White belt: where to begin

[Joshua Jarboe]

Hello all,

After years of waiting for the budget to come together, I'm finally training with my a local BJJ school. Credentials seem to check out and we even have a no-gi night. Huzzah. Now I can get arm-barred to my heart's content.

I'm looking for guidance in how to manage my training. Since I'm just a white belt, I might ask stupid questions. I listen to correction pretty well though, so feel free to be critical. As far as I'm concerned, y'all don't owe me anything, so whatever guidance I can get is good. Lastly, you'll have to pardon my enthusiasm. I've waited for this for two years and I'm probably chalk full of stupid questions and questionable assumptions.

My situation: my school is a fairly orthodox school which may be trying to branch out into MMA and enrich it's no-gi game.

My goal: In addition to BJJ fundamentals, I want to train up on 10th planet technique however possible to whatever limited degree I can. I don't care what game I'm playing, I like to have a broad game with lots of options.

Questions:

* At what point would it be wise to start supplementing the drilling I'm getting in very basic technique to start adding stuff like twister side control? Twister side control seems like a very useful tool: should I wait to add it until I'm a blue belt or at least until I have a better, more intuitive grasp of fundamentals? Or would I be well-advised to do as Musashi advises regarding students who want to wield two swords:

"Students of the Ichi school Way of strategy should train from the start with the sword and long sword in either hand. This is a truth: when you sacrifice your life, you must make fullest use of your weaponry. It is false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn.
... It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first."

It will likely be impossible to get reps in unless we are free rolling.

In short: is Twister Side Control an aspect of fundamentals for a 10th planet dude?

I'm worried that trying to branch out and figure out 10th planet stuff without a teacher just based on books and youtube videos could distract me from fundamentals. And I'm worried that completely ignoring this other school of thought will cause me to ignore fundamentals. Does that make sense?

* I was watching a youtube video where Scott Epstein is walking the dude from Rolled Up through some of the details of Twister Side Control when I had a revelation....maybe. In the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq7_2kzazXI) Scott is talking about keeping your far-side arm tight to the body of your opponent. During gi rolling, I'll be free to just grab the gi! Could this make twister side control new trade-offs? Could it be an even more useful tool in the gi? Could that idea be applied to other aspects of 10th planet technique?

I don't expect this to be easy, I expect it'll take a decade or two. But I want to start the journey by walking in the right direction.

~Joshua

[Tom Carbone]

I'll let a more experienced person answer your twister side question. My advice is take it slow and try not to take on too many techniques at once. I know, its tempting

[Slick Rick]

Hi Joshua,
Awesome you finally made it to train jiu jitsu. And 10p is a great nogi option for you.
* I'm assuming you have a pro-membership? Start watching the MTS episodes when you find time.

* Also, YOUTUBE: Get on those daily drills that Eddie posts to his twitter. Series A ->Series H.
That is the essence of 10p transitional movements.

* If you can, find a partner to do these drills on. If not, try shadow drilling to visualize the movements and still get the motion.

* And finally, look at the "10 pillars" thread for a few things I wish someone told me back when I started out:
http://www.10thplanetjj.com/threads/...hlight=pillars

Don't be afraid to ask questions. There is no dumb question if it's sincere. We're all here to help you.

About the twister side control with gi, yes you can grab the gi, but so could the person on top. You gotta escape or capitalize on the sub in the imminent transition.

Enjoy the journey.

[Isaac Atley]

welcome to the family joshua,

first off, dont be put off by people trying to troll you or make fun of you, its all in good spirit

if you can get a grappling dummy, they are good to practice on when no one else is around. as rick said, the warm ups are legit and included in them at one part is one entry to the truck, finishing off with a calf crank. so its meant to be considered a must have by all. added into that, when trying to get a blue belt online you have to show all your rubber guard, half guard spiderweb and twister technique so imo its probably really good if you have practiced it before youre a blue belt.

in saying that, i wouldnt train on becoming a swedish twister defcon four master without knowing what an armbar is.

and there arent just techniques to work on but also basic ideas that help all over, like flexibiltiy good grip, good base. acrobatics even. if you can do cartwheels and flips, then thigns will be easier.

remember your body is a temple!

