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The history of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is fascinating

Fox318

Member
Got my blue belt last week. Took me 3.5 years to get it. Didn't think I'd be able to continue after getting hurt at my old gym, too many meat heads doing stupid shit like can openers and whatnot...
Switched gyms this last Oct when some of the other dropouts of my last gym convinced me that more technical training would be better for me (I'm 44). I've been really happy and totally underestimated how important the right gym is.

congrats.
 

pr0cs

Member
I went to my first ever seminar on Sunday. . It was cool, but i couldn't help but feel a little disappointed to be honest.
As long as the seminar wasn't expensive then it sounds worse case just another day on the mats, which is okay. All the seminars I've attended have been good, but really expensive. But then Andre Galvao and his wife were the guests so I expected to pay more and learned a ton while attending

During the rolling, I got steamrolled by a fellow white belt which was pretty demoralizing.
That sort of thinking is a real problem, you're too fixated on the belts, stripes, what you perceive as progress. You are trying to measure yourself against other people which will never end well. Bjj is and will always be (unless you are competing) a solo experience. You need to drop this notion that somehow being submitted by someone of less stripes or less belt than you is a bad thing.

If you are taking risks or failing to capitalize on a good position then you should get submitted. if you look back to say 6 months or a year before now are you now better than you were then, then you're making progress. personal progress (yourself vs yourself) and time on the mat is all that matters. If you are at a good gym your coach will recognize your time on the mat, if you are participating having a good attitude, attending regular classes your coach will recognize that too.
Just worry about finding time to get on the mat and continue learning. Yeah for months (and for higher belts I suspect years) it will feel like you're not making progress. As long as you regularly self reflect you'll see you arr getting better and the more consistently you go the better you will get
 
As long as the seminar wasn't expensive then it sounds worse case just another day on the mats, which is okay. All the seminars I've attended have been good, but really expensive. But then Andre Galvao and his wife were the guests so I expected to pay more and learned a ton while attending


That sort of thinking is a real problem, you're too fixated on the belts, stripes, what you perceive as progress. You are trying to measure yourself against other people which will never end well. Bjj is and will always be (unless you are competing) a solo experience. You need to drop this notion that somehow being submitted by someone of less stripes or less belt than you is a bad thing.

If you are taking risks or failing to capitalize on a good position then you should get submitted. if you look back to say 6 months or a year before now are you now better than you were then, then you're making progress. personal progress (yourself vs yourself) and time on the mat is all that matters. If you are at a good gym your coach will recognize your time on the mat, if you are participating having a good attitude, attending regular classes your coach will recognize that too.
Just worry about finding time to get on the mat and continue learning. Yeah for months (and for higher belts I suspect years) it will feel like you're not making progress. As long as you regularly self reflect you'll see you arr getting better and the more consistently you go the better you will get

Yeah the seminar was cheap, so I don't feel ripped off or anything, it was enjoyable I guess I just expected her to show us how to throw a fireball or something lol.

Thanks for the advice. I've had that conversation with myself a lot over the past year, that im only competing against myself and not trying to measure my progress against anyone else. For the most part I've been successful. It's not that I was pissed cause I got steamrolled by a white belt, he was really good and definitely better than me (tho a bit overly aggressive, I was successfully defending an arm bar by grabbing my wrist and gripping my collar, he couldn't extend my arm, so he eventually got past it by stamping my bicep which I thought was a bit uncool), it was just that I didn't have much to offer in the roll at all. Just disappointed I didn't do at least a bit better.

Ill try and get back to it soon and have more consistency. Cause I know I'm not going to get better by skipping class. Just been a shitty week or so outside of BJJ that's had me in a bit of a mood also.
 

pr0cs

Member
so he eventually got past it by stamping my bicep which I thought was a bit uncool), .
Yeah there will always be those guys that take things a bit further than they need to go, esp ig you're just flow rolling or light sparring. got a nice smashed lip last weekend from a guy who has no notion of "light resistance" as requested by the coach. Some days you'll be the hammer some days the nail.. Just how it is in bjj.

