# Am i always going to suck at bjj or does it get better?



## OldManJim

So I've been taking Bjj since mid January, and with the exception of missing a week for illness I've took 3 classes per week...fundamental, advanced and no GI. Class usually consists of doing shrimp crawls, drilling 3-5 techniques and then rolling. There are several white belts going from 1 stripe to 4 as well as blue and up. I haven't earned a stripe and only got 1 submission against a wrestler that showed up for 1 class. Basically I'm surviving right now. I try to get submissions but can't and even though on some occasions I can roll with a 4 stripe without being submitted, 90 % of the time it's not the case. Do I just suck or is this normal?


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## oaktree

First thing I wouldn't say you suck. So lets look at it from a constructive position:
You have been doing it about 3 months 90 days and have already submitted one guy and still can roll with higher ranks then you without submitting most of the time so there is some skill there.

Second thing is we don't know why others are moving up in the class maybe they practice outside of the school, maybe they took lessons at another place before or current who knows. Don't worry to much about others progression and comparison focus on your development and goals.

Third thing, you are having trouble getting submissions, evaluate your game plan and technique. Talk to your teacher about your concern, let him watch you and offer feed back, ask the people you roll with.


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## Jaeimseu

OldManJim said:


> So I've been taking Bjj since mid January, and with the exception of missing a week for illness I've took 3 classes per week...fundamental, advanced and no GI. Class usually consists of doing shrimp crawls, drilling 3-5 techniques and then rolling. There are several white belts going from 1 stripe to 4 as well as blue and up. I haven't earned a stripe and only got 1 submission against a wrestler that showed up for 1 class. Basically I'm surviving right now. I try to get submissions but can't and even though on some occasions I can roll with a 4 stripe without being submitted, 90 % of the time it's not the case. Do I just suck or is this normal?


If I were you, I'd stop worrying about submissions and focus more on position. In my admittedly limited experience, there is a pretty big gap between a 1 stripe and a no stripe of a similar size. Keep at it. You'll get smoked by everyone until you don't.


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## drop bear

OldManJim said:


> So I've been taking Bjj since mid January, and with the exception of missing a week for illness I've took 3 classes per week...fundamental, advanced and no GI. Class usually consists of doing shrimp crawls, drilling 3-5 techniques and then rolling. There are several white belts going from 1 stripe to 4 as well as blue and up. I haven't earned a stripe and only got 1 submission against a wrestler that showed up for 1 class. Basically I'm surviving right now. I try to get submissions but can't and even though on some occasions I can roll with a 4 stripe without being submitted, 90 % of the time it's not the case. Do I just suck or is this normal?



It is always harder when they are fighting back.


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## Steve

For me, it was about 4 or 5 months of not feeling any progress, until some new guys came in.   You're getting better.  You just can't see it because everyone around you is also getting better.   Keep training.  Be consistent.   Many of those white belts will quit.


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## Tony Dismukes

Totally normal.

Instructors vary quite a bit in their approach to stripes, (some don't even use them), but it typically will take 6-9 months to earn your first stripe. Don't even worry about that for now.

Don't expect to succeed in getting submissions just yet. You've been training for 3 months. Your sparring partners (judging from their ranks)have anywhere from several months to several years more experience than you. They _should_ be consistently dominating you unless you are exceptionally talented and athletic.

The advice I give people is not to focus on who you can or can't "beat" in rolling. That mindset leads to frustration and slower progress. You need to focus on smaller steps and smaller victories. The following should give you an idea of how to approach your progression while rolling.

1) Starting out. You find yourself in a certain position and you have no idea of what to do from here. Victory condition - attend classes and ask questions until you learn something you can try in that situation.

2) You find yourself in that same position again, having learned something to try from there. In the heat of the moment you can't remember what technique you were shown to use in that position. If you do remember, it's too late. You've hesitated too long and the situation has already changed. Victory condition - after the round mentally review what you should have done. Get in some extra reps with a training partner. Visualize going for the move next time.

3) You find yourself back in that same position and you try the appropriate technique you've been shown. It doesn't work - probably because you've messed up a number of important details under stress. Victory condition: First, give yourself a gold star for remembering and trying an appropriate technique. Next, identify at least one detail that you got wrong when you tried the move. If you can't figure that out yourself, ask your instructor or your sparring partners. Visualize getting that detail right next time. Next time you roll, your goal will be to get that one detail right.

4) Congratulations! You ended up in that position again, tried the technique and got that troublesome detail fixed. Unfortunately it still doesn't work because you've  forgotten or messed up other details.  Victory condition - keep repeating step 3 with additional details until you start consistently attempting an appropriate technique with a reasonable degree of skill and correctness in that position.

5) Now that you can consistently attempt some moves under pressure with good technique at the appropriate time, they sometimes work for you. Yay! However, often they still don't work because your sparring partner counters them with superior technique or athleticism. Victory condition - start learning the counters to the counters. Start learning multiple moves for the same situation and how to use them in combination. Start learning how to disguise your intent so your partner doesn't know what move you're going for. Expect all this to improve in small increments, just like the previous steps.

6) As above, but everything just keeps getting deeper and more nuanced.

TLDR - your victories don't come through tapping out your training partners. They come by incrementally improving the quality of your own movements. If you keep making those incremental improvements, you will eventually start getting those submissions.

BTW - even as you get better, you will still feel like you suck. Even after thousands of hours of training and earning my black belt in BJJ, I still feel like I suck on a regular basis. All that changes is that your standards improve and you start sucking at a higher level.


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## marques

Be patient, specially if the business is BJJ. 
I had (long) times that I felt no evolution, or even regression, in my performance. Now I think it is just part of the process. Asking yourself if something is wrong is good, but don't overvalue if you are going slower. 
Again my experience, I took twice the time of some others to become black belt. Yet, I became one of the very few, and the (second) younger black belt in the organisation, I think. Finally, belts are for motivation. They don't protect you. Just keep motivated regardless of the belt.


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## Brian R. VanCise

Be patient as mentioned above and no you do not suck.  As Tony mentioned this is totally normal!  Just keep training and you will see improvements over time.


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## Buka

Oh, it definitely gets better, but, yeah, you'll always suck. Embrace the suck and have fun.


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## Danny T

Yes you suck; we all suck just a different levels.
Stop comparing yourself to others, compare yourself to you. How much better are you since first stepping on to the mats? Have fun, keep working to better yourself. It takes time. There is a huge learning curve just keep at it.


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