Workout #25

I realize that one has to play to body type. Although most people prefer the full mount, it's not a good position for me. I'm very top heavy, long torso, and short legs. I tend to get rolled or put off easily. Of course it could be because I'm a white belt, still using strength vs. technique. Perhaps in time things will change.

I have a long business trip coming up in a few months, so I'll have to train at another gym while I'm out of town. I don't like it that it disturbs my rhythm but I'll have to go with the flow.

BJJ is exceeding frustrating for the beginner. I can't tell that I'm getting better. In most anything else, after 3 months one can feel the improvement but I can hardly tell that I'm better now. I just know now that I can't really submit anyone and can be submitted very easily. Frustration. Ugh. Even in positional sparring, I end up using so much strength. If my partner is a white belt or lower blue belt, generally I can overcome with my strength but once he's a higher belt even if he's 50 lbs lighter than my 205 lbs, I can't do anything. Technique is really important and I feel like I have none of it.

Today was a really frustrating day. I had two almost guard passes, and both times the much smaller 3 stripe blue belt recovered in time. When I'm top I can kind of hold him in place, mostly b/c I'm so much stronger and bigger, but once I'm in mount or in his guard, I can't do much. it's only in the side mount that I can do anything.

There's so much to learn, and at the age of 41 I said I was going to treat this just like exercise. Even then, it's frustrating exercise. People are asking me to enter tournaments, and I said I have no interest in them now. At least not as a white belt, maybe later. Others enter tournaments their first month and live for them. Again, it's just exercise for me and I enjoy the mental aspects but today it was just sheer frustration mentally. I totally suck. (Still good exercise so I guess I met my goal but in a frustrating way.) Any other white belts feel this way? Especially if you're an older beginner? 

Workout #17

Today I met two guys in the gym that were quite interesting both my age or older.

There was a 49 year old purple belt. He's been doing BJJ for almost 7 years, so he started around 43. He said he had no background in sports and just saw diet in front of the gym, so went inside and has been doing this since. He's an advanced purple belt. He's obviously not the best at rolling, but he still enters tournaments even given his age. He said he likes tournaments b/c he gets to compete with guys his age and weight. So he would be a contrast vs. the really skilled 21 year old purple belt who has been doing BJJ for just 3 years. The former comes 2x/week, and the latter comes 5-6 times week and he's really athletic and young so can recover quickly. He said that our gym has a lot of blue belts, and said that most people stay at blue for a long time 2-3 years or so. He said getting to blue belt is typically just one year or so if someone is dedicated and most people are, but then at blue belt people kind of fizzle out.

There was also a 41 year old black belt who has been doing this for 10 years. He said that when he first started in his early 30's, he would 3-4 times/week or sometimes 5. Now, he says he comes maybe 2x/week for maintenance and doesn't compete. I had a mini sparring session with him, and I outweighed him by at least 50 lbs. So I had side mount and the goal was just to prevent him from reversing me or getting out. The first few times he got reversed me quickly, but the last few times I held on tight. One time, I got him in a good wrestling move, I had my legs spread out sideways, and had one of his arms in a pinned lock. Of course I couldn't do anything, but he was still able to get his legs over and one of his other arms under my neck to push himself away and reverse me. He was awesome. He was so calm too. He said I was extremely strong, and that he couldn't do what he normally does. Still, he was able to get me off of him.

There is a tournament coming up soon that everyone is talking about. I'm not going to enter, I can't enter that day though I would like to. I only know a few submissions and I tend not to have good balance since I'm still using way too much strength.

I'm traveling so will be going to another BJJ gym for the weekend. Since it's not a GB gym, they let white belts spar so I'll get to do some live sparring this weekend. We'll see what it's like. 

Workout #14

So here it is. My first stripe. It's kind of strange. I'm not sure the point of this thing. I've been doing BJJ for about two months now, only one at this particular gym. I'll be going out of town and will train at another gym this week, where I will spar. I've sparred before, and I'm not very good, but I learn a lot from sparring. You need 3 stripes to spar, that's on average 4 months at this gym since it's a Gracie Barra Gym.

I'm not sure if the main professor gave it to me simply b/c I've been attending, or if it's b/c he's seen some skills in me. I told him I'd like to spar and said I spar elsewhere, and so he said I could spar at my 2nd stripe. That's a big deal. I want to be tapped out, I want to learn, and mostly I want to roll. I think that will change my focus entirely on my BJJ. I'm still not sure about a tournament.

