First time you rolled with someone..

[RobertF]

my first gym and with a brown belt. It goes without question that i got my ass handed to me. I learned nothing that whole week

[David Stager]

I remember being shocked that the move I drilled earlier wouldn't work. It didn't occur to me that there would be a counter to the move. I also remember being frustrated that I hadn't figured out how to pass a blue belt's guard after the first week. I'd like to think I've deepened my perspective since then.

[John Hickman]

Was against a guy a little bit bigger than me. I did well, because I had been watching MTRG over and over and over.

[David Stager]

Slightly on topic: when you guys started out did you think that the key to beating everyone was to develop a massive repetoire of moves and basically try each one until you caught your opponent with something he hadn't drilled in a while? I sincerely thought the only qualitative difference between a black belt and a white belt was a larger bag of tricks.

[lates85]

rolling for the first time is like masturbating for the first time.

[Trevis]

To answer David's question. Yes, that is what I first thought. Mostly. I also remember thinking "Jesus, he's strong. How come he doesn't look a lot bigger than me?" Of course, that has to do with why the impression described by the first sentence is wrong. It's as much about developing "feel" and balance, and the application of leverage, as it is learning technique. Oh, and muscle response, or memory, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, it's a lot of stuff.
I got beat down by an All American wrestler, my size, for months. It was actually judo back then, not jits, and he was on his off- season helping his wrestling coach teach a one hour college phys ed class. I was a little, pot bellied, bottom of the barrel evening grocery department manager. We would do judo for real after the class was over. Oh, man! That was six months of Hell! So sore I couldn't move after practice. Blisters on the top of my feet. Fingernails all wripped off.
And then I choked him out with a standing lapel double fist choke that I learned from some book. I can still remember the little gasp he made when I put on the squeeze. And then he fell into me, so I thought he was fighting it, and I kept squeezing. And then I figured out that he was just dead weight, so I let him slide to the floor and woke him up like he had woke me up, a time, or two. First submission, Baby!
Fucking magic, fucking magic, fucking magic. ... Holy God! That was 24 years ago. Sheit! It's still better than sex ... most of the time. : )

[David Rosado]

my first gym and with a brown belt. It goes without question that i got my ass handed to me. I learned nothing that whole week

If you learned nothing, you weren't paying attention. Every time I tap I learn something. At the very least you learned how to tap.

It's good for you homie. Every tap is a learning process. Rather than looking at it as defeat, look at it as a learning process.

[David Rosado]

Slightly on topic: when you guys started out did you think that the key to beating everyone was to develop a massive repetoire of moves and basically try each one until you caught your opponent with something he hadn't drilled in a while? I sincerely thought the only qualitative difference between a black belt and a white belt was a larger bag of tricks.

Subconsciously, I thought I would fare better because of how many hours of instructional vids I watched. Then I got tapped by other white belts who were there only a few months before me. LOL. Reps mean a lot. And who teaches you means even more.

[Clinton lawrence]

i rolled a black belt the first 2 weeks i was at my gym got my smashed for a good solid 6 minutes got told my weight distribution is shit that shook me to the core went away got humble worked on it learnt a lesson rolling higher belts i try to slow the roll down and learn some thing

[James Bell]

My first jiu jitsu roll with someone was after weeks of instruction vids and practicing techniques and tendon streching for flexibility a little more than I had when I started it was after my second session of wrestling and I was going against my wrestling buddy and I let him take me down and shot straight for spider guard and failed miserably as he passed it during my slow ass set up of it and he got to side I turned and fought to butterfly guard down and then he stood up and I slid to a perfect x guard and I streched him out and rolled over keeping a hold of the leg and pulling off a kneebar where he tapped but to his defense he thought he knew juijitsu because he watched UFC and wrestled but I had horrible slow technique by that point bu I'm happy to see how far I've come