The Golden Rule.

Do not hurt your training partners. This rule has absolute priority and comes before anything else. You must respect people’s bodies, agency, injuries, and requests for intensity reductions.

Avoid injuries at all costs. Do not crank submissions, do not slam.

You are entirely responsible for your training partner's safety.

1. Stand-up & Takedowns

The goal on the feet is to look for technical dominance leading to a controlled takedown.

• Allowed & Encouraged: Standard wrestling shots (double legs, single legs), judo throws (footsweeps, hip throws) where you maintain control of your partner's descent, technical guard pulls.

• Strictly Illegal:

  • Kani Basami (Flying Scissor Takedown): Ban due to the risk of knee injury.

  • Jumping Guard: Jumping your weight onto a standing partner's hips or legs is banned for all levels. Pulling guard must involve keeping at least one foot on the mat or establishing explicit, controlled grips first.

  • Spiking: You cannot drive a partner onto their head or neck during a takedown. If you lift someone, you are responsible for their safe landing.

  • Slamming: Lifting someone up and slamming them to the mat in an uncontrolled manner is strictly prohibited. If you lift for a suplex type move, you must turn out and control the landing.

2. Guard Passing & Pinning

Dynamic, athletic passing and heavy, clean pressure is all OK - but certain spinal or neck manipulations are not permitted.

• Allowed & Encouraged: Heavy pressure passing, loose/dynamic passing, using frames, good pressure contact and establishing dominant controls (Side Control, Mount, Back).

• Strictly Illegal:

  • Slamming out of submissions or guards: If you get caught in a closed guard or a submission triangle/armbar and stand to lift your partner off the mats, you cannot slam them down to break it. Just tap if you’re not getting out.

  • Direct neck cranks as a pin or escape: Putting shoulder pressure on the jaw or neck to force a pass is fine, but grabbing the head and forcefully cranking the cervical spine to force a concession is not OK.

3. Submissions

Safety and longevity on the mats mean knowing when to tap, but also knowing which breaking mechanics require extreme care.

• Allowed & Encouraged: All standard upper-body submissions via strangles and joint locks (straight armbars, kimuras, americanas, triangles, rear naked chokes, guilloutines etc.) and the wrist lock and straight ankle locks for all levels.

• Allowed with Discretion / Higher Belts:

  • Rotational Leg Locks (Heel Hooks & Toe Holds): While we embrace modern grappling, these should be introduced safely through catch-and-release or restricted to advanced practitioners who understand the breaking mechanics and defence. These can be done at lower belt levels with mutual consent ONLY and catch / release.

  • Knee Bars: The straight bar of the knee is allowed again from catch-and-release training or amongst advanced practitioners. These can be done at lower belt levels with mutual consent ONLY and catch / release.

• Strictly Illegal:

  • Reaping the knee (for white belts, AND in the gi at any level): For beginners, forcing the leg across the hip line from the outside in a way that compromises the knee joint is restricted until proper leg-entanglement safety is learned.

  • Striking of any kind: No accidental "grappling slaps" or ground-and-pound.

  • Spinal locks: Twisters, neck cranks, can openers. Just no.

4. General Etiquette at KODA:MA

We do not implement any sort of traditionalism. No bowing, mandatory uniform colours, or forced hierarchy. Instead, our culture relies on mutual respect and high hygiene standards.

• Hygiene is Non-Negotiable:

  • Never step onto the mats with bare feet if you’ve walked outside or into the bathrooms, always wear footwear off the mats.

  • Ensure your gear (Gi or No-Gi kit) is freshly washed for every single session.

  • Keep finger and toe nails trimmed short to prevent scratching training partners.

• Tap Early: Tapping is not losing; it’s simply a reset button in a physical puzzle. Protect yourself and respect your partner's tap immediately.

• Match Your Partner’s Intensity: If you are a higher belt rolling with a smaller practitioner or a beginner, use the round to develop your technical frames and control, rather than using raw attributes or explosive power.

• Account for size and weight disparity: If you are much bigger or stronger than your partner, do no abuse your physical advantages - remember the golden rule.

5. Small-Joint & Tissue Manipulation

These are actions that don't involve technical grappling mechanics, but instead rely on pain compliance, micro-injuries, or illegal leverage. These, are dickhead moves.

• Manipulating Digits (Fingers & Toes): You must grab the whole hand or at least four fingers together to strip a grip. Grabbing, bending, or twisting individual fingers or toes (small-joint manipulation) is strictly illegal due to how easily they snap.

• Orifices & Fish-Hooking: Inserting fingers into any opening, including fish-hooking the mouth, pulling the nostrils, or gouging the eyes—is an absolute no-no and an immediate stop.

• Grip Restrictions (No-Gi): When rolling without the Gi, you cannot grab your partner’s clothing, shorts, or rashguard to prevent a movement or hold a position.

• Hair Pulling & Skin Pinching: Intentionally pulling hair or pinching skin to force a reaction or escape a position is not allowed.

• Trachea Crushing / Direct Throat Pressure: Pushing a lone thumb or driving a knuckles-first fist directly into the windpipe (the trachea) to force a tap through pain compliance is illegal. Chokes must target the sides of the neck (blood chokes) or use the forearm/shin cleanly across the throat (air chokes), rather than localized crushing.

6. The Rule of Continuous Control

You must be in control of your own body weight at all times.

• If you lose balance and fall onto a partner, you have failed in keeping control.

• If you throw your weight blindly into an un-anchored space (like a wild rolling kimura or an explosive guard pass without grips), you put both yours and your partner's safety at risk

• If you jump at a limb and fall back on it to attack it, you are not in control.

• If you drop someone that you lifted up, you lost control.

• If when sparring you are tumbling around the room landing on other people, you are not acting with continuous control

Breaches of these rules may result in your membership being terminated without refund as per the members code of conduct.