Welcome to Vaughan Jiu-Jitsu Academy and the wonderful world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I hope you stay on your jiu jitsu journey for years, become truly good at Jiu Jitsu, make life long friends, and find a fun way to stay fit.
You may find that your first three to six months are the toughest period of your Jiu Jitsu journey. In order to reap the benefits of BJJ, however, you must make it past this initial stage. For this reason, I wanted to give you some advice on how to make it past your first six months:
First Class
Please make sure you have showered the day of class, brush your teeth, cut your finger/toe nails, and wear deodorant. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a full contact sport and you don't want to be the stinky training partner, or have nails so long that you're worried about scratching your training partners.
Clothing Bring tight fitting athletic clothing in case there are no loaner gi/uniform. Cotton t-shirts will stretch and sag as you workout and get sweaty. Loose clothing can be a safety hazard in BJJ as your partners fingers and toes can get tangled and potentially broken. Shorts or leggings can be worn, but avoid shorts with pockets, zippers, or Velcro as these can all potentially cause injury to your training partners.
Pay attention
Your instructor will likely show you a few basic techniques in each class. Pay close attention to these techniques because you need to learn them.
Drilling is better than training
While live sparring is important to learning a technique, drilling a technique with little or partial resistance is more important. You may use a bump-and-roll three times in a five minute training session, but drilling a bump and roll 30 times in five minutes is better for you.
Relax
When you do train - relax. Tensing up is a fight or flight reaction, and you can’t use technique effectively when in fight or flight mode. Many folks just starting BJJ need indicators that they are tense, and the best one is your ability to breath. If you’re feeling out of breath it’s likely because you’re tense.
Muscle is finite; BJJ is infinite
You will undoubtedly train with other white belts who are smaller and weaker than you, and you will be tempted to smash them with strength. But don’t. If you rely on technique - and only on technique with smaller people - you will be able to use technique against folks your own size as well.
Use what you’ve learned
Try to use the Technique of the Day (TOD) when you train. My greatest failing has been not trying the technique taught that day, and my Jiu Jitsu game is the worse for it.
Use only what you’ve learned
If it’s your first class and all you’ve learned is a bump and roll, then just use a bump and roll (and some reasonable amount of choke defense). Please, please, please don’t try to use some technique you’ve seen on YouTube or UFC PPVs if you haven’t been taught the technique at your gym. Once you’ve completed your first year and have a general sense of the basic techniques, then DVD and YouTube instructionals may be useful. Until then, however, stick to what you’ve been taught.
Prepare to be challenged
Unless you were a hard core athlete in school, Jiu Jitsu will push your body harder and take it farther than you ever thought possible. This great sport will also challenge you mentally and emotionally. You will experience times of doubts, but life (and Jiu Jitsu) is about breaking past the doubt.
Tap
Everyone says this, but be prepared to tap early and often. I could have avoided many stupid injuries if I had been willing to tap, and I would be better at Jiu Jitsu today because I would have spent more time on the mat.
Avoid injuries
Every injury you avoid means additional weeks or months on the mat. So tap early, tap often. Stretch. Call it quits when you just can’t go any further. In other words: use common sense. See “Tap” above.
Be a good training partner
Practice good hygiene, trim your nails, don’t train while sick or with a skin infection. And, most importantly, don’t use illegal techniques (jumping attacks, slams, neck cranks, and many other techniques are illegal).
Avoid sickness and infections
COVID-19 seems to be the talk of the town since 2020. Please keep the basic rules to mitigate the infection rate by staying home if you are sick with a fever, runny nose, cough and anything related to the symptoms of this disease.
Skin infections (especially ringworm and staph) will sideline you for weeks or even months. Shower after practice; wash your gi; wear flip flops when you walk off the mat and especially in the restroom or locker room. See “Be a good training partner” above.
Embarrassment is fickle
You won’t embarrass yourself by asking how to tie your belt; asking to see a technique again; being tapped by a woman; or asking a higher belt how she tapped you. You will embarrass yourself if you walk in and say “I want to be a UFC Fighter”; show all the higher belts your cool new technique from Youtube; or talk incessantly during class.
If you make it through your first six months, then you could be the future of BJJ. I hope you have a long and successful Jiu Jitsu journey. I really hope you become truly righteous at Jiu Jitsu and go on to learn, share, compete and teach the art.
Sincerely,
Professor Michael Aviado
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