What are the things you wish you would have known when you started bjj?

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GoatArtemLobov

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Or any other grappling art?
I'm still pretty new (only 3 years in) but here are the things I would tell myself if Ii could get back 3 years ago.

1) Drilling, drilling, drilling
I know you can't do much about it when you first start, as you aren't the one deciding how you gonna structure the training session, but I think 30 mins of warming up with a lot of push ups etc. is pointless period, and that 30 minutes of live rolling, that's to say 25% of a training session time, is way too much as a white belt. If I could go back I would have taken 15 minutes after class with one of my teammates to drill a lot.
2) Weightlifting is good, especially for your lower back and trap/neck muscles
Pretty obvious that grappling takes a huge toll on those areas and that they therefore need to be reinforced. As a guard player even more...
3) Spazzes and Mundial guys suck
Especially when you are a white belt... What's the point of fighting like two idiots at a club? Let alone the increased injury risk...
Zahabi said that (and I hold this guy in high regards), even for bb, flow/light rolling should be 80% of your live rolling, so that you can work on your technique and roll a lot without getting injured. Other 20% should be hard because you need to be able to adapt to a higher intensity though.
So this makes even more sense for white belts who need more time to think and apply the few things they know in sparring
4) Work on leglocks since day 1
Leglocks change the game so much that it's preposterous to wait until brown belt to work on them, though I agree you should not rely on that only and neglect all the other things. So find a school where leglocks are allowed since day 1
5) Work on all the aspects of the game
That's the most important thing IMO, and I know what I'm talking about... As a lanky flexible dude, guard playing felt so natural for me and that's almost all I did for 3 years. As a result, my instructor told me I have a very solid bottom game for a blue belt, even better than some purple belts' bottom games, but that my top game was hardly better than the one of a 3 stripes white belt...
As a matter of fact, I tried to only be on top against a purple belt I always roll with (usually he is the one on top and he never manages to submit me, though he would often win on points) and he submitted me 4 times in 6 minutes...



That would be it for me, can't wait to hear what you guys have to say
 
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And last but not least, youtube videos and instructionals are great, of course they don't replace an instructor because you need someone who actually corrects you while you are performing a move, but, in terms of pure information only, it doesn't get better than youtube or bjj fanatics. You have literally thousands of hours of content with techniques/strategies etc. shown by numerous world champs/high level coaches...
I know seminars can be great but I wish I had rather spent my money in order to buy Danaher's instructionals instead, as it's a content you have for life and that you can go back to. It sucks to say that but I almost remember nothing of what I was taught during seminars...
 
Find out what you're good at and practice the shit out of it. Some guys just suck and never work from certain positions, so work on ways to stay out of those and make sure your strengths are utilized (for competition)

Otherwise ask questions, be consistent and show up.
 
EndlessCritic said:
Work on your takedowns, side control and back mount game because one day you'll have trained for about 13 years and still suck at those things.
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Yes but sometimes there are positions that just don't work for you.
I'm pretty good (again for blue belt standards...) at backmount, but I still suck at tds and side control, despite me trying my best...
Sometimes you just don't have the bodytype to be good at some positions/techniques (I'm 6.2 and 165 pounds...)
My instructor had us drilling double legs for months and never ever did I succeed to achieve one during sparring (I always either got guillotined or stuffed...).
Meanwhile I got dozens of taps from bunny chokes (including on more advanced guys), which is a low percentage move I learned on youtube lol...
While I think you should try to work on everything, there are just some things that you will always suck at and that's fine...
 
GoatArtemLobov said:
Meanwhile I got dozens of taps from bunny chokes (including on more advanced guys), which is a low percentage move I learned on youtube lol...
While I think you should try to work on everything, there are just some things that you will always suck at and that's fine...
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You know what's hilarious? I had no idea what a bunny choke was. I looked it up, and then realized it was identical to a position I had already made a thread about on here!

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/...side-reverse-triangle.4029247/#post-155873407

Apparently I didn't read the thread closely enough as RyanR said it was a bunny choke.
 
