Instagram just handed you tools that cut editing time and show you what's working. Put the time you save into more posts and a closer look at the results. ⚙️ BUILD BETTER REELS IN LESS TIME STEP 1: Run First Draft, then finish the cut yourself. It sits right inside the Instagram app. Pick your clips, tap once, and it trims the dead air in about ten seconds. It will still leave in the line you said twice, the cough, and the moment you retied your belt. On rolling footage it holds shots too long, so trim it down to a cut every two seconds or so before you post. STEP 2: Turn on everything in Edits Labs. Open Edits, tap your profile photo in the top right corner, and scroll to Labs at the bottom. Toggle on whatever your account shows. • Auto Adjust fixes color and lighting in one tap. Gym fluorescents need it. • Improve Audio cuts background noise like the gym music, the round timer, and the roll next to you. • Carousel Editor builds carousels with far more fonts than Instagram offers and exports them straight to your feed. Edits is free right now. Build the habit while it costs nothing. STEP 3: Shoot at the highest quality your phone allows and skip the beauty filter. Go into your camera settings and pick 4K if you have it. Instagram has said for years that grainy video hurts reach, and filters look dated now. STEP 4: Set translations before you hit share. Tap More Options, then Accessibility and Translation, and pick your languages. Instagram dubs your voice with AI, and Portuguese and Japanese are both on the list. You can't add translations once the reel is live, and they only cover your spoken words, so keep adding your own captions. Plenty of people scroll on mute. ⚙️ MAKE YOUR PROFILE CONVERT STEP 5: Pin three posts and give each one a job. New visitors size you up in about five seconds, and your pins do most of the talking. A matching color grid is optional now. • Your story. Under 30 seconds, with on screen text giving your name, belt, team, and one fact people won't expect.

Meta rolled out a batch of updates to Instagram and Edits this week. Two are worth using right away if you post technique breakdowns, and one feature some of you rely on goes away on October 28. FILM WITH THE CLIP RUNNING IN YOUR CAMERA Instagram added a Use as reference option. Open any Reel under 90 seconds, tap the three dots, and choose Use as reference. The clip plays in a small window inside your camera while you record. You can drag it anywhere on screen, pause it, and replay it as many times as you need. A countdown helps you start in sync. Two ways to use it: 1. Recreate a finish from a match clip. Put your partner in the same position and drill it beat for beat with the original running in the corner. 2. Talk through a sequence while the clip plays, so you hit each detail in the order it happens. iPhone only for now. SAVE YOUR LOOK AS A KIT IN EDITS Edits now lets you save a set of visual style settings as a Kit and reapply it to any project. Build one for your breakdowns with the same text style, colors, and effects every time. After a few posts, people should recognize your breakdowns before they see your name. BACK UP YOUR LINKED SERIES BEFORE OCTOBER 28 Instagram is removing the option to link Reels together into a series. If you've been chaining a guard passing series or a tournament recap that way, set up a backup now: 1. Put the part number on the cover of each Reel. 2. Pin Part 1 to your profile so new viewers start in the right place. 3. If the series holds up as one longer video, post it as one. Instagram has been exploring longer content, so this could be clearing the way for longer single videos. TWO SMALLER UPDATES Audio links: you can now link the specific song or sound in your Reel, and viewers can tap through to hear it. Trending topics: Edits will show you what's driving engagement with your audience. It's limited to accounts over 10,000 followers for now.

Instagram now lets you put trending audio on carousels and single photo posts, the same way you would on a reel. A carousel with a trending sound becomes eligible for the Reels feed and gets a better shot at Explore. Your technique breakdown slides, comp photo dumps and promotion posts can now reach people who have never seen your page. ADD A SOUND BEFORE YOU HIT SHARE Every carousel and photo post gets a sound from here on. Breakdown slides, podium shots, team photos, belt promotions. It takes ten seconds in the composer. FIND TRENDING AUDIO IN FIVE PLACES 1. The Trending list. In the post, story or reel composer, tap the music icon and choose Trending. You get the top 50 sounds, refreshed every few days. Bookmark the ones that fit your feed so they are waiting when you need them. 2. Your Professional Dashboard. On a US professional account, open the dashboard from your profile, scroll to Tips and resources, and tap Trending audio for curated picks. 3. The upward arrow. While you scroll reels, a small arrow next to the audio name means Instagram has flagged that sound as trending. Tap it and save it. 4. The @creators account. Instagram's own creators page posts trending songs and editing tips. The IG Anthems highlight is the shortcut. 5. TikTok and YouTube Shorts. A lot of Instagram sounds start there. Spot one climbing on TikTok, search it on Instagram, and post it before the wave reaches your feed. USE ORIGINAL AUDIO TOO Trending original audio, the clips creators recorded themselves, lives in the Professional Dashboard under the Original audio tab. Jumping on one while it climbs can give your post an extra push. Your own breakdown voiceovers can become original audio as well, and every reel that uses one credits your page. YOUR MOVE THIS WEEK Pick one carousel or photo post you were already planning. Add a sound from the Trending list or one of the six above, post it, and drop the link in the comments.

Pick one finish from this list and break it down for your IG this week. One move per post: the setup, the key detail, the finish. Six of these come from one FloGrappling video, so everyone works from the same footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JnR867bpI The timestamp next to each one is where that clip starts. LEG LOCKS 1) Martyna Kapuścińska, heel hook on Fernanda Cristo (Pan No-Gi medium heavy final, 5:20) 2) Helena Crevar, ankle lock on Sara Resetar (Pan No-Gi super heavy final, 0:00) 3) Amanda Bruse, ankle lock on Jenna Garcia (Pan No-Gi light final, 4:05) CHOKES 4) Pawel Jaworski, triangle on David Garmo (Pan No-Gi medium heavy final, 0:58). The No. 1 ranked no-gi black belt is known for leg locks and won the final with a triangle. That's your hook. 5) Maia Matalon, D'Arce on Sa'idah Durkee (Pan No-Gi heavy final, 4:30) 6) Julia Livesey, arm triangle on Shye Lilly (Polaris 39). The only main card submission Polaris has posted. The footage is on FloGrappling. ARM ATTACK 7) Elijah Dorsey on Tarik Hopstock (Pan No-Gi middle final, 0:28). Dorsey finished the reigning No-Gi world champion. Flo's graphic reads "A Lock," so confirm the exact finish from the footage before you label it. Post yours, then drop the link in the comments here.

Instagram is rewarding connection over production right now. A phone, a gym bag, and these five habits are enough. ⚙️ THE FIVE FIXES STEP 1: Swap one word before you post. "Guard passing" becomes "Passing the knee shield." "Competition prep" becomes "Cutting to rooster for Worlds." The most specific word is the one that stops the right person. STEP 2: Say who it's for in the first second. Put it on screen over live rolling. "Blue belts stuck under half guard." "Masters guys training around a desk job." "Wrestlers starting jiu-jitsu." If they see themselves, they stay. STEP 3: Open with something that happened on your mats. Skip "Here are three tips." Start with "I got flattened in this position for two years until a black belt showed me one grip." Nobody else has your stories. STEP 4: Hold something from your training. Your belt, a round timer, the gi you competed in, your match notebook. It gives people something to ask about in the comments. Add captions in Edits, time your text to the key grip or angle, and change the shot every few seconds. STEP 5: Test new ideas as trial reels. They go to people who don't follow you, so a weak post never sits on your grid. Try a new hook or topic there first and move the winners to your main feed. TAKEAWAY Pick your next clip. One specific word, the viewer named in the first second, a story from your own training. Run it as a trial reel this week.