Table of Contents
- You Don’t Need to Be Fit, Tough, or Coordinated to Start BJJ in Burnaby
- What Is BJJ, and Why Are People in Burnaby Choosing It Over Kickboxing or MMA?
- What to Expect in a Beginner BJJ Class at InFighting Burnaby
- What Do I Wear to My First BJJ Class?
- How Long Does It Take to Learn BJJ?
- Why InFighting Specifically? What Makes This Gym Different for Beginners in Burnaby?
- Common Questions Beginners Ask Before Starting BJJ in Burnaby
- How to Start BJJ in Burnaby: The Next Step
You Don’t Need to Be Fit, Tough, or Coordinated to Start BJJ in Burnaby
Most people who walk through the doors at InFighting Training Centres in Brentwood have the same look on their face. A little nervous. A little excited. Wondering if they’re in the right place, or if BJJ is actually for someone like them.
The honest answer: it is. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has a reputation for being complicated, physically demanding, and intimidating — and some gyms live up to that reputation. This one doesn’t. This post covers everything a complete beginner in Burnaby needs to know before showing up for their first class.
What Is BJJ, and Why Are People in Burnaby Choosing It Over Kickboxing or MMA?
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a ground-based martial art. The core idea is simple: you learn to control, submit, and defend against a resisting opponent using leverage and technique rather than size or strength. No striking. No jumping. No athleticism required to start.
That’s actually the reason so many Burnaby residents end up gravitating toward BJJ over kickboxing or MMA. Kickboxing is excellent — InFighting teaches that too — but it asks something of you from day one: coordination, rhythm, fast reflexes. BJJ doesn’t. You can be slow, stiff, and have zero martial arts background and still make real progress in your first month.
It’s also worth saying what BJJ is not. It’s not cage fighting. It’s not rough for the sake of being rough. At the beginner level, it’s controlled, methodical, and the pace is set by you and your training partner together.
What to Expect in a Beginner BJJ Class at InFighting Burnaby
The beginner program at InFighting is structured so that everything builds on itself. You’re not thrown into a class with advanced students and told to figure it out. Here’s what a typical beginner class looks like:
Warm-up (10–15 min): Movement-based — forward rolls, shrimping (a core BJJ movement), light drilling. The goal is to get your body familiar with being on the ground, not to exhaust you before class even starts.
Technique instruction (25–30 min): Your instructor demonstrates a technique — often something from a fundamental position like guard, mount, or side control. You’ll see it broken down step by step, then drill it with a partner at a controlled pace. No one is trying to submit you during drills.
Positional sparring or light rolling (10–15 min): In early beginner classes, this is often specific — start from a set position and practice applying what you just learned. Full open rolling comes later, once you have enough basics to make it productive and safe.
Classes typically run 60 minutes. You’ll be done feeling like you worked hard — not destroyed.
What Do I Wear to My First BJJ Class?
For your very first session, you don’t need to bring anything special. Athletic shorts and a t-shirt are fine. If you come with bare feet, you’re set — no shoes on the mats.
Once you’re committed, you’ll train in a Gi — the traditional BJJ uniform, a jacket and pants made of thick woven fabric with a belt. If you sign up for the Intro Month at InFighting, a brand new Gi and belt are included. You don’t need to buy anything before you start.
Things that are not required: gloves, wraps, mouthguards (at the beginner level), wrestling shoes. Less gear is more at first.
How Long Does It Take to Learn BJJ?
This is the question everyone has and almost nobody asks out loud.
The honest answer: you’ll feel relatively comfortable in the basic positions within 2–3 months of consistent training. You’ll be capable of holding your own with other beginners within 4–6 months. You’ll feel genuinely competent — able to control most untrained people and give trained beginners a real fight — within a year.
Progress in BJJ is not linear, but it is real. The people who make the fastest progress are not necessarily the most athletic. They’re the ones who show up consistently, don’t skip classes when they’re frustrated, and focus on understanding the technique rather than just muscling through.
Most students at InFighting train 2–3 times per week. That’s enough to see steady, consistent improvement without burning out.
Why InFighting Specifically? What Makes This Gym Different for Beginners in Burnaby?
There are a handful of things that matter when you’re choosing where to start BJJ in Burnaby, and InFighting holds up on all of them.
Coaching depth. InFighting has five black belt coaches. This is not a gym where one high-level coach shows up twice a week and delegates everything else to a purple belt. The coaching team has over 20 years of combined experience teaching BJJ, and there’s a dedicated intro instructor — Tsavo — whose entire job is helping new students get their footing in the early weeks.
Space. The facility is 7,000 square feet in Brentwood. Clean mats, proper change rooms with showers, enough space that class never feels cramped. When you’re a beginner still figuring out how to fall correctly, physical space matters.
The culture. This one is hard to put in bullet points, but every review of InFighting from students says the same thing: no ego, no meatheads, people genuinely look out for each other. That’s not an accident — it’s the environment Ritchie Yip, the head instructor and founder, has built since 2003. When you’re learning BJJ for the first time and you’re getting tapped out repeatedly by people smaller than you, the culture of the gym is everything.
Founder background. Ritchie opened InFighting in 2003, left a conventional career path to do it, and has spent more than 20 years refining a teaching system that works for ordinary people — not just people who already have a movement background or athletic history.
Beginner-specific structure. The program is genuinely designed for beginners. You’re not doing general classes where the curriculum assumes you’ve been training for two years. The techniques are foundational, the pacing is measured, and nobody makes you feel behind.
Common Questions Beginners Ask Before Starting BJJ in Burnaby
Do I need to be in shape first?
No. The shape comes from training. Showing up out of shape is not a problem — it’s the starting point for most people. Classes are calibrated to a beginner’s fitness level, and you set the pace with your training partner.
Is it dangerous?
BJJ has a lower injury rate than most contact sports. At InFighting, safety protocols are in place for every technique, and students are trained to tap early rather than push through pain. The biggest risk at the beginner level is minor soreness — elbows, shoulders, neck — from using muscles you haven’t used this way before. This is normal and fades quickly.
Can women do BJJ?
Yes. BJJ is specifically designed to work for smaller, lighter people against larger opponents. Many women find that BJJ gives them a kind of practical physical confidence that other fitness classes don’t. InFighting’s beginner classes are mixed-gender.
What if I tried another gym and had a bad experience?
That happens. Some gyms have a culture that’s hard on beginners. InFighting is not that gym. The intro class structure and dedicated beginner instructor exist precisely because Ritchie understood early on that most people who quit BJJ in the first month quit because of the environment, not the sport.
Do I need to commit long-term right away?
No. The Intro Month is one month, no long-term contract. After that, membership is month-to-month with 30 days’ notice to cancel.
How to Start BJJ in Burnaby: The Next Step
InFighting’s Intro Month is designed to remove every barrier to starting.
For $297, you get:
– Unlimited access to beginner BJJ classes for one full month
– A brand new Gi (uniform) and belt — no separate purchase required
– A free 30-minute private session with one of the BJJ coaches to set you up before your first group class
– A money-back guarantee — if you don’t love it, you get a full refund, no questions asked
The gym is located at 010-4664 Lougheed Highway in Brentwood, Burnaby. There’s parking, it’s close to the SkyTrain, and it’s accessible from most of Burnaby in under 15 minutes.
If you’ve been thinking about starting BJJ in Burnaby and keep putting it off, this is the structure that makes it easy to actually begin. Learn more about our BJJ program in Burnaby or get in touch to book your first session.
The hardest part is walking in the first time. Everything after that gets easier.