You're right thou, there is NO way you'll get betyer if you don't go. Maybe switch up the class times if you have that opportunity. Try a different class with likely different people.. Might give you a nice reset if you find you're bored rolling with the same cats day in and day out... Or throw in a nogi or wrasslin' class to keep things fresh
 
I had a bad experience after training today. I forgot my bike lights so I took the bus + train home. In the bus, a tall man walks in and stares at me aggressively. He looks like the eastern European stereotype thug with slick Donald Trump junior hair, sweat pants and a army track suit jacket. He stares at me like he wants to fight me. I eye him and I see that we are both the same height (of around 6'3-6'5). I break eye contact with him and focus on something else looking out the window. We get off at the same stop to catch the train, and he walks on in the middle of the street without looking at traffic and yells at a car.

Dude walks and looks at everything confrontationally. I wanted to get in his face and physically hurt him, but I decided to walk 100 meter down the train tracks. As I cool off and wait for the train for 15 minutes, I eventually get on, and two ticket controllers check everybodys tickets.
Then the same guy from before comes down towards me, and walks past the ticket controllers. they tell him to show his ticket, but he yells something aggressively incoherent, and I am standing right next to them, and as he threatens the two ticket controllers I couldn't stop thinking (as I am standing directly behind him) that I could slap on a RNC and choke him on the spot.
I was sooo close to just throwing myself into him. Just got home and I am still fuming with rage over this asshole. Holy shit, did he get under my skin. He walks past, and the ticket controllers are too scared to follow.

I'm glad I stayed out of the way, but man... It just completely triggers me with uncontrollable rage when I see bullies like that. I guess it's a plus that I don't even remember if I ever have felt provoked indirectly to insert myself into someone else and literally try to choke them.

It would have been terrible. choking out someone can be seen as attempted murder in my country which is absurd, but martial arts knowledge is also considered "special use of force" and demands extra good reasons (even in self defense) to protect oneself. I know all of this, and yet I still wanted to hurt this person. Which is very unlike me. Never been in a fight as an adult and have no desire to. I know that there is a level of responsibility associated with techniques. I know my gym (and many others) have a policy of excessive use of force in non-self defense situations warrant being expelled and banned.

It's double weird, because as we all know, fighters are often so docile and get whatever passive aggressive tensions and ego out of their system during sparring. It's one of the best parts of martial arts IMO.

Sorry for the rambling. It's an embarrassing outburst and lack of composure over someone who wasn't my responsibility to deal with. I guess what annoys me the most is that I feel like the lesser man for deescalating the situation. But at the same time, I'd have everything to lose and nothing to gain from being confrontational or physical.
The guy seemed psychotically aggressive, like roid rage or PTSD.



Anyone else who've had to back on from a situation that got under your skin? Did you also have moments or bouts of wanting them to face the music for acting shitty?



Got my blue belt last week. Took me 3.5 years to get it. Didn't think I'd be able to continue after getting hurt at my old gym, too many meat heads doing stupid shit like can openers and whatnot...
Switched gyms this last Oct when some of the other dropouts of my last gym convinced me that more technical training would be better for me (I'm 44). I've been really happy and totally underestimated how important the right gym is.

Congrats man! It's a massive symbolic achievement.
 
I definitely get my aggression out in sparring. Have never faced a situation where I needed to fight but I'd probably turn the other cheek and walk away unless I truly had to defend myself. I do often think about pulling off a fancy choke like a bow and arrow on the street though.

I wouldn't worry about promotions. Just worry about improving. If you can only make one class a week then you'll just sustain your level. If you're ok with that then that's fine too.

In my BJJ world currently-

The white belts in my morning class are monsters and improving so rapidly it makes me proud. I'm 180 pounds and I'm the 3rd smallest guy in class. There's​ about 7-8 bigger guys in class and thankfully none of them douchebags. I make it a point to tell them when we roll that if they're straining too hard then they are using too much muscle and to solve the puzzle with technique. The few times I had the opportunity to coach I taught guys my game for selfish reasons. So that they can recognize my game and I would have to try new things. It's working as I'm working hard to try new ways to pass and new set ups.
 
