Walking into a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy for the first time can feel overwhelming.
Milton Campis is a black belt with 12 years of experience and founder of Academy Safe. He has identified three critical warning signs prospective students should recognize before committing to any long-term contract.
“If you’re a woman especially and you go to a gym and there are no women, should be a little bit of a red flag for you,” Campis warns on Forever White Belt podcast.
The absence of female practitioners at an established academy is not just a diversity issue, it is often a symptom of an unwelcoming or unsafe environment.
Women tend to vote with their feet when a gym’s culture makes them uncomfortable, and their absence speaks volumes about the environment. This is particularly concerning given the intimate nature of jiu-jitsu training, where physical contact is constant and necessary. A healthy academy should have measures in place that make all students feel safe and respected regardless of gender.
The presence of law enforcement officers training at an academy serves as an informal accountability mechanism.
Campis identifies the absence of police, military, or other law enforcement personnel as another warning sign. These professionals are particularly attuned to inappropriate behavior and less likely to tolerate misconduct from instructors or other students. Their presence often indicates an academy maintains higher standards of conduct and professionalism. Perhaps the most telling red flag is an academy that has been operating for five or more years but lacks higher-ranked students on the mat.
“If your gym has been around for more than a decade or even more than five years and you don’t have higher belts on you, don’t see a lot of color on that mat, it’s always new white belts coming in, there’s a reason,” Campis explains.
As students advance in rank and spend more time at an academy, they become aware of information that newcomers do not have access to, including stories about instructor behavior, accounts shared between gyms, and patterns that emerge over time.
“Once you’re around and you start to hear the gossip and maybe even you start traveling and hearing gossip from other gyms and people that know what’s has been going on, we start sharing those stories and then the higher belts are like oh I’m out, I don’t want to be around this,” Campis reveals. “But a white belt doesn’t know.”
This creates a revolving door where the academy constantly recruits new students who are unaware of its reputation, while experienced practitioners quietly leave once they learn the truth.
These red flags connect to broader safety concerns in martial arts. Campis launched Academy Safe after witnessing serious misconduct within the jiu-jitsu community, including cases where academy owners engaged in inappropriate relationships with students, staff members faced allegations, and facilities operated without basic safety protocols like background checks and insurance.
Unlike mainstream youth sports organizations, martial arts academies often operate with minimal oversight. Major organizations like the IBJJF conduct background checks for black belts, but this leaves gaps for assistant coaches, front desk staff, and volunteers who may have direct access to children.
Academy Safe addresses this by requiring eight core safety measures for accreditation: background checks for all coaches and staff, Safe Sport certification, concussion training, CPR and first aid certification, business insurance, security cameras, verified instructor credentials, and an automated external defibrillator on premises.
