu-jitsu he is unequivocal, and gives the coach's reason: "Anything that makes you explain and rep technique precisely will make you better."

He is also the only person here whose open mat has the opposite problem to everyone else's. It got too popular.

If you are passing through New Jersey, that last clause is the one that matters. Our listing has been corrected to say so.

Tristar Gym

YouTube video

Trains at:

Follow: Silver Fox BJJ on YouTube · @silverfoxbjj on Instagram · silverfoxbjj.com

"Easy to digest Jiu Jitsu principles, concepts, and techniques for all belts, with a focus on beginners using systems rather than individual moves."

The portrait above is not an accident of casting. Asked what the first thing he ever posted was, he had to think about it, and the answer was not jiu-jitsu: "Bodybuilding for Jiu Jitsu, I believe." The most common message in his inbox is still "How much protein do you eat?"

He is the first person here to say the hardest part is solved rather than endured. "Editing, but luckily I have an editor." He also owns the two gyms he trains at, which is where the income actually comes from, with the channel supplementing it.

His answer on filming etiquette is the most complete anybody gave, and it is a promise rather than a policy.

He has never been told no. Reading that next to kev's answer, the two of them have independently arrived at the same contract with the room: ask first, and do not farm the room for clips.

On what people misunderstand, he makes a point nobody else made, about the subject matter rather than the work: "You're covering a detail rich martial art so the content will most likely be detail rich as well. It's not easy, but it's worthwhile."

Will Brooks Official

YouTube video

What he is proudest of that flopped is a competition guide for beginners, which he described as "not your usual tips."

Both his gyms run an open mat that visitors can walk into, and neither was in our directory until he told us. They are now.

Trains at:

Follow: Will Brooks Official on YouTube · @willbrooksofficial on Instagram · @will.brooks.official on TikTok

"I make short form lifestyle and Jiu Jitsu content because I love creating."

He is here because somebody else on this page put him here. Jiujitsu Johnny, asked which creator nobody talks about, named Thy Prophet Isaiah. The two of them train four minutes apart in the same small Wisconsin city and had not, as far as we can tell, been asked about each other before.

His origin story is the most honest answer in the whole questionnaire, and he flagged it himself as he wrote it.

Nobody else admitted that. Several described chasing an audience; he is the only one who called it an addiction. What he is proudest of that did not perform sits directly against it: "my older content not related to jiu jitsu, I posted a lot of videos based on Jesus and I feel those were the most impactful."

And what he wishes people understood is four words long, followed by the part that makes it land: "It is not easy lol. Most of the time I don't want to make it."

The content is a side income. His actual job is making content full time for brands outside jiu-jitsu, which is a different relationship to a camera than anybody else here has.

thyprophetisaiah

Instagram post

His gym runs an open mat every Saturday from noon, open to anyone, and he sells it on the thing that matters to a visitor: "It's a large space with great people and no training fee."

Trains at:

Follow: @thyprophetisaiah on Instagram · @theprophetisaiah on TikTok

Jiu-jitsu creators are native to exactly one platform

Something showed up once we started counting followers, and it is the most concrete finding here. Almost nobody is big in two places at once.

Xavier Debique has roughly 34,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok. On YouTube he has 357. That is not a rounding difference, it is a different career. Carsahh runs the opposite way: 30,000 on YouTube against 18,400 on Instagram.

Nathan Sarnella is the rare exception, at 35,100 and 12,100, which is close to balanced by the standards of everyone else on this page.

The outlier worth sitting with is Roger Costa, whose real audience is on Facebook, a platform no creator list covers. Which is also, for what it is worth, where we found most of the recommendations for this article.

Everybody here is bad at jiu-jitsu, apparently

Read enough of these and a pattern gets hard to ignore. Xavier's handle is bjjstruggles and his channel promises to showcase how bad he is at it. Rose Miller, a black belt, named her brand Tryhard Hobbyist and sells a course called "Suck Less." One of the two biggest podcasts in the sport is called I Suck At Jiu Jitsu, hosted by a black belt who owns three schools.

The people selling humility are, with striking regularity, the most decorated people in the room.

Everyone else the room named

Two communities were asked the same question, BJJ EVERYTHING on Facebook and r/bjj. What follows is everyone who came up, plus a short section at the end of people we went and found ourselves, marked as such. Real names, ranks, gyms and handles were all checked in August 2026.

