BJJ

BJJ - Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I first heard of this martial art when I got into watching UFC and MMA fights. It's an adaptation of the Japanese martial art and as I understand it the major difference is it has a stronger emphasis on ground fighting and submissions than its Japanese predecessor.

As a wrestler, I've been interested in grappling but BJJ is totally different. For one, it seems like the prime position for skilled BJJ practioners is on their back. In wrestling of course, being on your back means you lose. Wrestlers avoid being on their backs at all costs, however in BJJ this is one of the strongest positions if you have the skills. In fact, I've seen many fights where a BJJ fighter purposely falls to his back to begin the fight and pulls his opponent on top of him. Needless to say it's going to take a lot of getting used to to feel comfortable on my back.

So there's a place near where I work that offers BJJ lessons. They let you take a trial week of classes so I finally decided to check it out. I had always made excuses due to the fact that I was participating in sports leagues or had little injuries but I finally decided to go in. It's house on the 2nd floor of a physical rehab facility. It's basically one room...not very large, kind of run down. A bunch of guys in their 20s and 30s were in there. The instructor today, Mike, looked pretty young...he's probably in his 20s as well.

Anyway, I changed into shorts and a t-shirt, coated myself with some spray on skin protectant and hit the mat. We started with some basic technique drills...the first one involved one guy on his back with guard open while his partner basically just ran circles around him. The point of this drill was just to keep spinning and keep your guard open to stop any attacks. Then we worked on a kimura arm lock as well as a number of holds from top. The practice ended with a live sparring session. The man on bottom had to submit his opponent. The man on top had to pass guard.

I was a bit weary to jump in with these guys since I'm new but I took one try at it. I started on top and of course I had very little idea of what to do. In wrestling you never face your opponent on top when he's on his back. He'll instantly switch to his stomach. So in this case I was in my opponent's guard meaning he has his legs locked around my torso. This prevents me from escaping and getting perpendicular or 'side control'. Basically we just had fought for awhile - I didn't know how to escape guard. He eventually made me tap out with some sort of wrist lock. In retrospect it was pretty weak and I think I tapped because I was getting tired and there was no end in sight.

Intensity-wise this was nowhere as strenuous as wrestling practices. In fact the whole thing only last an hour. I've already learned via youtube videos some ways to break the guard. It seems so obvious now - use both your arms to push down on your opponents leg to break their lock. I'll be back to try it again. I remember the whole first year I wrestled I was clueless - I just didn't know what I was supposed to do. Hopefully this will come a bit faster.