Just had my first class

[Jeremey]

And man, am I tired! (It doesn't help I'm a bit out of shape)

It lasted for about 2 hours. We started with a pretty long warmup, jumping jacks, pushups, crunches, stretching, the usual. Then we went into learning a technique, paired up with a partner and worked on that for awhile. Then we learned the counter to the technique we just learned, got back with our partner and worked on that for a bit.

For the last hour of class, we just grapped with each other. We'd go about 10 minutes then switch off to a different partner.

Man, it was hard!!! I have some karate experience and I was told BJJ is way different, and it sure is! I hadn't really learned any submissions yet so basically the point of it for me was just to get used to rolling around and trying to get good position. Well I pretty much got my ass kicked every time, haha. Most of the other dudes there are much more experienced than me, but they were really helpful and went slow and tried to tell me what to do, what not to do, etc... Even so it was really hard, not being used to grappling at all. One of the things I'm not used to is trying to stay close and in on the person, I had a tendency to keep a bit of distance from the other person, I'll have to get used to trying to stay in and tight. The other thing I'm not used to is actually rolling around for 5 minutes straight with someone using most of your strength and having the other person fully resisting the whole time. I mean I did sparring in karate, but this was totally different. It tired me out pretty quickly. Another thing was one of the guys I had good strength, but he said I was trying too hard a lot of the time, going all out and trying stuff even when they probably wouldn't work, which was causing me to get winded easily. After an hour of rolling I was BEAT!

Even though I hardly knew what I was doing, I think it's cool that they threw me into grappling on my first class, I like going in there right away and trying it out.

So anyone have any advice on things I should look out for/work on/try as a beginner? I assume a lot of stuff I'll just learn and pick up the more I do it...and it's funny, I'm pretty tired and sore, but still can't wait for my 2nd class, haha!

[Thai Bri]

Well done mate. I remember my first grappling class. I got submitted to fluck.

I would merely try to keep in tight, try to "be like water" and collapse your weight on the guy if and when you get on top, and concentrate on his supporting limbs, i.e. if his left arm is bearing weight on the floor, take it away and roll him over.......

[gracilva]

I think someone has been bitten by the grappling bug

[Bjjexpertise@be]

Good job for sticking with it. Some pointers i would suggest are:
1)Try to make your opponent bare both of your weight.
2)Don't try to power house your way through, try to rely moreon your technique.
3)Only try the submission holds once you are in a dominant posission(i.e. attempt an armbar only when you are in side control, mount,etc.)
4)Try not to keep your body too stiff.
5)When in the neutral position(both of you are standing up and not touching each other) try not to keep your body straight. Don't try to just bend over, that's not the solution. Try to bend your knees abit with one leg in front and one in the back. Bend your body a bit but not too much.