Named in both communities

6

Ten people came up independently in both rooms, which is the closest thing to a consensus this exercise produced. Three of them answered the questionnaire and are profiled above; here are the rest.

Jordan Preisinger

Jordan Teaches Jiu Jitsu · 2nd degree black belt, Limitless BJJ, Trenton, Ontario

Concept-driven breakdowns plus "rolling commentary," where he narrates his own live rounds to explain what he is deciding and why. His most-watched video is a prank in which he enters a gym posing as a white belt.

YouTubeInstagram

Rose Miller

rosierollz · Black belt, Corvus Grappling Collective, San Diego

Guard retention and escapes taught explicitly for hobbyists rather than competitors, under a brand called Tryhard Hobbyist.

InstagramYouTube

Dominique Bell

Dubious Dom · Black belt under Andre Galvao, Atos

Straight instruction on guard passing, De La Riva and the errors beginners repeat. An artist before he was a grappler, and he still draws his own gear.

InstagramYouTube

Jason Rau

Black belt under Matt Serra · Vanguard Academy, Long Island

Leg-lock heavy no-gi instruction.

InstagramYouTube

CholoMMA

An Atlanta crew, not one person

Comedy instruction delivered in character, best known for the flannel choke series that turns an ordinary shirt into a lapel-choke system.

InstagramYouTube

The BJJ Project

Founded 2024, Sydney · Will Feyen and Nathan Gyaneshwar

Sells a diagnostic rather than a technique library: you take a scored self-assessment, and the curriculum is prescribed against your weakest areas.

InstagramYouTube

The teachers

6

Named in one room or the other. All of them teach for a living, and the content is downstream of that.

Nick Albin

Chewjitsu · Black belt, Derby City MMA, Louisville, Kentucky

Talking-head video essays filmed in his gym, a large share of them answering viewer-submitted gym-politics dilemmas rather than teaching technique.

YouTubeInstagram

Shintaro Higashi

Judo 6th dan, BJJ black belt · Kokushi Budo Institute, New York

Judo throws and grip fighting taught for people who did not grow up in judo. Two-time USA Judo national champion.

YouTubeInstagram

Roy Dean

4th degree black belt, plus judo, aikido and Japanese jujutsu

Built a channel on something nobody else films: full-length, near-documentary recordings of students demonstrating an entire curriculum for promotion. Some of his uploads are nineteen years old.

YouTubeInstagram

Marcos Tinoco

BIG OSS · Black belt under Marcelo Garcia, Day 1 Academy, Newton

Weekly gi instruction, heavy on lasso and closed guard.

YouTubeInstagram

Charles Harriott

Black belt, Carlson Gracie line · traveling instructor, Gainesville, Florida

A physics graduate and former software developer who quit the office at thirty and has since taught at more than ninety gyms across twenty-six countries. Leg locks and inversion.

InstagramYouTube

Phil Migliarese

6th degree Relson Gracie black belt · Balance Studios, Philadelphia

Nicknamed the Jiu-Jitsu Matrix, and running online BJJ education since before the phrase "creator economy" existed. Also a yoga instructor and author.

Instagram

The analysts

4

Nobody here is selling you a technique. They are explaining what already happened in somebody else's match.

BJJ Scout

Anonymous, permanently so by choice

Frame-by-frame studies of a single athlete's game, released in numbered parts, with no face and almost no voice. The format that popularised analysing worm guard. Dormant on YouTube for three years, but still posting to a Facebook audience of 88,000.

YouTubeInstagram

Jake Luigi

Less Impressed More Involved

Breaks professional match footage and instructionals down into concepts and strategy, co-hosts the 1-800-BJJ-HELP podcast, and builds OutlierDB, a searchable database of match analysis.

YouTubeInstagram

BJJ Heavy

Anonymous

One guard breakdown is a Super Mario 64 title screen, another is a Smash Bros character-select roster, and a third is done in Dark Souls art. The channel's own description promises studies "with a video game nerd twist."

YouTube

Grappling Theory

Anonymous · launched 2026

Concept-driven breakdowns of why positions work or fail, using real match examples rather than move lists.

YouTube

The podcasts

2

Long-form audio, which the threads returned more of than we expected. Both are hosted by a black belt, and a third, BJJ Balance, is profiled above.

