Help Wanted

[PLSJMT]

I am just starting out and have no experience in wrestling or BJJ. I train anywhere from two to three days a week outside of a formal class setting, i.e. rolling one on one with someone more experienced, usually a black belt. I am pretyy much learning how to tap out and can barely pass guard. The frustration is setting in but it has not discouraged me from rolling with anyone that will take the time with me. Is there any advice/support a more experienced fighter can give me? Anything from workouts to techniques is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[sanuces]

be patient
learn from your mistakes
ask questions
be patient
don't just learn moves, understand concepts through application & drilling
keep rolling with more experienced guys
leave your ego at home(not saying that you have one, just a friendly reminder)
be patient

 

[PLSJMT]

One thing is right, I am beginning to see my mistakes before I make them. One thing.....the fronts of my shoulders(joints) are on FIRE! (sore) Am I just getting old or will my shoulders become conditioned to this. I have been rolling for about a month.

 

[farmboy]

I found that after my first class of BJJ my forearms felt like they'd been beaten by a hammer. I'm fairly new to grappling, too, so I can't offer much in the way of experienced advice. But, I can offer moral support. Welcome to the club! Good luck and keep training!

 

[Hammer Time]

same here ive been training for about amonth too and im still getting my ass tossed around and subbed till the cows come home but its all a matter of guts and determination. im still sticking around and training but its hard for us new guys and we all get tossed around when we start out. keep on training man and one day we'll be good enough to be helping out the new guys that come in.

haha why cudnt we all like sumthing easier like guitar or sumthing. for sum reason we like to choke, slam, punch, bend and kick each other all day. thas fighting though i guess and were all crazy hahaha

 

[yoder]

when i first started rolling my forearms used to kill. i found out that when i relaxed a little bit and didn't hold onto my opponents gi so hard it went away. i've only been training in grappling for about a year but it becomes completely addictive. relax, be patient, keep your eyes open to friendly criticism and don't worry about only tapping people. work on the fundamentals and everything will start clicking. absolutely forget the ego and have fun!

 

[Green Monkey]

This is coming from someone who's at the same stage you're in - hell, I haven't even started yet - but no one has said this, so I figured I should:

Use this time to learn defense and escape as well. Just make sure that you don't fall for the same thing twice and that you ask how to escape/avoid the ones that you can't figure out on your own.

The only analogy I can offer is from the sport that made me an athlete rather than just a couch potato - Volleyball (I know, I know it's a sport yada yada yada - just play some of the pros and come back and tell me that) - there are a ton of guys who can just spike the shit out of the ball, but that's all they want to do. They can't pass or play defense, so they never get a chance to spike during a game.

BJJ strikes me the same way - I'm betting there are a ton of guys who can throw all sorts of submissions, but they can't keep you from doing the same to them.

Learn the ugly side of the sport - learn how to win from the bottom, how to push through pain and dings, and most of all, learn how to beat the cocky one-trick ponies.

 

[VampireMonk]

think long term, not short term

this stuff takes a long time to get good at.

so make a goal in mind, and then take baby steps to get there.

hopefully your goal is a good one, like mine was to be like Royce Gracie,
use skill, not power, for self defense - not sport.

 

[NinjaJuice]

make sure you join a quality school, try to relax when sparring, roll as often as you can, learn position first - then submissions.. hope this helps

 

[VampireMonk]

a good quality school to me means these things:

1) instructor is kind patient and knows how to take control of the class and minimize injury.
2) students follow the instructor and behave the same way.
3) asskicking has nothing to do with it, learning is priority.
4) the place is not commercial, they dont do seminars all the time, make you buy stuff,
make you enter tournaments, basically you dont end up spending a whole lot more then
what you started off paying.

if all this is there, I dont mind if the guy is a blue belt, or a white belt or even a no belt.

 

[TTrent]

first you want to work on good posture. That's key to anything whether you're mount/mounted, in/playing guard, top/bottom sidemount. Learn to keep good posture so it's harder to get subbed or swept. Once your posture is down and you're not just giving away sweeps and subs to your opponent then you can start working on guard passes, sweeps, subs etc. I found it helps me if i have a clear idea of what i want to work on before i go to class. I'll tell myself that today i'm gonna work on just posture; just sweeps from my guard; creating space while in someone's side mount. it could even be as simple as saying that i'm gonna work on being relaxed and not burning out using muscle when i dont need to. There are so many little things that have not become 2nd nature to me, keeping my elbow here, neck this way, back this way, pressure on this part, my feet should be like this etc, it can be overwhelming thinking about it all before it's automatic. Just my suggestion.

 

[PLSJMT]

thank you all for the awsome words....keep em coming. I missed a trainng session as the two I usually roll with could not go today. I am really thinking about joining a formal class so I can work my awy through the belts and have a steady place to roll. The money will be the tough part.

 

[Oktavius**]

Attention to details, this is the biggest mistake newbies make. They learn a new technique but dont break it clearly into its correct steps and just try to steamroll through it, making it less affective.

 

[Oktavius**]

One thing is right, I am beginning to see my mistakes before I make them. One thing.....the fronts of my shoulders(joints) are on FIRE! (sore) Am I just getting old or will my shoulders become conditioned to this. I have been rolling for about a month.

Thats sounds like impingement and is very bad, you may need to do corrective exercises to balance your shoulders and shoulder blades correclty. Dont let this go on to long or you could end up with rotator cuff damage.

 

[VampireMonk]

your shoulders will get worse and even worse than that is that your body will
adapt to it so you won't even know until one day it snaps when a guy is doing a
kimura or whatever.

you need to begin exercises that will heal it and then strengthen it.

 

[PLSJMT]

I lift weights three times a week. Any suggestions on shoulder strengthening exercises other than the normal ones?

 

[PLSJMT]

Fucking great! I just checked out a couple of sites on shoulder impingement and am really worried. They all say end the activity that gives the symptoms to rehab the shoudler then resume. I thought I was in pretty decent shape but I guess I need to concentrate more on the shoulders. I really hope this does not put an end to my training. I figured just pushing through the pain since it was a new activity is not a good idea but I really want to train as I did not want to sound like a pussy. I will start incorporating some new stretches and exercises into my daily regimen.