Things To Know Before Starting BJJ


The word Jiu-Jitsu comes from Japanese culture, it translates to “Gentle art”. There are plenty of variations of Jiu-Jitsu in the world, out of them all, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is considered the best version of martial art. BJJ combines non-violent submission with the knowledge of human anatomy.

The core principle of BJJ has always been the close content grappling route to bring down the opponent. In other forms of martial arts, you will see people using their legs and kicks to strike their opponent but BJJ covers take chokes and joint manipulation approaches to overcome the challenges.

While the original form of Jiu-Jitsu originated in Japan but when it was imported to the south American continent in the early 1900s, Jiu-Jitsu evolved into a completely different sport. And it was all done by a group of Brazilian pioneers.

If you take a look at the roots of the current Jiu-Jitsu, you will find this technique dating back to 4000 years. In the old times, BJJ was used by Buddhist monks in India to protect themselves in harmful scenarios without hurting the enemy. It was all meant to bring the enemy down with no infliction of any harm on their body.

Why learn BJJ?

If you look at the current martial arts fields, there are a variety of options available for people who want to try it out for the first time or have tried it before. Learning martial art will mean more to your body than just a simple workout.

Many professionals see the art of Jiu-jitsu as a human chess mind. To control and observe every dangerous situation requires your mind to be at its highest concentration.

This is something that can only be learned from martial art training.

Jiu Jitust tries to cover both sides of the field. It offers a great choice for the person to improve their mental ability, so they will be able to make the right decision every time without screwing up. And it will have a positive effect on the body as well. There is plenty of research and studies done on this subject that shows how Jiu-jitsu benefits the body.

Physical element

Physical element in bjj

The dynamic movements with high pressure on pushing, pulling, and holding make the sport better and effective on the body. If what you are looking for is to improve your cardio and strength, then stepping into the BJJ ring is how you will achieve both of them without any issue or problem of any kind.

BJJ also prompts weight loss as it will shape the muscle tone of the body. Another aspect BJJ tackle is the instinct and habit of the human mind. Jiu-Jitust training won’t be easy, but doing it every single day will raise the awareness of your body.

Having the reflex to counter an attack and see the attack delivery will save you from plenty of trouble.

Many dangerous situations in life will have a surprise aspect to them, having awareness will help you deal with the situation in the proper way.

If the reactive ability is strong, then you will have no problem in handling any attack that comes at you. Having proper reflexes will help you dodge the enemy’s attack and leave for a possible counter. Learning reflex ability will only come from experience in the field. Martial arts provides a great arena for people to hone their previous skills and learn something new to better their chances in a fight.

Mental Power

mental powerin brazilian jiu jitsu

The variation of movements, techniques, and submission will be good but without a proper mindset, all of these will prove to be worthless.  The timing and the response will only come from a proper mind that is well aware of the surroundings.

Every move should be based on the reasoning skill of the person instead of hitting random.

When every move is based on tough situations without showing any signs of weakness. As you will constantly think about the next move on the line instead of your current attacks, every action of your body will be well thought out. This planned thinking will only come from a mind that is calm and reactive.

Unlike other variations of martial arts and workouts that the pope tends to follow. Jiu-Jitsu is a whole new different league for the people who consider themselves amateur and veteran. Many UFC fighters have black belts in BJJ.

If you have ever seen one fight in the octagon, you know how know-how much they rely on their submission game to take out the energy of the opponent. After the opponent burns all the fuel, they will surely pass out quickly without putting up any offense.

No age restrictions

No age restrictions in brazilian jiu jitsu

BBJ can be learned for age groups, whether small or big. Any person can rip the benefits from Jiu-Jitsu without having any training in this field. This is the most attractive aspect of BBJ, as anybody can learn the moves and get better at them without having any prior experience in the field.

Most of the martial art requires you to learn other moves or have some experience to know the newer movies. But BJJ will deal with none of that, the only focus is here to get your defensive skills up. So a person would know what to react and when to react when faced with certain situations.

Related : What age should you start Jiu-Jitsu?

These are the aspects that mark BBJ a great sport in the world of martial arts. Covering the physical being of the person while raising the mental capacity, Is something that people need in their life.

