Rolling safely and mat etiquette

There are many rules in jiu jitsu and on the mats. This also depends on your individual gym and how traditional or strict they are.

But generally speaking there are some common rules that applies across most gyms. Or at least it's safe it's better to assume they're the rules than not.

Not sure about most gyms, but when you’re sparring and live rolling on the mats. You need to be aware of your surroundings. This means you don't want to:

Roll off the mats for obvious reasons. You can hurt yourself or your training partner. So keep yourself safe.

Roll into a wall because this is similar to rolling off the mats. I mean you can use the wall to leverage some positions. But whatever it is just don't go sweeping and throwing people head first into any walls.

And of course don't roll into your neighbouring training friends. You don't want to throw someone on top of someone else. It's not cool and someone will get hurt.

So after all this, here comes the unspoken rule. If you are rolling and you're slowly approaching a neighbouring training partner in mid roll.

Generally speaking you need to give way to higher belts. If you are a white belt you give way to everyone and all rankings. It doesn't matter. You must respect the belt rankings.

If you are getting close to others, let your partner know. Get up and rest somewhere safe and away from other people.