[Eddie Bravo]

Flo with the go

[Ross Davidson]

Flo with the go

Amen.

I'd also advise to seek out the nearest hotbox or moon for hands on 10P instruction. There's a lot of small details that you might just simply fail to understand without direct help

[Hassan]

It is inspiring for me to read that you jumped in with so much enthusiasm.

I hate having to go through the process of getting used to rolling. I think it was Joey Diaz that said, there being in shape and then there's being in Jiu Jitsu shape lol
But after that its just the nice feeling of working out via the game of death.

I just got the urge to jump back into jits as well, but my funds are not up to par
The "Old" gym used to let me roll for free
When my money is right I plan on going to the "New" gym

Anyone know if there is a thread that talks about classes and the pricing?
My google search came back with little information.

[Josh Bodmon]

Bro totally get where you are coming from, I also knew I wanted to train for a long time and it was awesome when I finally got my start. My advice is to just attend class and if you're permitted at your club (or on your own time), rep out whatever you were taught in class. Jiu Jitsu is endless but chances are you will benefit most from the instruction you receive at your club and that will help build a solid foundation to build on. Twister side is awesome but if you can learn the basics your instructor teaches (ie. passing guard to even get to side control) and learn to eventually effectively execute them, you will find it much easier to add techniques such as twister side control as well as all the other cool 10th planet techniques and variations (and anything really you find you want to study) into your arsenal.

You will probably be eager to soak in as much knowledge as possible as quickly as possible, but sometimes, because you are new, less is more. Just working on what your instructor teaches you for the first few months will build a foundation and you can always branch out when you are ready. Look to higher belts as well. They can often set a great example for you and ask as many questions as you can to anyone you learn from or roll with. I still ask a million questions and I find it helps a lot. Also, people will be far more motivated to help you and work with you if you demonstrate that you are humble and are thirsty for knowledge and passionate about training.

You can always ask your instructor about techniques you are curious about and I'm sure he or she would be happy to show stuff to you or give you their opinion on when you should worry about that stuff. Best of luck! Cheers

[Joshua Jarboe]

Thanks so much for your advice everyone.

Trying to stay humble and hungry. I'm not an arrogant guy by nature and don't really wrestle with that unless my skills are untested. But that isn't a problem for me right now: I'm just happy if I can avoid getting swept. If I can pass one person's guard in a night, that's a win. I hit an arm triangle on my third night and was fairly ecstatic. But the dude made me pay for it immediately afterwards. lol Good times.

I get the feeling that I might be able to find someone to practice 10p stuff on. My school has three locations, which is sweet. I just need to find free roll opportunities. I don't want to seem like an agitator when I'm so new, so I'm watching my tone. I expect that my instructors will want me to master some basics before I start branching out and it sounds like that's not an insane expectation. I'd like to be good at fundamentals and not crappy at 1,000 different things.

But I'm not going to be truly happy until I hit someone with a hangman submission...

I'm kidding. I'm with Hassan. When I started, I was neither in shape nor in BJJ shape. Being almost a month in, I'm still neither. I've got a long road to walk and a couple decades to do it.

Hey, if anybody is applying that 10th planet mindset to the gi and has resources they can share, ideas they can share, let me know.

Thanks again. And of course, any further advice is always welcome.

[Joshua Jarboe]

I don't think there are any moons or hotboxes near Seattle right? There are official schools in Canada and on the other side of the state from me, but nobody is running a moon near me that I know of...

...which means that if I ever want to compete in The Revolution tournament in no-gi as a white belt I'm going to have dudes from Spokane, Portland and Vancouver hitting me with stuff I've never seen before except in videos...

...fun.