Then I will literally go in the very next day, not be able to get down what the instructor is teaching, roll and get completely dominated in every aspect of the game and really have no idea what I need to focus on next to get better.
When I look back on this, it often has something to do with the quality of my opponents and/or the intensity with which they roll. This varies from class to class. If you roll with people you mostly school, then you are going to pull off some things. When you roll with people who are better than you, you are going to feel like you suck. You haven't changed; your opposition has. And sometimes you have bad days.
I've heard guys say that one day things just kind of click and become clearer and Jiu Jitsu as a whole becomes easier to understand.
I don't think you are going to have any single epiphany during BJJ. It's a journey that takes years. Pick up JJU for example; there is no way you can absorb that without hundreds of hours if not thousands of hours of study. And that's just an introduction, really. Any of the guards in there probably has as many or more techniques than you probably know in your 6 months of study (a lot more than the 2-6 or so given by Saulo). If you study any particular guard and master it, you will probably feel an epiphany, or realization. But that's just one small aspect that you may not even get to see in a roll with someone.
Saulo's JJU was very useful and was/is a source of a lot of realizations. I remember spending weeks just exploring the all-fours and back survival positions with other people - to see how they worked and if they worked. It worked great - after I got good at it, even purples would get my back and spend 5 minutes or more to sub me. I'd roll to knees all the time, get positionally dominated but rarely subbed. That was a very cool realization. I don't like to give my back up, but now I know that if it happens, I'm not going to panic.
And that's like 1% of the JJU book, which is probably 10% of BJJ as a whole, if that. So there are lots, and lots of realizations to have.
But as to the first 6 months, my first feeling of progress was when I
a) learned the positional hierarchy of BJJ
b) learned at least one technique to work on during every major position.
Note that it was probably an ugly, forced technique. But hey, it was something to do that didn't consist of stuff I made up on the spot that was going to gas me out.
Knowing the positional hierarchy means that you have an overview of BJJ, at least as it is at the white/blue belt level. You won't have much of a clue watching the crazy guard play of a lighter weight Mundials match, but that's ok. If they were fighting you, they'd sweep you in 5 seconds and then you'd be under side control, knee ride, mount or back mount where you'd at least understand that you're getting your ass kicked.
Another moment was when I asked an instructor how to escape from side control. He said that a key is not to live in denial. When you are losing a position, don't try and retain that, instead, get yourself where you'd like to be from the position you are going to. e.g. you might pass and get side control on me, but I'll make sure it's going to be a shitty side control. Instead of me lying flat on my back with you isolating an arm, I'll be lying on my side towards you with my knees up, elbows by my sides, starting to escape.
Another moment was realizing that instead of trying to shorten the techniques to just the bits that were critical, I realized that difficult as it may seem, learn all the steps. Really learn and imprint them on your brain. It's those little things that turn techniques from 10% success rate to 95% success rate. If you can do a few things with 95% success rate, you'll own people. If you know a wide variety of things but only have enough expertise to succeed 10% of the time, you might enjoy watching the Mundials, but that's about it.
Your instructor may teach techniques at a greater rate than you can learn. Don't be afraid to take your time and explore something that is troubling you about your game, at the expense of trying to remember other technqiues. If it's a situation you find yourself in again and again, learn what to do there. It makes sense that whatever situation you find yourself in most, improving that area will help your game more than anything else. Get help on it, google it, obsess on it. After a while, you will be a legitimate threat in that area.
