My first month of Jiu-Jitsu

It’s been about 6 weeks since I first started on November 2, 2013. I dabbled with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu back in 2009 while in Korea. This time I signed up for a year of classes. I wanted to make a long term commitment and it was cheaper than paying monthly. I plan on keeping a monthly report. This one is a little late.

I have been going about 4 times a week. I am getting beat up and getting quite a few bruises and scrapes on my feet. My knuckles are a little sore from all the grabbing. There’s been a few twists or minor sprains such as to my knee, ankle, and thumb. I expect those to continue to heal as I have been taping them before class.

What have I learned?

It’s kinda of hard to see my own progress, but I must have learned something if my instructor Romelo Melo gave me a stripe on my white belt. He does a great job. I am constantly sparring with people with more experience.

When sparring I often only have a vague idea of what can be done. I have an idea on how to do a couple different armbar joint locks and vague ideas on a few chokes: collar chokes, a triangle choke and a bow and arrow choke. Implementing them in sparring is the challenge as everyone has more experience than myself.

We’ll keep going and report back in a few weeks.