I've come to think it's not so bad to give stripes and belts for length/mat time. Of course there is a great variance in the level of abilities. For example. In my gym, there are two purple belts who received them in just 3 years. Others took 5-6 years. There is a brown belt who got his brown belt in 6 years, and others who took nearly 10. For the most part when I ask them, it's a matter of how much they come - mat time. There's age, ability, all of that for tournaments and the like but for those who are older the belts are a matter of showing skill. We have a purple belt that has been training for 3 years, 23 years old in our gym, who took top place at a big tournament - open class including brown belts. He could roll with most older black belts and submit them easily. He's incredible fast, flexible, strong, not a single ounce of fat, and very long limbed. He's also a gym rat and comes 6x/week and spars hard every time. He's only 23 so he recovers fast. We also have another guy, a brown belt who has been doing this for nearly 9 years. He's 50 years old, so started at my age. He said he came more, but now he comes 1 or 2x per week. That's not a lot. Yet he's a brown belt. The purple belt could submit the brown belt in a second, I know lots of blue belts that could submit this older brown belt. The point is this brown belt however, knows a lot about BJJ and has been training, that's why he's a brown belt.

So whether it's just mat time or whether it's skills, for beginners like me it's useful to have some kind of marker. My friend that's really skilled was in this gym for 6 months, won a tournament, and then got a blue belt. However, she had no idea what level she was at. She may be at blue belt for another 3 years, who knows. I like the GB system this way, there is a level you attain once you get enough mat time.

We all have different goals with BJJ. Some fitness, some tournaments, and others some other reasons. I'd like to enter a tournament mostly for the preparation, try to get in a lower weight class. The tournament itself is just icing, and once I've gone past the winning/losing stage (of course we want to win), then it's just a giant learning experience.

The brown belt, the 50 year old, asked me how long I've been doing BJJ and I said about one month here, and a month elsewhere. He was really surprised since I rolled with him and this other blue belt. I said I used to be a high school wrestler, and he said ah, that does make a difference. I'm still not 100% sure how it does, but it does seem to make a difference. Now I want to hit every class and do as much as I can so that I start sparring. I care less what belt I am vs. learning how to spar, and learning how to tap or not be tapped by higher belts just survive. I feel like that's the best way to learn, kind of like sparring in boxing. It's hard to learn how to box without real live spar, and I'm antsy for the same reason for BJJ. 

Two best BJJ sites for beginners

These are the two best site for beginners. If you are a beginner, I recommend you read through the entire sites. I did. I learned so much about BJJ, and just how one goes about it. Both emphasize the journey and are brutally honest. I still read them and they've inspired me to keep on keeping on even at the age of 41! Check it out: 

http://couchjitsu.com

http://jiujiubjj.com

Workout #13

So my 1st month of BJJ has come to an end. I was hoping to go at least 20 times, but given that I have to take an international trip in a few days this isn't too bad. I'd like to do 20/month, but realistically I'll probably go 15/month since that's all the time I have. I always feel great afterwards, it's like hanging out friends even though some of them I just met.

Today's workout was interesting. Since I had a wrestling background, I had side control during one of the controlled sparring events and my purple belt 50+ lbs heavier than me couldn't break it. He said, my head control was really strong, I guess from my wrestling background. The problem is that in BJJ if you hold a position too long, you'll get deducted points so I wasn't sure what to do. He's obviously way better than me, but once I got in the side mount controlling his head I guess I still remembered how to put all my weight on his head. He couldn't move, but then I didn't really do anything either. I still panic on the bottom and end up pushing up or not keeping my arms in.

It's not really like fighting in one sense, I mean there are so many times I wondered if two people were going at it one could just punch the other guy. At GB, we always start with a self defense drill. Today's was doing two fake punches (1-2) and then taking the guy to the ground, when my partner saw my punches he said "I could totally tell you were a boxer", I guess that's a compliment.

The more I do this sport, the more I realize I have so much to learn and with my 41 year old body I have to really rely on technique instead of strength. I'm bruised everywhere, and am hurting in places that are really different from boxing. It's amazing, the other day I was controlled sparring a 50 year old brown belt who had been doing this for only 6-7 years and I could not get him off of me. He was probably 40 pounds lighter than me and obviously weaker, but the moment I thought I could shrimp away and push him off, he got his hands back on me in full mount.

He kept on saying that at some point, I'll get too tired and he'll submit me. He encouraged me to try to roll him rather than just pushing him off, or trying to choke him. He said once you roll, there are a lot more possibilities depending on where your leg is, etc. So he taught me to pull his elbows in with my hand, and then use my knees to roll him to one side, and if he fights it, then go to the other side, etc. I was really amazed.

I can't say I like BJJ as much as boxing just yet, but for sure compared to boxing I feel a lot better after a workout. A boxing workout is brutal, especially after sparring. Now, I haven't sparred very hard yet so I may change my mind but I still don't think it'll be brutal, I'll be tired and of course feeling weak, but I really enjoy BJJ as a sport. That doesn't mean I'll compete, but just the sparring itself may satisfy me since I'm just looking for focused exercise. I may change my mind. From a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best, and 1 being the worst, I thought boxing was a 10 and BJJ was a 5, but it's probably an 8 now and might be a 10 soon. I'm really starting to enjoy it now that I have some skills to spar a bit, and know what techniques to use. For sure, as a wrestler/bigger torso guy/shorter limbed, I prefer to be on top, esp. side mount, but the learning has been much more fun that I had thought. 

