I've been going every week now. I am having a slight issue though that not doubt will get tapped out of me. My main source of fitness, for 4 years now has been lifting weights. So I'm used to strength being my go to attribute. I'm finding every time I roll I try forcing someone into position for a choke with my strength, get myself tired when their posture is too strong and end up leaving an arm exposed and tapping. I need to start focusing more on technique. I'm definitely improving but I need to focus on being technically better as opposed to stronger. My knowledge of arm locks is none ATM apart from the arm bar, I've learnt a leg bar as well but never get into position for that. So my go to strategy ATM is force opponent down, take the back and lock in a choke, but rather than try and sweep I'm just using brute force. Needless to say I'm not having much success right now. This is mainly just me venting, it's a big adjust trying to conserve energy and use skill as opposed to going all out and using strength.
Forget the leg bar, bit surprised you are doing that his early. IMO work top and bottom position's focusing on balance and leverage slowly and build intensity / resistance. Fight your natural inclination and try gi jokes first - this will help you from isolating a limb and maximise your leverage. Worked for me when I encountered similar flat spot trying to get better and everyone was good at defending chokes.
Frank Mir was in our gym and showed everyone the move he got Lesnar with, I'm nowhere near able to get it though. Yeah the positions and leverage I need to get nailed, just the way people angle their knees as like pivot points as well. I've only done 5 lessons but I do love it so I'll keep it up. I just hate the feeling when I'm knackered and they attack the arm lol.
Great to hear. Sounds like you're having a blast. I hate the knackered feeling as well. Where your arms feel like sausages and the breath burns in the back of your throat and your body feels numb from tiredness, you've hit the guy with your best shot and he still looks fresh Time to eat some shots ...
I saw a video where some musclehead runs into a gym and wants to beat up the old sensei. OMG did he get a lesson in jiujitsu. Just goes to show that you are NOT wasting your time, and when you get a good grasp of the technique you will ALSO be stronger than the other guys
We were doing a drill last night that was to counter a pass of guard and it involved kicking an arm away so they fall face flat, god I hated that drill, knowing I had to fall face down with nothing protecting me lol. My whole body aches today, I do HIIT stuff every morning but this morning I got 12 minutes in and I was in bits so just left it. Gotta play 5 aside tonight as well so that's gonna be interesting.
I think BJJ is ok if you take it seriously and take something out of it. If you're just looking for a hobby-sport to be in shape it's one of the worst options out there as basically BJJ is just injuries and skin infections waiting to happen. It's terrible for the joints, back and neck. I tried all of these combat sports and boxing just suits me the best, that's why I stick to it only and don't train anything else. It's the most injury free out of all combat sports, you get to wear the shoes, not that much body contact and skin infections, no cauliflower ears, you don't get to ruin your shin, much easier on the knees than any other combat sport and boxing gets you the best physique out of all the combat sports with big and ripped shoulders and biceps because it's a perfect mixture of strength, cardio and explosiveness. The downside is getting hit in the head and potential arm injuries but you don't need to spar all the time or spar too heavy and so far I had no big problems with my arms. With BJJ or grappling I was always in some sort of pain and my body just didn't feel right. Look at MMA fighters constantly injured and pulling out of their fights while many boxers can box well after they're 40 years old. At the end it's all about what your goal is in life as far as sports are concerned. My goal is to be in shape and have fun and would like to continue to do that when I'm in my late 30s and older than 40. I don't want to have my body ruined with injuries by then.
I tore my ACL a few years ago, completely shredded it. I took up boxing after that and in the gym it all seemed fine, but when sparring i popped my knee whilst ducking and turning my opponent. I didn't realise what I'd done to my ACL at that time, just knew something wasn't right (it actually happened in a football match about 6 months before). It's a strange injury because forward and backward motions felt strong but any type of pivot popped my knee. Boxing was the last straw. I've had surgery now and 4 years on not felt even a twinge in my knee. But that aside, I'm a teacher you see and the risk of black eyes and broken noses didn't go down well with my bosses so they encouraged me to leave. I enjoy BJJ more than boxing though and I'm sticking with it for now. It does leave me aching all over but it feels more like DOMS than injury.
Fair enough. Did you ever consider just boxing without sparring? At my gym for example they don't give you any crap if you don't want to spar, you can just come and hit the bags and the mitts and shadowbox and use the rest of equipment. I go months without sparring once in a while because I have different obligations and don't want go through stress of sparring and risking injuries. Also, you can try to implement boxing styles that aren't so hard on your knee. Just my suggestion.
I did but as well as keeping fit I like the competitive edge in combat sports. My knee injury was round about 2010 i had surgery Jan 2012 and now I play football every week so i think my knee is fully strong (touch wood) If i do suffer any injury doing BJJ I'll probably give it a miss, but aches and pains i can handle. I like being able to test myself against others in the gym and BJJ is by far the most hands on combat sport I've done. It's almost entirely sparring based.
Done 6 lessons now, I'll start getting stripes soon. My knowledge is very limited still though, it's hard getting my body used to doing separate motions fluidly. We were doing sweep drills from a z guard, i was able to sweep after a bit but then putting that together with a backwards roll to take top was pretty much impossible. The rolling went much better though, I'm used to shifting my weight on the opponent and can pass guard against fellow white belts, locking in any submission other than a choke against a live opponent is very difficult for me though. One guy i was rolling with explained to me I essentially had him in a choke hold and if I'd have pushed from my hips he'd have had to tap because of the extra pressure. A blue belt i was rolling with was proper sound. He spent a minute kicking the **** out of me and then the next 4 explaining the mistakes I'd made to give him openings.
Very cool. When I did Judo practising at home over and over helped a lot. You do need a partner though ...
Yeah I've watched loads of videos on the Kimura lock, but without someone to try it on and someone to resist against it, it's useless lol
So I was thinking about joining this BJJ gym called Uflacker by my house. You see, I've always wanted to learn how to fight in my life but never learned how. Never got the chance to be trained by anyone. Was too much of a wuss to even join wrestling in high school. Then when I was done with high school I felt like it was "too late" to join a fighting school since I am older. But growing up over these past couple years I am changing and want to do more in my life. I just turned 20 and have been looking for some type of mma gym. There aren't really any close to my area so the only kind of martial art school I found that was legit was this BJJ school. School looks legit and they have a great schedule. Open every single day of the week for busy students and workers like me. And they Cost $110 a month (which is pretty average for a martial art school according to my research). So my question is, has anyone here ever done BJJ? What are your thoughts on it? Is it worth doing? Did you learn a lot? How effective is it? Etc Thanks!
I did a bunch of BS Karate growing up that never had a whole lot of practical application against people that actually wanted to do you harm. When I was a sophomore, I was walking downtown and noticed a gigantic poster hanging on a shop window of Chuck Liddell knocking out Tito Ortiz. I was just starting to watch MMA and was blown away that there was a BJJ school just 15 minutes away that I was unaware of. The guy at the front desk said that there was nothing like it in this world, and I quote, "makes you feel like a fvcking T-Rex." That was all the persuasion that I needed. It was a school ran by a blue belt (oddly enough) that only charged $50 a month. Even though they spent a good 30 minutes of class sitting around and shooting the breeze, I felt like I learned more in a few months than I did 5 years worth of Karate. The atmosphere was a complete breath of fresh air and didn't feel like I was being indoctrinated into a cult like with other disciplines. Abuse wasn't necessary to facilitate respect, it was very laid-back. The amount of progress you can make in a year or less is staggering.
