Newbie!!

[Dietor]

Hello folks. I'm a first time poster..and very happy and pleased to find this forum. anyways....I am very interested in the art of BJJ...but, where i live, there are no classes available for about a hundred miles!!! grrrr. so i was wondering....can you guys please point a newbie to BJJ in the right direction? possibly books or websites? thanks a lot! and i look forward to having a good time here

[covaliufan]

Where do you live? If you can't find bjj, you'd still be very well served training in judo, which is a lot more widespread, and usually cheaper.

[Dietor]

I live in Central PA. The only thing that is around is kung fu and Tai Kwon Do. :-(

[covaliufan]

I don't know much about Pennsylvania, but bjj.org has a list of 10 schools in your state; perhaps one is not too far from you. Check this page:

http://www.bjj.org/academies/#PA

Edit: Why does your state have a town called King of Prussia?

[Dietor]

thanks for the link! and about the town..i have noooo freakin clue..its north of philly..i guess it has a big mall

As far as the schools listed...the closest one is about 2 hours from me...lol

[Oreomeister365]

how close are you to state college?

[Dietor]

I am about an hour and a half east of State College

[Tom Yum]

Welcome!

You can learn a few techniques with the Gracie book, but you may deveop bad technique. The more you roll in a real class, you stop using strength and can use leverage and flow.

Just a thought. Good luck!

[covaliufan]

Have you looked for a judo school yet? They're much more common, usually cheaper, and have a huge overlap with bjj content-wise.

[OmaPlata]

Have you looked for a judo school yet? They're much more common, usually cheaper, and have a huge overlap with bjj content-wise.

only the throws help, as far as grappling, a 6 month white belt will tap a black in Judo on the ground with little problems...as long as they start on their knees

[covaliufan]

That's hardly a blanket statement to make, only true in the more extreme circumstances. There are judo players and judo schools with solid ground work, though none are likely to be as good on the ground as a bjj player who has trained for the same amount of time, just as no bjj player has a chance of being as good on his feet as any judo player who has trained for the same amount of time.

All decent bjj players I know have nothing but respect for decent judo clubs. I train in bjj myself (a blue belt, not a "6 month white belt"), with a background before that in folkstyle wrestling, so it's not as if I have some particular axe to grind on judo's behalf.

So I'll repeat it; if someone's interested in submission grappling, especially with a gi, and they want but can't find a bjj school, then it's a terrible waste of time if they do nothing instead of taking advantage of a local judo school.

[OmaPlata]

That's hardly a blanket statement to make, only true in the more extreme circumstances. There are judo players and judo schools with solid ground work, though none are likely to be as good on the ground as a bjj player who has trained for the same amount of time, just as no bjj player has a chance of being as good on his feet as any judo player who has trained for the same amount of time.

All decent bjj players I know have nothing but respect for decent judo clubs. I train in bjj myself (a blue belt, not a "6 month white belt"), with a background before that in folkstyle wrestling, so it's not as if I have some particular axe to grind on judo's behalf.

So I'll repeat it; if someone's interested in submission grappling, especially with a gi, and they want but can't find a bjj school, then it's a terrible waste of time if they do nothing instead of taking advantage of a local judo school.

-never learned a ground submission from a judo guy, and we have a judo black belt who is a 2 stripe blue in BJJ, best thing he would do is get side control and pull up the closest arm and hold it there (when he was new)...but I would rather take Judo than anything other than BJJ, except maybe muay thai which seems good to know