I'm new to bjj!

[Hanzou]

You need to relax and enjoy the ride. You have a long journey ahead of you, and I personally think you're over-training. I would recommend that you reduce your training time to 3 times a week for 2 hours, and maybe pop in for an open mat on the weekends when you're just starting out. Going balls to the wall as a newbie is a sure-fire way to burn yourself out.

Also Tony is 100% correct, rolling is not a competition. You're not there to win, you're there to LEARN. Experiment, take risks, and have fun. I'm not going to lie, when I was a white belt I hated being tapped too, but you need to learn how to lose so that you will lose your ego.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

BJJ instructor here ...


Forcing position through persistence is fine. Eventually you'll learn when it's a good idea to persist in working towards a position and when it's better to adapt and flow into something different, but it's fine to start out with a default towards persistence.

Forcing position through strength is not going to help you learn much of anything. One of the first principles of BJJ (like Judo) is maximum efficiency with minimum effort. If you rely on strength in training, you aren't going to learn the easy way of doing things.

In competition or a real fight, things are a bit different. Your main goal is winning, so you want to use all the tools at your disposal, including physical attributes like strength. Even there, though, you don't want to waste your available strength. If you've learned to move efficiently, you can keep your strength in your back pocket and pull it out just when you need it.

Realistically, even if you make a conscious effort to relax and rely on technique, you're still going to be using plenty of strength while rolling in the immediate future. That's because you're a beginner and you don't know how to use good technique yet. You'll be using way more strength than you need to and your partners will be getting practice on how to overcome that strength with superior leverage, positioning, timing, posture, structure, awareness, and adaptability. The more you focus on keeping your strength in reserve, the sooner you'll get to the point where you're the one beating stronger opponents with superior technique.



Yep. Right now you don't know much in the way of technique, so your physical attributes are all you have to work with. If the point of rolling was to win, you'd be absolutely correct in using them to the fullest extent.

The thing to remember is that rolling isn't about winning. It's about learning. If you are able to retain guard or win a superior position just through the application of strength, you haven't learned anything. If you get your guard passed and you are able to identify the technical flaws which allowed that to happen, then you have learned something useful.

Even if you really, really like "winning" during a roll, remember that in the long-term the students who invest in learning through losing will eventually be kicking the butts of the students who are only focused on "winning" each roll.

You need to relax and enjoy the ride. You have a long journey ahead of you, and I personally think you're over-training. I would recommend that you reduce your training time to 3 times a week for 2 hours, and maybe pop in for an open mat on the weekends when you're just starting out. Going balls to the wall as a newbie is a sure-fire way to burn yourself out.

Also Tony is 100% correct, rolling is not a competition. You're not there to win, you're there to LEARN. Experiment, take risks, and have fun. I'm not going to lie, when I was a white belt I hated being tapped too, but you need to learn how to lose so that you will lose your ego.

Tony and Hanzou have given you some good advice here. Relax, learn technique and try to apply it. Understand that you need to learn to utilize your body in an efficient manner and if you are relying on strength well there will always be someone bigger, stronger, etc. So if that is your go to and you are only 160lbs your going to have some issues moving forward. So, relax, learn and enjoy the process. Learn solid technique. Take some risks while rolling and have fun! Rolling is a great opportunity to be in an environment where you can work on the training you are receiving.