BJJ Mental Models

Hosted by Steve Kwan · Black belt, Canada

Concepts first and no vanity interviews, now past 500 episodes and grown into a small network. Kwan runs it alongside a full-time technology career.

WebsiteInstagram

I Suck At Jiu Jitsu

Hosted by Josh McKinney · Black belt, Metro East Illinois

A deliberate humility play from someone with twenty regional golds who owns three schools, and one of the largest BJJ shows anywhere.

Apple PodcastsYouTube

The competitors who post

4

Worth separating out, because their audiences are downstream of results rather than of anything they made.

Jozef Chen

Black belt, B-Team · Nomadic Grappling, Shanghai

Youngest ever winner of an ADCC European Trials.

Instagram

PJ Barch

2nd degree 10th Planet black belt · 10th Planet South Bay, Chula Vista

ADCC Worlds bronze in 2024 and a Polaris Grand Prix title. Speaks openly about OCD, addiction and recovery.

InstagramYouTube

Roman Mori

Brown belt, ultra-heavyweight · Army Ranger veteran

Makes the strength-and-size argument in grappling, with the medal to support it.

InstagramYouTube

Ariel Tabak

Black belt under Cicero Costha · Kumite Jiu Jitsu, Sydney

Known for guard retention and crab-ride entries, and co-filmed a guard retention series with Lachlan Giles.

InstagramYouTube

Two we found ourselves

2

Everyone above was named by one community or the other. These two were not. We went looking, mostly because the threads turned up almost no comedy accounts and almost no women, and both of those are gaps in who gets nominated rather than an accurate picture of the sport. A third, Adam Forster, started in this group and then answered the questionnaire, so he is profiled above.

The Gilman Brothers

Tobias and Aiden Gilman · Argyle Jiu-Jitsu, Texas

Comedy about gym culture, training camp and the general indignity of combat sports, and by some distance the largest audience in this section.

Instagram

Shawn

gorillaboybjj

BJJ, skate and surf, delivered as comedy and the occasional motivational reel. Self-described as "a big, hairy American winning machine."

Instagram

Also named

10

Named in one thread or the other, verified in August 2026, and written up after the article first published.

Brandon Copeland

MidWest Kong · Black belt under Pedro Sauer

Street-fight breakdowns and takedowns of fake martial arts, from a former MMA fighter who took two titles in two weight classes across eleven years. Also an anti-bullying speaker, which is where the gorilla came from.

InstagramYouTube

RJ Navarette

Immortal Jiu Jitsu · Owner, Immortal MMA, Wichita, Kansas

One of the clearest cases on this page of a creator whose audience lives somewhere the sport does not look: 400,000 on TikTok against a fraction of that anywhere else.

InstagramTikTok

Anthony Arrigo

Jits Over 50 · Brown belt under Mike Codella

Narrated rolls made specifically for people who started late or are still going in their fifties, built on forty years of martial arts that began with Taekwondo in 1985. The rarest thing in BJJ content: material aimed at longevity rather than performance.

YouTubeInstagram

Roger Costa

Fifth-degree black belt · Miami, Florida

Thirty years of teaching, and the one person here whose audience is overwhelmingly on Facebook. He also reviews students' training footage and sends notes back, which is a format nobody else on this list runs.

FacebookInstagramYouTube

Lachlan Giles

Submeta · Third-degree black belt, PhD in physiotherapy

Best known for submitting three world-class heavyweights by heel hook in the ADCC 2019 absolute. Submeta is the most structured remote learning system in the sport, with courses, quizzes and layered progressions rather than a video dump.

SubmetaYouTube

Heather Morgan

Black belt under Andre and Angelica Galvao · Atos, San Diego

A multiple-time world champion who came to jiu-jitsu at 23 from competitive gymnastics and a health and exercise science degree, and who now coaches at Atos headquarters.

The BJJ Project profile

Joe Breza

breza_grappling · Purple belt, judo brown belt, former D1 wrestler

Wrestling and judo entries built for grapplers, coached by Andy Seras of the Greco world and Olympic teams. The takedown material most jiu-jitsu players say they want and rarely go and learn.

Instagram

Christos Papadelos

Purple belt · Boston, Massachusetts

Short technical clips on the awkward positions people avoid teaching, calf slicers from turtle and back takes nobody sees coming.

