First week of BBJ. HELP!!!!

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NYC1990

White Belt
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My goal is to get a blue belt within a year or less and move on from there, however, I fear that I will get lazy and stop coming, so I promised myself the first day I joined that I would come to class 4-5 times a week, no matter what. Second, when I'm rolling with people from my school I feel the need to beat them, and if I don't I'm very hard on myself, which I know is stupid, but still I feel as though I cant help it, feeling the way I do. Also, when I roll, my partner, and whoever is watching, they tell me I'm very good for some one in their first week of training. They even ask me if I ever had any previous ever is watching, they tell me I'm very good for some one in their first week of training. They even ask me if I ever had any previous experience in Judo or sumbo, which I don't. experience in Judo or sumbo, which I don't.

Anyway,when rolling, grappling feels natural, I do well at preventing submissions, and other unfavorable situations, as well as sweeping my opponents. I am more comfortable in a defense situation then in an offensive one--- This is bothering the living heck out of me because I think the reason for my "good"{for a noob} grappling skill is my strength, which I think I'm relying to heavily on when rolling-- which i know needs to stop in order for me to progress technically-- not to mention I run out of breath quickly because of working to hard, and to make matters worse I can't breath through my nose, because my nose is F'ed up-- and i also smoke sometimes :icon_sad:

So if anyone can advise me (a noob) about a good approach and mind set regarding BJJ, it would be highly appreciated
 
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It is just like wrestling!

just keep training hard. listen to your coach and training partner and look foward to your first competition.
 
stop using mostly strength, stop caring about catching people, stop caring about getting caught yourself, work all aspects, get out of your comfort zone, pick things to work on that you suck at

its training so train, the goal shouldnt be to tap your opponent as fast and frequently as possible but to work on your game technically, sometimes our guys wont even tap a guy even if they have the opportunity, instead theyll just work flowing through several positions, some one here has a great sig saying "i roll to work on my technique, not to rack up gym wins", theres no winning in a gym, no losses either, no one keeps score, save that mentality for competition

oh and pace yourself, save your strength, if youre using mostly strength youre doing it wrong, besides you dont want to be that guy puking, and stop smoking or cut down for several reasons
 
Just have a good time, you'll really enjoy Brazilian Boo-Jitsu :icon_chee
 
NYC1990 said:
My goal is to get a blue belt within a year or less and move on from there, however, I fear that I will get lazy and stop coming, so I promised myself the first day I joined that I would come to class 4-5 times a week, no matter what. Second, when I'm rolling with people from my school I feel the need to beat them, and if I don't I'm very hard on myself, which I know is stupid, but still I feel as though I cant help it, feeling the way I do.
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I wouldn't recommend either aiming for a belt or trying overly hard to beat the people in your class. To get better in BJJ means learning and applying principles and technique. Both belts and beating people directly follow from that. Therefore, use your time in the academy to better your technique, and understand BJJ principles (e.g. understanding leverage, e.g. where the head goes the body follows, push on the top of the lever at right angles (e.g. elbow, top of head, etc.) to have maximal mechanical advantage).

For everything you want to do from a position, there will be a list of several different proper BJJ techniques that work. Many will work at a world championship level. Rest assured that with 99.9% probability, every novice whitebelt's spazzy made up move will expend a shit-ton of energy per unit time. Maybe it's even somewhat effective at that energy expenditure level. But do that for a minute or so against someone with good technique, and you will be out of gas, and almost surely you will not have submitted your opponent. At that point, you will get your ass kicked. The point of this is that you must learn what proper BJJ techniques are and commit them to memory, so that you can be properly practicing technique during rolling, and not ingraining bad habits.

I know a blue belt who uses all his strength (and he is strong p4p, too) when rolling in the academy. He is good in class. Apparently, he doesn't do the best in competition. I think there's a link there. e.g. If you are trying 100% all the time in class against people, many of whom go from 30-80%, you are going to be unpleasantly surprised when it comes to competition and they turn it up. The thing is, even if you asks someone in an open mat before a comp to go 100%, probably it will only be 95% or so. It takes a comp to get people to give it all.

