BJJ is not organised like most other martial arts, and that confuses nearly everyone at the start. Here is the map — useful whether you grew up here or just moved.
- Your coach grades you — there is no national exam.
- IBJJF rules govern most competitions.
- You enter competitions through Smoothcomp.
The club is the unit
In BJJ it is your coach who decides when you are ready for the next belt. There is no fixed national syllabus to work through, the way many people know from taekwondo or karate. It feels vague at first, and it is rather freeing afterwards.
The adult belts
White, blue, purple, brown and black. The IBJJF sets minimum times between ranks — roughly two years at blue, eighteen months at purple and a year at brown — and you must be at least 16 for a blue belt and 19 for a black belt. Minimum is not the same as typical: most people take longer.
If you want the detail, we have a separate guide to BJJ belts.
Kids have their own system
Under 16 it runs white, grey, yellow, orange and green, each with several steps, so the milestones come more often. At 16 they move into the adult system.
The federation and competitions
BJJ sits under Norges Kampsportforbund, in the ju-jitsu section, under the discipline called "ne-waza". There is a Norwegian championship in BJJ, and you have to be a member of a club to enter. Most competitions use the IBJJF rules for uniform, weight classes and scoring, and registration goes through Smoothcomp.
Most events have both gi and No-Gi divisions. Not sure of the difference? Take this one.
So where do you start?
At a club. Everything else — ranks, competitions, federations — follows on its own afterwards. The only part that actually happens on your own is turning up to a trial class.
Rios was started for one reason: to give something back to local athletes. A good share of the profit has gone exactly there — to the people training and competing here at home. Designed in Norway, run out of Bergen by people who are on the mats themselves. And if you need to swap a size there's no customs, no three-week wait, and you can write to us in English or Norwegian.
Ready for your first competition?See BJJ gis
Questions about gear, sizing or anything else? Send us a message — there are real people here, and we answer in English.