So, this will be the place that I'm actually going to be cross posting what I've been posting over at some great Jiu-Jitsu forums that I found. So, my next two posts will actually be from yesterday and this morning. Hope you enjoy the ride.

Originally posted on 11-5-07:

So, tonight is the night that my BJJ experience begins.
27 years old? Check.
Out of shape? Check.
Previous martial arts experience? :crickets:

Yep..no prior experience whatsoever in the martial arts, and this is what I decide to with myself. I have a combination of total excitement, and sheer terror right now. This should be mighty interesting!

As I said before last night was my first night of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I don't know if it's possible, but the class was simultaneously exactly what I expected, and nothing like I'd imagined. Let me explain. The things that we did in the class are pretty much the exact things I expected us to do. However, the physical exertion during the class was nothing like I'd imagined. It confirmed what I already knew. I am fat and out of shape.

My first impressions were how nice everyone was, and how willing to help out the new guys everyone was. There were actually 3 new guys in the class tonight. The very first thing that the instructor emphasized was the fact that if, at any time, the activities felt unsafe, we were to absolutely REFUSE to do them. He placed a huge emphasis on making sure we all stayed safe, which is reassuring.

So, we started the class with the standard stretching and then 2 "cycles". In that dojo a cycle is a combination of pushups, mountain climbers, and up-downs. It was while doing the cycles that I realized I had a lot of work ahead of me. Then we did some partner stomach work.

After warming up we started learning a few basic things. I honestly wish I could remember the exact names for everything. The first one was a belt grab to mount someone when fighting from your back. The second was a variation of it, if they were to try to block it, and the third was a way to drop the same move into an arm bar. It was amazing how such "simple" moves can be so overwhelming to someone that has zero experience. After working that for awhile, we moved into a scissors sweep from our back, and then worked on a modified scissors sweep that involved using our foot to kick the guy's knee back if he was fighting it. (If I'm using incorrect names here, please correct me.)

So, after working on that for awhile, and trying to get my brain to absorb it all, the instructor wanted us to roll with some of the more advanced guys. He knew we weren't going to do well, but he wanted to see how we naturally responded to some of the moves that were being put on us. I ended up doing 3 pseudo-matches. They went as follows:

- The first one involved me getting pulled into guard, me trying to pass by pinning his left leg down with my right, and then being caught in some sort of an arm bar.

- Next, I pulled him into my guard, was promptly passed, had a knee on my stomach, gave him my back, felt him going for the rear naked choke, and blocked it beautifully. My thought process went something like this: "OK...relax and keep breathing, you're ok. Get his wrist out of there. Great, he doesn't have it. You're not breathing...remember to breathe. Wait, you can't." *taptaptap* Apparently, in countering the rear naked choke, I managed to allow him to get the GI and choke me that way.

- Third, I got pulled into guard again, felt him going for the arm bar, and tried grab my own arm to counter it, felt a shin in my throat and a hand on the back of my head...and that was it.

So, as you can see, it didn't go real well. Although, I wouldn't have expected anything else, I guess. The thing that I was trying hard to do last night was forget everything I've ever watched on TV, as I know that will only hurt me. But, whether it was right or wrong, I believe that what I've seen on there kept me out of the rear naked choke and the arm bar. It just hadn't "taught" me enough to watch for other things that those situations could set up.

All in all, it was a fantastic time. I'm quite sore today, though not as bad as I thought I'd be. That being said, I can't wait for Thursday!!!!

Congrats on starting jj! I only have a tiny bit of experience with it - and was shocked to find that even the upright grappling of Thai boxing gave me zero basis for bjj. There's a whole new level of proprioception involved, and I think the physical intimacy of it can be a little overwhelming at first, too.

Is this gi jiu jitsu or no gi? It sounds like gi, since you mentioned a belt. I've been dying to find a gi jiu jitsu school within the confines of Boston, and have failed so far. Anyway, I look forward to reading this journal!

Congrats on starting jj! I only have a tiny bit of experience with it - and was shocked to find that even the upright grappling of Thai boxing gave me zero basis for bjj. There's a whole new level of proprioception involved, and I think the physical intimacy of it can be a little overwhelming at first, too.

Is this gi jiu jitsu or no gi? It sounds like gi, since you mentioned a belt. I've been dying to find a gi jiu jitsu school within the confines of Boston, and have failed so far. Anyway, I look forward to reading this journal!

They actually train both ways at this dojo. I don't have my gi, yet, though. So I've had to borrow the "stock" ones that they have there. They also do MMA, which is what I hope to EVENTUALLY get into. But that's a long ways down the road.

Good luck on your journey, what are your goals in Jiu-Jitsu and training in general?

Good luck on your journey, what are your goals in Jiu-Jitsu and training in general?

I've started this journey with some very specific goals in mind; both long and short term.

My shortest term goal is simply to stick with this, and to go to class at least 2 nights a week (minus time I'll miss when my wife gives birth)

My next goal is to compete in a tournament by my next birthday 4/19/08.

Beyond that, I wish to improve my skills to a level that I can begin to train MMA, and would like to compete in one MMA bout by the time I'm 30. 4/19/10 Win or lose, I want to do it, just to say I've had the experience.

