First Night Back

I have been wanting to start training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu again for a long time. Tonight was the first time back on the mat in what feels like 4 years. I have decided to start a blog and track my progress inspired by the WOD log I have here from my CrossFit workout.

I showed up at Eduardo Rocha's school http://oaklandbjj.com/ a bit early as it was my first time and I wasn't quite sure how it worked. I assumed I had to sign a waiver, and was burned out after work so I just wanted to go.

A group of kids were training when I came in, and their parents were sitting in the chairs along one side of the room. Adults slowly started to show up for the 6pm beginners BJJ class, and as the kids were done training, I got to talk to the trainer, Stephan Goyne, briefly. He wasn't the one teaching the adults. I feel terrible but I already forgot my trainers name, I will have to look that up later.

We did a warm up and it was clear to me that I felt like a fish out of water on the floor since it has been so long since I trained at all, and back then I wasn't serious at all.

We went over a couple of moves: two different arm bars from side control, well they were basically the same but with a slight variation. We practiced a bit, and after that we learned a bit about defending the position. Then we rolled a bit, with a start position in side control. The top guy had to attack for a submission, and the bottom guy had to regain guard.

After rolling a bit with a bunch of different people, you swapped partner every time someone 'won', we just rolled 4 rounds of 5 minutes. It was pretty easy for me to gas, and it was clear to me that even on the beginners class there is a big difference on skill level. I was able to sub one guy, with what I think was a kimura or an americana. I grabbed his right wrist with my left hand, grabbed my own wrist of my left arm with my right hand and was able to get the tap. It felt great! I got subbed a bunch of times, and other match ups ended in a stalemate, but I expected that.