About to start training again after 3 years - advice needed

Update -

Just got done with my second day training with Samuel Braga at Gracie Barra. I am sitting in class right now but I will give a full write up about my experience later on today.

I am going to keep posting in this thread to update my progress and act as somewhat of a guide to anyone who has taken a long break from bjj and is looking to start training again.
 
OK, so I have now been to 5 bjj classes, including 1 private.

The first 3 classes were pretty bad on my part. My breathing is way off and even though I am in really good shape, I gas pretty quickly. I can feel myself spazzing out when I get in a bad position. Luckily, it is getting much better with each class and I am able to go longer and harder.

My technique is still pretty rusty but I remember most of the basics. Yesterday at class, shit finally started to come together and I actually made 2 submissions and got a few open guard sweeps that I had been working on.

My private covered passing the half guard. My top game is very mediocre as I mainly play an open guard game. I learned some good techniques and actually passed a few times during sparring sessions.

Right now I am reviewing all of my Tinguinha open guard series dvds. I have forgotten a lot of the setups but they are all pouring back in to me.
 
Good to hear TS. I actually took a 8 month break from BJJ myself to focus solely on my stand up game. My boxing and muay thai are improving big time but it's time to start doing ground work again.

I'm starting to miss the rolling sessions...
 
minimagpro said:
OK, so I have now been to 5 bjj classes, including 1 private.

The first 3 classes were pretty bad on my part. My breathing is way off and even though I am in really good shape, I gas pretty quickly. I can feel myself spazzing out when I get in a bad position. Luckily, it is getting much better with each class and I am able to go longer and harder.

My technique is still pretty rusty but I remember most of the basics. Yesterday at class, shit finally started to come together and I actually made 2 submissions and got a few open guard sweeps that I had been working on.

My private covered passing the half guard. My top game is very mediocre as I mainly play an open guard game. I learned some good techniques and actually passed a few times during sparring sessions.

Right now I am reviewing all of my Tinguinha open guard series dvds. I have forgotten a lot of the setups but they are all pouring back in to me.
Click to expand...

Good to hear man, keep us posted.
 
Thanks for the update, far too often people don't update their threads. Good to hear you are starting to feel good about rolling again, that's the biggest part of it IMO.

There should not be any egos at the gym and people should not look down on anyone who isn't that great of an "XXXX" belt anyways as we all come from different backgrounds/skill sets.
 
When I first started training there was this guy who showed up, same situation as you. He was a blue belt who hadn't trained in years.
It was easy to dominate him while rolling for the first couple classes. Within about a week, the guy's blue belt skills came back and suddenly, I had no chance against him. You'll probably get it back real quick, like this guy did.
 
Update **

Went to 2 classes yesterday. I normally go to the morning one, but there are more people and better competition in the later class so hopefully I can start making it to more of them. Problem is the damn night classes I have.

Anyways, I definitely feel that I am improving quickly. My body has quickly acclimated after getting destroyed and dominated the first few classes. It took a while of getting smooshed before I finally started finding my groove and avoiding bad positions.

The basics have all but flooded back to me, but I am still in the dark on a lot of sweeps and other little tricks. I used to be able to think 1-2 moves ahead because I had transitions memorized. Now I just remember a handful of sweeps and even though I have gotten and few of them, I have been mainly playing defense in class.

A lot of the guys I roll with are really fucking good. One thing lacking at my old gym was that the higher belts wouldn't really show any mercy and would just roll right through you. This is a flawed training philosophy because it really benefits neither party. I like that some of the belts give up small opportunities and give you a chance to attempt things. Granted they still win, but it is just all around much better/more fun.
 
good grips said:
I've had both happen where I train.

A brown belt that had been away for 8 years i belive and a black belt that had been away for 5 years.
Click to expand...

On a side topic, I'd be interested in what would keep people of that caliber away so long. To get to brown and black level you clearly have to have a love and dedication to it, I wonder what would make them stop?
 
Just wear your blue belt man. Even if you aren't on that level right now you still earned that blue belt. Can you imagine a purple belt or a brown belt demoting themselves because they had been away for a while?

We just had a brown belt join up at our club here in Iowa City and he's been out with a messed up knee for about a year and a half. I'm sure he's a more than a little out of practice since he has done zero BJJ in the last 1.5 years. That doesn't mean that he should take himself down to purple belt though.

Get back in there and keep training and you'll be up and rocking in not time!
 
enjoy it. i'd say if it has been a longer time (not to say three years is not long time off) to enjoy how, imo, the game has evolved in such a short time but since it's has not been too long i don't think this will matter much. I just sit back from time to time and just appreciate but big bjj has gotten in the states and how much i think new things have been added or at least exposed in a larger scale.
 
I'm glad you decided to keep the blue. It's something that you should be proud to have attained.

I know when it's time for mine, I'll be quite thrilled.
 
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