Bro, all I can say is... stick with it. I started training in bjj back in '97 with a group of guys, by 2000 I had my blue belt and was competing at major tournaments. Got married a couple years later and only train sporatically now. Two of the guys I started with as white belts are now black belts and have their own academies. Me? Still a a lowely blue belt after 10 years. If I had stuck in there I'd be a black belt by now. :cry:

Just take it slow and be consistent.

Talk about DOMS!!!!

I didn't really feel to bad yesterday, but today, my stomach, lats, and upper back are ridiculously stiff and sore. I'm gonna have to do some serious stretching to be in a situation to get going again tomorrow.

So, last night was my second night of BJJ class. After the standard warm up drills we started working on different escapes. The first one was using a neck crank to counter a standing guillotine into side control. The second was putting our thigh(s) on their thighs when the got the guillotine, so that when they fell into guard, we could actually either have 1/2 guard or mount, and be able to pop out.

From there we worked on what do to when you're in side control and someone locks up your head (see above). We worked on walk all the way around them to just pop out and have side control on the other side. That was definitely the easiest of the three. We worked on just clinching up on them (if the pressure on your own head was comfortable enough) and just dropping your shoulder into their throat and getting the choke. And then we worked on popping out and immediately cinching up a kimura. Those were all pretty fun to work on. I was amazed to see how easy it was to choke someone that had your head from that position.

After that we started doing our rolling. I rolled with a 1 year, 4 stripe white belt first. This was the same guy that tapped me multiple times monday night. I messed up early and he got mounted, I gave him my arm, while trying to shove him off of me, and he gladly took it right into the armbar. Tap.

Next, I rolled with a guy that had been coming for about 3 weeks, and really bothered me. He was the type of guy that now that he'd been there for 3 weeks, he obviously knew everything there was about BJJ. He would constantly try to help people and tell them how to do a certain move, only to find out from our instructor that he was telling them all wrong. That just bothers me, because I'm completely the opposite. I pretty much shut up, listen to what the instructor has to say, and if an experienced guy taps me, I ask him what I did wrong, and what I should have done instead to avoid that situation.

So, anyway. We start rolling and he pulls me into his guard. We go back and forth a bit, and I start to pass. I get into half guard. He locks up my left leg pretty tight, and I know I'm not going to get out of that any time soon. I discovered that after I strained for about 30 seconds. Then I started remember the advice given to me on another forum. Relax! Don't use all your energy. So, I quit focusing on my leg, and go about locking his arm in a pseudo-kimura. Now, I'm not sure, but it didn't feel like I could get him from here. But, it seemed to cause him a lot of discomfort, because he started to focus his energy on getting his arm free. While he was doing that, I managed to sneak me left leg free and get into mount position. I put my left arm over his right shoulder and back under his head and laid on him, hoping to control him, and give myself a bit of a break. When I do this, he crossed his left arm across my face to my left shoulder. When he did this, I suddenly remember a move I'd seen once, but had no idea if I could do it. I used my right hand, to shove that arm even further to my left, dropped my head down into his left armpit, locked my own hands behind his head, and squeezed. Sure enough he tapped, and I really do (at least this time) know how to apply an arm triangle choke. :tucool:

All I can say is that that 4 minutes or so felt like an eternity and I could barely walk when I was done. But, damn did it feel good.

The last guy I rolled with was a guy that had been there for about 6 months. I outweigh him by a LOT, but he was the one that wanted to roll with me. So, he pulls me into his guard. I was immediately able to pass into half guard. But once I got there, he had me controlled, really. I couldn't put together any sort of offensive at all. We were in that position for quite some time, with both of us jockeying for some sort of position. I know he was getting uncomfortable under my weight, and he started to work to roll me, so that he'd be in my half guard. As soon as he did that, i was able to get his head locked up, scoot myself back far enough to get leverage, and catch him in a guillotine. I have no doubt in my mind that me outweighing him as much as I did had a big impact in that match. So, that one doesn't mean AS much to me as the first one, against a guy with a similar build that wouldn't shut his mouth. :claphigh:

Wow, that ended up a lot longer then I'd ever intended it to be. So, I'm debating on whether or not to head to class tonight, or wait til Tuesday like I'd originally planned. My concern is that my right shoulder (trap) is sore today. I can't tell yet whether its real stiff, or if I pulled the muscle a bit last night. I'm taking my gear with me to work today, though. That way, if it does feel better later, I can go. If it is a little bit pulled, though, I'm going to wait it out til Tuesday. No need injuring myself this early in the game.

This is an interesting journal. What are your stats, if you don't mind me asking? I'm around 5'9" and 178 lbs so my training partners are always bigger than me. Most small dudes play guard a lot, but I prefer passing and controlling from the top... even against the big guys. Early in my bjj career I played lots of guard and it gave me back problems because I liked to go inverted and catch triangles and armbars. Ryan Hall does that a lot, but he's flexible. It's good for getting quick taps, even on blues and purples... but if you're tight like me, you'll eventually wear out your back. Then again, I'm abnormally inflexible so your milage may vary. :tu:

I'm fat and out of shape, to answer that question.

