Today is the day I go to two classes. There's a fundamentals class at 6pm, then sparring at 7pm (which I'm not allowed to do until I get to 3 stripes), then another fundamentals class at 8pm, and then sparring after that.
We reviewed most of the same moves from Monday, which was great. The only variance was in the type of collar chokes. During the sparring session I just sat and watched. There were some excellent guys in there. It was a treat to have two judo college aged black belts in the course. They were probably at the level of purple belt, b/c they went with purple and brown and weren't submitted. They knew what they were doing with locks, but of course the sparring isn't done standing up. I'm sure if it was, they would have thrown their guys easily.
I have a long torso with short limbs, so some of the chokes, including the triangle choke and certain collar chokes are harder for me. I know how to use my weight, so I'm going to have to have a pressure game. Basically, I need about 4 months before they'll let me spar, so not until April 2014. Also, I noticed the beginner 3 stripers they always put with the purple or brown belts so that they can learn how to spar correctly. I guess that's good to learn, but I rather enjoyed sparring the beginner blue and the advanced white belts at the other gym. I felt they were more my level, what you would get at a tournament.
There is some controlled sparring, but it's not the same. For example, someone has your back and you try to sweep him or something like that. Right now, I'm just thinking defense and trying to be as heavy as possible when I come down. My weakness has been the grips. There seems to be an endless amount of grips: underhand, overhand, side grip, and the like.
Today was a decent workout since I went through two classes, but on regular days it's not much of a workout since it's just the fundamental technique. If I don't supplement I'm not going to get much of a workout. I almost wish there was another gym I could go to, where I can spar just to spar and have to tap constantly. I want to tap out constantly. I'm not even given that chance really as a beginner in this system. Oh well. I'm not sure if I'm having fun just yet, mostly b/c I keep on comparing it to boxing but I have to be patient until we get to sparring. It feels like I'm back in wrestling again, which feels good. I always enjoyed rolling around on the mats, I'm just older and not as flexible.
I've decided on a Monday class, two Wed classes, and a Friday class. If I have time I'll go to the Saturday class. This way I get plenty of rest in between. Actually, if I had the time I could go everyday, even going through two fundamental classes a day if I'm not sparring. That would be great if I had the opportunity. There's at least one fundamental class everyday, and if I went 5-6x/week then I could get the fundamentals down much more quickly to prepare to spar. Many of the advanced guys come just to spar even though they don't participate in the fundamentals class.
Overall, I feel I've had more conversations in just two days in this BJJ gym than I did in 4 months at the boxing gym. People there want to work out and leave or focus, here we need partners. For that reason alone I like BJJ better than boxing, the social aspects even though I'm such a beginner I have no clue what I'm doing.
We reviewed most of the same moves from Monday, which was great. The only variance was in the type of collar chokes. During the sparring session I just sat and watched. There were some excellent guys in there. It was a treat to have two judo college aged black belts in the course. They were probably at the level of purple belt, b/c they went with purple and brown and weren't submitted. They knew what they were doing with locks, but of course the sparring isn't done standing up. I'm sure if it was, they would have thrown their guys easily.
I have a long torso with short limbs, so some of the chokes, including the triangle choke and certain collar chokes are harder for me. I know how to use my weight, so I'm going to have to have a pressure game. Basically, I need about 4 months before they'll let me spar, so not until April 2014. Also, I noticed the beginner 3 stripers they always put with the purple or brown belts so that they can learn how to spar correctly. I guess that's good to learn, but I rather enjoyed sparring the beginner blue and the advanced white belts at the other gym. I felt they were more my level, what you would get at a tournament.
There is some controlled sparring, but it's not the same. For example, someone has your back and you try to sweep him or something like that. Right now, I'm just thinking defense and trying to be as heavy as possible when I come down. My weakness has been the grips. There seems to be an endless amount of grips: underhand, overhand, side grip, and the like.
Today was a decent workout since I went through two classes, but on regular days it's not much of a workout since it's just the fundamental technique. If I don't supplement I'm not going to get much of a workout. I almost wish there was another gym I could go to, where I can spar just to spar and have to tap constantly. I want to tap out constantly. I'm not even given that chance really as a beginner in this system. Oh well. I'm not sure if I'm having fun just yet, mostly b/c I keep on comparing it to boxing but I have to be patient until we get to sparring. It feels like I'm back in wrestling again, which feels good. I always enjoyed rolling around on the mats, I'm just older and not as flexible.
I've decided on a Monday class, two Wed classes, and a Friday class. If I have time I'll go to the Saturday class. This way I get plenty of rest in between. Actually, if I had the time I could go everyday, even going through two fundamental classes a day if I'm not sparring. That would be great if I had the opportunity. There's at least one fundamental class everyday, and if I went 5-6x/week then I could get the fundamentals down much more quickly to prepare to spar. Many of the advanced guys come just to spar even though they don't participate in the fundamentals class.
Overall, I feel I've had more conversations in just two days in this BJJ gym than I did in 4 months at the boxing gym. People there want to work out and leave or focus, here we need partners. For that reason alone I like BJJ better than boxing, the social aspects even though I'm such a beginner I have no clue what I'm doing.
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