Airlock After Dark is a free weekly jiu jitsu event at 10th Planet Airlock in Bastrop, TX. Every Thursday at 7pm, a visiting instructor teaches, then everybody rolls. It’s open to anyone who trains jiu jitsu, member or not, and it costs nothing.
We started it on October 2, 2025 with Joe Kai and have been running it weekly ever since. The list of people who have taught one is now over forty names deep across something like fourteen different gyms. Mostly black belts. A few brown belts.
If you train jiu jitsu anywhere in Central Texas, you’re invited. You don’t have to email first. You don’t have to be a member here. Show up at 7pm on a Thursday with a rash guard and shorts and you’re in.
What a Thursday Night Looks Like
Doors are open at 6:45. People filter in, catch up, and warm up on their own.
At 7, the guest takes the mat and teaches. Brand new curriculum, every week, from somebody who didn’t learn it here. Our members get a steady diet of the 10th Planet system from Coach Rei and Coach Chris Bennett all week long, and then on Thursday somebody walks in from a completely different lineage and shows us all a way of solving the same problem that nobody in the room had seen before.
After the instruction, we roll. We call it Cosmic Rolling because we’re hilarious. It’s unstructured open mat. Find partners, get rounds in, ask the guest to show you the detail you missed. A lot of the best learning happens in that hour, because you get to try the new material on people who just learned it at the same time you did.
Then there’s beer. Old Gregg Brewing Co. sponsors the event and keeps fresh beer and non-alcoholic LMNT on tap for it. Plenty of people stick around after and talk for a while. That’s on purpose too.
The whole thing is also livestreamed on YouTube, so if you want to see what a night looks like before you drive out, you can watch one.
Who’s Taught Here
The full list of guest instructors lives on our seminars page and it’s long. A few that stand out:
Curtis Hembroff of 10th Planet Austin, who promoted Rei to 10th Planet black belt in 2025, has taught a free Thursday night here. So has John Ramseier of John’s Gym, who gave Rei his first jiu jitsu black belt back in 2020. Both of Rei’s professors have stood on our mat and taught.
Gerardo Palacio from 10th Planet Tucson. Caelan Hester and Dalton Flibotte from 10th Planet Omaha. Jeremy Whorton and James Regina from 10th Planet Kansas City. The 10th Planet system runs deep and people in it travel, so when somebody’s passing through Central Texas we ask them to teach.
Iako Kalili from Gracie Humaita Cedar Park. Mallory Nelson and Ivan Rodriguez from VOW BJJ. Joe Ochoa from The Open Mat Co. Justin Flood from Sheepdog Response Academy. Darrin Lillian and Alex Sanchez from John’s Gym. Priscilla Hembroff from 10th Planet Austin. Names from all over the map, from gyms that train nothing like each other.
That variety is the point. One week you’re getting a leg lock system from a guy who competes in it constantly. The next week somebody shows you a pressure passing game or a D1 wrestling setup. Both are useful. Both make you better. We’ve written before about why we cross train, and this is the weekly version of that idea.
Why We Do It for Free
We live in the best place in the country to train jiu jitsu right now. Central Texas is packed with serious people. Austin alone has more high level grapplers per square mile than most states do. We wanted a chance to learn from all of them, all the time.
Charging money would have made that harder. Every dollar at the door is one more reason for somebody to skip it. So we don’t charge, and we don’t restrict it to members, and we put the whole thing on YouTube.
The other reason is simpler. Being isolated is where gym cultures go to die. A gym that never trains with anybody else gets weird. The techniques calcify, the students start believing their way is the only way. We’d rather be in the room with people who know things we don’t.
And we like these people. We want to hang out with them, drink a beer, roll a few rounds, and find out what they’ve been working on. Thursday night is how we do that.
Who Should Come
If you already train jiu jitsu, come. Any belt, any gym, any lineage. There’s no cover and nobody’s going to sell you a membership.
If you’ve never trained before, we’d steer you toward a regular class during the week instead. After Dark material usually assumes you already have some base, and the open mat afterward is unstructured rolling. You’d get more out of a free trial class where somebody walks you through fundamentals and pairs you with a partner who’ll take care of you. Come to After Dark once you’ve got a couple weeks of mat time. It’ll mean a lot more then.
If you’re a coach or a black belt passing through and you want to teach one, tell us. We’ll make room.
The Fine Print
Thursdays at 7pm, at 303 Martin Luther King Dr in Bastrop, inside Bastrop Fitness Project.
We take the occasional Thursday off, usually when a group of our guys is competing at Thursday Night Jiu Jitsu over at 10th Planet Austin. Check our Instagram or the seminars page before you drive out if you want to be sure.
Bring a rash guard and shorts or spats. Clip your nails, shower beforehand, wear deodorant. Flip flops or Crocs for walking off the mat. If you need the longer version of the etiquette stuff, we wrote all of it down here.
The Rest of the Week
After Dark is one night. The rest of the week is adult no-gi jiu jitsu six days a week, Muay Thai three days a week, kids classes in the afternoons, and a free women’s jiu jitsu class every Thursday. The full schedule is here.
If you’re brand new and reading this because you searched for something else entirely, your first class is free and you don’t need any gear.
Or call us: (512) 271-5260
Or email: airlockbjj@gmail.com
10th Planet Airlock | 303 Martin Luther King Dr, Bastrop, TX 78602 | Inside Bastrop Fitness Project | Voted #1 Best Martial Arts Gym in Bastrop County 2025 | We Defy Foundation Partner