Workout #12

I've had more time in the evenings lately so I went to class 5 days straight. I'm still pretty sore. I was hoping to average 20 classes per month which is roughly 4x/week, but this month I'll have gone only 14 times or so with the holidays. Oh well.

Today's was an interesting session. I don't get to spar, so the highlight of the class is the positional sparring. I was assigned to a shorter thick young blue belt, and an older (maybe 50 years old) brown belt who had been doing BJJ for about 6 years. He said he usually can only make it 2x/week just on weekends. Anyways, when I was paired up with the young blue belt, I was so much bigger and stronger that I was actually able to grab his collar and nearly get a choke. Of course, I ended up doing something stupid like leaning over and then he'd roll me or trap and roll b/c I'm so top heavy. Still, he was more skilled than I was. It's just that as a blue belt he's still in the beginning stages of BJJ and my size/strength was a lot for him to get over, I had at least 6 inches 50 lbs on him at least.

When I did positional sparring with the older brown belt it was a totally different story. He was definitely weaker than me, but he held onto my collar and told me to pass guard. I couldn't do it. No matter what I did. I struggled, I tried to rip his arm off with two hands, I tried to push on his elbows, and the like. Really excellent technique. He said later on, I was using way too much strength, so he knew when to tighten up and when to relax and that he could have stayed on top of me for a long time while I was tired out trying to roll him or get his arms to do something. He taught me a few moves, mostly trying to chop the elbows in, and then using my other arm to grab the same arm and roll, or do something with it. I'm excited to try this next time.

BJJ is growing on me. In particular, I'm enjoying the positional sparring so that has been good. It's still not a great workout just yet without the full sparring, I see the guys after sparring classes and they are completely drenched in sweat. I'm sweaty, but it always depends on who I do the positional sparring with. If it's a lower level blue belt, like today, then it works out well b/c I can actually hang with him a bit and we can go for long periods of time. If it's a purple belt, unless he's way way smaller than me, I know I'm not going to get much of a workout since he'll either just submit me quickly or will spend the time teaching me which is great - but still not a workout.

I'm still 3 months from doing real sparring, but I think the GB system is good. I'm getting used to it and by the time I spar, I think I'll probably know what to do. Not sure yet. As a former wrestler, I can't help but try to get top mount or side mount, or even back. The whole putting someone in guard while on your back is something I'm not used to yet, and there are people who are really excellent at that. I'll keep going and see where this goes.

I'm most encouraged by the fact that there are people who are over 50, who are brown belts and one black belt who are quite skilled. Some of them started, like me, in their early 40's and can still spar with some of the younger guys. Of course the younger black belts would end up killing them simply b/c of superior speed, but the younger purple belts still don't have the technique to hang with an experienced older brown or black belt unless he has a huge size differential - at least in my opinion.

My biggest weakness (amongst many many weaknesses) in BJJ is that I can't multi task. The moment I try to go for a move, I totally am not thinking about defense and the other guy rolling me, passing my guard, or going for a leg tap or something like that. And, my 2nd weakness is that I use way too much strength. It's a better workout, but not good for BJJ. If one uses good technique, but spars regularly than it can be a good workout. However, one of the black belts who spars everyone, he's early 30's, he looks like he almost never breaks a sweat. He's so smooth and flexible, like a snake. It's cool watching him. 

Workout #7

One thing I like about the Gracie Barra Fundamentals program is that you can review the class immediately afterwards by looking at the app. Of course it's not like being in the class, but it is helpful.

There is this large purple belt, who has been really helpful to me. I'm 6ft 210lbs, fairly strong in fairly good shape for a 41 year old, he's 5'10, 265 lbs and looks not to be in good shape, but he's incredibly flexible. Since I'm only allowed to spar positionally (top mount, try to hold while the other guy tries to pass guard, etc.), today we went at it again. Since he and I are the largest guys in the class we're always paired up, and since he's a purple belt he's always teaching me new things. I have so much appreciation and respect for this 30 year old guy. He often asks me about wrestling or boxing, since he knows I have experience in those sports.

Today, he grabbed my collar and I knew I was stronger so I tried breaking his grip, which I did but then, he just grabbed it again. Then I used two hands and tried to stick my leg over for an arm bar of sorts, and he just turned and kind of sat on me. His whole weight was on my stomach/back area and I couldn't move. He was laughing and said big guys have different techniques so we need to watch out for it. He does a kimura quite well, he can sit up really quick and is very flexible for a big guy.

Anyways, I still don't have my first strip but I only want to get to 3 stripes on my belt so I can finally spar and attend the advanced class. A few days ago a 4 stripe white belt got his blue belt. He told me it took him about 1.5 years and he comes about 2-3x/week. That sounds normal. I know another person, another 40 year old, who went 6 days/week for 4 months and got a blue belt but she also won a tournament. So I guess it's different for different people/how dedicated they are.