5'10" and about 245-250. Haven't weighed lately.

So, I went to class Friday night. Originally, I had planned to go Monday and Thursday of last week, and then shift to a Tue/Thur schedule, with the occasional Friday tossed in there. I had nothing going on last Friday, so I decided I'd head in to train. We went over some new escapes, and the moved on to open grappling. I rolled first with a fella that is about 6" taller then me, and weighs probably slightly more then I do. However, he's been doing this for some time. The first thing I noticed was that he was like a rock to try to move. I pulled him into my guard, and he moved to knee on belly. I instinctively gave him my back http://www.jiujitsuforums.com/images/smiles/icon_mad.gif He did some neck crank thing, and I tapped. You will see by the end of this, that knee on belly is by far my least favorite move, so far.

So, we move into Round 2. He pulls me into guard. I use some distraction to pass to side control. I worked on trying to choke him with his Gi, while not really expecting to, just so I could move into side control. However, once I got there, I realized that I didn't really know anything to do from side control, so we pretty much stalemated out.

Next I ended up rolling with my instructor. One thing I noticed right away is that (as someone stated in a thread earlier) he was like water moving around me. Expending very little energy, and just moving from one thing to the next. The first thing he did was move to knee on belly. I tried to use my hand to push his knee off, and boom, I'm in an arm bar. So, we start again, and I notice that he's intentionally putting himself in positions for me to attempt to use the escapes that we'd been learning the last few classes. I thought this was really cool, as it gives me a chance to actually apply what I'm learning. I honestly don't remember what happened in the 2nd round, but I know he tapped me. Before we started again, I asked him what I did wrong to get caught in the armbar earlier, when he had knee on belly. He said I should have rolled to the outside, then used my elbow (not hand) to get his knee off of there. He showed me once in slo-mo how to apply this. I explained that the KOB was my least comfortable position because I haven't developed the cardio yet, and it virtually gasses me instantly, and I panic. I asked if we could start from that position so I could practice it more. So, we did...Here is what made it officially my least favorite move.

I waited a second to process in my head exactly what I was going to do. I rolled to the outside, slightly. I must have shifted down a bit, too, because I felt his knee come up onto my ribs (veterans of the sport can probably see where this is going.) I planted my elbow, turned back into the inside, while pushing his knee off. It slipped off just as it was supposed to. However, when it did, I hear an audible pop. My instructor ends up in side control, and I tap his shoulder without a hold being applied. IMMEDIATELY, he sits up and says, "What popped? I heard something" Turns out that his knee came up onto one of my floating ribs. When I rolled out, the pressure from the floating ribs was instantly removed, and it very quickly "popped" back up into place. You can imagine that this was quite painful.

So, basically, now I have bruised ribs on my right side. The pain has been pretty constant since Friday, so I'm hoping I don't have a small fracture of some sort. If the pain continues in intensity for the next couple of days, I will go in and get some x-rays done. I know there's nothing you can really do, regardless of what is wrong, but at least then I'll know how quickly to push myself back into training.

So, last night was the first time back into class after popping a couple of my ribs back on November 16th. I was very worried about how things were going to go.

We worked on 2 techniques, with 2 variations of each technique.
The first one we worked on was escaping a back mount when someone goes to choke you by rolling to the side, and then basically rolling into North/South. That escape felt very clean for me, I thouroghly enjoyed doing it. The second one was rolling to the side, and then driving into side control. This particular move felt terribly awkward to me, so it's a certainty that I need more work on this. Also, when my partner was doing it with me, I was very conscious of the fact that I was protecting my ribs as he moved into side control. Overall, it wasn't too bad.

The second technique was armbars from side control. These two moves really shocked me at how quickly they can be applied, and how much pressure such a small motion will put on your shoulder or elbow (depending on which style is used.) Both of these felt really good to me, and I look forward to using them.

After working technique for about an hour or so, we moved into rolling. My partner has been training for about a year. We set up the ground rules of no knee on belly (the move that injured my ribs). Man, this guy was a beast. I was neck-cranked, choked (blood and air), arm barred, kimura'd, etc. What was nice about rolling with this guy was the knew that I didn't know a terrible amount of offensive moves so he would put me in positions to escape, or defend. For example, he got me locked tight in a guillotine, and instead of clamping down right away, he said, "Get your head outta there!" He gave me a chance to try to escape it before finally putting the pressure down, and causing the tap. He would put me in guard, and before really doing anything, he would give me substantial time to try to pass the guard (the best I ever got to was 1/2 guard.) A couple of times he caught me holding my breath, and reminded me, "Breathe!" I look forward to training with him again.

At the end of that, we did a 20 minute ab workout that about killed my fat ass. I have not sweated that much in ages. Just for fun, I wish I'd have weighed myself before an after class. Without exaggeration, I bet I dropped 5 pounds, just in lost fluids.

When we were done, I was surprised that my ribs were only a little bit sore. Today, they don't feel bad at all. (My neck is sore as hell, though) Hopefully, tomorrow, the ribs will still be fine, and I'll be right back in class.