Most of the time dangerous will come from unexpected regions, in these scenarios, it is necessary to take a proper approach to the situation at hand. A wrong move will create a very bad situation that can be hard to deal with.

If you’re ready to take control of your body and mind in the way of Brazilian Jiu-JitsuJiu- Jitsu, then here is some of the information that you need to know to expand your knowledge and make it better.

11 Things that you should know before BJJ

It is okay to have mixed feelings towards BJJ if you ever never tried martial arts before. Some students will find the lessons to be difficult to handle, at the same time, some students will be much more eager to learn new moves and add those moves to the sparring section.

BJJ is huge, there are plenty of things that a student should be aware of before trying out the moves in the sparring section.

#1 Newcomer approach

If it is your first time in the ring, then the entire process will seem overwhelming. Here the last thing that you want is to share the ring with the people who know what they are doing. These situations can break a person, it is better to take a more calm approach to this kind of situation.

It is okay to tell your sparring partner about your current record. If you tell them that it is your first time, then they will go a bit easier on you. This won’t be the case every time, but the sparring partner will show a bit more push back if they are sparring with a newcomer.

If you don’t want any unwanted hard pressure, then it is better to let the sparring partner know about your credential.

So they will take a more hands-on approach to the techniques, it is a better way to learn the ABC of Jiu-jitsu without getting yourself hurt in any way. Slower movement, precision points, different execution all that can be learned, if you feel comfortable with the martial arts.

#2 Relax and move

The first time can be very tough, some people will completely forget everything they learned from their instructor in mere seconds. When everything goes out of the window, panic will take over the body and will start to move in an unusual way without any proper pattern.

If you are unsure of what move to make, you will need to relax and keep on moving. The best thing you can do under tough citations is to improve your positions. Once you get the ball rolling, you will gain control over the body.

BJJ is hard to master, the more class you attend, the more you will get better at it. The experience in BJJ will come from taking classes and sparring. Which will be frequent when you practice it every single day of the year.

#3 Persistence

Persistence in bjj

Entering the ring for the first time will make you feel hopeless, as you will have no idea what step to take and what to do in these situations. There is a heavy chance that you will make plenty of mistakes on your opponent. Most of the mistakes will come in the form of accidents. Here you need to make sure your sparring partner is at a good distance and keep your eye on the wall.

There will be time, where everything will be just too much to handle. In these times, you need to take everything slow and have a clearer mind on what you want to do here. Rushed judgment early ends up in your favor. Take a deep breath and analyze your techniques, try to find any weakness, here you can take advice from people to teach you better skills to overcome the challenges.

#4 Trying out new moves

Sparring in the ring is not the same as fighting in the arena. Sparring session is the extension of training to help you hone your moves and make them better and impenetrable.

In the sparring session, it is better to practice new moves instead of relying on the old ones. It is a perfect time to let out new techniques to see if they fit with your current move sets.

Sparring with your partner is a great opportunity to see whether the old moves hold you back or not. Sometimes new moves make the overall game better. If things don’t go your way, you can always switch back to old moves.

#5 Go beyond your level

out of comfort zone bjj

Making the sparring section to the same color belt might not be a good idea to expand your skills. Just because a person has a different color belt that doesn’t mean they are going to take out everything on you. A colored belt tends to go easier on people with white belts. If you unjustly started sparring, picking a veteran in the game will help you see the game through a different perspective than what you are used to.

They probably have different techniques that will make Jiu-Jitsu easier, it is better to follow what they have to say about your pattern and movements. Following their moves will be a great experience for amateurs to enjoy.

Staying within the same level is how people lower their potential in-game, make sure to spar with different level partners, it is the best way to see the BJJ from different experienced lenses. Which is harder to do by yourself, experience is the key target here, which will only come from years of hard work.

People with colored belts have that covered, sparring with them is the best way to experience a new way of BJJ that you have never known before.

#6 Save your questions for later

Asking questions in the middle, might not be a great idea. It is better to save up questions, so you can ask about them later after the roll. A roll lasts for only 5 minutes long, you can ask as many questions as you want after the roll.

It will take around 2 minutes to get the proper answer to all of your questions. Make sure the questions that you ask are quick and on to the point without hitting any other areas. The proper question, the informative answer will be.

