By Gino
Post writing note: this whole article is just me gushing about BJJ and glorifying it a bunch. I like it a lot and you can find out why:
Getting into BJJ
I remember, back before I ever did BJJ: A friend of mine had mentioned a few times that he thought that I might like it. And at some point I started seeing and hearing more and more about it. Mainly because he was bringing it up more and more, but I was open to it.
Initially it didn’t really seem all that appealing, rolling around on the floor trying to break each other’s limbs and choking each other out, sounds dumb and potentially dangerous. It looks gay too; two sweaty dudes passionately rolling all over the floor with a seemingly unending supply of intense physical contact. And I don’t mean that as an insult, it just sounds like i’m describing two dudes fucking. I did do that intentionally but you need to shut up.
It wasn’t until I heard people actually talking about BJJ that it started to sound appealing, both from my friend and people on the internet. It’s kind of like a puzzle? It’s very technical? Autists and tech workers seem to like it? Hmmm, could be something for me I guess? I started to think. Especially people describing the flow of BJJ got me really interested, but I’ll get to that.
Eventually my friend just invited me over to join him in a BJJ class. It was a BJJ class at an MMA gym, aimed at MMA fighters specifically. The class was terrible. There were these puzzle piece foam mats on the floor that I scraped my foot open on. The instructor showed some moves for everyone to drill, very rapidly, and then expected everyone to follow. He did ask the group if anyone had questions, but I couldn’t even think of one, to me it just looked like he did a magic trick.
Then not all the people were that great. There was this one fat guy that, and when I rolled (that means sparring) with him, he was just looking at other people rolling, literally the entire time. He sat there on his ass, looking at other people, not doing anything until I came at him. But he was very big and I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I just kind of tried to push him or something. And then he would just instantly do some magic and tap me out (meaning he got me to surrender). Rinse and repeat about four times or so until I got to move on to someone else. Fuck that guy.
All the other people were actually pretty cool, so I guess it was just that one guy. There was a Spanish guy who was actually really nice and showed me some stuff. But overall, it was a horrible class, I never went back there again. The wound on my foot that I scraped open got infected and it took like two months to fully recover (mostly because I took a long time before going to the doctor).
But regardless of all that, the first thing that I thought when I came out of that class was; oh I need to sign up for this shit, I wanna keep doing this, just not here. And so, after my foot recovered, I went to try another class at a different gym. Youri graciously went with me this time. He was glad that he tried it but he already had too much shit going on to actually want to do it. But yeah, I was already hooked before I even left that first class.
This other gym is a BJJ gym specifically. And it’s a lot better than at least that one class I had at that first place. Things get explained better and there’s beginner classes. And there’s gi classes (which is BJJ with a gi on), which I prefer over no gi BJJ, no gi is much more popular though. It’s a bit slower pace and less intense with a gi on, not that it can’t be intense. But the extra weight and volume of the gi just slows it down a bit, and you can just grab your opponent by the gi literally anywhere, which gives you a lot more opportunity to control your opponent, both defensively and offensively.
Playing to your body
From there on I just kept coming. Most dudes there are about the same height as me with an added weight of about 10-20 Kgs. And yes, it’s at least 95% dudes. So I am lightweight and it’s pretty noticeable. So I usually just get rekt, but that’s okay, because it’s so much fun. And they don’t actually have to hurt you to utterly humble you, which is very nice and surprised me quite a bit actually. Plus, you will be better than the people that join after you! And there will be people joining after you. The skill ranking within the gym is, generally speaking, in order of experience. Experience equals skill for most people.
BJJ is accessible to anyone, no matter your height or build. You tailor your playstyle to your body. With original Japanese Jiu Jitsu, this was not the case. Some Brazilian dude started learning it in Japan and noticed how a lot of the moves were tailored to tall skinny Japanese folks. So then he just adapted it to work for anyone and everyone, and that’s what became BJJ, easy! Though, even if you have the exact same height, build and experience as someone else, the way you do BJJ will still differ a lot. You develop your own playing style, which is wonderful. Even if you’re only taught by one single guy, and you only train BJJ with that person, your style will still be different from his.
For me, because I’m pretty skinny, I can be very fast. Especially against really big and bulky guys, they very noticeably move a lot slower. And for my weight, I have a lot of reach which I can use to more easily sneak my way into certain positions and keep cunts at bay. You could make a very extensive list of all the pros and cons that each body type and build. And I’m sure somebody has.
Which leads me to another point. Raw strength isn’t everything in BJJ. Rener Gracie described it pretty well; your strength effectively multiplies your BJJ. So if you’re against someone who is 2 times as stronger than you, but your skill is 3 times greater, you’re still going to beat his fucking ass. This is overly simplified of course but you get the point.
It’s pretty funny, sometimes when big guys try BJJ for the first time, I might come up to them to roll with them. And they sometimes look at me like: Are you sure? You’re so skinny? I don’t necessarily beat their ass, because I’m kinda shit. But I will have the upper hand the entire time, which really surprises a lot of those dudes. Like yes you are bigger and heavier and stronger, but you have no idea what the fuck you are doing. At least I have had the experience of regularly getting absolutely destroyed by people much better at BJJ than me, who are at least in the same weight class as the new guys, haha, take that!
