Average Joe

b0b

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Do you have to be a naturally physically gifted athelete to do well in BJJ competition? I am just your average joe, with no real athletic skill. I have always been able to get up and play a pickup game of basketball, football, or baseball, but have never been the best player by any means.

I am slow, weak, overweight. With enough training and skill, is it possible to at least be somewhat sucessful in BJJ? I am 200 lbs, and can only bench 130. I am only 22, so I still have time to turn myself around so to speak, I just wasn't blessed genetically.

I have the motivation to run 2x a week, weights 1x a week, and train BJJ/No Gi/MMA 3x a week.
 
I see in my gym a lot of naturally talented and gifted guys being killed by those who are impaired either by genetics or even coordinationwise, but that have the persevearance to stick to it and go the extra mile.
 
Dont mean to be a downer but bjj is a very athletic sport, especially at white belt where there isnt so much skill involved. If you keep training with the routine you suggested you will improve a lot and even BECOME an athlete of sorts if you are able to go long and hard enough. You really better work on the strength by the sound of that 130 bench though. IF you go hard with your plan in 6 mounths you will be a different person for sure and who knows, maybe win your local bjj comp!

Dont give up and you WILL see DRAMATIC improvement from where you are starting now.

Good luck and dont give up , specially when you think you arent getting anywhere.
 
i never thought of bjj as a athletic sport like boxing its needs grip strength and flexibility only and you'll lose weight quick
 
Oktavius said:
You really better work on the strength by the sound of that 130 bench though.

I have always had a weak bench. I just got on a program to lose weight/gain strength. I have been doing cardio 4x a week and lifting 3x a week. I have also been watching my diet, and supplementing with multivitamins, fish oil, and protein. My main concern is that I have seen some monsters at 200lbs, and I am probably on the same strength level(or less) than people competing at 155. I won't be competiting any time soon. I need to drop about 30 lbs of fat, and that should get me to a lean 170lbs.
 
b0b said:
I have always had a weak bench. I just got on a program to lose weight/gain strength. I have been doing cardio 4x a week and lifting 3x a week. I have also been watching my diet, and supplementing with multivitamins, fish oil, and protein. My main concern is that I have seen some monsters at 200lbs, and I am probably on the same strength level(or less) than people competing at 155. I won't be competiting any time soon. I need to drop about 30 lbs of fat, and that should get me to a lean 170lbs.
just keep at your regiment and you'll melt that crap away.
 
IMO, my club is strong & I'm by no means an athlete & gradually I'm improving. There are small skinny guys, big guys, muscly girls,a hot girl (once). I think if you train hard & try your best you can succeed.
 
Ive got a couple of guys at my dojo that are overweight and they are some of the best guys there..there strong and they are always a challenge for me because of their weight and strength
 
Just stick with it -- the point is to get into better shape, blow off some stress, maybe learn some self defense.... take it one step at a time and take pride in your incremental improvements.

For my own personal story when I decided I would either get in shape or die about 3 years ago when at age 27 I weighed 345 and was a unbelievable, disgusting fat tub of goo. I was the typical ex shotputter "big guy" that let himself go straight to frigging orca sized fat post college. Now I am down to 275 (goal is 238 and I am working hard to get there...) Yes, I am still fat, but now I can move
a lot better than I could before. The *only* way you will truly lose/fail is to quit -- so don't be so hard on youself that you give up. Its cheesy but 100% true.

As for the bench weight, getting stronger, I do have some experience with weights... A few thoughts:

1. Your bench weight is irrelevant until you can do a reasonable # of pushups. If you can't do say 40 pushups then there is no point to working on your bench... Stick to body weight to start. You also can can get pretty scary strong just say doing dips and never benching. Do freeweights, not machines.
Don't wear a weightbelt-- rather make your core stronger so it can support the weight -- you don't roll with a weightbelt on.

2. If you want to gain muscle/strength, lose fat, focus on large body movements: squats or deadlifts, seated rows, pulldowns (pullups), bench or dips -- the rest is window dressing. You can become a monster with 5 lifts. If you had to do just 1 lift, I would argue for just squats or deadlift. Google the 20 Rep Squat technique....

For functional grappling strength, I think pulling strength is more important than pushing strength IHMO like seated rows, pulldowns etc... Some might disagree..

My 2 cents. good luck training.
 
Are you doing bjj or are you planning to? Theres a couple of overweight guys at my school and they have been slowly getting stronger & losing weight.
About bench pressing, I'm about 155-160 and I can barely bench my own weight.
 
b0b said:
Do you have to be a naturally physically gifted athelete to do well in BJJ competition? I am just your average joe, with no real athletic skill. I have always been able to get up and play a pickup game of basketball, football, or baseball, but have never been the best player by any means.

