First BJJ Class

Earlier this week, I was too sick to start at the BJJ school I just joined. I'm pretty much over my sickness, but I didn't want to go to Mokuren (Pat's) dojo and risk having a relapse due to the cold weather (it's almost the same temperature in Pat's dojo as it is outside, and it was freezing this morning).

I was pretty disappointed about missing, judo and aikido (again) with Pat, so I decided to go do BJJ. My buddy told me they were running the heater in there at the class I missed, so I figured I could stay out of the cold, and still get a little practice.

We started with a short warmup, that nearly finished me, haha. I'm still pretty out of shape. Following the warmup we did armbar drills from the mount and from guard. After that, Rafael taught 3 variations of the D'Arce choke, which we drilled repeatedly with partners. This was a brand new one for me, and pretty awkward. I worked with Jason, the owner of the gym and a blue belt under Rafael.

After drilling was over, it was time for live rolling. All of the guys knew I was new, so they didn't go 100% against me. Most of them didn't anyway. Rafael worked with me first to show some fundamentals. Next I rolled with my namesake, who's only been doing BJJ for a couple of months, but he's extremely athletic, and he doesn't get tired. He busted my lip (I think with his elbow), but I'm sure it was unintentional. That's a difference I'm seeing between judo and BJJ - in my judo lessons (and, from what I've read, in many other judo schools), we aren't always going at 100%. In fact sometimes, we roll as low as 25%, as an alternative way to learn. I find slowing things down helps. But these BJJ guys go all out. It's a "learn by doing" mentality, I think. Incidentally, the same teaching philosophy kept me from ever taking swimming lessons as a kid - I heard they just throw you in the deep end and let you figure it out. That's pretty much how these guys roll. Having said that, most of them did take it a little easier on me, knowing I was new.

For the third and fourth rounds, I rolled with a guy named Robbie, a 4-stripe white belt. I really like Robbie - he's been doing BJJ for about a year, but he practices all the time. He strikes me as a guy who's come a long way, and wants to help other new players along too. Humble, friendly, and helpful. Before rolling, Robbie urged me to worry about nothing besides keeping my elbows in, and my knees if I could, and to focus on breathing and relaxing. Robbie was surprisingly smooth for only having done this a year.

Lastly, I rolled with another white belt. He tried to teach me stuff as well, but he was also a little rough. Right off the bat, he slapped an armbar on me, and it was just about too fast for me to tap before it hurt. One thing I'm not willing to do in order to learn BJJ is risk injury. I think people should have a little more control, and a little more respect than to even get close to hurting their partner, but I suppose some players are more...."enthusiastic" (immature?) than others. Maybe I'm just kind of a wuss...maybe I just don't get what's going on...but I just hope when I advance, I'm more like Robbie to the noobs, and don't feel the need to show off my "powers".

When I got home, my wife looked at my busted lips, strawberry on my forehead, and various bruises and said "Did you get in a fight?". I just smiled and said it was fun.

I can definitely see how rolling with different people of different skill levels is going to help my ground game. All in all, it was a great time. Did I like it as much as my aikido and judo lessons? Not really, but I do look forward to the next class.