Gracie Barra Mansfield | Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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Grappling for Dummies—5 Tips to Improve Your White Belt Journey

Here at Gracie Barra Mansfield, we are your Brazilian Jiu Jitsu connection. We are here to help you stay safe and have fun doing it. I am Dojo Diva and I am not a real MMA fighter, I just play one on XBox 😀 . Also, I am a 41 year old mother who’s been practicing BJJ for over a year and a half so I am living proof that Jiu Jitsu really IS for everyone.

I’ve taken other forms of martial arts, but what makes Brazilian Jiu Jitsu highly unique is that you stay a white belt for a long…long…looooong time. The difference between a new white belt who still has the creases in his new gi and a four-stripe white belt who’s been training for a year or more is pretty amazing.

Especially when you’ve been on the journey yourself.

I am hovering on the precipice of earning my blue belt, which is why I am always hesitant to give any kind of martial arts “advice.” I know I am NOT a black belt and don’t pretend to be. Every moment on the mat is a reminder of all I still have yet to learn.

But, since the most common belt for those practicing Jiu Jitsu is the white belt, I thought maybe I could give some tips to help shorten the learning curve. As much as I love Jiu Jitsu, the simple reality is that not everyone who starts training as a white belt ever makes it to blue. Sometimes it is just life, time, finances, but it could also be burnout or injury. I confess there were times I considered “tapping out” and it had more to do with my mind than anything else.

So I’ve listed the top five things I wish I would have known a heck of a lot earlier and I hope it enriches your BJJ experience and improves your game…

Tip #1 Slow Down

When I started in BJJ a year and a half ago, I had no skills and less smarts, but I did have strength. I used brute force but really all it earned me was far too many minor injuries and I ran out of steam quickly. This made grappling far tougher than it needed to be.

Powering through might work for one round or even two, but after that? I wouldn’t have the gas to continue. In a competition? Though could be a big deal.

Also by going too quickly and relying on strength, I wasn’t slowing down enough to SEE places where I might gain advantage.

Tip #2 Breathe

These days, whenever a newer white belt gets red in the face and sweaty, I make him slow down and remember the breath. Breath is critical for mental calmness that makes for better Jiu Jitsu.

Tip #3 Keep Your Elbows IN

Seems like a no-brainer for the upper belts, but when I was new, I’d get so scope-locked, that I wouldn’t notice my elbows were flared and I was getting arm-barred CONSTANTLY. These days, I am still a white belt and no Ronda Rousey, but I am at least staying in the game. I might not yet be winning as much as I’d like to, but I am holding my own.

I’ve learned in the last year and a half that if I slow down, remember my breath, and keep my elbows in, I can often outlast a far larger and far more skilled opponent.

Tip #4 THINK

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a highly unique form of martial arts. It is not as reliant on size and strength as other forms of martial arts. It is a very cerebral sport and part of the growth process of being a white belt is to mature from being purely reactive to thinking tactically.

It’s hard when an opponent has you smashed in side-control to resist the urge to do SOMETHING! ANYTHING to get out of that seriously uncomfortable place. But Jiu Jitsu is CHESS, not Tiddlywinks 😉 .

Often, just being still and focusing on the breath forces our opponent to change tactics and move. Any movement provides opportunity for a reversal. Once we get more advanced, we can start predicting (or even directing) what that move might be and then using it for advantage.

Tip #5 Tap

Since I am a Type-A overachiever, this was one of the hardest things for me to learn in the beginning. Now? I have no pride. If someone gets the arm bar? I am not going to try and wrestle out of it, because even if I could get out of it? Often I strain something along the way and it isn’t worth the downtime.

These days? The second I feel someone might have the submission, I tap. Then I ask if we can backtrack a bit so I can war-game what I did wrong so that, hopefully, it won’t happen again.

Jiu Jistu isn’t an event, but a process. If we relax and learn to slow down, relax, and pay attention? The journey is far more enjoyable.

We hope you will join us on the mats here in Mansfield. In the meantime have fun and stay frosty!