I am slow, weak, overweight. With enough training and skill, is it possible to at least be somewhat sucessful in BJJ? I am 200 lbs, and can only bench 130. I am only 22, so I still have time to turn myself around so to speak, I just wasn't blessed genetically.

I have the motivation to run 2x a week, weights 1x a week, and train BJJ/No Gi/MMA 3x a week.

I fit that description & because of that I never wanted to compete in grappling tournaments until now. I am going to do it next summer so I won't regret it when I am like 70 lol. I am 31 right now. Hopefully my wrestling back ground help me to prepare mentally.
 
I have never been gifted athletically. I have poor reflexes, am uncoordinated, slow and had never been particularly strong. What I had going for me is perseverence, solid structure (joints) and a high pain threshold. I have done martial arts 3x/week or more for 13 years now. In bjj, I make up for my weaknesses by creating a game that bypasses them. I can give some of the best grapplers in the world a good workout. Many feel that I am unnaturally strong...what they don't realize is that's because I recognize the leverages (from experience) and only fight battles that I can win. I have black belts that change their games when rolling with me because I have learned so many submissions from so many positions that they cannot predict what I will do. In essence, experience can overcome almost any natural gift, just sometimes it takes a ton of it. I know that I will be able to play my game well into my 50s and be able to give hell to all the young punks. I am in the best shape of my life at 34 and am only improving.

More importantly, I am having fun doing it.
 
Hard work can overcome physical limitations. If you keep performing repetitions, drills, positional drills, etc you can compensate for shitty genetics. Also, I think being analytical about your game really helps. Think about what it is that you're weak at, what you need to improve, etc.
.
 
BJJ is practically the best combat sport for excelling despite lack of athleticism ... boxing is just about the worst, to give a counter-example. With good technique I think you can be excellent at BJJ even if you aren't a great athlete. Just look at JJ Machado and everything he did without fingers on one hand ... But you will definitely need to develop some decent cardio if you don't want to be out of it after just a few minutes rolling.
 
your first day at the academy , your ass is a wad of cookie dough, by the 8th month your carved out of fuckin wood.

this is very true even for the average joes. they may not win bjj tournys, but theyll be all over a shmuck on the street, and thats what ju jisu is really about.
 
b0b said:
Do you have to be a naturally physically gifted athelete to do well in BJJ competition? I am just your average joe, with no real athletic skill. I have always been able to get up and play a pickup game of basketball, football, or baseball, but have never been the best player by any means.

I am slow, weak, overweight. With enough training and skill, is it possible to at least be somewhat sucessful in BJJ? I am 200 lbs, and can only bench 130. I am only 22, so I still have time to turn myself around so to speak, I just wasn't blessed genetically.

I have the motivation to run 2x a week, weights 1x a week, and train BJJ/No Gi/MMA 3x a week.

If you can keep up the motivation, you should start seeing improvement quite rapidly, but remember to take it easy. 3x a week BJJ/MMA is quite enough to start with IMHO, then when you've gotten used to it, increase training.

The most classical mistake you can make is to start training too much too fast.
 
b0b said:
Do you have to be a naturally physically gifted athelete to do well in BJJ competition? I am just your average joe, with no real athletic skill. I have always been able to get up and play a pickup game of basketball, football, or baseball, but have never been the best player by any means.

I am slow, weak, overweight. With enough training and skill, is it possible to at least be somewhat sucessful in BJJ? I am 200 lbs, and can only bench 130. I am only 22, so I still have time to turn myself around so to speak, I just wasn't blessed genetically.

I have the motivation to run 2x a week, weights 1x a week, and train BJJ/No Gi/MMA 3x a week.
Bro, I'm the perfect example (now let me be cocky :wink: ) that BJJ it's not about athleticism. I'm just like you, with the little mention that I'm not overweight. I'm slow, weak, not flexible etc. Plus, I have very bad problems with my spine (I'm really not allowed to do anything besides swimming and my medical exercises) that modified my JJ (I rarely use the upa) and doesn't allow me to do weights. You can become really good and start tapping bigger or faster or stronger or more flexible guys, for sure. But competition it's different. I started a thread some days ago about this problem that I think it's the time limit. Cause when I'm fighting guys in my gym that have physical advantages over me, first I'm trying to make them tired. But you can't do that in competition.
Besides, think about Helio or even better De La Riva or JJ Machado or me :D next time you feel down that the stronger guy tapped. You'll kick his ass if you practice and focus more than him and... outsmart him!
 
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