My son and I both took our first class last night and we'll be going back tonight. He has no experience, I have very minimal "combatives" training from the Academy and attended @SouthNarc 's ECQC several (5? Maybe?) years ago.
So what should I know? I think I already know why I should be looking to buy a 'rash guard'...
I'm just a few months in, so take it for what little it's worth.
- Take your time. Focus on learning and implementing BJJ fundamental techniques, base, posture, feeling connection, leverage points, tension and weight shifts, etc. . . not on winning.
- White belt jiu jitsu is the best jiu jitsu. Don't be in a hurry to get beyond it.
- If your training partner has been at it for any amount of time, they know the escape/move you're about to try before you do.
- It's easy (at least for me) to get frustrated and resort muscling my training partner around, instead of calmly working the problem. Strength and speed without good technique is a good way to hurt your self and/or training partner. It's also a good way to gas out and not nearly as effective as your lizard brain would lead you to believe.
- Be heavy.
- Leave some gas in the tank for tomorrow. My brain is at least as tired as my body when I leave the gym.
- I'm currently choosing to emphasize my defensive (escapes) game, and deemphasize on my offensive (submissions, etc) game. Obviously, that will eventually change.
- Be a good sportsman. Good natured ribbing aside, don't brag about beating a better opponent.
- My gym has an online video curriculum. I find it well worth the extra tuition.
- There's a metric shit ton of BJJ content on YT. I'm sure most of it fine. For my personality, goals and where I'm at, I really like the stuff SBG Portland puts out. A lot of it is teasers for their online material, which is fine, but there's plenty of gold in there.
https://youtu.be/twHGCoRW3nA
Cheers,
David S
My advice (mostly applies to older beginners)
1. In order to avoid injury, don’t try to “win” sparring at first. If you could win walking in off the street why pay money and put in the time to learn bjj? This concept is simple but it’s hard for some to understand. It was for me at first.
2. IME older people struggle most with body control and movement on the floor since it’s not something adults do much of. Developing a “grapplers body” as one of my coaches calls it takes time. Focus on the traditional warmup drills and I also recommend stability ball drills (google Jeff Glover) in order to develop the muscles and balance leading to body control.
3. Focus on being “soft” and “relaxed”. It will take time to understand what that means and that can be frustrating, but by making it a focus from the beginning of your journey you can expedite progress and avoid injury.
4. Just try to have fun. It’s difficult to learn at first because when your physically exhausted and just trying to make it through a class it’s hard for the brain to digest techniques. Just have fun and don’t worry so much about learning for a month or two. I often am assigned new older students as a partner by my coach and this idea seems to take some of the stress off.
*disclaimer- I am a 48 year old purple belt and I’ve only been training consistently in the gi for <6 years. There are many others here who have more technical expertise than me. My area of interest is older folks beginning training and how to make it past the difficult initial phase.
I had a blast. I don't care about 'winning' and my ego is not wrapped up in this. I think because of my real life experiences or just my personality type I don't have anything to prove to myself or anyone else in this regard.Quote:
Originally Posted by EPF
My flexibility definitely sucks. I'm glad I've been doing all the running, my cardio isn't bad. I'm definitely using muscles I don't use much. My left hand is sore today from gripping. It'd probably be worse if I hadn't been using the CoC grippers @P.E. Kelley so generally Karma'd my way.
- Strive to breathe through your nose. This is not only good for breath control but also for pacing.
- Take notes or at least reflect on what you learned in class and what you learned in sparring.
- Since you are learning with your son, it would be good to review the moves you learned in class with him.
Best things you can do are listen to your coach, eat well, get some rest and spending a few minutes every day with a foam roller isn’t a bad idea.
Just keep showing up
Be a good training partner
This is the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheap Shot
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
A big one is to take the warm-ups seriously(hoping that your school does them). Whether they are calisthenics, movements down the mat, or a combination, these are good for preventing injury. Any jiu-jitsu movements should be done precisely and with intent; don't just go through the motions. I don't think that anyone is too good for warm-ups.
Congrats on getting on the mat. I don't know your age, but I think you're an "adult" so my comments apply to older grapplers.Quote:
Originally Posted by BehindBlueI's
Give yourself plenty of recovery time between sessions.
Avoid rolling with newbies - they're more likely to spaz out and cause you injuries.
Avoid guys in their late teens and 20's who are hyper competitive or aggressive. Their idea of a "flow roll" is probably different than yours.
Roll with older guys with higher belts. They're more mature, and less likely to be hyper competitive and smash you. They'll tap you, sure, but they'll usually be executing perfect form and not being brutally aggressive (unless you act like a spaz, which seems unlikely).
Avoid rolling with guys significantly larger than you. Even if your form is perfect, sweeping a guy who is 250lbs is more difficult than sweeping a guy who is 165lb. The level of effort required for the larger opponent is correlated to an increased chance of injury.
Understand the Boyd Belts (every 20lbs equal a belt, and every 10 years younger equals a belt) https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ture=emb_title
Good luck. Please keep us posted on your progress.