Humbling experience

[Chris Mears]

Hey guys and gals.

I am new to this forum and to bjj. It appears I am the first from the new 10th Planet El Paso to register with this forum. Now to the humbling part.

I have absolutely no bjj, or any other MA for that matter. I wrestled one season 24 years ago ( I am 38) but have wanted to study bjj for a while. When the new 10th Planet opened in El Paso I jumped in as I am more interested in no-gi vs. gi.

Unfortunately I am only able to train two days a week, I have my 4-year old son in wrestling and the practices conflict. So I train one week (two classes) and I throw my back out goofing around at work and miss the next two weeks of training. I finally starting to feel better and go to open mat yesterday.

The instructor has us do a couple of drills trying to get out of side control and then some free rolling. Given my limited training I didn't have very high expectations but what happened was, well, very humbling. I was dominated from start to finish by everyone in the class. Although, I was should we say pissed at myself, on the way home I am now even more determined to not be so bad on the mat.

Thanks for listening (reading) me vent and I look forward to being part of the 10th Planet community.

Chris

[Joey Guzman]

I know exactly how you feel man. i just recently took up jj been doing it for about 2 months now. i roll with a couple of friends of mine who used to go to some academy awhile back. they run clinics on me alllll day. but there arent any nogi schools around so we just drill and work off eachother in my garage. everyday ends with me upset with myself and setting personal goals to achieve. i just hope to see some result in a couple months, my dreams are to teach one day. keep pushing it! we'll get there!

[Bill Keeling]

Chris, hang in there. You are in excellent hands with Victor! Hit me up in 6 months and we will compare this post to where your at then

[Danny Stolfi]

"The secret of this sport is, while you're the nail, hang in there, let them hit you, until the day you become the hammer, then you smash them back!"
-Renzo Gracie

[Ryan Drexler]

I know how you feel, I am 39 and started 2 years ago. The first 6 months was tough, like you I never really wrestled. I was really intimidated by the level of talent but I kept with it and it has totally changed my life and how I work out. I don't touch weights anymore but stretch and do a lot of core exercise. The 10th planet family is very helpful, good luck.

[Tim Elliott]

Just change your perspective mate. Its totally fine to get dominated on the mats. Its a good thing even. Trade the expectation that you will be naturally good for the knowledge that through work you will be good.

Im 6.4" and 100kgs but Iv been injured since I took up Jiu Jitsu. Im a beginner too and Im only really as strong as a guy of about 80kgs so people love to beast me and it can get frustrating. Some really good guys will roll with you and some guys will just crush you and give you no room to move at all and just treat you as a grappling dummy. Gets pretty old pretty quick I agree.

Look at it this way, your going home promising you will be better, but the training you just did was a success. You might have been less dominant, but its training, not competition. The aim is to improve. Who do you think improved the most in that session? Theres a good chance it was you.

If I get beasted, I write down in a notebook what I couldnt stop or where I got stuck, then I go home and study up on the net and in Eddies books/DvDs. Its a poor substitute for real teaching but it works. Your actually really lucky. You could be the best guy, whos going to push him? Much harder for him to improve and test himself.

Hope this helps. Sorry if it makes no sense, I just came out of surgery, had a shitload of morphine.

[DesiCuellar]

"The secret of this sport is, while you're the nail, hang in there, let them hit you, until the day you become the hammer, then you smash them back!"
-Renzo Gracie

I fucking love Renzo Gracie man.... One of my personal heroes.

[Pete Daly]

Ugh, starting out SUCKS! I was so goddam pissed after my first month. But once you get that first tap, it all seems like it was worth it. Then it starts to get fun, and you can really start to improve. It is a slow process at first, though. Imho, progression hastens immensely after your first tap, but is amazingly slow before then.

[Brian Boum]

I fucking love Renzo Gracie man.... One of my personal heroes.

I'm still having a hard time getting over him stepping on that guys head after a fight.

[Brian Boum]