I still remember my first BJJ class. Unlike many other people who have told me about their experiences, I was not at all intimidated. I was coming from practicing other contact sports like kickboxing and savate , and if I was willing to give BJJ a try it was because of a minor ankle injury that was going to prevent me from kicking for a few months.
I was rather a skeptic of the BJJ, it was not clear to me the usefulness of rolling around on the floor with another guy and even less in a kimono , but at the insistence of a friend of mine who was in the UEI of the Civil Guard, a elite police force, and who was a regular BJJ practitioner, I accepted the challenge.
How was the first day of training?
I looked for a gym near my house, since it was not clear to me how long it was going to last practicing this martial art and without having any kind of knowledge, the following Monday I presented myself with the instructor, a 1st Dan black belt of Brazilian nationality. With all the kindness in the world, he lent me a white kimono, I changed in the locker room and when I came out I saw a lot of guys in their colored kimonos and belts. All considerably younger than me, lighter and shorter. There was no heavyweight like me and that relieved me to a certain extent, since I never thought that any of those kids were going to endanger my physical integrity. How wrong I was.
As we warmed up, I noticed the furtive glances of several of those boys smiling at me, everyone there was friendly, people were talking to each other and there was an exceptional atmosphere … had I been in the wrong place? Could you really learn anything from these nice guys? I didn’t have them all with me and I thought I was going to give up BJJ practice sooner than expected.
My first combat technique
After warming up , the instructor went through a series of basic techniques that he had to repeat (and that over the years I repeated ad nauseam) a chain of submissions called armlock-triangle-shoulder blade , intertwined with each other and continuously interchangeable. A Brazilian boy with a blue belt tried to show me them because I was unable to do them.
We stayed for about 15 minutes before changing techniques. This time he pushed me away and because I was a rookie he put me back with the boy with the blue belt to teach me one more series of basic positions and transitions, while the rest of the class practiced a series of guard passages. After 15 minutes he stopped again and said something that sounded like music to my ears “You can drink water, put your mouths on and let’s fight .”
My first match
The instructor politely addressed me and said, “Normally the first day you don’t shoot, but because of your size, if you’re interested, you can try it, I’ll tell the guys to go easy on you.”
Gentle on me, I thought? They are the ones who should be careful. I was going to easily beat those guys in front of their teacher and then go home to relax.
Suddenly a 20-year-old boy with a purple belt came up to me and asked me if I wanted to shoot. The boy did not reach 65 kg and a half 1.70 m. I was at 1.90 m and 98 kgs. It was going to be an easy task to crush this kid.
I think it took the boy 10 seconds to strangle me between his legs with a triangle. How had he done it? The next he grabbed my back and made me a lion killer. The next time an arm lock. So one after another, I fell to the ground at least 10 times in the 7 minutes that the fight lasted. What was happening there?
One after another, the kids there were, they took turns with me and, despite finishing me countless times, there was never a lack of respect or a bad word or celebration out of tune. Everything revolved around an extraordinary education and discipline .
We closed the class in formation, we greeted each other one by one and stayed to stretch for a while.
The instructor approached me and said smiling
-“What do you think?”
– “Tomorrow I’ll be here at the same time” – I answered.
Conclution
A few years have passed since the first day I tried BJJ and I am still just as hooked on this martial art, as much as the first moment I made contact with it. Competitions, friendships, trips and good experiences (also bad, of course, although less) have remained on this trip. Believe me, if I have been able to enjoy, train and live these types of experiences, anyone can, no matter your age, gender or physical condition. Give the BJJ a chance , you don’t have to wait for anyone from the special forces to advise you.