InstagramFacebook

Los Banditos

Club account, not one person

A BJJ and no-gi grappling club posting as a club rather than as any individual coach, which is unusual enough in this space to be worth naming.

InstagramWebsite

Galea Brothers

galea_brothers

Two brothers documenting a run at MMA and jiu-jitsu together, filed by their own description as "our journey to the top." The smallest audience in this section and the most single-minded.

Instagram

The two names that came up most

Both are coaches first, and both were named more often than anyone who does this full time.

Shawn Melanson

The single most-recommended name across both communities, and the one who has thought hardest about why.

Melanson is a black belt who owns Precision Jiu Jitsu in New Hampshire, and he reaches 261,000 people on Instagram. Technique is a major part of what he posts and it is only one part: the rest is instructionals, storytelling, gym stories, vlogs, commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, and anything else that shows what the life of a coach and competitor actually looks like.

None of it happened by accident, and he was firm on that point.

That makes him the sharpest counter-example on this page to a comfortable idea, which is that the best stuff gets made by people who are not really trying to be creators. Melanson is a coach who decided to be good at this and then put the years in.

The content is also its own business now rather than an advert for a different one. It generates seminars, partnerships, work for the gym, and the instructional catalogue on BJJ Fanatics (Precision Wrestling for Jiu Jitsu, Precision Attacks and Sweeps from Butterfly, Half, and Knee Shield). His own framing of the payoff is larger than any of that: it has let him reach and help hundreds of thousands of grapplers.

What holds the formats together is the job underneath all of them.

Asked what actually built the audience, he named that consistency of purpose plus two things nobody can shortcut: showing up over and over, and staying authentic.

Instagram · Precision Jiu Jitsu · BJJ Fanatics

Chris Burns

Second most-mentioned, and a different route to the same place. Chris "Bones" Burns is the owner and head instructor of Zero Point Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, and his own coach profile documents him as a second-degree black belt under Rickson Gracie and Jason Roebig. What he teaches is the Rickson material, the connection-and-base work usually filed under "invisible jiu-jitsu," which is exactly the kind of thing that does not demonstrate well in a fifteen-second clip and gets posted anyway.

He was an artist before he was an instructor, and still is one. The Thinker Monkey and the Chess Gorilla, both of which you have seen on a rashguard whether or not you knew whose they were, are his drawings.

Where Melanson set out to build an audience and studied how, Burns has one largely because he keeps explaining a version of the art most of the internet has stopped teaching. Two different answers to the same question. Both of them outranked every full-time creator we asked about.

Instagram · The BJJ Project profile

And then there is Craig Jones

He was the third most-mentioned name in the Facebook thread, behind only Melanson and Burns, and it would be dishonest to leave him out on the grounds that everyone already knows who he is.

He is also the clearest example of something this whole exercise kept running into. Jones is an elite competitor, an ADCC medallist and a genuine threat to anyone in his division. He is also, at this point, one of the most-watched entertainers in the sport, and the second thing is now doing more work than the first. He cancelled his own tournament in May, kept the money, joked about it, then un-cancelled it for 2027. He is building a training resort in Tulum. He said he would rather watch ADCC from a cave in Mexico than fly to Poland for it.

Nobody who named him was thinking about his guard passing.

The B-Team

YouTube video

If you want the fuller picture, we have covered him at length: the 2027 CJI announcement, the Zamaya resort in Tulum, the B-Team tour, and Mo Jassim's response to the ADCC Brazil situation.

Where they train

We asked everyone the same closing question: the best open mat you have ever dropped into.

All nineteen answered. Four named their own gym, and said so without a shred of embarrassment. Chris Vazquez: "My gyms open mats are the best hands down. Biased I know but it's the truth haha." Adam Forster, on the gym he would send a traveler to: "I'm completely bias so my gym."

What almost nobody named was a destination academy. The rooms these people rate are small and local, and the reasons are never about the level. Kev picked Combat Therapy in Santa Rosa because it was one of the first gyms he ever filmed at. Josh Beam picked MKTeam in Paris, not for the mats but for the week: everyone on them had flown in for the 2023 IBJJF Europeans. The single most exclusive answer came from BJJ Balance, and it is not a gym at all. "The open mat at PGF before a comp night is unmatched. It's in an undisclosed location in Las Vegas and you don't get to come unless you know a guy that knows a guy."