Yeah there will always be those guys that take things a bit further than they need to go, esp ig you're just flow rolling or light sparring. got a nice smashed lip last weekend from a guy who has no notion of "light resistance" as requested by the coach. Some days you'll be the hammer some days the nail.. Just how it is in bjj.

You're right thou, there is NO way you'll get betyer if you don't go. Maybe switch up the class times if you have that opportunity. Try a different class with likely different people.. Might give you a nice reset if you find you're bored rolling with the same cats day in and day out... Or throw in a nogi or wrasslin' class to keep things fresh

haha i got bodied so badly at nogi that i was like "fuck, im going back to gi, i cant handle this!!" after 2 classes haha. I figured if i have to be bad at BJJ, i can at least be bad at just Gi, and not bad at gi and nogi!

Havent had to deal with any real life aggressive situations lately myself thankfully. Only recent incident i can think of was one night walking home from class i saw two guys waiting at the luas (tram) stop, one sitting, one standing. The standing guy was acting the hardman, throwing punches at his friend and trying to act like McGregor, doing half assed spin kicks at him and shit. I could tell he had no clue how to actually fight cause he was all over the place. Back in the day i would have crossed the road and avoided them but my probably misplaced confidence in my fighting abilities from BJJ made me just say fuck it and walk right between them. McGregor made some punching motion toward me as i passed, i just laughed and kept walking. That was about it. He'll never know how close he came to having me cuddle struggle the life out of him...
 

BrettWeir

Member
Got my blue belt last week. Took me 3.5 years to get it. Didn't think I'd be able to continue after getting hurt at my old gym, too many meat heads doing stupid shit like can openers and whatnot...
Switched gyms this last Oct when some of the other dropouts of my last gym convinced me that more technical training would be better for me (I'm 44). I've been really happy and totally underestimated how important the right gym is.

Congrats man!!!!

Yeah there will always be those guys that take things a bit further than they need to go, esp ig you're just flow rolling or light sparring. got a nice smashed lip last weekend from a guy who has no notion of "light resistance" as requested by the coach. Some days you'll be the hammer some days the nail.. Just how it is in bjj.

You're right thou, there is NO way you'll get betyer if you don't go. Maybe switch up the class times if you have that opportunity. Try a different class with likely different people.. Might give you a nice reset if you find you're bored rolling with the same cats day in and day out... Or throw in a nogi or wrasslin' class to keep things fresh

This. I'm 45 and just got my Purple in January. Took me just short of 6 years to get it. There is no way in the world that I would hold my own against a million other fresh Purple belts.....or hell, even Blue belts. There are so many factors that come into play. Just worry about your journey, have fun, and roll. Like they say..........you win or you learn. I absolutely love learning.
 

TheCrow

Member
Guess I should finally post in here. Been training for about 3 months now and just signed up for my first tournament. Will be doing gi and no gi. Was just wondering if anyone here had any experience with Grappling Industries?

Also had my first no gi class today. Got absolutely destroyed during takedown sparring. It was only 30 second rounds but was down 3 or 4 times each round. Still I had a blast and I at least held my own during the closed guard sparring. Excited for the next no gi class next week.
 

BrettWeir

Member
Guess I should finally post in here. Been training for about 3 months now and just signed up for my first tournament. Will be doing gi and no gi. Was just wondering if anyone here had any experience with Grappling Industries?

Also had my first no gi class today. Got absolutely destroyed during takedown sparring. It was only 30 second rounds but was down 3 or 4 times each round. Still I had a blast and I at least held my own during the closed guard sparring. Excited for the next no gi class next week.

Grappling Industries is good. Glad your first isn't NAGA. I have no idea how they manage to screw up every single tournament they run, being that they are one of the oldest tournaments out there. You're pretty good with any other tourney out there (New Breed, Grappling Industries, Copa America, to name a few).

Good luck and have fun! Oh yeah........take flip flops and your own TP.
 

