posted Aug 22, 2008

Cheers man, Im going to start football again which should help more with cardio, flexibility wise I suppose I could do stretches at home !

Ill also be looking to train at least 2 90minute sessions a week so that should help as well.

Yeah I'm a big Jason Mcdonald fan myself one of the first things I realised is that in terms of expending energy, I'd much rather be stood up throwing punches! grappling appears to be the most tiring thing ever, even when on the defensive

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posted Aug 22, 2008

One other thing that I found to be really helpful. Get yourself a good chiropractor, if you get an alignment once a fortnight, it will really help your flexibility. I was lucky enough to see Jason train ( I live in Calgary, Canada ) and that guy is like freeking rubber.

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posted Aug 22, 2008

How old are you Albion?

I used to do judo briefly as a kid and also a little boxing but was too young to really take any of it in and gave both up pretty quickly. Wish i had stayed with it. Have thought about starting Jiu Jitsu a few times recently, myself just given up football, but think i may be a bit too old at 28 to start training in a martial art from the beginning! Need to do something to stay fit and have had enough of team sports. Dont want to look stupid either what do you think?

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posted Aug 22, 2008

Oh right cool! will have to look into that

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posted Aug 22, 2008

drsrhino-
Im 27 myself, 28 in january. Obviously ive only been to one class, but I was made to feel extremely welcome and nobody took the p**s at all in terms of saying anything or bullying me on the mat. In fact, nobody even asked how old I was!
Incidentally there was a guy there who had only been going for 4 weeks and I would say was in his mid 40's. Personally I would rather be doing something than nothing, I dont reckon your ever too old to start providing you dont get ahead of yourself and see yourself as the next UFC heavyweight champion incidentally my karate training was only years ago aged 25, and the same was true the- really friendly bunch, no one asked how old I was. I suppose it might depend on what your local club is like but my experience so far has been nothing but positive!

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posted Aug 22, 2008

ok thanks! Might have a look in to starting.

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posted Aug 25, 2008

hi albion,
I've been doing martial arts - mainly Tae kwon do (ITF style) and Jiu Jitsu (The Jitsu Foundation) since age 15. I am now 32 with black belts to my name and as people have already said, age is irrelevant. Its just a question of how much time you are prepared to put into training every week or day. I can give you one big tip...when it comes to general fitness its much better to do 20-30 minutes achieving 70% of your maximum every day than to do 1 hour + marathon cardio sessions once or twice a week. Combine that "small" amount of cardio per day with some strength training (functional/sport-specific or the big exercises from body-building) during the week and daily end-of-day stretching, and you'll be amazed at your progress in as little as 6 to 12 weeks. Also, for fitness, I think you did the right thing in choosing "sport", submission-focus jiu jitsu rather than the traditional, self-defence, comprehensive jiu jitsu. I will start doing sports jiu jitsu myself soon!

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posted Aug 25, 2008

I've been doing it for 3 years so persevere with it. I'm not really interested in UFC (more of a football man) and I do jujitsu for fitness and self defence and because I enjoy it. Always listen to the sensei (he's there to help you) and learn your basics - the break falls and the first 5 throws. From there you will improve.

It does feel really awkward at first and you may feel you're not getting anywhere but you will do, believe me, it does come together.
And remember all the various coloured belts in your class were all beginners at some point so nobody is there to take the pi55. Some things like Katas can be really difficult to learn, remember it won't be you that finds them hard.
Stick in.

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posted Aug 26, 2008

For a beginner, especially a bigger guy who will probably find himself on top a lot, the number one priotity should be posture when in someone's guard. Keep your back straight as much as possible. People tend to worry too much about trying new techniques, the fact is nothing will work if your positioning isnt right.

In someone's guard you should always be posturing, when you are on the bottom you should be breaking your opponents posture. Most of your time in jiu jitsu(im guessing you mean Brazilian from your description) is spent passing or defending the guard. Either way, posture is key. If you posture and keep your hands on your opponents chest to stop him sitting up then you shouldnt be in immediate danger on top. Make sure to keep your hands central and not put them on the floor(danger of kimura), extend them towards your opponents neck(armbar) or put one hand inside his guard(triangle). Often people will open their guard from here, in which case you should put one knee up and pass from there(im sure you will be shown the "knee through" pass)

With half guard(on the bottom), always be on your side with an underhook. There is a huge difference between a "good" half guard(on your side) and a "bad" one(flat on your back).

Probably the number one exercise is shrimping, or hip escapes. This becomes very important when preventing a guard pass or reclaiming guard from underneath side control. Underneath, always keep your arms tight in defending your neck, extending your arms from inferior postions usually leads to being armbarred.

Dont worry about submission for the time being,concentrate on achieving dominant positions like side control and mount. Submissions will come.

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posted Aug 27, 2008

best of luck with the training mate, i'm doing it over six years and loving it. No interest in fighting in the cage but have done some jits tournaments and most importantly, have met some great people through it - leave your ego at the door and enjoy!

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