#1 in Texas · #9 nationally
Dedicated competition classes for kids, teens and adults — and the ranking to show they work. Included in unlimited memberships, and nobody is ever made to compete.
The program
There are two honest reasons to have a competition team. One is that some people want to test themselves against strangers under rules, and a gym that cannot offer that loses them. The other is that a room with competitors in it trains harder, and everybody in the room benefits from that whether they ever enter a tournament or not.
Ours is ranked #1 in Texas and #9 nationally on jits.gg, which is the largest verified grappling database there is — the ranking is computed from actual match results rather than claimed. Our athletes compete at IBJJF, ADCC and JJWL events, and the youth side of the team has produced Pan American champions.
None of that obliges anybody. Competition classes are on the timetable for the people who want them, and the rest of the academy runs exactly as it would without them.
Competition stats
Verified from jits.gg, the largest grappling results database there is.
Who trains
Three tracks, all under the same coaching staff.
Ages 7–15
Friday's Gi competition classes and the Saturday No-Gi sessions. This is where the medals in the case came from — the youth side of the team is the strongest part of it, and several of our kids sit in the top tiers of the national junior rankings.
Adults
Friday evening in the Gi and Saturday morning No-Gi. Open to any adult member who wants harder rounds, whether or not they intend to enter anything.
Grey-white belt+
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. These sessions need a grey-white belt or higher, or two or more years of wrestling — not as a status symbol, but because the pace assumes you already know how to move.
Timetable
Classes marked ADV require a grey-white belt or above, or two or more years of wrestling experience. The Friday and Saturday competition classes are open to any member in the right age group. All of these are included in unlimited memberships — adult unlimited at $199/month and kids unlimited at $249/month — at no extra charge.
Detail
It is not a harder version of the normal class with more sparring bolted on. The technical content is narrower and deeper — a smaller set of positions worked until they are reliable under a stranger's resistance — and a large part of it is the things that only matter with a referee present: rule sets, points, advantages, how to close out a lead, what to do in the last thirty seconds when you are down two.
There is a conditioning element, because matches are decided late far more often than people expect. Our strength and conditioning class on Tuesdays and Thursdays exists partly for this reason, and it is open to every member at no extra cost.
What competition training is not is a commitment to enter anything. Plenty of people train in these classes for the intensity and never register for a tournament, and that is a completely normal way to use them. Nobody is signed up to an event without asking.
Coaching
Corner work at tournaments is done by the same coaches who run the classes.
Head Instructor & Owner
Founder of Labyrinth BJJ. Built the academy from the ground up into the #1 ranked team in Texas.
Professor
Deep competition experience and technical precision. Develops athletes at every level from beginner to elite competitor.
Head Coach — Katy
Over 14 years of training, bringing world-class technique and leadership to both academies.
Membership
Every adult class including competition training and open mat.
Every kids and teens class including the competition classes.
One to one, for a specific problem or in the weeks before an event.
Competition classes are part of the unlimited memberships rather than a separate team fee. Tournament entry fees are paid to the organisers directly and are not charged by the academy.
Questions
No. The competition classes are open training slots, and a good number of the people in them have never entered a tournament and do not plan to. They come for harder rounds and sharper coaching. Nobody is registered for an event without being asked first.
The coaches will tell you, and they will tell you honestly. Broadly: a child who is comfortable in live rounds against their own gym, who is not distressed when they lose one, and who has asked about competing. A child pushed onto a mat before that usually has one bad day and never asks again.
Mostly IBJJF, ADCC and JJWL events, which are the three circuits that matter most in Texas and nationally. There is a live tournament calendar on the front page and at calendar.labyrinth.vision, and coaches corner at the events the team travels to.
No. Competition classes are included in the unlimited memberships — $199 a month for adults, $249 for kids and teens. You pay tournament organisers their own entry fees when you enter an event, but the academy does not charge a team fee on top of the membership.
It comes from jits.gg, which aggregates verified match results across tournaments and ranks academies on the performance of their athletes — wins, medals and submission rates, not self-reporting. We currently sit #1 in Texas and #9 nationally, with 83 individually ranked athletes.
The Friday and Saturday adult competition classes, yes — turn up. The advanced grappling classes on Tuesday and Thursday need a grey-white belt or higher, or two or more years of wrestling, because the pace assumes a base you will not have in your first months.
The competition classes are on the normal timetable and a trial is free. Come to one, take the rounds, and decide about tournaments later or never.