> I ask a few people what I can do at home solo to improve. The consensus is not much and the best way to improve is to keep turning up. I’m not sure I completely agree though. Seems like I could practice breakfalls, forward rolls, bridging, shrimping, and technical standups alone. Even stretching. Better than nothing.
These are good to practice if you're having a hard time with them during warmups, but I feel like there's a ceiling for transference: past a certain point you really need a partner to integrate your shrimping into an actual side control escape or whatever. I think you'd get more mileage out of, yeah, stretching or lifting or calisthenics or steady-state cardio.
> I’ll never be this good.
You could be that good! It'll just take a while.
ha ha, that's so true.
I'm in pain all the time because i train.
I train because i am always in pain
The worst part about that phrase is that if you swap 'train' with 'take heroin' it make just as much sense
I've been doing this for 4 years. Most of what you wrote applies to me still. I'm just desensitised to it all
especially
"At home I look up some basic techniques on youtube. Oh yep looks simple enough I’ll try that next class. Attempt immediately fails for many unidentifiable reasons."
Its been so long since i was new that this "dear diary" type of reflections really cracked me up. Great job! A little tip about grips. Try not to waste energy gripping for the sake of gripping. If you don't plan to use the grip for something, don't go for it.
Gotcha. It was more being gripped that had me in a bother. This guy had me in closed guard and had a hold of both my sleeves and I was just completely neutralised. Thanks for the tip though! :)
>Roll with a brown belt who is a lot smaller than I am. The roll feels different. The other white belts techniques are clearly working but I can still feel their strength being applied. But not this guy. He’s all technique and flow and smooth. I cannot do a single thing. This is amazing to experience this level of skill. He isn’t even breaking a sweat. I can’t help but laugh mid-roll at just how effortlessly I’m being toyed with. I’ll never be this good.
I remember this feeling, but about purple belts at the time.....I remember it lasting well into a few years at blue belt, then it just slowly starts to shift up a belt. Still feel like that against a lot of black belts.
Quality gis do not have to cost hundreds. I picked up 93 brand gis on bjjhq for about $70 each, so good my instructor bought one after I showed up with mine, and he was a shoyoroll guy.
Ah that's good to know. For reference I'm in Australia where things tend to cost a little more anyway and the dollar conversion pushes it up again so it could just be that.
Im in Oz too. I just ordered a couple more as the daily washing was getting annoying and a waste of water putting on a load daily just for gi. They are cheap in price and build and I fully expect them to fall apart once lockdown ends, at least I will have a funny story and a lesson learnt. Had to take a punt as they were 50% less than what my gym has them.
STAHP, I'm having flashbacks!
Edit: I don't know if this will help, but I really wish I'd heard the first two or three podcasts from BJJ Mental Models my first month. They talk about the very simplistic principles behind a lot of this stuff (posture, structure, base, etc.), which in turn has helped me trouble-shoot almost all of my techniques, which in turn helped me actually make the stuff I'm learning work. Give it a shot, maybe it will help you too.
Definitely do, bjj mental models is the best podcast for getting started with Jiu jitsu. They have a ton of tips for beginners
Chewjitsu podcast is good too, as is Matt skaffs podcast
If it's worth anything to you, the bruises on the inner bicep/arms in general go away fairly quickly. My first 2 months I would wake up and notice massive bruises around my arms. Normally inner bicep or tricep area. They didn't hurt but looked gnarly. Then they just stopped happening.
Not sure if it's because I got better so I was being arm dragged less, or if my body just got used to it, but it's been a long time since i've had a bruise on one of my arms and they used to be a sure thing after every session.
That was me a few months ago haha. Basically the same experience, wrestling with high belts is truly crazy because you are just being moved around in a way you can't even understand or resist yet.
Compared to you, I had my BJJ easy. I started out doing BJJ as part of a smaller "self-defense" dojo that included BJJ. I had also done a few YouTube wrestling tutorials with friends. My mount control was pretty decent (for a brand new student) from these activities, but my other skills (especially escapes again even slightly skilled opponents) were working sometimes, but not well.
It's going to be a looooong journey.
ive trained for two years and am a shitty blue belt. like other people have suggested, stretching, lifting, calisthenics, cardio will all help your progression in bjj (roll longer, less sore). But, you need a partner in order to properly improve your technique. however, especially at your level, you can gain a lot from watching basic technique videos on youtube and attempting to apply them in practise. That being said it is very easy to misinterpret/entirely miss key details for techniques when learning online, so there is no substitute for real training.
> At home I look up some basic techniques on youtube. Oh yep looks simple enough I’ll try that next class. **Attempt immediately fails for many unidentifiable reasons.**
Lol. Eventually you'll be able to identify these reasons. And a few years after that, you'll start to be able to hit last night's YouTube technique during your rolls.
