I’ve been on Submeta on and off for about two years, and I own more BJJ Fanatics instructionals than I’ve watched — a confession I suspect every serious grappler with a credit card will recognize. Both products are good. Neither will improve your game as fast as a basic note-taking habit, and that’s the claim that makes this comparison worth writing.
What each one is actually for
BJJ Fanatics is a catalog. You buy individual instructionals from elite athletes — a few hours each, often dense, often excellent. The implicit model is here’s what works at the top level, copy it. The trap is the gap between owning an instructional, watching it, and drilling from it for a month. Those are three different activities, and only the third one changes your game.
Submeta is the opposite shape: a curated, opinionated curriculum across belt levels, built for systematic progress rather than star-driven inspiration. The model is here’s a coherent system, follow it. If the BJJ Fanatics catalog overwhelms you, Submeta is the antidote, and it’s the better fit if you want jiu-jitsu to be sustainable into your forties — the people building it think about longevity in a way highlight reels don’t.
Self-made notes aren’t a product at all. They’re the layer where someone else’s game becomes yours — and if you skip that layer, the other two are entertainment with extra steps.
The difference that decides everything
The first two give you other people’s games. The third gives you your own. That sounds glib, but it explains the most common pattern in the sport: grapplers who buy a lot of instruction and don’t get better. They’ve added information without doing the integration, and integration is what makes a technique survive contact with your body, your gym, your partners, your specific weaknesses. No production budget can do that step for you.
How I use each one
BJJ Fanatics is for specific problems. I’m getting cleaned out by the over-under pass — who has a good system against it? Buy one instructional, drill from it for a month, take notes on what holds up in my rounds, move on. That cycle works reliably.
What doesn’t work, and I’ve done it, is buying three instructionals in one sale, watching parts of all of them, drilling from none, and telling myself I “studied.” I didn’t study. I shopped.
Submeta I treat like a gym membership for my brain: subscribe when I want a system, follow the curriculum honestly, unsubscribe when I want the time back for my own game. The on-off rhythm has served me better than a continuous subscription.
The combination that compounds
Pick one structured source — one — and commit to it for three months. Drill from it in class rather than just watching it. Then take post-class notes on what worked for you in your rounds.
The third step is where almost everyone leaks, and it’s the only step that compounds, because it’s the only one about your specific game. It doesn’t need to be elaborate; a sixty-second voice memo after class clears the bar.
<a class=“inline-cta” href=“https://grappleflows.com/voice?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=post-submeta-vs-bjj-fanatics-vs-self-made-notes&utm_content=inline-cta&ref=blog”
Try it free Turn what you learn from any instructional into a flowchart you'll actually re-open. Create a free account →
If I had to keep only one
Self-made notes, without hesitation. It’s the only one of the three that’s about me rather than about Gordon Ryan, the only one that’s free, and the only one that compounds across years instead of decaying when a subscription lapses.
Between the two paid options, it’s closer than I expected before trying both seriously. Submeta wins if you want a coherent path and don’t want to be your own curriculum designer. BJJ Fanatics wins if you’d rather solve specific problems on your own schedule. (Both show up in my broader app roundup alongside everything else on my phone.)
A test before you buy anything else
Try to write one paragraph describing your current game: your A-sweep, your best pass, your biggest hole, the position you keep getting stuck in. If that paragraph comes easily, you’re ready to buy more instruction and you’ll absorb it well. If it doesn’t, you don’t have an instruction problem — you have an integration problem, and another purchase will make it slightly worse before it makes anything better.
In that case, pause the spending for a month and just take notes. The next thing you buy will work twice as well.
