10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Seattle

Everything at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Seattle is no-gi. The academy belongs to the 10th Planet network founded by Eddie Bravo and teaches that system, which it describes as built around “modern positional control, and submissions that work without a gi to grab.” Owner and head instructor Kyle Parker is a 2nd-degree 10th Planet black belt and leads a six-instructor staff that also includes black belt Chaz Jordan, brown belt Donnaven Bautista, and purple belts Chase Ford, Kai Howell and Miles Taliaferro. The academy says every instructor earned their rank under the 10th Planet system.

Adult training runs in three tracks under one curriculum. Fundamentals is built for total beginners and anyone sharpening the basics: each week covers one position in layered detail, from guard, mount and side control to takedowns, escapes and submissions, and the academy says that by the end of the first month students have “a working vocabulary of the no-gi system.” All Levels is where the team trains, with live drilling and full-speed positional rounds, open to Fundamentals graduates and experienced grapplers from other schools. Specialty classes for committed students include Intermediate, Positional Skill Building on Tuesdays and 10 Round Thursday, which is ten rounds of live training.

A typical class opens with a short technical warm-up tied to the day's lesson, moves into the position of the week, then live drilling with controlled partners and optional positional sparring. The academy names self-defense, fitness, weight loss and the competition mat as reasons people train, and frames jiu jitsu as a practice to keep up for decades. Adult classes last one hour and run every day of the week, with 6 am classes on Tuesday and Thursday, noon and evening classes Monday to Thursday and a midday class on weekends and Fridays, plus open mat sessions every day.

Beginners are welcome any time, and the first class is a free one-hour trial. No gi is required: newcomers change and step on the mats. What else to bring isn't spelled out, so a short message to the academy before the first visit settles it. Prices aren't published either, and the free trial is a good moment to ask about them. Kids ages 5 to 13 have their own classes.