I am a 41 year old former amateur white collar boxer. I used boxing as a way to try and get fit, really enjoyed the sport, but decided after multiple sparring sessions and one amateur fight - I decided that the injury risks to the head were too great. So I wanted another sport to get exercise which had sparring in it. I'm 6 ft tall and weigh about 210 lbs, and ideally would weigh about 185 which was my high school wrestling weight but the years have added weight of course. As a boxer I enjoyed the discipline and many other things, but mostly I enjoyed the sparring - the chess match - which can actually be quite dangerous in boxing of course.
A friend started brazilian jiu jitsu a year ago and really fell in love with it so I decided to try it out. I've noticed that white belt/beginners in BJJ tend to fall into two camps. Or actually, I've only met people who fall into camp A) and are typically (though not always) intense about it, watching youtube videos on it, training 4-5x/week, watching sparring matches, going to as many competitions as possible, getting into brazilian things, eating acai, and just completely falling in love with BJJ enough to structure one's life around it. I actually haven't met anyone in camp B) out of all my friends who do BJJ. I would classify myself as camp B). I would assume these are people who want to learn something new, like the sparring (or not), unsure about competition, and sees BJJ mostly as a form of exercise with a lot of skills to learn. Since the learning curve is high, it's a great challenge. I clearly see myself in camp B) which is why I have no idea where this journey will progress.
I went to a few trial classes, and I really enjoyed the sparring sessions even though I didn't really know what I was doing and it wasn't too rough for my 40 year old body (at least not yet, everyone was taking it easy on me.). There does seem to be a really high learning curve however, and so I want to see if I'll enjoy it. I have no set goal for this blog, but I'm planning on going 3x/week and if I feel OK maybe 4-5x/week. I'd like to go more, but I've noticed with my 40+ yr old body it's good to have a day of rest in between a workout. Also it gives me a day to go over what I did mentally. I'm still planning on going to the boxing gym at least once a week, so I'm hoping to cross train to get myself more fit.
If you want inspiration check out this man's blog:
http://couchjitsu.com
I love that he's so honest and goes all out in tournaments, not caring so much about the results, but just his own growth. It looks like he's gotten in great shape as well. I admire that. I have no idea if I will be like him and be as intense or if I will just try and learn and enjoy it without being so intense about it, but either way there's much to learn from his blog. Check it out when you have time.
A friend started brazilian jiu jitsu a year ago and really fell in love with it so I decided to try it out. I've noticed that white belt/beginners in BJJ tend to fall into two camps. Or actually, I've only met people who fall into camp A) and are typically (though not always) intense about it, watching youtube videos on it, training 4-5x/week, watching sparring matches, going to as many competitions as possible, getting into brazilian things, eating acai, and just completely falling in love with BJJ enough to structure one's life around it. I actually haven't met anyone in camp B) out of all my friends who do BJJ. I would classify myself as camp B). I would assume these are people who want to learn something new, like the sparring (or not), unsure about competition, and sees BJJ mostly as a form of exercise with a lot of skills to learn. Since the learning curve is high, it's a great challenge. I clearly see myself in camp B) which is why I have no idea where this journey will progress.
I went to a few trial classes, and I really enjoyed the sparring sessions even though I didn't really know what I was doing and it wasn't too rough for my 40 year old body (at least not yet, everyone was taking it easy on me.). There does seem to be a really high learning curve however, and so I want to see if I'll enjoy it. I have no set goal for this blog, but I'm planning on going 3x/week and if I feel OK maybe 4-5x/week. I'd like to go more, but I've noticed with my 40+ yr old body it's good to have a day of rest in between a workout. Also it gives me a day to go over what I did mentally. I'm still planning on going to the boxing gym at least once a week, so I'm hoping to cross train to get myself more fit.
If you want inspiration check out this man's blog:
http://couchjitsu.com
I love that he's so honest and goes all out in tournaments, not caring so much about the results, but just his own growth. It looks like he's gotten in great shape as well. I admire that. I have no idea if I will be like him and be as intense or if I will just try and learn and enjoy it without being so intense about it, but either way there's much to learn from his blog. Check it out when you have time.
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