1.5 months into BJJ and i feel useless

You sure have noticed a theme in the trhead by now... it does take time.

Here is some more specific advice, as you are a smaller guy:

- Accept that you will be playing from the bottom a lot. Still learn about good base and posture when you are on top (ask your instructor), but realize that you will need to play a small man's game, which translates to first getting good with the guard, really good. Then comes everything else.

How to do that?

- Specialize in learning everything about defense and survival on bottom. Drill the hell out of all the escapes on the bottom, especially bottom side control.
[Important note: If you make it your goal to "win", or "last longer", or "hang with the bigger guys", you will get frustrated A LOT. Make it your goal to become the best in the gym at defending your guard and escaping back to guard. That way a roll is succesful, even if you get swept, if you manage to hold your guard just that little bit better than before. Adjusting the mindset away from "winning" towards "executing the technique I want to get better at" has made a huge improvement in my game.]

- Once you feel good with the guard recovery and defense (of course you start doing everything at the same time, but REALLY focus on escapes first) pcik a sweep and one submission from guard and make it your own. Don't pick a new one every week, pick one and stick with it.

- Realize that in a way you are blessed. The stronger heavier guy don't HAVE to be technical, you do. You will always strive for the perfect technical execution.

You are what BJJ was designed for!
 
Just stay positive, ask for help from higher belts, and learn when you get tapped out. Ask what you could have done better when you're done rolling, and try to work on it the next time.

There's a blue belt at my gym that I roll with regularly who helps me with techniques, sometimes when we roll he'll stop at a certain position and ask me what I should do from that position, let me try it out with him putting on resistance or pretending like he doesn't know what i'm about to do, and we work from there. I feel like I'm really learning more that way as opposedto just rolling with other white belts or higher belts and not getting anything out of it.

Just remember to train hard and don't quit. As Forrest Griffin said, "Shakespere said 'To thine own self be true'. I don't know what the fuck he meant by that, but just know that inside you won't quit on yourself. The juice is worth the squeeze, believe me."
 
I'm the opposite of the TS, taking some time off due to injury. Most guys at my gym are under 180 lbs and I'm hauling around 240.

I'd much rather be a smaller guy learning BJJ. If I get paired up with somebody with similar skill I don't get to learn good defensive technique as easily because I can just let my weight keep me 'safe'.
 
i know quite a few blues and a purple that still feel like they don't know what they are doing. maybe they are being humble... :P
 
kpuz said:
1. Buy Saulo Ribeiro's Jiu Jitsu University
2. Become an expert in chapter 1. Use things from chapter 1 any and everytime you can. You will see huge improvements in a short period of time.
Click to expand...

This is what I would have said.... Just the concept of survival will help you along immensely. When I got that book, I literally improved overnight. Drilling is also key... Make your escapes absolute second nature, to the point where you don't even want to do them anymore.

Amazon.com: Jiu-Jitsu University (9780981504438): Saulo Ribeiro, Kevin Howell: Books

best $30 you'll ever spend.
 
Thank you for all the advice and recommendations. I'll take a look at that book. I guess I just need to keep going to practice and do my best. playing in guard is indeed the hardest part for me, everything passing it to keeping someone in guard.

Generally speaking, when you have closed guard on someone, what do you usually do to harass them and keep them from pulling off their escape easily? Should i be dragging their gi so i pull them against my chest or?

I feel like this is where I am the weakest, when i am on the bottom in closed guard. After that comes passing the guard but I'll tend to that later.

So do you guys have any beginner tips for that?
 
I got my ass kicked for the forst 6 months, then someoen newer then me came to train. I kicked his ass it felt great.
 
everzzz said:
Thank you for all the advice and recommendations. I'll take a look at that book. I guess I just need to keep going to practice and do my best. playing in guard is indeed the hardest part for me, everything passing it to keeping someone in guard.

Generally speaking, when you have closed guard on someone, what do you usually do to harass them and keep them from pulling off their escape easily? Should i be dragging their gi so i pull them against my chest or?

I feel like this is where I am the weakest, when i am on the bottom in closed guard. After that comes passing the guard but I'll tend to that later.

So do you guys have any beginner tips for that?
Click to expand...