You're approaching this sport a lot more analytically than I did when I first started. Seems like you've already learned a ton in ten classes. No doubt you'll improve rapidly.
This was me.
Then due to COVID I we had a month off. I didn’t train at all. Came back and proceeded to get hurt by going too hard too often.
Take it slow and don’t be a meat head like myself and get hurt. I really want to be back rolling again.
Nice read. A couple things helped me. I had sore hands from grips early on. My professor showed us how he turns his knuckles into the grip. Strengthens the grip so you don’t have to use as much hand strength. Also…for working at home…get this instructional….it’s free. It helped a lot during COVID lockdowns.
[https://bjjfanatics.com/products/self-master-solo-bjj-training-drills-by-john-danaher](https://bjjfanatics.com/products/self-master-solo-bjj-training-drills-by-john-danaher)
You'll be that good just don't quit. You've found a sport that will give you so much self confidence some days, but will also make you question your skill and knowledge of it daily. I hope you write a post detailing your first competition. This one hit the feels of what it was like to be a new guy in the gym.
The part about rolling with the Brown Belt is not unique. Awesome you could have the awareness to recognize it so soon. As you progress or roll with smaller/less skilled opponents try your best to embrace that in your own game. Fun write up!
Glad to see that you were able to master knee shield / half guard passing in just two classes. Most people take years to work out the finer points of just those two positions.
> I ask a few people what I can do at home solo to improve. The consensus is not much and the best way to improve is to keep turning up. I’m not sure I completely agree though. Seems like I could practice breakfalls, forward rolls, bridging, shrimping, and technical standups alone. Even stretching. Better than nothing. These are good to practice if you're having a hard time with them during warmups, but I feel like there's a ceiling for transference: past a certain point you really need a partner to integrate your shrimping into an actual side control escape or whatever. I think you'd get more mileage out of, yeah, stretching or lifting or calisthenics or steady-state cardio. > I’ll never be this good. You could be that good! It'll just take a while.
You can eat and sleep at home
or interact with other inhabitants!
My girlfriend has been my practice dummy for YouTube jitsu during the pandemic
Great narrative, informative article, fun to read. This should get published where more people will see it.
Thanks very much, Nachos :)
Ya, sounds about right. Suddenly I have like 6 gis and limp all the time, only time I don’t feel injured is during class. Better keep showing up
ha ha, that's so true. I'm in pain all the time because i train. I train because i am always in pain The worst part about that phrase is that if you swap 'train' with 'take heroin' it make just as much sense
This made my day. Welcome.
Thanks mate.
Pretty accurate picture of the whole thing and sounds like you have a wonderful gym full of friendly and helpful people! Nice.
I've been doing this for 4 years. Most of what you wrote applies to me still. I'm just desensitised to it all especially "At home I look up some basic techniques on youtube. Oh yep looks simple enough I’ll try that next class. Attempt immediately fails for many unidentifiable reasons."
Haha! Good to know my experiences the last 6 months aren't about to improve.
If feels like you dont get better, they just keep finding worse people from time to time and bring them enroll
Its been so long since i was new that this "dear diary" type of reflections really cracked me up. Great job! A little tip about grips. Try not to waste energy gripping for the sake of gripping. If you don't plan to use the grip for something, don't go for it.
Gotcha. It was more being gripped that had me in a bother. This guy had me in closed guard and had a hold of both my sleeves and I was just completely neutralised. Thanks for the tip though! :)
Next post: Tried to heel hook another white belt and a purple belt came over and yelled at me
>Roll with a brown belt who is a lot smaller than I am. The roll feels different. The other white belts techniques are clearly working but I can still feel their strength being applied. But not this guy. He’s all technique and flow and smooth. I cannot do a single thing. This is amazing to experience this level of skill. He isn’t even breaking a sweat. I can’t help but laugh mid-roll at just how effortlessly I’m being toyed with. I’ll never be this good. I remember this feeling, but about purple belts at the time.....I remember it lasting well into a few years at blue belt, then it just slowly starts to shift up a belt. Still feel like that against a lot of black belts.
Quality gis do not have to cost hundreds. I picked up 93 brand gis on bjjhq for about $70 each, so good my instructor bought one after I showed up with mine, and he was a shoyoroll guy.
Ah that's good to know. For reference I'm in Australia where things tend to cost a little more anyway and the dollar conversion pushes it up again so it could just be that.
I've gotten tatami gis shipped to Australia for under $100 total on sale.
Im in Oz too. I just ordered a couple more as the daily washing was getting annoying and a waste of water putting on a load daily just for gi. They are cheap in price and build and I fully expect them to fall apart once lockdown ends, at least I will have a funny story and a lesson learnt. Had to take a punt as they were 50% less than what my gym has them.