Asking questions in the middle of a sparring session is considered inappropriate. This is not the way to earn the trust of the sparring partner. As they will be more annoyed than excited to share the knowledge with you. This is why saving up the questions for later is the best approach to this problem.

When you are asking a question make sure the question covers the doubt that you have in your mind about the technique and nothing else. If you are looking for an in-depth answer, make sure the question that gets asked is proper as well.

#7 Take part in sparring sections

Avoiding the sparring section will hurt your chance of getting better at the game. The sparring section is considered a learning session this is where you will learn on the move and how to make the effect more.

Which is something that will only happen in the sparring section, where you spar with a human being instead of on your own.

While some people like the idea of sparring on their own but that will hurt the real-time experience, which you could be getting from the sparring section. Sparring on your own will hide the weakness, as you will not have an outside perspective on your moves.

BJJ is something that thrives when a person learns from another. This will allow them to see their weaknesses and work on them to make them better and effective in the future. The whole idea behind the sparring section is not to repeat your mistake. Which is a lot more common than one might think about them.

#8 Don’t wait

One of the mistakes that newcomers make when they get into a sparring session is by waiting for the sparring partner to engage. Which is always something that you should avoid doing. Always try to engage with your sparring partner first without waiting in line. Pick the familiar position and stick with it, sparring for the first time will result in you stepping behind.

If you start to wait, soon you will find yourself alone in the area without any sparring partner to improve your game. Waiting will not be any help to anyone, especially in martial arts. Where everything depends on learning more about the game and techniques. This will only come from having a sparring partner. As they will have experience in the martial arts that takes years to learn. Only they will know about the tiny details about the techniques that are hard to notice.

#9 Changing sparring partner

Sticking to the same sparring partner will compromise your skills and technique, as you will not learn anything new to make your skill more effective. A strong partner will help you teach you new moves and help raise your defense and offensive skills. There are plenty of techniques attached to BJJ, a bigger partner will help with defense, while a smaller partner will let you know about your technical game. An experienced player will raise your perfect technique.

Changing partners will also reveal flaws in the techniques, which is difficult to see when you have one sparring partner in the arena. More partners will help you see the mistake and learn a different approach to execute BJJ techniques. The problems in the game will only show up if you have a different viewpoint. Sometimes that comes from experience, sparring partners will have different ideas on how to make your stance better. Adopting them will help you get better and perform well in the area.

#10 Create a goal for BJJ

create a goal for your bjj

Without a proper objective, nothing in this world has meaning. The rule applies to amateurs and veterans in the game. It doesn’t matter if it is your first time practicing BJJ, everybody should have goals on where they want to see themselves in the martial art world in the future. Setting up small goals is an effective way to get better at BJJ. goals and objectives will eventually make your moves and techniques much more effective on the ring.

A goal is what will help you move forward. BJJ is bigger, if you have a specified goal in mind, achieving it will bring you inner satisfaction and make your techniques even better than before. Small goals will help you achieve bigger goals in BJJ. Much of the small goals will help you to get rid of problems in your BJJ technique.

#11 You are allowed to quit

Some people see sparring sessions as part of a competition.  Which is what you should avoid at all costs. A sparring session is nothing more than an extension of the normal class. This is where you will get your real-time experience on the moves and various techniques that you want to try on your partner. If the pressure is too much, you are allowed to tap. If the training partner is under pressure, let go when they tap. If you are training with newcomers, it is better to give them a chance, many professionals here recommend losing the ego before it takes over your judgment.

Oftentimes this ends up being the case for most people who get into the arena thinking of different games in their head. It is better to lose the ego and tap out if your body had too much abuse. Taking damage will hurt the body more, might leave temporary or permanent damage. Which is not a good thing to have, if you have goals and objectives in this sport. Putting risk on the body might not be the best idea to go after if you want to have a future in the game.

Conclusion

Overall BJJ is not an easy martial art technique to master, but it is not impossible. It all comes down to the student on how far they are willing to go to better themselves from their past version. Persistence is the key here to get better and improve on the weak aspect of the boy movement. Follow the tips above to get a better experience of BJJ. When you count all the benefits of BJJ, there is no doubt that it is one of the most effective martial arts out there in the world.

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