MattofSilat
Orange Belt
Hey there everyone! At 11:00 this morning, I went to my first Jujitsu class. I guess I'll describe the whole thing, because this forum hasn't been posted on for a few days so hell, some of you may find it interesting to see the mindset and experience of a martial arts noob. I'll do a summary afterwards. Well, actually, it was my first martial arts class, full stop. I have been very interested for the last two months, but haven't done anything about it, so I was ripe with anticipation.
Whole story:
I arrive 10 minutes before it starts. Joggers and T-Shirt as opposed to Gi and Belt. Like a boss, a very embarrassed boss, yet a boss all the same. I make the walk of shame into the hell and stand against the wall with everyone else. Quite a few green belts, a blue belt and two brown belts. The brown belts happened to be about a foot taller than me, and it just so happened the only space to lean on was next to them. The minis clear off, and do a bow as they walk off the mats. I am about to walk on, then everyone around me bows! Quickly, copy them! After doing so, I line up, in the wrong line. Great. So then I line up again, alongside the Green belts as opposed to the brown ones this time.
I don't really know what it was, but the main instructor kept saying things in Japanese and, as a result, everyone followed (With me closely on their tail). It basically went: One Knee down, Other knee down to kneel with crossed feet, bow while still kneeling, get up, etc. It seemed quite traditional, maybe you guys know what it is. Then the brown belts basically told us to do various stretches (Including 30 press-ups, pretty sure I was the first to do it in my line. Well proud.) Everyone else lines up, while I get pulled aside by the other instructor to learn how to breakfall. It was a bit of a failure at first, but I soon got the hang of it. I like the front breakfall, nice and simple. The side ones are the most difficult, with the back one sitting in the middle. The instructors were really nice, they told us practical self defense techniques with variations, they had a good sense of humor, could be seemingly brutal at times (Demonstrated a technique on my blue belt partner for me, basically swept the floor with him instantly). They just seemed like really good instructors in general, and were also constantly coming around to help us. We are doing kick defenses. I can't really remember the techniques very well, but they all started with parrying the opponents leg as they kicked, then stepped to the outside. Here's the ones I remember:
1) They kicked, we elbowed to the solar plexus (after the aforementioned step). We then bent one leg so I was closer to the legs, but not in range on knees or kicks (Atleast, they wouldn't have any power if they somehow managed to kick/knee from that position) We then put the arm around their leg, armpit around the front, to sort of trap their leg to my body. I then put my weight on to put pressure on the knee, so they fall backwards or break their knee.
2) They kicked, I pushed their leg inwards to turn them towards me as I step outside, a punch in the back followed by an arm around the kneck to drag them back into the knees. This is where it got pretty cool. Our instructor taught us several moves to follow up. He taught me how to Strangle and how to choke, advantages and disadvantages, etc. He also taught to twist and drag their hands back, stand on them, then break the nose. The cool bit is, he told us that you use the choke when it's 1v1, or the strike when the opponent has 'his mates' around. I found it really cool how they adjusted the techniques for self defense purposes, I didn't think they would do that.
3) The other two were quite similar. The first was catching the ankle, pulling it forward to stretch, then sweeping the same leg with a shin kick to bring them to the floor. I can't really remember the other one very well, but it was a shin kick sweep to take them down.
Due to being the same height, my partner was the blue belt. He looked about equal to me in the practice (Is there a name for that 'practice'?), then the instructor told him to do a demonstration, and he basically did it perfectly, fluently and instantly. That was a bit of a wake-up call. After all this, the intructor told us to do two hip throws on eachother, then call it a day. Awesome, the basic move, easy, right? Well, my blue belt friend nailed it. I, did not. I was told how to do it. One hand on the sleeve, around the waist, step infront, hips out, roll him on the back, push off knees to throw. Sweet! Sadly, I could not get him on my back. Needless to less, it kind of ended up as me 'tripping' him by pulling his arm and therefore his torso into my *** so he fell over. I need to work on that. Then we did the sequence of kneels, bows, and stuff again, before waving goodbye. Only three more weeks, then there's a month off. I'm happy it's only a month off, I really need to improve, and I want to. The instructor said that we can go to Adult classes as well if we wish, on Mondays and Thursdays. I'd love to go, going 3 times a week will surely improve me massively, but I am definitely struggling enough with my own weight/height/skill/age, so going to Adults aswell may not be the best choice at the moment.
