10 Years of BJJ - My Jiu-Jitsu Journey - Part 2 (The Early Days)

(This is part 2 of this series. If you haven't seen part 1 it can be found here.)

 

So, I was about to have my first ever BJJ lesson. Obviously, since I had never trained any 'traditional' martial arts before I didn't have a gi. So, I wore basically the same thing that I wore to kickboxing, which were Thai shorts and a vest.

If I'm honest, I can't really remember much about my first lesson of BJJ. The only thing I can remember is Chris coming out and introducing himself as the head instructor. To be honest, all along I thought Mike was the head instructor, so I was a little shocked when this young guy came out.  
 

At this time Chris was wearing a black belt, as this was his rank in Japanese Ju-Jitsu, and then some months later he started to wear a purple belt, as this was his rank in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The reason for this was because at this time our club became an official Gracie Barra club, and then we changed to the BJJ ranking system.
 

At this point, there were pretty much no coloured belts. Actually, I think the only coloured belts were Chris, who was a purple belt, and Mike, who at the time was a blue belt. There might have been one or two more blue belts, but none I can say for definite.
 

When I started in the kid’s class, there were quite a few of us; I would say at least 20 in an average class. Back in those days there were only three days which classes run on. They were Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. There would be classes for kids and adults on a Tuesday and Thursday, and an adult only class on a Sunday.
 

After a few months of training, me and my brother were invited to come train for an hour every Sunday in the adult class. Obviously, since we were nine years old we didn't train with the adults, but Chris would come and teach us a few techniques, we would drill them, roll a bit, and then we would leave. Now and again Chris would come over and roll with us, but for the most part it was just me and my brother.
 

When I started BJJ, I didn't really get it. If I'm honest I couldn't really see how it could be used in a real fight. The only time I really saw its effectiveness was when my dad bought the Gracie's in Action series on eBay. Obviously, they were not originals, just a few copies some guy had made to make some quick cash. But none the less, I was still pretty impressed.

 

On the subject of my dad, it was around this time when he pretty much bought everything he could for me to get better at BJJ. I remember he bought me and my brother a DVD series by Wallid Ismail, which was okay, but most of the moves if I can remember were very basic, and some were just very low percentage moves. Something else that he got us was a three volume series by Rorian Gracie, but most of that was really BJJ for self defence rather than for sport Jiu-Jitsu. But some of the moves I had success with, but most of them not, and if I'm honest I use none of them today. He did buy us lots more stuff to improve our knowledge, but I'll get to that at a later date.

 

In the first few months of Jiu-Jitsu, we didn't do any submissions, rather just basic sweeps, transitions, and escapes. At that time, I trained on a Thursday and Sunday when I was in school, and then on a Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday when I was on school holidays. And that training schedule I still follow to this day. Now and again I might train in a different class, but for 99% of the time this is the schedule I go by.
 

It didn't take me that long to get my yellow belt, and back then the kid’s belt system was nothing like it is today, it was pretty much only yellow, orange and green. These days you have way more belts, in fact there are a total of 12 belts, not including white.
 

After a while, everybody started talking about the idea of competing, so I did. My first competition was on Sunday 10th October 2004. And I shall tell you all about that next time.
 

I hope you enjoyed!

 

Catch you later,

Giordano