Things people say
People say BJJ is similar to climbing in that it’s mostly about technique and it’s like a puzzle you have to solve. Except the puzzle is your opponent and they are also trying to solve you. It is also said to be similar to chess, because it’s very strategic. And it is, but obviously it doesn’t play out like chess. You don’t have time to sit there and think five moves ahead, you have to think while you’re moving, intuitively and constantly. If you stop moving you start losing. Though you can still absolutely be five moves ahead. With a big enough skill gap; they always are.
You’ll also see people saying that BJJ attracts tech workers and autists. And that BJJ practitioners are all straight up nerds when it comes to BJJ. The most famous example of a tech worker doing BJJ has to be Mark Zuckerberg. And I can’t speak for everyone, but as an autistic tech worker, I can most definitely confirm that I have in fact become a BJJ nerd. Even though I’m not good at it and don’t know jack shit compared to the experienced folks. I haven’t really noticed many other autists though.
Then there’s also people who say that it’s a great self defense sport, and maybe it is. But nobody, and I mean nobody, trains Brazilian jiu jitsu for self defense. It’s a game. People do it for fun. Maybe they try it out for self defense, to compete or for exercise (or just for fun like myself), but they stay because it’s fun, unless they leave obviously. Which probably could be said about any sport, but still.
It’s also similar to climbing in that it is very addicting. In the beginning your BJJ is basically on par with that of a sack of potatoes. But the more you do it, the better you become. And noticing that you’re getting better is very addicting. And you can keep getting better, basically forever. As with most martial arts, getting a black belt doesn’t indicate mastery, it indicates that you have just started your journey to mastery. There’s so many different positions and an infinite amount of moves. All with an insane level of intricacy, ready for you to mess around with. And because the sport is so dynamic with so many possibilities, at the top level, the sport looks completely different every few years. It’s constantly evolving with people finding new moves and counters to existing ones. Which is also due to the fact that it’s still quite a young sport competitively, especially when compared to something like Judo. Even though they originate from the same exact thing. But that’s a whole different story.
Flowing
BJJ doesn’t have to be super competitive and intense though. My favorite rolls are when you are both not really sweating too hard (figuratively, you gon’ be sweatin’ either way) and you are both just flowing from one thing to the next, going back and forth, without too much physical intensity.
I’ve been in a state of flow during numerous activities ranging from swinging a stick around to cycling to writing (code). But nothing compares to a state of flow in jiu jitsu (for me), it is so, so magnificent. I’m not really sure how to describe it. It combines the problem solving flow of math or programming, or a puzzle, with a runner’s high from the physical intensity along with the kind of inertia/balance flow you get from swinging a stick around or mountain biking or just normal cycling without hand (don’t do that btw, it’s bad for you). All in one!
This could also be said about climbing probably.
You don’t think any thoughts. With a clear mind, you just respond to whatever your opponent is doing.You’re in a state of pure action reaction. He’s doing this, so I’m doing that. Oh now because I did A, he’s doing B, so now I have to do C to prevent him from doing D. And then I can take advantage of him not doing X by doing Y, which gives me an opening to do Z. But oh no he does something completely unexpected and now we’re in an entirely different position. And it just keeps going like that, you don’t have to think about any of it either, you just intuitively know what you should do in certain situations. It may sound like you really have to know what you’re doing to engage in this, and you do to an extent, but you will learn it as you get more experienced. Everyone starts off with the same amount of skill; none.
The amount of possible moves are endless. You can go from losing to winning in a split second. Even if you’re in a terrible situation and you’re at the brink of being tapped out, you can still escape that position and put your opponent in an equally bad or worse situation. And vice versa. So you have to be careful, making an offensive move always carries the risk of losing your position. Just staying in the same dominant position is also not a good idea however, use it or lose it. Again: if you stop moving you start losing.
In those fun rolls where you are both having a great time, after it ends you’re both just smiling at each other and being like “ah thank you man! That was awesome!” with the most genuine and gigantic grin that I have ever been able to muster.
It’s also quite common for new people to just spontaneously burst out laughing. It sounds ridiculous, and it is. But this is actually a thing that happens. It has happened to me and it’s happened to people I was rolling with.
When this happened to me it was because I was just so surprised and amazed at the move my opponent made, that I just started laughing. Especially in the beginning, you don’t know what is possible. Let’s say that your mental image of the game is contained within a sort of metaphorical box. When your opponent then proceeds to simply step out of that box, you just start laughing. Because ofcourse he’s just going to step right out of the fucking box, how could I not have known!?
Actually, I think my enjoyment of BJJ has somewhat hindered my progression. If you want to get better, you at least have to want to win the game. Usually, I really don’t give a fuck about winning. Sometimes I do get into a fun and competitive roll where I really give it my all to win. But more often than not, I just don’t give a bloody fuck whether I win it lose. I’ll just be enjoying the BJJ. Unfortunately, that’s not a very effective way of getting better. Although if i did care, I might have stopped playing the game out of the frustrations of never winning. On the other hand you can also use defeat as fuel for a desire to get better. Which I think I should be doing in order to get better.
I am now unable to train, and haven’t been for like 4-5 months now. I have thought about BJJ literally every day. I have never ever missed and loved something as much as I do BJJ. Any friend, any girl, my parents and even my fucking dog don’t have anything on BJJ in regards to how I feel about them, how excited and happy it makes me and how much I miss it. I don’t know if that makes me evil or something but I just love BJJ.
And on that somewhat unhinged note, I don’t really have anything else to say on the matter.