SUMMARY: Instructors are awesome. Traditional knee, kneel, bow, thing. Stretches. I learnt to breakfall. We learnt kick defenses. I wasn't that bad, they seemed pretty simple yet effective. They contained parrying the leg, following up with a strike of some sort (I was happy to see we were using Knees and Elbows to strike, that was one of my main concerns), then did a takedown, sometimes followed up by finishing techniques/strikes. Tried to do a hip throw. Did **** at that. Said goodbye.
One more funny thing. First practice, first techiqnue, first partner. Thrown with a hip throw. BREAKFALL! Breakfell on the wrong arm, fell head first. Hurt a lot. Recovered.
Now some questions:
1) Breakfalls. Can I just practice them out in the Garden? We only actually practiced a total of four (Front, back, each side) for a total of five minutes, so let me confirm. On the back, you slam both hands down on either side. On side, slam appropriate arm down, angle it up towards the head to it happens before you hit your head. For front, just land on forearms. Is that correct?
2) Hip Throws. 1. How can I practice them at home? I know they're basic, and I know it's my first two hip throws ever, but I was unbelieveably bad. 2. It MAY have been a strength issue. I go to the Gym 3 times a week, but never work on lower back or glutes because I've never really used them in a fashion where they have to be strong. Should I start working them, if not, what muscles are the most important for Hip throws and the variations of them. Would it be best to do a whole body (Like, not arms, shoulders, upper body, quads, Hamstring, ENTIRE body, including Lower back and glutes) for Jujitsu, as it appears that it uses a very large variety of techniques which use all different parts of the body.
3) Anything else you would reccomend I practice at home? I do skipping quite a bit because my hand eye coordination kind of sucks, is there anything more I can practice then breakfalls?
Thank you for reading. Tell me about your first experiences with Jujitsu, or, in my case, marital arts in general!
Whole story:
I arrive 10 minutes before it starts. Joggers and T-Shirt as opposed to Gi and Belt. Like a boss, a very embarrassed boss, yet a boss all the same. I make the walk of shame into the hell and stand against the wall with everyone else. Quite a few green belts, a blue belt and two brown belts. The brown belts happened to be about a foot taller than me, and it just so happened the only space to lean on was next to them. The minis clear off, and do a bow as they walk off the mats. I am about to walk on, then everyone around me bows! Quickly, copy them! After doing so, I line up, in the wrong line. Great. So then I line up again, alongside the Green belts as opposed to the brown ones this time.
I don't really know what it was, but the main instructor kept saying things in Japanese and, as a result, everyone followed (With me closely on their tail). It basically went: One Knee down, Other knee down to kneel with crossed feet, bow while still kneeling, get up, etc. It seemed quite traditional, maybe you guys know what it is. Then the brown belts basically told us to do various stretches (Including 30 press-ups, pretty sure I was the first to do it in my line. Well proud.) Everyone else lines up, while I get pulled aside by the other instructor to learn how to breakfall. It was a bit of a failure at first, but I soon got the hang of it. I like the front breakfall, nice and simple. The side ones are the most difficult, with the back one sitting in the middle. The instructors were really nice, they told us practical self defense techniques with variations, they had a good sense of humor, could be seemingly brutal at times (Demonstrated a technique on my blue belt partner for me, basically swept the floor with him instantly). They just seemed like really good instructors in general, and were also constantly coming around to help us. We are doing kick defenses. I can't really remember the techniques very well, but they all started with parrying the opponents leg as they kicked, then stepped to the outside. Here's the ones I remember:
1) They kicked, we elbowed to the solar plexus (after the aforementioned step). We then bent one leg so I was closer to the legs, but not in range on knees or kicks (Atleast, they wouldn't have any power if they somehow managed to kick/knee from that position) We then put the arm around their leg, armpit around the front, to sort of trap their leg to my body. I then put my weight on to put pressure on the knee, so they fall backwards or break their knee.