Goofalo

Member
Grappling Industries is good. Glad your first isn't NAGA. I have no idea how they manage to screw up every single tournament they run, being that they are one of the oldest tournaments out there. You're pretty good with any other tourney out there (New Breed, Grappling Industries, Copa America, to name a few).

Good luck and have fun! Oh yeah........take flip flops and your own TP.

I second Grappling Industries being a good tournament.

I also second NAGA screwing up all the time. And by giving little kids huge crappy swords as trophies.

"Don't worry, it's zip tied, they can't get it out of the scabbard."
 

TheCrow

Member
Thanks for the tips and yeah I've heard tales about NAGA. My teammate competed in one 2 weeks ago and found out after both of his matches that they put him in the wrong weight division.

I'll look into the other organisations recommended. It's too bad that I can't make the next Chicago IBJJF tournament. My school focuses on training for those but unfortunately I'm going to be out of town.
 

BrettWeir

Member
Thanks for the tips and yeah I've heard tales about NAGA. My teammate competed in one 2 weeks ago and found out after both of his matches that they put him in the wrong weight division.

I'll look into the other organisations recommended. It's too bad that I can't make the next Chicago IBJJF tournament. My school focuses on training for those but unfortunately I'm going to be out of town.

NAGA does all kinds of strange crap. I'm a small dude. I went back and forth between Flyweight and Bantamweight, never at the top of the Bantamweight range. I never cut weight, as I didn't see the point. It's not the UFC. In one of the tourneys I was in (I went to several.......stupid, I know), there was a guy two weight divisions above us that had no competitors. They put him DOWN two weight classes to compete against us. Dude said he cut a ton of weight, so at match time he was over 170 (weighed in day before). It made no sense to move him DOWN a few weight classes, instead of up one where there were competitors. I ended up taking 2nd place to this dude due to refs decision (tied on points), but one of my friends I competed against got hosed, not winning a medal (yeah, I know.......medals don't mean anything, but my friend was still upset about getting hosed).

Needless to say, neither of us ever went back to NAGA after that.

Looking forward to today. Helping coach a couple of our guys in Kakuto Challenge. I've gotta remember my camera!

Off topic............do you guys listen to Grappling Central Podcast? If not, you should. The host, Ryan Ford, is one of my old training partners. He gets some damn amazing guests on there, and the ones with Kurt Osiander are frickin' hilarious. Check it out!
 

Fox318

Member
HRLiKmGl.jpg

One more stripe
 

BrettWeir

Member
Keep it up!

Made the decision to compete in August. Looking forward to it. I just hope there are other competitors in my age and weight division. I'm almost certain I'll have to go down in age groups, or up in weight divisions.

**Damn it Cindi Mayweather, stop getting banned! :p
 
Haven't been doing much Jiu jitsu due to my situation but I plan on going back in the fall. In the meantime, here's my belt
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/6Q5JXqJ

Thats amazing man :D

Yeah i haven't trained since the seminar over a month ago either. I had grand plans to go back this week and then reality slapped me down again with bills and other real life commitments. I'm just trying to keep positive and tell myself once i get paid this month, i'm going to go back at the start of July. Whats keeping you out of training, pastor?
 
Thats amazing man :D

Yeah i haven't trained since the seminar over a month ago either. I had grand plans to go back this week and then reality slapped me down again with bills and other real life commitments. I'm just trying to keep positive and tell myself once i get paid this month, i'm going to go back at the start of July. Whats keeping you out of training, pastor?

Life situation. I'm living in a fairly remote area right now.
 
15 yr old Nicky Ryan had some kind of weekend. Gets his purple belt, beats one of Eddie Bravo's top guys Marvin Castille, then goes the distance but loses to points against seasoned black belt Paolo Miyao.
 

Banglish

Member
15 yr old Nicky Ryan had some kind of weekend. Gets his purple belt, beats one of Eddie Bravo's top guys Marvin Castille, then goes the distance but loses to points against seasoned black belt Paolo Miyao.

Damn just watched the Miyao fight. That kid will be a god by the time he's 25.
Looked quite competitive up until the point system came into effect.
 

