Dude, I think I almost went out….and why you shouldn’t be afraid to train BJJ

 I will start by stating the obvious, your first few days of training Jiu Jitsu will probably be scary. You are actively seeking to learn to choke or hurt a group of people that train nearly everyday, to choke or hurt someone. The deck is stacked against you. I remember the first day I showed up to BJJ. I awkwardly introduced myself, learned to shrimp, a sweep and then it was time to roll live. I quickly scanned the room to find someone my size…I failed. I ended up with a giant dude who had sleeve tattoos. I did the only thing I could, I made sure he knew it was my first class. He said, “I got you.” Then he choked me 4-5 times in 5 minutes.  The next time I came back, I was sure I would be more successful this time, due to my large amount of gained experience. I was not. However, I sustained no injuries. If I am nothing else, I am stubborn and competitive. I continued to come back anytime I could and have progressed to a point where I can hold my own.

Young Bill liked douchey facial hair...

Contrast that with my foray into kickboxing. I will readily admit that I am far better suited to BJJ. I am bendy, love strategy and have a pretty extensive background in wrestling. If BJJ felt like learning to swim, kickboxing was like learning to breathe on Mars. That being said, I stuck at it and got to where I was not (totally) fearing for my life while sparring. Then came the faithful day, where I ended kickboxing against one of the bigger guys in class (I am about 5’8” and 160 pounds). He insisted I didn’t need headgear…we would “go light.” Next thing I know I am laying on the ground and looking up at other people. The guy insisted he forgot we were going light. My head hurt, I had trouble thinking clearly at work the next day, I quit kickboxing. I imagine the knockout looked something like this...

So, why am I bringing up these two experiences? It is certainly not to bash kickboxing. It is a great sport/marital art. However, at the very core of it, you can never really go all out without the very real chance someone is going to get hurt. However, in BJJ you really can go about as hard as you want and be injury free. Another example of this principle, we have a really cool white belt name JD (not his real name). The other day him and I were rolling. I caught him in a north-south choke. (See below for an example of the north-south by the Marcelo. Fun fact, he taught me the north-south)

I am not really sure what happened, but he got choked out. I heard him snore, let go, and he had that “million mile” stare. After a few seconds, he came to, looked at me and said, “I think I almost went out.” If you have done BJJ before, you know this situation all too well. Everyone laughs, the athlete takes a minute to collect their mind and then it is back to training. It is one of the coolest things about the sport, you have bested your opponent, everyone has a laugh and you are back at it.

There are injuries in BJJ. I have had my shoulder separated, a tear in my MCL, teeth chipped, back hurt…so on and so forth. However, most of these injuries occur from 1 of 2 scenarios. 1). I did not tap when I should of. Sometimes prides gets the best of you (like when I should have worn my head gear in kick boxing) and you don’t tap. In this case, it is solely my fault. The nice thing, you learn quickly from being too dumb to tap. And, if you don’t learn quickly, you quit quickly. 2). A freak accident occurs. Jiu-jitsu is a group of athletes trying to submit each other by threatening physical harm…things are going to happen, people will get hurt. Personally, I have never gotten hurt when I thought there was ill-intent on my training partner’s side, just a crappy occurrence. I healed up and got back out on the mat.

Most BJJ gyms are friendly places where everyone wants the athletes to learn the sport. If it is your first day, yeah, you are probably going to get submitted. But, you will live to train another day, and another, and another. Eventually, you will get to be that student that shows the new student the ropes. It is endemic in that way. On a related note, if you find a gym where people are getting hurt a lot, they have cultural problem and you might want to find a new gym.

To answer the question I have been asked a lot  - yes, I have been choked out, a few times. The first time my good friend Ryan caught me in a d'arce choke and my hands were trapped. I woke up about 6 feet from where the choke started. Ryan said he let go of the choke and I spider walked across the mat, fell down and then came to. After that, I got up, cleared by head and rolled again.

(Here is a great d'arce from an arm-drag)