When did you know??? - A BJJ Confidence Question

[gocubs1815]

I've been training BJJ for six months now. Today I talked with my instuctor about renewing my membership with them for another year. I knew going into today that I was gonna ask about renewing, but something about today made it extra 'special'. I'm comming off my first tournament a few weeks ago where I had to cut weight for the first time ever to make 185. I stepped on my scale this morning and I'm at the exact weight I weighed in at on tournament day (183). I've lost ovr 15 lbs in 6 months doing BJJ.
And when I was rolling today, I rolled with a new white belt who had only been there a little over a month. I got him mounted twice and tapped him with a kimura in 5 minutes. Then I rolled with a 3 stripe blue belt, he played mainly butterfly guard, but I did good job staying off his sweep attempts and was even able to tap him with an arm bar!

I don't know if this is going to be one of those 'special' days, but looking at myself vs. six months ago, I'm a completely different person. I know my stuff, I'm not afraid to get tapped, and I'm catching people with stuff through skill and not luck. I'm starting to think that this is the thing for me.

So my question to all of you is: when did you know? whenn did you know that Jiu-jits was for you? When did you know that you were good at it? When did you know that this wasn't just some passing fad or something that you'd loose intrest in when it got too hard or you grew bored?

 

[lparnes]

i always loved fighting. i dont know what it is about me. when i was 8 i turned on the tv and it was wrestling, i loved 2 people putting it all on the line a fighting. i wanted to be a fighter ever since. then when i was 13 i found out about mma and i loved it even more because it wasnt fixed. i was always fighting with friends rolling around and stuff. i started training and loved it ever since. i have a friendly record against friends of 51-6 and i just love the sport. i am 15 now nd new i wanted to some sort of fighting since i was 8ish.

 

[lakergirl52]

Funny you should ask. I actually had one of those, "I've come a long way" moments today. I train at my university's club and at the academy that oversees it. I started at the club about a year ago. This year, I'm one of like 2 or 3 people that train at the academy downtown and at the club. I'm also the most experienced girl at the club. I'm coming off of a cold and a concussion and today was my first feeling normal/pretty good day. I got to roll harder then I have been the past two weeks or so. Rolled with a new girl and told her I was going to go kinda hard. Took her down twice and got into mount a couple times and got a couple arm bars. Rolled with a new guy who is a lot stronger, but was able to upa him a couple times and maintain my posture, grips and was about to pass when time got called.

I don't think I'm good at jiu jitsu by any means. I think my athletic ability is more gear towards jiu jitsu then anything else. But I get these light bulb moments were its like "Wow, I've come a long way." or "I don't get submitted as much from this position" kind of stuff right now. I'm still in that honeymoon phase where everything is so much fun and I love learning this stuff. I went to a seminar a couple weeks ago about side guard and I was like a kid in a candy store learning that stuff.

 

[redaxe]

From day one I pretty much never doubted that I wanted to do this.

But I started in January in Chicago (obviously cold as fuck), and for my first few months there were some days where I was planning to train but instead I would be lazy and just go home, eat dinner, watch TV, drink a few beers, rub one out and go to sleep instead. It was hard to drive myself over to the gym just to get dominated several times a week.

After about six months of training I got to the point where I'm just thinking about jiu-jitsu all day at work, chomping at the bit to go train, always looking forward to the next time I get to roll. Now I basically never just sit at home when the gym is open.

 

[The K1000]

3rd day of class I tapped a bigger stronger adult at the age of 17 with a triangle. I was like yup this is the sport for me.

 

[Locoplatypus]

A friend sent me a highlight video of Royce Gracie in the UFC.

No turning back.

 

[ShanghaiBJJ]

Day one. After getting tapped about 13 times in 5 minutes by my first instructor (purple belt), calmy, despite my best spazz efforts.

 

[Lutador011]

I think day one. Today I feel like Ju-Jitsy form me never realy started but always was

 

[TSD-Bulldog]

When I completed my first class and could not feel a thing in my body. Could not even turn my head to glance at the rear view mirror on the way home. I knew BJJ was for me but as a former athlete, nothing ever gave me that kind of workout and instant shot of humility.

 

[Butler]

I knew it was for me on day 1.

I always wanted to do a grappling art and BJJ didn't dissapoint. I love what it enables me to do. I love what it does to my body.

Being able to handle myself against much bigger untrained guys is awesome.

I started to feel capable after 4-6 months, but BJJ is cyclical. Everyone peaks and troughs. Right now on my way back up to a peak.

 

[Respeezy]

For me it was at a similar moment , i guess it was at a class where for the first time , i stayed really calm and tapped guys that before dominated me.
It was the point where i for the first time felt comfortable enough to not use strength from every position but worked with technique , started pushing and pulling to create openings and it worked out.

I would have preferred this moment to be from a different cause.
I feel this is exactly like gaining confidence from wealth, so when you go broke your confidence goes down with it.

In life i want my confidence to build on my personality and the choices decisions i make , and i would like to have my Bjj confidence to be build of something similar.

Because how it is now i can see myself for example losing all drive to train when there comes a moment that i don't progress as fast as others or plateau.

So i will try to gain as much joy/ confidence from the training itself and the mental rest it gives me as opposed to my results.

 

[Vector_X]

Since I did MT prior to BJJ I knew I liked this sort of thing, but I guess I really decided to focus primarily on BJJ and really fell in love with it around the 3-4 month period. It's just become a part of my life just like my family and career.

 

[InfiniteWit]

I knew for sure wrestling was for me when I won my first match sophomore year. Freshman year I don't know why I didn't quit. All the hard work did pay off last year though and I'm gonna be even better this year

 

[Ballzilla]

I'll let you know when that moment occurs. :icon_lol:

 

[Amiro]

everyones saying it but yeh, on the first day. when i was trying to hide how much i was shitting myself but then forgot about it because it was so fun

i still suck but its definately something im not going to stop

 

[Bruce Calavera]

I did it for about 4 months...didn't really care about it. Then I took six months off because I moved to a different state and had severe withdrawal. From there on out I've only missed a month and that was due to a separated shoulder.

 

[thegreenblender]

When I saw what Royce did and I was trying to double leg and submit my friends who did other martial arts in HS....lol. At that time there weren't many gyms around, but as soon as I found one, I was like, "I have come home."

 

[joe90210]

I didn't really know if it was for me or not, I just decided that I was gonna do BJJ whether I liked it or not so I bought a gi, showed up at the academy and paid for an entire year worth of classes without trying an intro class or anything. Luckily for me, BJJ is now pretty much what I think about all day

 

[879lexus]

Still waiting for that day to come. I love it, but the newER white belts spaz and do their thing and I can't control it yet.... But I love BJJ and think about it all the time.... I still yet to get that 'confidence' in it..... My biggest problem is gassing

 

[Bathwater]

For the first few months I really liked BJJ and always thought it was something I wanted to improve at. But my training was so sparse I really didn't know for sure if it would stick. I always got my ass kicked and sometimes it was tough to stay motivated to train. I kept telling myself I wouldnt be one of those guys who washed out but at times it definitely seemed like I would be. I took a few months off and when I came back everything clicked. Stuff would flow together and techniques just started making sense. I guess that's when I knew BJJ was for me.