Day 1, really day 36

Hello and welcome to my first post. This blog is about me doing Brazillian JiuJitsu - which will likely be  a catharis and recap for me.

I started at the Gracie JiuJitsu of Savannah gym with their free trial month- their main method of interaction is here: https://www.facebook.com/GracieJiuJitsuSavannah

I'm tall (6'1"), skinny and don't weigh much. Average redheaded nerd, I suppose.

I live in Savannah, GA and it's early summer. Hot, humid and the itch to do STUFF!

Two of my good buddies do BJJ with intensity. I've gone with them in the past for about 5 months or 35 days of training, but tapered off and stopped. It's been about 3 years since I last practiced. Which puts me in a weird spot because I'm not so new that people can't expect things of me, but I'm not so practiced that I'm familiar with anything. Plus, I'm somewhat out of shape.

I struggle to keep up, but that may be normal and expected. I feel my mind tossing up it's metaphorical arms as the instructor passes a number of things to do on a move. I can watch him show me again and again and then when I try, the very first thing I do is pause and think/ask "what do I do..?"

I'm a relatively intelligent and well thought-out guy, I feel I excel at a lot of thinking tasks but thinking under pressure is a different beast - hearing your blood pounding in your ears and feeling it in your teeth, my mind is screaming a million things at me while at the same time demanding it shut up and focus.

I like the challenge.



In the past, while I did better than my stamina will now allow, I had some bad techniques:
1. Holding onto things I shouldn't (like an arm or a leg)
2. doing things which weren't BJJ (not that this is bad, but I'm new and should be trying to learn BJJ - not stroke my ego)
3.  using my elbows wrong (as in, being an ass with them).

So after having a couple of years to think about it, I'm trying to be more practiced and less frantic, which means:

- Calm down.
- Don't tap when I'm uncomfortable, if I want to bail, let them get the arm bar or similar.
- Push myself but not crazy. If I'm unable to catch my breath, sit out until I can. But don't sit out forever, really want to get in there.
- Recognize that my bony-ass elbows have a place, and not use them for evil.

--- Tonight:
Tonight I was really conscious of holding onto things for too long. So much so that for the first time, the instructor told me "don't switch so much" which while a critique, felt GREAT.

I bowed out when I felt like I was useless but let my opponent get theirs. in 5 rolling sessions only one was a weird tapout, but it was because I was out of breath and couldn't breath with the opponent ontop.

We learned how to escape from the guillotine choke as well as how to reverse it and place it - standing and sitting.

There were 4 or 5 total techniques which increased in complexity with the last two being beyond me.

I also had trouble with the triangle and armbar warmups.

Some of the things were slightly different than I remember, but that's OK because I don't have enough practice for that to matter.

I was able to admit that I was confused on the last two complex moves, and had help being walked through them. I'm not sure I could repeat them now though.

Someone who was sitting on the side was trying to help me but I ended up more confused. They were explaining what I should be doing, which felt the opposite of what felt natural, and I found myself doing both - and failing. (not that it would have had an impact!)

I didn't make it through one single 5 minute rolling round, nor did I do well (in my opinion) - but I didn't use my elbows vindictavly. I was somewhat of a spaz and didn't utilize BJJ moves.

One of my sparing partners told me my base was off when we were on the ground. He tried to explain but with my heart pounding hard it was difficult to comprehend.

I felt like I was taking advantage of people talking to 'spend time' - but that may be related to stamina. This is something I'm also concerned about.

I didn't puke or feel like I needed to. I wasn't so out of breath that my extremities were doing weird things and I left feeling more solid about what I had done than Saturday when I came by open mats to check it out.

Tonight was OK.