EndlessCritic said:
You know what's hilarious? I had no idea what a bunny choke was. I looked it up, and then realized it was identical to a position I had already made a thread about on here!

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/...side-reverse-triangle.4029247/#post-155873407

Apparently I didn't read the thread closely enough as RyanR said it was a bunny choke.
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Wait I'm realising that what I'm doing is a buGGy choke and not a bunny.
Didn't know there was a difference, so I randomly name it bunny, sometimes buggy lol.
What I do is slightly different though...
Here's where I learned it

White belt shit only brah
 
How much you are responsible for your own learning - at least once you reach the higher belts.

At the start you can just go to class and learn stuff without really having to think. But once you get to purple and beyond, it doesn't really work like that, or at least progress will be slow going if that is all you do.
 
Going to class and that being your ONLY method of getting good at BJJ means you will take a long, long time to get good at BJJ.

I look at class as supplemental to my personal growth calendar. Every month I focus on a new area that I suck at. This past month it was escaping side control and mount. Next month it's advanced leg locks and 50/50 (I know zero from 50/50).

This revolving door of skill acquisition is far superior to the random handful of techniques of the day you get by only showing up to class.
 
TheJewBear said:
Going to class and that being your ONLY method of getting good at BJJ means you will take a long, long time to get good at BJJ.

I look at class as supplemental to my personal growth calendar. Every month I focus on a new area that I suck at. This past month it was escaping side control and mount. Next month it's advanced leg locks and 50/50 (I know zero from 50/50).

This revolving door of skill acquisition is far superior to the random handful of techniques of the day you get by only showing up to class.
Click to expand...
I completely agree with that, at some point, you have to be the one to know what works for you and what doesn't, you have to be the one who knows where work is needed etc.
It was the same for me in boxing. In the beginning, just showing up was enough. After one year or two, my game wasn't improving as fast anymore.
So on offdays (I had 4 since I was training 3 times a week at the gym), I was doing SO much shadow boxing and partner drills with one buddy of mine, working on the things that I needed to work on and trying to exploit the maximum of my potential in the things I was already good at.
Of course, the world class content you can get for free on youtube helped too. We as martial artists are so privileged to live in this era where so many quality content is available online (albeit there is also some bs too of course).
 
FIGHTING TALK said:
How little of it can be applied to MMA.
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This is very interesting, I would like to know from more advanced grapplers what they feel is useless for mma and what isn't.
But of course levels are a huge factor I guess. If you are a random purple belt you aren't taking the back of any UFC top 10 fighter in a UFC match... But maybe you could against some guy from the amateur scene, couldn't you?
 
I wish I was :
1) more proficient at stand up even I am ok at judo as a brown belt, practicing wrestling for being tougher and boxing for more self defense applications
2) more physical if I had dedicated more time for S&C to harden my body
3) drilling more often (not too much)
 
I bought into the "it's the only martial art where you can spar full out every day, day in and day out"

I, by no means, was a full time competitor or training to be one but those days of training have caught up with me just being sore and burned out. I say to students now "Look, you all have your own reason for training. Do your best and be the best you can but remember why you're here. Odds on, only 1 out of say 100 of us here will make a dollar doing this let along make a living".
 
I wish I competed more and I know it is not a big deal but really competing is how you see what you really know what to do under stress.

You will see maybe 10 new techniques per week. Pick 1 or 2 that work for you and practice that. When you are more advance and the coach asks you to try the 3 techniques you learned in that one class and drill. Eventually, pick just 1 and figure it out. I know one great BJJ champion who said in a seminar once. "I know maybe 300 techniques but I realistically train 10."

Wear sandals in the shower.

Pick a certain number of days a week to train and be consistent to go.

Always start rolling standing (if you have space). I got too used to being on the ground and I have lost a lot of matches because of that.
 
Wish I had known how much my body would hurt Lol... I bought into the Helio theory of you can train bjj into your 80's and out last strikers in longevity... but what they don't tell you is your body will feel 80 when you're in your 40's HAHA
 
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