Flatfish
Black Belt
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2014
- Messages
- 679
- Reaction score
- 296
So, as the title says, I thought it would be fun to post about a few things I have learned in this new endeavor of mine. I'm sure some of this is not exactly new and quite a few folks will have read or experienced similar things. Still I thought it might be fun to share my personal experience.
Quick background: Did Judo as a kid/teen, then stopped. Took up TKD at age 43 with my kids, got my first Dan, then got discouraged by a couple of different experiences and longer standing issues and decided to try grappling. Persuaded the kids to try, they liked it and now we're doing BJJ.
The gym: great place, main instructor is a second degree Blackbelt, two other BBs also teach. Kids' class runs in parallel on a different mat so no scheduling issues. Friendly and helpful folks, quite a few around my age, most of which have prior MA experience and ended up with BJJ (makes for some good conversations). Very few people who try to tear you apart every chance they get.
The training: Open mat before class starts gives a chance to work on some specifics or just roll, then a quick warm up. We usually end up with about three different techniques per class. The first is often some kind of takedown, then groundwork. We tend to focus on techniques out of a specific position and variations thereof. Recently we spend about two weeks on attacking the turtle as an example. As far as style, our instructor prefers staying active in open guard as opposed to working from closed guard (in fact the name is "Openguard BJJ"). We drill for about 45 min and then either roll or do fun things like trying to pass guard using only one arm while the other defends only using their legs. As long as I've been there we have not had any stripe or belt promotions so I cannot comment on that yet.
So how am I doing? It's a challenge for sure. Back in my Judo days I was often told I had good technique. So far so good, but I was never very good at Randori, i.e. making my "good" technique work. So far history seems to repeat itself. I pick up techniques quickly and can make them work in drilling but rolling is a different ball game. The finish that works best for me so far is an Americana from side control. And of course it's a roller coaster, some days I feel like I'm starting to get some things, then the next class I get smashed completely. Luckily I have no ego problem, I know I suck and that it'll only get better with work and time and that's fine.
Rolling is exhausting. I remember when I started sparring in TKD, gassing out after just a short while, not breathing, not relaxing, all of which of course made me tired. Something I had to learn how to do, and yet, I had to completely relearn that for rolling. That's one thing though that I feel I'm getting better at...taking a breather when in a position before moving on to the next thing, being patient and trying to relax.
Rolling is rough, Ibuprofen is my new best friend. In the beginning I had to skip my morning workouts after BJJ the night before because I was still exhausted, hurting etc. That's getting better as well. I might have to skip every once in a while but overall I manage to keep up my workout schedule.
Being held in side control sucks ....I much prefer knee on belly, mount, anything other than side control..... And what's with the ears hurting all the time??????? That one really sucks because sometimes it makes sleeping difficult. Ears and fingers bother me the most. Hopefully that'll get a bit better over time as well.
So pretty much my experience gels with everything I have heard/read about BJJ. It's hard, you're gonna suck but it's also a lot of fun. The rare times when you actually manage to pull off a submission or a sweep during rolling feel so good that you just want to keep going.
In closing, I thought this writeup might be useful for someone who thinks about taking up grappling and it might make folks who have been at it for a while chuckle because they remember feeling some of the same things back when they started.
Dang, that was a long post...someone buy me a beer, please......
Quick background: Did Judo as a kid/teen, then stopped. Took up TKD at age 43 with my kids, got my first Dan, then got discouraged by a couple of different experiences and longer standing issues and decided to try grappling. Persuaded the kids to try, they liked it and now we're doing BJJ.
The gym: great place, main instructor is a second degree Blackbelt, two other BBs also teach. Kids' class runs in parallel on a different mat so no scheduling issues. Friendly and helpful folks, quite a few around my age, most of which have prior MA experience and ended up with BJJ (makes for some good conversations). Very few people who try to tear you apart every chance they get.
The training: Open mat before class starts gives a chance to work on some specifics or just roll, then a quick warm up. We usually end up with about three different techniques per class. The first is often some kind of takedown, then groundwork. We tend to focus on techniques out of a specific position and variations thereof. Recently we spend about two weeks on attacking the turtle as an example. As far as style, our instructor prefers staying active in open guard as opposed to working from closed guard (in fact the name is "Openguard BJJ"). We drill for about 45 min and then either roll or do fun things like trying to pass guard using only one arm while the other defends only using their legs. As long as I've been there we have not had any stripe or belt promotions so I cannot comment on that yet.
So how am I doing? It's a challenge for sure. Back in my Judo days I was often told I had good technique. So far so good, but I was never very good at Randori, i.e. making my "good" technique work. So far history seems to repeat itself. I pick up techniques quickly and can make them work in drilling but rolling is a different ball game. The finish that works best for me so far is an Americana from side control. And of course it's a roller coaster, some days I feel like I'm starting to get some things, then the next class I get smashed completely. Luckily I have no ego problem, I know I suck and that it'll only get better with work and time and that's fine.
Rolling is exhausting. I remember when I started sparring in TKD, gassing out after just a short while, not breathing, not relaxing, all of which of course made me tired. Something I had to learn how to do, and yet, I had to completely relearn that for rolling. That's one thing though that I feel I'm getting better at...taking a breather when in a position before moving on to the next thing, being patient and trying to relax.
Rolling is rough, Ibuprofen is my new best friend. In the beginning I had to skip my morning workouts after BJJ the night before because I was still exhausted, hurting etc. That's getting better as well. I might have to skip every once in a while but overall I manage to keep up my workout schedule.
Being held in side control sucks ....I much prefer knee on belly, mount, anything other than side control..... And what's with the ears hurting all the time??????? That one really sucks because sometimes it makes sleeping difficult. Ears and fingers bother me the most. Hopefully that'll get a bit better over time as well.
So pretty much my experience gels with everything I have heard/read about BJJ. It's hard, you're gonna suck but it's also a lot of fun. The rare times when you actually manage to pull off a submission or a sweep during rolling feel so good that you just want to keep going.
In closing, I thought this writeup might be useful for someone who thinks about taking up grappling and it might make folks who have been at it for a while chuckle because they remember feeling some of the same things back when they started.
Dang, that was a long post...someone buy me a beer, please......