So, suddenly the techniques you were practicing at 100% and managing to muscle on people in the academy aren't going to be working, and you'll probably panic as a result.

If you want to gauge your ability, go to a competition.
 
johndoe_sh said:
stop using mostly strength, stop caring about catching people, stop caring about getting caught yourself, work all aspects, get out of your comfort zone, pick things to work on that you suck at

its training so train, the goal shouldnt be to tap your opponent as fast and frequently as possible but to work on your game technically, sometimes our guys wont even tap a guy even if they have the opportunity, instead theyll just work flowing through several positions, some one here has a great sig saying "i roll to work on my technique, not to rack up gym wins", theres no winning in a gym, no losses either, no one keeps score, save that mentality for competition

oh and pace yourself, save your strength, if youre using mostly strength youre doing it wrong, besides you dont want to be that guy puking, and stop smoking or cut down for several reasons
Click to expand...

This is great advice! I myself was a wrestler when I started in BJJ. I had 10 years of wrestling under me before that and strength was all I knew. It was also difficult to get over the mindset of it being ok to go to your back. LOL
 
Try more learning and less "winning" or "losing."

Don't care about your belt, just train. If you care too much about your belt, you'll get discouraged over not getting promotions when you think appropriate....and then you're sunk because you'd be training for the wrong reason.

Go to class and if you feel like you're a bit better, a bit more knowledgeable, then you've won.

Finally, pace yourself. There's nothing wrong with pushing yourself a little, but don't burn yourself out. BJJ is not a 100 meter sprint. It's not even a marathon or even a double marathon. It's a habit. A life long adventure, so don't ruin the first part of it by looking too much at the end of it.
 
I started about six weeks ago and had a similar mentality as the TS. After I got my first submission, I realized that it wasn't about beating people in practice. Now I go to learn BJJ and try to better my game each time I'm there. I also realized that the blue belt isn't something to race for. Instead, it is something that I want only after I feel like I can represent the rank. So just relax, have fun, and learn! Good luck.
 
I wish this forum was bare-knuckle discussion...
 
You may want to slow down if you tend to do a lot of something then lose interest. I used to be like that but I've pretty much devoted myself to grappling in all its forms lately. If you do something too much you could burn out and have no wish to go back.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is that your belts are a reward for your hard work and learning. Blowing through your training, muscling everyone around and not learning anything will hold you back. No good professor will promote someone not training properly.
 
Don't ever set timeframes for getting belts. That's not what you should be focusing on.

Remember that nobody wins in training. And that you're never even half as good as you think you are, ever, especially when you're a beginner.

And you should quit smoking. But you already knew that.
 
Honestly, all the signs seem to point to you burning out or developing an injury or staph/ringworm/etc and never showing up again after like a month or two.

If you can pull it off more power to you but your goals seem a little unrealistic and there's a danger that at some point you realize you aren't going to reach it and become disillusioned when the overtraining doesn't work.

That's just the sense I get from your post.

Just have fun out there at the beginning and don't be so concerned about become BJ Penn.
 
BJJ is very hard at first. Just keep at it.

You're not there to beat everyone or even anyone in the class. Smaller people can and will submit you ALL THE TIME. Lower belts can and will submit you ALL THE TIME. It's not about your ego, so pull that out of the equation.

High level JJ doesn't look at all exciting to the uninitiated. It should look like Chess. Slow deliberative movement with small explosions. It should look more like chain wrestling. Don't try to get out of every position all the time. Sometimes let the guy get what he's going for so you can see what it feels like and learn his tendencies... it won't mean much to you at first, but very soon you'll be exploiting them to improve position.

The philosophy that worked best for me initially, and still works, is that I'm not there to learn. I'm there to help other people learn. If everyone carries the same philosophy then you will learn as well. Everyone will learn.

There's also no rule for belt promotion to speak of... it's individual. What would probably work better is that you recognize how undeserving you are of that Blue Belt. When you get your blue belt, if your immediate reaction after being excited isn't to question how deserving you are, whether you've truly earned it, you probably didn't.

Humility is the most important determining factor, more than technique, speed or strength. Just be humble and realize that you don't start learning BJJ until you receive your black belt.
 
Actually, I don't want to know. Ignore my last post.
 
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