The First Six Months
I talked to many people at class and often asked this one question... "how long does it take before one starts to get comfortable in BJJ?". Most everyone said it would take about 6-12 months, depending on how many times a week you trained. I knew that most people drew on their personal experience and that most of them were under 30 years of age.
I applied a little self logic and came to the conclusion that if it took them 6-12 months, it would take at least 1-2 years or more for me because of my age and physical condition.
Getting into BJJ for anyone is a challenge, but for the older student, once over 50, things get extra challenging. For one thing, it was not possible for me to go more than once a week for the first 2 months because it took that long to recuperate in between classes. After that, I could raise it to 2 times a week and after 5 months had to push things quite a bit to go 3 times a week, but I could not do it on a continual basis, it was easy to burn out or get very, very sore.
Three times a week for someone my age is just that big thing. It takes me a long time to recuperate and lose the stiffness and soreness from my body. Even much later on, I will see that a common theme for me is to almost always walk into class still sore from the last one.
Three times a week for someone my age is just that big thing. It takes me a long time to recuperate and lose the stiffness and soreness from my body. Even much later on, I will see that a common theme for me is to almost always walk into class still sore from the last one.
The last two months I have consistently gone 3 times a week, not missing more than 1-2 classes in that time period, and it is here that I feel that I have made the most growth. It is still very hard for me, but instead of it taking 7-10 days to recover from the soreness, it now takes 2-4 days, so for the time being, 3 times is a lot. I know if I could somehow make it 4 times a week, I could make some real progress faster... but that is not likely to happen anytime soon.
The first two months in particular were pretty terrible for me... being very much in bad shape and having the cardio of a brick, it was very hard and I tried to get through class each time. My biggest issue was that I could not complete a whole class. Most I could do was 15-20 minutes before needing a big break before I could do another 10-15 minutes and then I would be done. Slowly this has gotten better, and I can now pretty much do a complete class with a couple of short breaks, but it took 6 months to get to this stage.
Another nice thing that happened was that I lost a little weight. I started in January at around 255 pounds as per the scale in my bathroom and today it goes between 230-235 depending on what time of the day I weigh myself. That is a nice loss of around 20+ pounds in a healthy amount of time.
Right now I am lighter than I have been since my mid-30's and if I could lose another 20 pounds, I would be in the same weight class as what I weighed when I was in high-school, which was in the 200-210 pound range. That would be damned impressive!
Right now I am lighter than I have been since my mid-30's and if I could lose another 20 pounds, I would be in the same weight class as what I weighed when I was in high-school, which was in the 200-210 pound range. That would be damned impressive!
I've mentioned it a couple of times... but I know that some people wonder what I am talking about when I say "my physical limitations". Well, it is something that prevents me from doing a lot of important exercises and drills and limits me from doing many important BJJ moves. I suffer from an internal inner ear balance issue. Basically, if I do a few cartwheels or flips or backward or forward rolls, I get strong motion sickness. If I keep my head flat on the mat for more than 30 seconds, I then need to rise, go to the toilet and vomit as if I had been riding the world's roughest roller-coaster 10 times in a row.
Even relatively mild head swinging motions that happen when one does 2 or more shrimping movements will bring up the nausea pretty quick. I believe that the medical term for it is Positional Vertigo. It is a genetic state and one that my mother has been suffering from as well. This makes BJJ quite the interesting event for me.
So why do I go as often as 3 times a week to somewhere that I put myself into positions that I have to endure these sick feelings? It has to do with that desire to learn BJJ, which honestly now over time has passed the BJJ bug stage, it has become a genuine passion in my life.
Also, currently, the health benefits via weight loss outweigh the bouts of nausea and sessions of up-chucking your supper. It also only lasts a few hours after class, faster if I come home, take a quick shower and go to bed right away.
Also, currently, the health benefits via weight loss outweigh the bouts of nausea and sessions of up-chucking your supper. It also only lasts a few hours after class, faster if I come home, take a quick shower and go to bed right away.
I also have other issues, but they have less impact on me. My arms are very frail, I have the wrists of a girl and my upper body strength is that of a 50+ year old that never exercised. My ribs are soft, flex easily and I make all kinds of interesting and amusing grunts and noises at the slightest feel of pressure on them. Most 140 pound fighters could get me to tap out from the weight of their bodies on me from side mount alone!
In short, I am quite frail.
Yes, it's ok to laugh... I often laugh at myself too, so feel free to join in and chuckle along.
Yes, it's ok to laugh... I often laugh at myself too, so feel free to join in and chuckle along.
The one place I am not as weak is in my legs, there is some good strength there, however, I also am about as flexible as your average block of cement. In BJJ, flexibility is very important, especially in the back, arms and hips, but I find the most simple moves near impossible due to my lack of ability to bring the leg high enough or bring it to a position that is needed to execute a move. In time this should improve some, but let's face a fact, being able to do the splits is not going to happen in my future... ever.
My shoulders are also very genetically limited in range, so much so that when on my back with my elbows bent to protect my head, my fists cannot touch the floor, so if someone thought to pin my arms beside my head, unless they break both my shoulders... it's not going to happen.
My shoulders are also very genetically limited in range, so much so that when on my back with my elbows bent to protect my head, my fists cannot touch the floor, so if someone thought to pin my arms beside my head, unless they break both my shoulders... it's not going to happen.
So, all that to say I have some very special limitations to deal with each time I come on the mat and I persevere and push through. They hinder me, but do not stop me. They are not monumental obstacles if you think about it, but they are annoying as hell.
I recently saw a video of a young kid that was paralyzed from the waist down due to a car accident and he was practicing BJJ!
Now *THAT* is some serious limiting shit right there, and makes mine look like nothing, and yet here he was doing his thing and being nothing less than an inspiration to me and others. On top of that, he was a blue belt, something that one day I hope to attain. Maybe in 2-3 years more time...no rush, right?
Now *THAT* is some serious limiting shit right there, and makes mine look like nothing, and yet here he was doing his thing and being nothing less than an inspiration to me and others. On top of that, he was a blue belt, something that one day I hope to attain. Maybe in 2-3 years more time...no rush, right?
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