Fox318

Member
Man my gym is going downhill.

In the past year we went from an average of 25 people per class to 4 and 6 coaches to 1.
 

GKnight

Banned
Im moving soon so will be transitioning to a new gym. Exciting as it seems like it will be a more sport oriented gym with a lot more rolling but also worrying getting used to new training partners and the like.
I'd like to continue with karate as well but I'd have to attend a second gym somewhere and I don't know if I can afford that.
 

pr0cs

Member
Man my gym is going downhill.

In the past year we went from an average of 25 people per class to 4 and 6 coaches to 1.
Any idea why? I mean, this time of year is typically slow due to holidays, time outside, kids off school, etc, etc.
Luckily where I'm at has been really consistent which is refreshing thankfully. My last gym turned into a ghost town during summer which made for some dull classes.
 

Fox318

Member
Any idea why? I mean, this time of year is typically slow due to holidays, time outside, kids off school, etc, etc.
Luckily where I'm at has been really consistent which is refreshing thankfully. My last gym turned into a ghost town during summer which made for some dull classes.
It all seems to be about drama.

It's all really dumb and it's getting to the point now where I want to start looking at other schools.
 

Tater Tot

"My God... it's full of Starch!"
How do you guys manipulate your diets when you train twice a day? I started training twice a day now typically with weights or kettlebells in the morning and jiu jitsu in the afternoons. Lately I have been feeling very low energy in my classes for jiujitsu and it seems that when I wake up, I get out of bed more tired than before. I am not sure if I am eating enough.

Could this be more of a diet or recovery issue?

I typically eat 2100 calories with 30% Proteins 30% fats and 40% carbs. What doe you think? is that enough?

I am 5'10 190 lbs
 
How do you guys manipulate your diets when you train twice a day? I started training twice a day now typically with weights or kettlebells in the morning and jiu jitsu in the afternoons. Lately I have been feeling very low energy in my classes for jiujitsu and it seems that when I wake up, I get out of bed more tired than before. I am not sure if I am eating enough.

Could this be more of a diet or recovery issue?

I typically eat 2100 calories with 30% Proteins 30% fats and 40% carbs. What doe you think? is that enough?

I am 5'10 190 lbs
Not enough calories if you ask me. I only train once a day, I'm 5'10" 180, and probably take in 2000-2500 calories a day. Do you take supplements too? If you aren't losing weight then the calorie intake might be enough but perhaps you need to look at your micro nutrients if you're feeling tired. Vitamins and minerals are easily sweated away.
 
Fight in the IBJJF Austin Open tomorrow morning. Wish me luck GAF. I need it. I have 30 people in my division. I'm either going to be really disappointed or really tired.
 

Fox318

Member
I just missed out on an opportunity to train with a current UFC champion's jiu jitsu coach because of drama at work.

I am not a happy man right now.
 
All female EBI starting at 6pm pst tonight. The girls always bring it. Been to a couple of the live events but they usually go on for like 4 hrs. Since being on UFC Fight Pass, it's so much more convenient to sit at home, watch, handle errands, etc.
 
Another remainder to cut your nails!

I was in a rush after work a couple days ago and forgot to cut my nails. I ended up rolling with someone and they got scratched up from my dumbass and started bleeding on his gi, my gi and the mat.

I felt like a huuuge idiot >_>
 

hwalker84

Member
Probably had my most fun class of my short jiu jitsu career. We spar for ten minutes now (God this is a workout).

Saturday it was just stretch and free for all. For like four sessions in. Slept like a baby
 
Another remainder to cut your nails!

I was in a rush after work a couple days ago and forgot to cut my nails. I ended up rolling with someone and they got scratched up from my dumbass and started bleeding on his gi, my gi and the mat.

I felt like a huuuge idiot >_>

Another good reason is because the very first time i rolled, i also forgot to trim my nails, and when someone stripped my grips, an index fingernail got torn off almost completely. It was bent up at a 90 degree angle. I had to flatten it back down and hope it stayed on vomit.gif
 
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