2) They kicked, I pushed their leg inwards to turn them towards me as I step outside, a punch in the back followed by an arm around the kneck to drag them back into the knees. This is where it got pretty cool. Our instructor taught us several moves to follow up. He taught me how to Strangle and how to choke, advantages and disadvantages, etc. He also taught to twist and drag their hands back, stand on them, then break the nose. The cool bit is, he told us that you use the choke when it's 1v1, or the strike when the opponent has 'his mates' around. I found it really cool how they adjusted the techniques for self defense purposes, I didn't think they would do that.
3) The other two were quite similar. The first was catching the ankle, pulling it forward to stretch, then sweeping the same leg with a shin kick to bring them to the floor. I can't really remember the other one very well, but it was a shin kick sweep to take them down.
Due to being the same height, my partner was the blue belt. He looked about equal to me in the practice (Is there a name for that 'practice'?), then the instructor told him to do a demonstration, and he basically did it perfectly, fluently and instantly. That was a bit of a wake-up call. After all this, the intructor told us to do two hip throws on eachother, then call it a day. Awesome, the basic move, easy, right? Well, my blue belt friend nailed it. I, did not. I was told how to do it. One hand on the sleeve, around the waist, step infront, hips out, roll him on the back, push off knees to throw. Sweet! Sadly, I could not get him on my back. Needless to less, it kind of ended up as me 'tripping' him by pulling his arm and therefore his torso into my *** so he fell over. I need to work on that. Then we did the sequence of kneels, bows, and stuff again, before waving goodbye. Only three more weeks, then there's a month off. I'm happy it's only a month off, I really need to improve, and I want to. The instructor said that we can go to Adult classes as well if we wish, on Mondays and Thursdays. I'd love to go, going 3 times a week will surely improve me massively, but I am definitely struggling enough with my own weight/height/skill/age, so going to Adults aswell may not be the best choice at the moment.
SUMMARY: Instructors are awesome. Traditional knee, kneel, bow, thing. Stretches. I learnt to breakfall. We learnt kick defenses. I wasn't that bad, they seemed pretty simple yet effective. They contained parrying the leg, following up with a strike of some sort (I was happy to see we were using Knees and Elbows to strike, that was one of my main concerns), then did a takedown, sometimes followed up by finishing techniques/strikes. Tried to do a hip throw. Did **** at that. Said goodbye.
One more funny thing. First practice, first techiqnue, first partner. Thrown with a hip throw. BREAKFALL! Breakfell on the wrong arm, fell head first. Hurt a lot. Recovered.
Now some questions:
1) Breakfalls. Can I just practice them out in the Garden? We only actually practiced a total of four (Front, back, each side) for a total of five minutes, so let me confirm. On the back, you slam both hands down on either side. On side, slam appropriate arm down, angle it up towards the head to it happens before you hit your head. For front, just land on forearms. Is that correct?
2) Hip Throws. 1. How can I practice them at home? I know they're basic, and I know it's my first two hip throws ever, but I was unbelieveably bad. 2. It MAY have been a strength issue. I go to the Gym 3 times a week, but never work on lower back or glutes because I've never really used them in a fashion where they have to be strong. Should I start working them, if not, what muscles are the most important for Hip throws and the variations of them. Would it be best to do a whole body (Like, not arms, shoulders, upper body, quads, Hamstring, ENTIRE body, including Lower back and glutes) for Jujitsu, as it appears that it uses a very large variety of techniques which use all different parts of the body.
3) Anything else you would reccomend I practice at home? I do skipping quite a bit because my hand eye coordination kind of sucks, is there anything more I can practice then breakfalls?
Thank you for reading. Tell me about your first experiences with Jujitsu, or, in my case, marital arts in general!