Three gyms got named twice, and they could not be less alike.

The first is a strip-mall academy in Illinois. Beatrice Jin, in Virginia, calls it her favorite place to drop in outside her own gym. Jiujitsu Johnny, in Wisconsin, has it on a list of seven he rotates through.

The second is Mjolnir in Reykjavik, named by the two people on this page with the least in common: Carsahh, a travelling purple belt who films for a living, and Karel Pravec, a fifth-degree black belt who has run academies in New Jersey for decades. Carsahh's line on it was "the most insane facility, and the highest level and humblest room I've ever been in." Nobody has put it in our directory yet.

The third is the smallest room of the three, and the pairing explains itself. Jiujitsu Johnny and Isaiah Young both train in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, at different gyms, and both drive up the lake to the same one.

Fourteen of the nineteen either run an open mat or attend one that anybody can walk into. Nathan hosts his at Core BJJ in Stanhope on the last Wednesday of every month, and his instruction was simply "All are welcome."

Adam Forster's is the newest thing on this site. His club was not in the directory when he answered, so we added it.

Beatrice runs a women's open mat at Kogaion twice a week and has done for four years. Kiaya is at 10th Planet Orlando on Tuesdays at 7:30pm, Chris Vazquez at his home gyms on Sundays from 11am, Josh Beam at ATA Jiujitsu in Campbell on Fridays at 6:30pm. Randy William's is free and comes with one house rule: "Treat others how you want to be treated." Kev does not have a fixed one, and offered the most practical answer of the lot: ask him where he will be that week, or watch his story.

You can find an open mat near you on the map, or start from the state directories if you already know where you are headed.

Who we missed

Every creator got asked the same last question: who should people follow that nobody talks about? Eighteen answered, and two of them named themselves, which is its own kind of honest.

The most complete answer came from Carsahh, who named MasterBingzi. "Jesse is such a character and brings so much life into the sport. If you ever wondered what happened to VNDL Jiu Jitsu, he's on his own path now. He's given me a completely different lens to storytelling and in my opinion, he's the greatest storyteller in the sport."

Nathan named Sluke on the go on YouTube, who makes running content, and who is also his brother. "He is the guy that all these people who follow me should follow." Josh Beam named Nate Cho, at @whosnathanielcho, for the production quality. Kiaya named Nicole Mathew. Xavier named Charles Harriott, who is in the directory above. Wristlock Johnny named Rich Castro. Adam Forster named Magicmikemurray. Kev named @mzitsos, "that guy is rad." Jiujitsu Johnny named Thy Prophet Isaiah, who answered the questionnaire four days later and is now profiled above. Eli Knight named two, Energia Martial Arts and Boston Submission Fighting, both of which he called underrated. Rixty Garami named Rob Houghton. Will Brooks named Gritafterdarkbjj. Isaiah Young named Hello Flippy. Karel Pravec named the man who put him on camera in the first place, and knew it was a stretch: "He's well known but should be better known: Firas Zahabi." Randy William named a whole lineage rather than a person: "Anyone under Rob Kahn. You'll see many of them posting, Matt Arroyo, Robbie D, and there are others."

One answer closed a loop. Adrian named Jiu Jitsu Johnny, "funny guy." Johnny answered the questionnaire two days after the article published and is now profiled above.

The two who nominated themselves did it in opposite registers. Chris Vazquez: "FOLLOW ME! I'm still an underdog." BJJ Balance, more calculating: "Me. Lol. Mat has a massive following. You are probably already following him."

Making something and think you belong here? Tell us.

A disclosure

I shoot BJJ content myself. Highlight reels and skits, at @everyday24seven, and I run Open Mat Locator, which is the site you are reading.

That is why this article exists in the shape it does. I have walked into gyms with a camera and had to ask permission, so I knew to ask everyone here how they handle it, and the answers turned out to be the most interesting thing in the piece. I also know what it feels like to post something you worked on for three weeks and watch it do nothing, which is why every person here got asked what they were proudest of that failed.

I am not on this list. Nobody nominated me, and putting yourself in your own roundup is how these things stop being worth reading. But if you want to follow along anyway, here is the page.