Dojo Diva

September 19, 2015
10 Tips Everyone Should Know Before Training Jiu Jitsu

Image via Gracie Magazine

Gracie Barra Mansfield, Texas strives to bring you the best Jiu Jitsu training in the Fort Worth/Arlington area. We’d like to share these TEN TIPS for Beginners from Gracie Magazine:

If you are a white belt just starting out or have been practicing the martial art for many year now, it doesn’t matter! We all should read these 10 tips in order to get the most out of our Jiu-Jitsu training and make sure we’re up to speed on all things in the future. Check it out:

1. Trust and be trustworthy.

NEVER hold a sub past the tap out. When in doubt as to whether your training partner has tapped, let go—better safe than sorry. By striving to be a more reliable training partner and trust your teammates and coaches, the environment becomes a safer and more pleasant place in which to learn. If you’re not having fun, none of it makes any sense. Jiu-Jitsu is something you carry with you for the rest of your life. Each stage should be great; after all, the art is the most wonderful addiction you could possibly have.

2. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is done in a gi.

As trendy as it is, make sure to have a good understanding of the techniques using cloth before venturing into “No-Gi”. It’s easier to adapt your Gi techniques to No-Gi than vice-versa.

3. Don’t ask black belts to roll.

You can train with black belts but make sure you’re invited. This tip is kind of old fashioned and is often resented by recently promoted students. It happens that the higher-ranked feel like they are being “challenged” when a lower belt summons them to train. You have to realize that they know who is available just by the way the person looks at them. Look at them humbly and make it clear you’re available—if they want to, they’ll invite you…

CONTINUE ARTICLE

August 14, 2015
The Grace in “Gracie” and Training to Be PEACEFUL

Dojo Diva here to talk more on the Gracie State of Mind. At Gracie-Barra Mansfield, we love serving the DFW community, but through this blog, we can do more. We can share what it means to practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, how it goes way beyond becoming a lean, mean fighting machine.

One thing I have been learning a lot about is the “Grace” part of “Gracie.” I have been working hard for over a year to get my blue belt. I was doing great and then got SHINGLES. Ugh. I had to take time off. Then I got started AGAIN and have been going strong since January. Then, last Friday? I was in the Urgent Care.

Poison Ivy. *head desk*

Just about the time I felt I was getting some SERIOUS momentum? I had to take off Saturday and might take off another night… and I am struggling NOT to have a panic attack.

Will I be okay? Will I forget all I know? Will they remember who I am? Will I lose my will to get my blue belt?

*twitch* *twitch*

But I think I am doing better with giving myself more grace. I know that persistence prevails when all else fails. Often it is when we rest, when we cease to stop fighting, that we begin to see real improvement.

More is not always better.

For instance, when I first joined Jiu Jitsu, I used to power through everything. It didn’t take long until I was winded and soaked in sweat…and caught in an arm bar.

WHAT? HOW did THAT happen?

I was going too fast, pressing too hard. I wasn’t pacing myself. I couldn’t understand why the upper belts just kept shaking their heads and telling me that I was “working too hard.”

Of course I am working hard, because this is AMERICA and hard work eventually pays off!

Commies…

Then, last week something changed. Suddenly, I was fine. I was cool, even. I moved with ease and relatively slowly. I stopped to think before making a move…and I was UNSTOPPABLE. When I relaxed and didn’t “try so hard” I actually did a lot better.

But I keep having the same lessons over and over. Giving myself grace. I don’t have to be busy ALL THE TIME. Faster is not better. Working harder isn’t working smarter. It is OKAY to slow down. Taking a day or two off won’t derail EVERYTHING.

So, enjoy the summer vacation. Float in a pool. Get off the phone. No, we don’t have to multi-task every waking second. We CAN actually just BE. We are human BEINGS not human DOINGS.

Be smart and be safe!

Dojo Diva

June 22, 2015
Gracie Barra Mansfield—Where Boys Can Be Boys

Gracie-Barra Mansfield is a fabulous place to learn, grow and make lasting friendships. We are a dojo for the WHOLE family, so if you are in the Arlington, TX area, come by for a visit! We are offering an entire month for FREE.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is called “the gentle martial art” because it is a form that can be practiced for a lifetime. It is well-suited for small children and is an art they can carry into the later years of life. Spawn (my five-year-old-son) and I practice BJJ together.

