by Stein Weinstein

So I take the pothead's advice, and my goal for my next class is to go as long as possible without getting submitted. Defend only, don't even think about submissions, just keep the guys from putting me out.

I do this with my first two partners, and with shockingly good results. I mean, I still got submitted, but I lasted much longer. I got submitted a total of five times in the two rounds, whereas my normal total is at least twice that.

Here's the best part: Everything seemed to slow down for me. It's funny--even though I don't really know any submissions well, once I stopped thinking about offensive moves and focused on defending, everything slowed down and my brain was able to keep up with my body much easier. I wasn't five completely confused anymore, now I was just three moves behind. Shit that doesn't smell is much better than shit that does.

I did another thing that the pothead told me to do: I started asking questions.

It seems obvious, but I wasn't really doing that before. Now, every time a guy submits me, I ask him what he did and how to defend it. Some guys aren't very good teachers, but some are very good, and walk me through the escapes. One guy caught me in a nasty arm triangle, so after tapping, I asked him to show me. He showed me the submission, then showed me the two basic defenses (swimming your arm over his head, or putting your hand to your ear, called "answering the phone"). The very next round I made the same mistake and he started a set-up to an arm triangle, and I swam my arm over and got out. It was amazing how exhilarating it was to learn something and then use it properly to escape a submission.

One thing at a time, one escape at a time, I am starting to put this together. Learning BJJ is like learning a new language; it's frustrating and aggravating and painful, but if you dive in and ask questions and keep trying, slowly but surely you start to put it together.

Posted by Jeff at 5:54 PM

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