I've always been a fan of the martial arts and also an avid practitioner of BJJ and a few other Martial Arts. But I'm sure like many of you, i didn't think much of BJJ when i first ventured into MMA.
I didn't start BJJ because I wanted to. It was because when I first saw the art of BJJ, I thought it was nonsense. I mean, who fights on the floor rolling with someone. It didn't make any sense to me. Just think about it. You're walking down the street and you get attacked or approached by someone who is looking for trouble and you start rolling with the attacker on the hard ground. If it was a Muay Thai practitioner or a Boxer, the attacker would have been knocked out cold.
I started BJJ after a few years in my martial arts journey. I began to understand that martial arts cannot be 1 dimensional. It has to be multi-dimensional. So, I started my BJJ journey with one of Strikeforce’s fighter. I was clueless of course, with no understanding on how grappling was supposed to work nor did i know how it was supposed to be done. I tapped out 4 times, by the same submission, within a 3 minutes period or lesser, I think. But, i enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, he left Singapore to set up a gym somewhere in Bali. Over the next few months, I didn't really train in BJJ as I could not find a proper BJJ Academy and kind of wandered off to doing some other stuff. But the itch to learn something different was kind of growing on me and again I went to a different MMA academy to work on my ground game.
Day one of class, I stepped onto the mat thinking "I got this, I've done this before". I can take on these chumps like they are nothing.
I was wrong, and submissions rained onto me.
I was wrong, and submissions rained onto me.
I was frustrated, and unhappy with myself because I thought I could have taken on those guys easily. So, like any other Martial Arts enthusiast... I started watching videos. Videos by the Gracies, Marcelo Garcia, Kit Dale, Jason Scully and a few other legends in the BJJ world. I watched them all hoping that I would have a trick or two up my sleeves. But, I was wrong again. In my next rolling session (we call it rolling in BJJ instead of sparring). Over and over again, I got submitted and tapped out. Finally, I swallowed my ego and asked the instructor on how to become good/better at BJJ. His advice was simple; roll more and practice your basic and solo drills. At first I was like, how do actually get better if you're always getting submitted during rolling and if you're only doing the basic stuff and on top of that, doing it alone, how on earth was I going to get better?
But I decided to just listen to my Instructor's advise and carry on with what I'm supposed to do in order for me to improve in BJJ. True enough, a few rolling sessions, I could see myself being able to survive the onslaught of submissions and positioning control the senior students were throwing at me.
From then on I continued my BJJ journey further and I am now working towards my first ever competition, i think I have about 3 months or so to polish up on my techniques.
I do not think, nor want to convince you, my dear reader, that BJJ is for you. But if you've been avoiding BJJ like a STD, then perhaps the reasons that you've given yourself (sweat, close proximity, uncomfortable, bones pain, joints break, etc) has been all but excuses. Why not take a dive, and try rolling?
And if you happen to be a convert, help spread the word, and convert others too.
I do not think, nor want to convince you, my dear reader, that BJJ is for you. But if you've been avoiding BJJ like a STD, then perhaps the reasons that you've given yourself (sweat, close proximity, uncomfortable, bones pain, joints break, etc) has been all but excuses. Why not take a dive, and try rolling?
And if you happen to be a convert, help spread the word, and convert others too.
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