So you’ve been poking around, looking at jiu jitsu gyms in Bastrop. Maybe you even typed “10th Planet in Bastrop” into Google and found yourself here. Maybe someone mentioned us to you in passing. Maybe you just really like reading about jiu jitsu at whatever time it is right now. No judgment. Welcome either way. Pull up a chair. Let’s talk.
We’re 10th Planet Airlock, a 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu gym right here in Bastrop, TX. We’ve been around since, oh, around 2023 if memory serves. And obviously, we think you should train with us. But before we get into that, let’s actually answer the question you probably came here with: what the heck is 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu, and how is it different from regular BJJ?
Great question. We love this question. We will now answer this question.
First: What Is Traditional Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?
Traditional BJJ traces its roots to a Japanese judoka named Mitsuyo Maeda, who brought his grappling knowledge to Brazil in the early 1900s. The Gracie family took it, refined it over decades, and turned it into one of the most effective and widely practiced martial arts in the world. There is a reason every MMA fighter on earth trains in jiu jitsu. It works.
Traditional BJJ is typically trained in a gi, a heavy cotton uniform that looks like what you’ve seen in Olympic Judo, with a jacket, pants, and a belt that shows your rank. The gi is a core part of the game. Grips on the collar, the sleeves, and the lapels open up entire worlds of chokes, sweeps, and control positions that don’t exist without it.
Most traditional schools offer some no-gi training too, but the gi is home base. Belt colors (white, blue, purple, brown, black) track your progress and are a source of both pride and, let’s be honest, occasional existential dread.
What Is 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu?
10th Planet Jiu Jitsu is a system of no-gi submission grappling created by Eddie Bravo and founded in Los Angeles in 2003. Over 200 affiliated schools worldwide. Growing fast. Extremely exciting. You’ve probably seen the Instagram highlights. Or the Joe Rogan clips.
The philosophy is simple and a little punk rock. Ditch the gi. No uniform. No collar grips. No lapel chokes. Bendy bodies, leverage, and technique, which Eddie argued was a more honest representation of how grappling actually works when the stakes are real. Nobody on the street is wearing a gi. Probably. Idk where you go at night.
10th Planet built its own language, its own positions, and its own pathways to submission entirely from scratch. Rubber Guard. The Twister. The Electric Chair. Lockdown. These aren’t simply cool names. What they are is specialty 10th Planet innovations that have since influenced grappling at the highest levels of competition. The jiu jitsu world has not been the same since they came about.
The Key Differences (The Stuff You Actually Want to Know)
The Gi vs. No Gi
Biggest and most obvious difference. In traditional BJJ, you wear the gi to class. In 10th Planet you never do. You train in shorts and a rash guard, which is more comfortable, easier to get into, and, bonus, doesn’t require a special purchase to start.
Without fabric friction, training tends to be faster. Transitions happen quicker. You develop body awareness and gripping habits (wrist control, underhooks, body locks) that transfer directly to wrestling, MMA, and real situations. The game is different. Both are legit. One has a uniform and one doesn’t.
The System vs. The Style
Traditional BJJ is a broad umbrella. Thousands of schools, dozens of major affiliations, all doing things a little differently. The gi is common thread but there’s no single “traditional BJJ playbook.”
10th Planet is a specific system with a specific curriculum. When you train at any 10th Planet school, in Bastrop, in Austin, in Los Angeles, or overseas, you’re learning the same positional hierarchy, the same concepts, the same language. When a visiting 10th Planet member walks into our Bastrop gym on Martin Luther King Dr and steps on the mat to cross train, they know exactly where they are in any position and what we’re working on. It’s a shared vocabulary. That’s pretty cool.
The Philosophy
Traditional BJJ carries deep tradition. The lineage, the belt ceremony, the bowing. For a lot of people that’s part of what makes jiu jitsu special and worth dedicating a chunk of your life to. We respect that.
10th Planet is more like: okay but what if we just kept making it better? Eddie Bravo’s whole thing was take what works, throw out what doesn’t, and never stop innovating. The system is designed to evolve. New positions get developed, battle-tested in competition, and integrated into the curriculum. Less tradition. More tinkering.
Neither philosophy is wrong. They attract different people. You’ll figure out which one you are.
Competition
Traditional BJJ competes primarily under IBJJF rules. Points, advantages, judges, the whole thing. The most established competition circuit in the world with gi and no-gi divisions.
10th Planet folks tend to gravitate toward submission-only formats. EBI, Fight to Win, Who’s Number One, ADCC. Ideally, you win by submission or you go to overtime. It’s a different competitive culture. Our head instructor Rei Villa has competed at IBJJF, NAGA, Fight2Win, Elevate Submission Series, KIRIN, and Garcia Promotions. We’ve got range.
Which Is Better for Self-Defense?
Both have strong arguments. Traditional BJJ was literally built on self-defense. The Gracie family spent decades proving it in challenge matches and documented fights.
The no-gi argument is equally real: nobody is coming at you wearing a gi. Training without fabric grips forces you to develop controls and submissions that work on a person in jeans, a hoodie, a t-shirt from Buc-ee’s, or, most likely in Texas, no t-shirt at all. The techniques transfer.
At 10th Planet Airlock, this isn’t an abstract debate. Rei Villa spent 20 years in the U.S. Army, including deployments to the Middle East, time as a full-time Tactical Combatives Instructor at JBLM, and years as an instructor for Sheepdog Response, the elite self-defense organization. When Rei teaches self-defense applications, he’s drawing on experience that most instructors simply don’t have.
Which Is Better for Beginners?
Honestly? What matters most is the quality of instruction and the culture of the gym you walk into, not the system itself. But no-gi does have some practical beginner advantages worth mentioning:
- No uniform to buy before your first class. Show up in workout clothes
- Faster-paced training that keeps new students engaged
- Techniques that feel immediately applicable to real life
We have brand new beginners on the mat every single week at Airlock, rolling alongside purple belts and black belts who all vividly remember their own first day. Nobody is going to smash you into the mat and laugh about it. That’s not who we are. We wrote a whole guide about starting jiu jitsu as a beginner if you want to go deeper on that.
Why Airlock Could Be Your 10th Planet Gym
Here’s the part where we talk about us. We’ll try to keep it classy.
10th Planet Airlock has been in Bastrop since 2023. We built our community from scratch. Mat by mat, student by student. In our second year of operation, we were voted the #1 Best Martial Arts Gym in Bastrop County. We’re a We Defy Foundation partner. We’re a Bastrop Chamber of Commerce member. We’re inside Bastrop Fitness Project on Martin Luther King Dr, a few minutes from downtown and right around the corner from that Buc-ee’s you’ve driven past many times.
Rei Villa earned his 10th Planet Black Belt under Curtis Hembroff of 10th Planet Austin in 2025, one of the most respected lineages in the system. Coach Chris Bennett is also a 10th Planet Black Belt, hailing from 10th Planet Tucson under 10th Planet Black Belt Anthony Birchak. The 10th Planet system is something we’ve been building toward and living since the day we opened, July 4, 2023.
If you’re in Bastrop and you want to train the 10th Planet system with coaches who have dedicated our lives to it, we’ve got a place for you…
Come See for Yourself
We offer a free trial class because we think once you walk in and feel the vibe, the decision makes itself. No commitment. No pressure. Month to month memberships. No sign up fees. No sales pitch waiting for you at the door.
Just good jiu jitsu, good people, and, we’re legally required to mention, the greatest city on Earth: Bastrop, TX.
Book your free trial class at 10th Planet Airlock →
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
