What do you wish you'd been told?

I'm a beginner. Really enjoying jiu jitsu and quickly discovering just how much there is to learn. I understand that there are no shortcuts to improvement, but bearing that in mind, I wanted to ask:

What do you wish you'd been told when you first started out? Would any advice or wisdom have made a difference to your approach or how you train? Is there a something you share with beginners now you can look back and reflect on your own journey?

It struck me the other day when I rolled with a blue belt who was helping out with the beginner class, that the tacit knowledge he had was deep and I should look to plug in to the knowledge on this forum. Cheers.

Enjoy it and don't give up, tons of pussies have along the years. Don't be one of them lol
Jokes aside, treat jiu jitsu good and jiu jitsu will do the same in return :) Consistency and dedication are key elements to whatever you are trying to achieve in jiu jitsu or in life in general. So pretty much Jiu Jitsu = Life

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Originally Posted by John Alighieri

Consistency and dedication are key elements to whatever you are trying to achieve in jiu jitsu or in life in general. So pretty much Jiu Jitsu = Life

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That's good advice cheers, it's true, being consistent is the key to improving at almost everying.

The ligaments in your knees do not have very many nerve endings so as you're defending many leglocks or the lockdown/electric chair you won't feel pain until the ligament tears. So 'catch and release' is the safest way to spar with leglocks.

Is that the voice of experience talking?

Prioritize living to roll another day over coming out victorious and/or not tapping with whoever you're rolling in the moment. Took me about a year to figure this one out. You're not going to get better by the victories in the gym. The real victory comes from the lesson you get from tapping, but also the long term improvement you get by staying consistent. Consistency is the hallmark of getting better. No injury is worth taking significant time off. They happen obviously, and they're not ideal.

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Originally Posted by Amos

Is that the voice of experience talking?

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Unfortunately yes. My left ACL got blown out when I was a white belt and then my right ACL got torn when I was a blue belt. I didn't learn why until I started watching every Sambo video I could get my hands on and messaging Reilly Bodycomb.

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Originally Posted by Jason Mallory

Unfortunately yes. My left ACL got blown out when I was a white belt and then my right ACL got torn when I was a blue belt. I didn't learn why until I started watching every Sambo video I could get my hands on and messaging Reilly Bodycomb.

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That sucks. Consider me warned.

The only wrong way to train is to train only one way. Mix it up every now and then and have fun with it. Remember that Jiu Jitsu is the gentle art so no need to go out there and try to break as many arms as you can to get better. No one wants to roll with that kinda person. Also don't go to bars and try to start fights, if you wanna fight then go fight mma, you might find out the hard way when you try using the gentle art and someone gets downright evil on your ass.

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Originally Posted by rdouglas

The only wrong way to train is to train only one way. Mix it up every now and then and have fun with it. Remember that Jiu Jitsu is the gentle art so no need to go out there and try to break as many arms as you can to get better. No one wants to roll with that kinda person. Also don't go to bars and try to start fights, if you wanna fight then go fight mma, you might find out the hard way when you try using the gentle art and someone gets downright evil on your ass.

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Cheers. I'm pretty placid so hopefully a good training partner. Too old for bar fights as well....