Rude Awakening

This is a picture taken from last week the day after I went to Axis Jiu Jitsu...

To give my background in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: I went for about 8 months on and off during the spring and summer before going off to Georgetown, 2 years ago at Matt Serra's Academy out on Long Island. Since then I haven't really had a chance to do it at college since there are no places really close with reasonable pricing. But... in the meantime I've been always pulling different moves on my friends in the dorms - mainly Max, Blair, Heathrow, Tim & Allen.

*Note: Jiu Jitsu is primarily ground based self defense in which you use dominant positions and submissions to subdue opponents. To put it simply, JJ is wrestling with chokes and joint-locks - moves that force your opponent to tapout/submit.*

Back to the article...
It was the first day people were moving into dorms and I got in before anyone else so I had basically the whole day without anything to do or anyone to see. So around 4 pm I decided to check out Axis JJ which is a roughly 25 minute commute from the dorm by way of 3 different subways (good thing I know my way around stations from my original trip back at new years!). After getting there, I sorted things out to rent a gi, the traditional robe worn in training Jiu Jitsu (karate, judo, etc), and jumped right into their 1 1/2 hour class for all skill levels.

They paired me up with a twenty-something Japanese blue belt (about a year+ of training) for the first hour in which the instructors would demonstrate different sweeps & submissions from various positions. This class was a very grip-intensive session in which you need to wrap the gi around your fingers to keep a tight grip on the other guy. Unfortunately, due to my long lay-off and somewhat tender fingers some skin was "abraded" in the process.

But I wasn't about ready to let that stop me, so I stayed on the mat for the remaining 30 minutes of the session which was all out sparing - where you go near 100% trying to submit an opponent. Since I was the new guy in town, they wanted to assess my skills so the first guy they put me up against was a lanky Brit who was a brown belt and had studied Jiu Jitsu for 5 years. Suffice to say that didn't go off too well and he ended up submitting me 3 times in about 10 minutes.

After that, with my fingers bleeding and body exhausted from 70 minutes of grappling they set me up with another blue belt - this one from New Zealand. Technically it was a stalemate since neither of us tapped out, and although I came real close with a submission attempt, he maintained better positions throughout so he would have won by points in a competition format.

At the end of the class I wiped out, but also motivated to get back into the game. So, since then I've let my fingers heal up and have been hitting the gym to build some strength when for next week when I plan to sign up full time.