BJJ Journey

So my coworker recently got me to try BJJ and its pretty fun, very good for getting exercise which I definitely need heh. Also she mentioned that there's a decent amount of thinking and debugging that goes into it, drawing an analog to a shared interest in programming and after a couple of weeks of consideration I have a better understanding of her comment.

So far I have taken two classes, I did have some difficulty getting them to take my money for the membership but that has now been resolved and I look forward to resuming my journey.

The basic premise seems to be to get a secure grip on something, and either bend something in a way that its not supposed to until they give up or get them in a choke and make them give up that way. The bulk of the rules I've found are either to prevent accidental injury (because the goal is to get to the point you could injure them, not necessarily to do so) or to maintain respect and hygiene. One thing worth noting is that there are some unofficial rules that you wont necessarily get in trouble for violating but may result in retribution. Largely centered around what the person you're partnered with considers playing dirty. If that sounds subjective, don't worry because it is heh. Things are more or less widely considered playing dirty and its probably just better to avoid trying them out in the moment. You, of course, can ask the instructor or your partner for the session how they feel about certain things to get some guidance but its probably one of those things were if you have to ask its best to just not do. Unless you're just really bad at socialing/common sense in which case better to ask and be told no then to try and get punished by your partner.

For the thinking and debugging, there's not a lot of time for thinking in the moment, but you have all the time you could want after class to mentally review how you did and where you may have messed up. It's very good to build good muscle memory for the actions themselves but its also necessary to build up a good list of moves and counters and paths to take to win. The more information you cram into your brain the better the choices you have in the moment. Even if those choices are chosen instinctively its good to have that knowledge base to draw on.

So far the biggest issue I'm facing is just a lack of endurance. Mine has never been particularly high, even when playing rugby in college, but currently I can't make it through a class without having to stop and breath. The only reason I consider this an issue is because it means both me and my training partner lose out on reps. My plan to rectify this is take classes twice a week, there's a fundamentals class on thursday nights and a all levels class on saturday mornings (which is the one I've been to the first two times). Also I may try to get into the habbit of jogging on a treadmill a few times a week, or go back to riding my bike outside now that the weather is starting to cool down to get some more cardio in.

I don't consider my lack of skill an issue because, well, that's why I'm taking the class, to fix the lack of skill. I don't want to just take the fundamentals class because I seem to do well with beating my head against the brick wall of a better opponent to grow my skills faster. They force me to continually modify the way I work more than playing against people my own level. As they say there are a thousand lessons in defeat but only one in victory. To be open about it this is mostly taken from learning how to play video games by playing against good players instead of new ones, but I think it'll work out. I'm not discounting the usefulness of the fundamentals course to give me a base of knowledge, just supplementing that base with plenty of experience in application.

Disclaimer: not saying this is the best path for any given purpose. Just sharing my experience, plans, and thoughts on the matter.