Did you instructor ever tell you to keep "2 points of contact"? Make sure to grab onto sleeves, lapels, whatever. If they start to stand to pass, keep your feet on his hips, shoulders, thighs, and keep him off balance to stop him from passing. Grabbing the elbow (as if to go for an arm drag, get his tricep and keep hold of the same wrist) is also another thing I've learned from playing guard. While I'm sure there are a ton of people who could give you better advice, I'm another white belt who's been training for 3 months and that's just my input on what I've learned so far.
 
Hi Everzzz

Honestly BJJ isn't a easy thing to take up. I remember when I first started many moons ago, I got arm barred so many times that first class I didn't come back until the next month. Through experience I can tell you to slowly work on details.

1.Hip movement. Work on those hip escapes. They are the foundation of BJJ. If someone would have told me years ago that hip escapes can make you a champion. I would have done a million of them a day.

2.Bring a notebook to class and write down the techniques you get taught in class.

3.Work on one thing at a time. Drill it. Drill a lot of it. And if you think you've drilled enough. Drill it some more.

I remember working on guard passes for almost a year getting submitted every single day. But because of all the practice and drilling. I can pass guard like butter. Drill it till it becomes second nature. =) All the advice I can give you.
 
Advice, tap early, tap often :-D

As others have said, set small goals. I set super frickin lofty ones that I say to myself. Ok by the end of this week, I won't get tapped by a leg triangle. Then the week after, i'll add a RNC to the list. And then keep adding until I can finally do it for an entire week.

Now my defense is killer, so I can now put up a little offense and a few times, i'll get them in something. Tapped a purple belt in a toe hold the other night. Was like a pit bull once I got the limb extended :-D

Stick with it, don't expect to be any good for at least another few months. And just remember, when another newbie starts, make sure to maul him like a baby in a lion cage.


Also, go for runs and lift if you can work it into your schedule. Good cardio and good power can make up for ALOT of bad technique in the beginning.
 
It takes time. I came into it from wrestling, so I had a bit of an advantage on my top game, but every time I would Roll with someone bigger, and had to work off my back, I was pretty much useless. My advice to you would be to try aa series that you aregood at from every position you are having trouble with. Practice it until you can do it on anyone and use it. If you can't threaten to submit off your back, learn a good sweep series that you feel compfortable with.
 
1.5 months you're not supposed to be able to do anything. Nothing makes sense at that point, including the advice people give you. You just have to keep training.

From closed guard you want to break his posture. That means activating your legs to pull him in, and breaking his grips on your body. How you break those grips depends on the grips he has.
 
It's too early for you to know. Come back in 6 months....and then we'll tell you it's still too early.

I've been at this two years.....and while most people in the world could still take me apart, I can feel the technique working now and that makes all the difference.

You go from surviving to...well, to playing. There is no better way to say it. You can start having fun, but you only after the slow grind to learn something from every position you find yourself in. That takes a while.
 
It took me 3 months before I felt like I was "getting" jiujitsu.

By 6 months, I finally felt like I was "getting" jiujitsu.

After a year, I started to believe I was "getting" jiujitsu.

Two years in, and lots of hard work and competitions, and FINALLY I was "getting" jiujitsu.

I've been training for over four years now and well, I still don't know sh*t! Every new discovery and I feel like "oohhhh, finally I'm getting it!" and then a week or a month or a year later I realize how far off I was. Relax, have fun, and enjoy the journey and don't focus too much on the destination.
 
When the going gets tough- QUIT!

jk

You can never get enough practice stripping grips- learn how to disarm each grip that your opponent can have on you.
 
it's like an infant being bummed out because he can't run track. first you learn to crawl, then walk, then run.

you're so new you aren't even at the point where you should be giving youself shit. and even then, you should be doing it because you enjoy so don't be so hard on youself.
 
Hey man I hear ya, I'm about 6 or 7 months in and I am just barely feeling like I might maybe understand a little bit of this stuff. Like everyone said, keep going to class (hopefully a beginner class, if possible) and realize that you've come further than 98% of people in the world just by taking your first step on the mat.

Maybe try not to focus on getting good, but focus on sucking less. I've lost almost 25 lbs. since January and every day I suck just a little bit less. It might mean that you can roll for 3 minutes without wanting to die, or that you actually realize for the first time what position or submission you're in before you have to tap from it! Trust your instructor and learn as much as possible every time you talk to him.

Hope that helps from a fellow noob.
 
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