Rogue Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu · Lyneham
Train with purpose. Grow with your crew.
Rogue is a community-driven Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu club built around personal growth, physical fitness, mental wellness and practical self-defence.
Community · Safety · Growth
A different kind of club
Rogue Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu offers strong, challenging and focused martial arts and self-defence training in a welcoming, people-first environment.
We are a non-competition club for all levels. Whether you are stepping onto the mat for the first time or refining a practice you have had for years, our focus is on quality instruction, sustainable progress and the community around you.
We train Gi and No-Gi, with coaching shaped around your needs and health goals. Every class is a chance to learn something useful, build confidence and keep moving forward.
The Rogue approach
Focused training, real support
Small-group training
Quality over quantity. Classes are capped at twelve, so step-by-step teaching, individual attention and direct feedback mean you will not be lost in the crowd.
Member safety
Safety is our number one priority. We take injury prevention, practical welfare and sustainable training seriously so you can keep progressing.
Principle-based instruction
Understand the ideas behind the techniques. Learn the why, apply the how, and develop the confidence to adapt as you grow.
Collaborative culture
We aim to be good training partners. The community celebrates achievements, supports challenges and helps each other build strength on and off the mat.
Clear communication
Questions are welcome. Coaches explain positions, purpose and pace clearly, helping you feel safe and in control of your learning.
Room for every level
Rogue is a friendly place to begin or continue BJJ, with an inclusive environment built around learning rather than competition.
Head coach
Mike Armstrong
Rogue is led by Mike Armstrong, a coach with a broad martial arts background and a deep commitment to creating a safe, enjoyable learning environment. His approach is technical, clear and centred on the person beyond the technique.
He spent twenty-three years in the Australian Army, retiring as a Major, and was a senior instructor on its combatives courses. The military spends more on instructional design than almost any other institution, because the cost of teaching badly is not abstract — and that is the standard he brings to a jiu-jitsu mat.
- Teaching martial arts since 1992 — more than thirty years
- Training Brazilian jiu-jitsu since 2001 — twenty-five years
- Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, awarded by John Will in 2017
- 3rd Dan — Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
- Black Belt — Karate
- Major, Australian Army (retired) — twenty-three years of service
- Senior instructor on the Australian Army combatives courses
- Senior Instructor — Unarmed Combat
- Wrestling background
Coaching standards
What qualifies a jiu-jitsu coach
Brazilian jiu-jitsu has no coaching standard. There is no national accreditation for it, no required teaching qualification and no mandated first aid. A black belt is the only credential, and what a black belt requires varies from one affiliation to the next. Anyone may open a gym and teach.
That is worth knowing before you choose a club, so here is what Mike holds.
- A formal qualification in how to teach adults. He is a qualified workplace trainer and assessor, gained in the Army across several postings to training establishments.
- Current Working With Vulnerable People registration.
- Current first aid.
- A black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, awarded by John Will in 2017.
None of the first three is required of anyone teaching jiu-jitsu. Mike holds them because he thinks teaching is a skill in its own right, and worth being qualified in.
The mascot
Squish
Sir Reginald Squishington, known to everybody as Squish, is an English bulldog and he belongs to Mike. He comes in to the studio with him. Not to every class, but often enough that most members know him.
When he is there he greets people as they arrive, he is permanently available for a scratch, and he will have a wrestle if one is offered. On a bad day he is frequently the best thing in the room. That is most of what he does here, and it is not nothing.
He was not the original mascot. The club started with a lone wolf, until somebody asked the obvious question: why is it not Squish, when he is already here? The wolf did not survive the question. Squish is now on the back of the gis, embroidered on the jumpers, and on a t-shirt with the words Tap Learn Evolve, which is about as close to a motto as this club has. All of it is on the club gear page.
Where we train
Ground floor, EMBARK building
You will find us at G06/253 Northbourne Avenue, Lyneham ACT 2602 — a ground-floor unit in the EMBARK building. Street parking is available on Deburgh Street, subject to posted signs and time limits, and the Macarthur Avenue light rail stop is a short walk away.
Directions and contact details
Start where you are
Ready to find your place on the mat?
Take the first step and experience well-paced, informative and detailed BJJ coaching in a supportive community.
Your first week is free: eight sessions across the week, every one of them taught by Mike. Register in advance — Rogue does not take walk-ins.