So fun fact, I was reading literature on this last week. The data shows that rapid weight loss can have a negative impact on performance, especially if you're trying to cut more than 5% of your body weight in 2 weeks or less. If you are doing rapid weight loss, increasing training with liquid restrictions has the least impact on performance as long as you have more than an hour, ideally more than 3 hours, between weigh in and your match. Then you need to carb load and hydrate with about 1.5L for every Kg lost. The ideal way is portion control and trying to aim for about 1-2 Kg per week. As it pertains to diet trends and performance, most of the hot diets right now will negatively impact performance, i.e. keto, carnivore, paleo, gluten free.... However, one dietary pattern that did show promising data that improved performance was the Mediterranean diet, which showed subjective improvement with muai thai athletes. Here is the NASM guidelines for planning a weight loss plan as it pertains to finding your target weight goal. https://www.nasm.org/resources/calorie-calculator#:~:text=Men:%20(10%20%C3%97%20weight%20in,%C3%97%20age%20in%20years)%20%2D%20161 A quick formula for the same thing would be target weight x 12-13 = daily calories total

The other 2 methods that were looked at were sitting in saunas and using diuretics to drop water weight. Keep in mind that diuretics can cause serious health issues as most flush out your body of potassium and is banned in sports (as is most of the supplements many bjj athletes use)

I typically just wash mine and then stay shoeless as often as I can. The air helps it dry out and acap so it doesnt catch on the mat at next class. I dont have any other magical snake oil, I just noticed after a while it healed up and I get them less often now.

The coach at my normal class almost always starts class with some sort of Judo throws that have limited risk in bjj. A lot of foot sweep stuff. As a result, I typically am looking for a foot sweep of some sort. I dont mind getting in close since I'm like 5'7 but hover around 200 pounds, so most of my opponents tower over me. As a result, keeping distance hurts me since they always have a longer reach.