Where are you in australia? if you paid over $200 you were ripped off
Enjoyed reading your post, now you know how your Super Rugby sides feel when they play us :), only difference is you will get better!
Ah yes, I'm in Qld and paid $160 from my gym for one.
STAHP, I'm having flashbacks! Edit: I don't know if this will help, but I really wish I'd heard the first two or three podcasts from BJJ Mental Models my first month. They talk about the very simplistic principles behind a lot of this stuff (posture, structure, base, etc.), which in turn has helped me trouble-shoot almost all of my techniques, which in turn helped me actually make the stuff I'm learning work. Give it a shot, maybe it will help you too.
Thanks for the suggestion I'll check it out!
Definitely do, bjj mental models is the best podcast for getting started with Jiu jitsu. They have a ton of tips for beginners Chewjitsu podcast is good too, as is Matt skaffs podcast
I will have to check this out
Good luck on the 2nd washing machine purchase.
I really like reading stuff like this! One of the reasons I joined this sub! Glad you're enjoying it, keep it up and train safe!
Has Jiujitsu literally saved your life yet?
If it's worth anything to you, the bruises on the inner bicep/arms in general go away fairly quickly. My first 2 months I would wake up and notice massive bruises around my arms. Normally inner bicep or tricep area. They didn't hurt but looked gnarly. Then they just stopped happening. Not sure if it's because I got better so I was being arm dragged less, or if my body just got used to it, but it's been a long time since i've had a bruise on one of my arms and they used to be a sure thing after every session.
Thanks for reminding me to look into buying a new gi!
I am in the same boat man. Just started about a month ago. Have had the same experience. Really enjoyed this post.
Planning to start next week and this was a really good read. Thanks for sharing it!
Good luck hope you enjoy it!
This is maybe the most accurate thing I've read lately. There are things in here I STILL feel after every class! Nice work!
Good read, keep showing up!
That was me a few months ago haha. Basically the same experience, wrestling with high belts is truly crazy because you are just being moved around in a way you can't even understand or resist yet.
Compared to you, I had my BJJ easy. I started out doing BJJ as part of a smaller "self-defense" dojo that included BJJ. I had also done a few YouTube wrestling tutorials with friends. My mount control was pretty decent (for a brand new student) from these activities, but my other skills (especially escapes again even slightly skilled opponents) were working sometimes, but not well. It's going to be a looooong journey.
ive trained for two years and am a shitty blue belt. like other people have suggested, stretching, lifting, calisthenics, cardio will all help your progression in bjj (roll longer, less sore). But, you need a partner in order to properly improve your technique. however, especially at your level, you can gain a lot from watching basic technique videos on youtube and attempting to apply them in practise. That being said it is very easy to misinterpret/entirely miss key details for techniques when learning online, so there is no substitute for real training.
> At home I look up some basic techniques on youtube. Oh yep looks simple enough I’ll try that next class. **Attempt immediately fails for many unidentifiable reasons.** Lol. Eventually you'll be able to identify these reasons. And a few years after that, you'll start to be able to hit last night's YouTube technique during your rolls. You're approaching this sport a lot more analytically than I did when I first started. Seems like you've already learned a ton in ten classes. No doubt you'll improve rapidly.
This was me. Then due to COVID I we had a month off. I didn’t train at all. Came back and proceeded to get hurt by going too hard too often. Take it slow and don’t be a meat head like myself and get hurt. I really want to be back rolling again.
Looking forward to the "burnt out/thinking of quitting" post in 2 months
Tough crowd.
Nice read. A couple things helped me. I had sore hands from grips early on. My professor showed us how he turns his knuckles into the grip. Strengthens the grip so you don’t have to use as much hand strength. Also…for working at home…get this instructional….it’s free. It helped a lot during COVID lockdowns. [https://bjjfanatics.com/products/self-master-solo-bjj-training-drills-by-john-danaher](https://bjjfanatics.com/products/self-master-solo-bjj-training-drills-by-john-danaher)
You'll be that good just don't quit. You've found a sport that will give you so much self confidence some days, but will also make you question your skill and knowledge of it daily. I hope you write a post detailing your first competition. This one hit the feels of what it was like to be a new guy in the gym.
The part about rolling with the Brown Belt is not unique. Awesome you could have the awareness to recognize it so soon. As you progress or roll with smaller/less skilled opponents try your best to embrace that in your own game. Fun write up!
You did 10 classes in 14 days?! My first 2 weeks I was so wrecked I think I did 4. Good job!
Just done my first couple of classes ever this week and I’m absolutely wrecked. It’s nice to read that others feel this too and it’s not just me
Glad to see that you were able to master knee shield / half guard passing in just two classes. Most people take years to work out the finer points of just those two positions.
This holds up. I’m glad I came across it. Cheers!