Tom28 wrote:J-Madd wrote:Tom28 wrote:
Jim! Following your log is one of the reasons I decided to try BJJ at the age of 44. As for the advice, you're correct of course. I get sloppy when I get to the mount, but I'll try to slow down when I get there going forward.
Man, that's such an honor. Thank you.
I don't have much business giving BJJ advice. I'm just a recently minted blue belt. That being said, something that's been really important for me is only to work one thing at a time. It might be my age, but when I started I simply could not learn a new move every week. It's tough to keep up with your instructor's curriculum, which probably moves you through a sequence of techniques every 1-2 weeks. I couldn't keep up. I had to pick something and work on it every time I rolled, whatever else we might be working as group. I figured out very quickly that I had to learn how to defend myself first and foremost, and I figured out that for a guy built like me probably does best to play from half-guard. Thus, every roll I tried to get to and keep half-guard. Every roll, every day, all I did was half guard. Once I went a few weeks like that, I added the old school sweep; every single time I rolled, I worked to half guard, and I tried the old school sweep. At one point I wanted to improve my escapes, so every roll I let the guy pass my guard, so that I could fight my way out of side control. Every time I could get a teammate to come early or stay after practice so that we could drill these moves, I jumped on that opportunity.
This had some great effects. Obviously, it let me build some meat and potato basics on which I could start to develop my game, and it improved my defense. It also transformed my rolls form competitive death matches, to occasions to practice whatever technique I'm working. It become not about "winning" in the gym, but working my game. The first several dozen times you try something new, you will probably "F" it up royally and get submitted. So what? That's the only way to learn. This is what settled me down and let me get serious about learning the art.
A year later, this is still how a approach my training. Right now my big thing is improving my kimura, especially from side control. Every day before practice, I drill that move dozens of times. Every roll, I might setting up and executing the kimura from side control my number one priority. For the few two weeks I didn't hit a single one, and mostly just gave up my position. Now I'm about 50-50 on hitting it, even though my teammates all know exactly what I'm up to.
I think you'll also find that you will eventually start climbing a much steeper learning curve, once you get some basics down in spades. I'm learning much faster than I did a year ago, and I think that it's because I have a higher BJJ IQ now. You start to see things as variations on themes you already know (more or less) rather than a radically new (and complicated!) skill every day.
Well, I'm sorry to ramble on so long, and remember that I'm still really a beginning too, so take all this with a grain salt. There are some pretty experience BJJ players hanging around here, so let's hope they jump in too.
By the way, I found the book
Twenty-One Immutable Principles of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu very helpful when I first started.
