Day 2

Another email to Naps.

Wow.

I signed up for my first month today. Changed into the loaner gi and met Roger, the instructor who runs the school. He told me to warm up so I did some jumping jacks, some pushups, and some squat thrusts to get a sweat going. Roger partnered me up with Damon, another white belt who has been training about 8 months. We worked a simple sequence: neutral to guard, simple sweep out of the guard, then into an armbar from the mount. I did 20 reps just getting into the guard, then 20 sweeping out, and then another 10 putting on the armbar from the mount. I had a tough time with the body position for the armbar at first, but the students are very good teachers and I learned it pretty quickly. After doing the moves separately, we strung them together, switching off back and forth. Just a few of these and boy, was I gassed. My conditioning is in bad shape so I will have to work on that. I managed to get through, I don't know, 12 or 14 complete sequences.

I drank a bunch of water and basically was a total mess. I managed to pull myself together a little and Damon showed me some ways to apply the Kimura. Roger, who was dressing to leave, jokingly admonished Damon not to show me the "forbidden moves!" We laughed. We did a few more reps and Damon said it was enough. I guess I looked bad. I did some pushups and situps and tried not to throw up.

One of the blue belts, Jack, took me over and showed me a simple escape from his guard. I was able to "thread the needle" with my knee and get side control, when he let me, at least. We rolled for a little while until I couldn't go anymore.

Man, was it fun. The positions and moves are so rich with purpose and function, which resonates for me completely. The stuff "for show" that's in other martial arts always really put me off of them; I really like that everything in BJJ is there for a reason.

Another convert of the "gentle art",
Foos

Naps replies:

That's friggin' great! You're just scratching the surface, it gets better.

My tournament is Nov 10th (no-gi) and Nov 11th (gi). I think Dad is going to try to make the gi event. I've been getting my weight down and getting my cardio up. Down to 194, fighting 180-189 and running 6 - 8 miles a morning and bjj 3 to 4 times a week. Wish we went live more, feel like I need more grappling time to feel ready to rock. Hopefully we'll crank it up when it gets closer.

You're on your way to being an ass kicker. You need to start watching UFC and MMA fights to start seeing how bjj is used in real fight situations. You'll be amazed how good and tough those guys really are now that you're doing it.

Keep me updated and I'll do the same.