Though BJJ has been beneficial for both of us, I am really seeing what a difference it is making in him. Spawn is a great kid, but he was in a terrible accident when he was only a little over two. He pulled a heavy bar stool over on his face and knocked his four front teeth up into the maxilla (upper jaw bone). $20,000 worth of maxo-faxial surgery later, we took home our wee baby Bat Boy.

On top of having the missing teeth, Spawn is unusually tall for his age. His father is 6′ 6″. So between the missing teeth and the height, people (adults and kids) would assume he was far older than he really was. Thus, they didn’t understand why this GROWN kid was in Pull-Ups. They didn’t “get” that who they thought was a FIVE year-old was only three. That he wasn’t talking a lot and not fully potty trained because he was STILL a TODDLER.

I ran interference as much as I could, but kids and even adults can be cruel, sometimes not intentionally. By the next year, a child who smiled NON-STOP hid his face. I have very few pictures of him when he is not SLEEPING because the accident had taken a toll on his self-esteem. Then, we had trouble with the preschool he’d been in most of his life and I decided to homeschool.

I detail what led up to that in my post Common Core and Vegan Zombies.

I will admit that not all public schools are the same, but there is a lot of research that shows our culture is becoming increasingly anti-boy. While girls are now thriving in school, boys are struggling.

Our modern educational design has shifted to being more sedentary, collaborative, risk-averse, and feelings-focused which favors girls. Meanwhile, boys tend to be the casualties of the ever-increasing Zero-Tolerance Policies as well as the criminalization of minor offenses. Recess is disappearing and natural “boy behavior” is being medicalized and medicated, demonized and punished.

Boys are naturally more rambunctious. They play aggressively (think bear cubs) and can be inattentive, especially at younger ages. In my opinion, the current model of education is outdated. Our educational system was created as a result of the Industrial Revolution. It was funded and canonized in order to provide future generations of good factory workers. We were a nation of manufacturing and we NEEDED people who could sit still and focus on a singular task all…day…long.

These days, the US is no longer a center for manufacturing. That has moved to developing countries. Most jobs require an insane amount of multi-tasking, which (in my mind) favors those of us wired to be more A.D.D.

But that’s another blog 😀 .

And all of my socio-political arguments aside, I think most of us would at least confess that kids are expected to sit still and pay attention for far too long and then face punishment when they don’t (or can’t) comply to an unreasonable about of sedentariness.

We are blessed to live in Mansfield. I am working with the schools now and I don’t know if I will send Spawn off to Kindergarden this year now that he is old enough. I know Mansfield has an outstanding reputation so that does mitigate a lot of my worries. But, even in GREAT school systems like ours, I think we as parents can help our kids (especially our BOYS) thrive by adding in BOY-FRIENDLY activities.

I help teach the kid’s class and it is ALWAYS AWESOME to see a class filled with little girls. I grew up being the ONLY female taking martial arts and it is super cool to see these girls starting so young. But what is even COOLER for me as the mother of a son, is to have a place where Spawn is rewarded for being a BOY. Wrestling and giggling and tackling are GOOD and even rewarded.

It’s been wonderful to see my boy go from being shy and afraid to talk to people to all smiles and giggles. He LOVES BJJ and loves the kids there. Since he is engaging more, his speech is improving. I am seeing him interested in far more things because he’s gotten back that spark of bravery that the accident had almost snuffed out.

At Gracie Barra Mansfield, boys can be boys in a safe environment where boy behavior is a GOOD thing and is channeled in healthy and productive ways. It is a wonderful blend of discipline and flexibility.

I look forward to seeing you in class and BRING ON THE BOYZ!!!

What are your thoughts? Are you the parent of a boy? Do you find yourself having to add in extra “boy-friendly activities”?

Stay smart, stay calm and stay SAFE!

~Dojo Diva

June 8, 2015