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Comment by bitexploder | Hacker News Reader

I have been doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for several years now. It is achingly hard as a sport earlier on. But for the most serious practitioners it becomes an expression of art. The movement of the human body in a lethal dance. The full expression of that art is something I aim for in the back of my head. Early on it was about the sport, exercise, etc. you realize the hard work is just the means required to expressing the art and that becomes primary for me. Not everyone views BJJ in this way, of course, but I do.

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I've trained on and off for the years. Probably only 100ish hours of mat time. I'd rolled with mainly white and blue belts, the occasional purple, and maybe 1 brown. Even with that, I understood that there are some serious levels to this.

Then last year I rolled with a black belt. It was like a different game. I'm a big dude, but I could not move this guy. It was like trying to move a car, it just rocked a little as he looked at me with amusement and pity. He did the same stuff I know, just better. And he knew what I was thinking before I knew it. He's got top half guard, and Im fighting for an underhook. As I think, "Ok, he cant choke me with 1 hand, he won't go for the brabo", he goes, "You know I can still sink this with 1 hand, right?".

He did, and he looked bored doing it.

Heh, I often put white belts and blue belts in unfamiliar dilemmas. There is a lot that goes into weight distribution. They say each belt adds 10 lbs. I am of course not very good relative to most black belts, but I’m starting to challenge them in some spots. I am also relatively large so I follow a catch and release philosophy. I don’t too pressure smaller guys and I often concede positions etc. it’s like, I know I can hit escapes at the right places, why not let everyone work and have fun instead of just smash. That’s a good lesson about strong guys though. I train with some MMA guys that are huge and you learn who you have to move around. Some guys you just can’t move. I don’t care about winning or losing anymore. Some times I give away too much and get tapped. And that’s fine :)

no, i've heard it said the other way... every N pounds is as if they had an additional belt

Both can be true. (I'm a purple belt and have experienced both sides.)

Right, it's just to point out that you learn how to better control your partner and apply leverage. How to use pins and wedges to block hips and such, etc. The net effect is someone that easily gives up 30 lbs on you that has really good technique can feel impossibly heavy. Then you can roll with a big white belt and move them around all day and feel safe doing it :)

There's nothing more humbling when you fight a guy and realize you literally have no chance of beating him and you are merely being toyed with. It's such a strange, frustrating place to be because in most other scraps you get into as a kid you are evenly matched but when you start out in martial arts and spar with top practitioners, you are completely outclassed.

My judo club was awesome: It’s about 70 people, all belts mixed during a good half of the session, but also all ages mixed, and you can invite anyone you want. Like in a dance club. Fighting a 12 years old who smashes me or a 70yo who also smashes me, truely made me alive. Along with, of course, the variety of people at my level.

A shoulder dislocation, and shoulder surgery, immediately preceding the pandemic, plus the pandemic itself, took BJJ away from me and I am miserable without it.

I miss rolling. I miss the art. I miss getting destroyed by upper belts who could seemingly read my mind, and yet were doing everything I could, just way better.

I can’t wait to get back.

I still suck at inversions though

I feel you. I’ve only been back on the mats for a few months. Don’t discount drilling and instructionals. I felt really sorry for myself for a while and then just started hitting instructional with all my learning skills and creating drills for myself, doing other drills I found. After being back on the mats, it took a couple months, but all that work really paid off. It was like I was a different player of the game once my cardio got where it needed to be and I refined the smaller details of what I had been working on over the pandemic. But man was it hard, working that way for 6+ months with no clear indication of when there would be Jiu Jitsu again. I am 41… I only invert for very specific guard retention scenarios. I don’t think you have to ever be particularly good with inverting to play a full game that is your own :)

Yeah, tbh, the lack of anything was mostly depression through the pandemic, largely because I’m also an extrovert. Shit was hard.

I’m doing PT right now and then planning a return.

And yeah, the inversion thing was mostly a joke :) I prefer seeing things right-side up :)

I understand where you're coming from, having experienced nearly the exact same thing until returning about six weeks ago.

I will warn you, though: BJJ may not be a cure for the depression you may or may not be in right now. I realized I was putting BJJ up on a pedestal during the depression, thinking "If only I could do that again, things would be looking much brighter." It turns out returning was great, and I love being back, but it in and of itself is not life therapy.

Yeah, that much I figured out - people are my solution to the depression. Seeing people regularly is what helps keep me happy; not even necessarily friends, though that helps significantly, but spontaneous interactions - the coffee shop, the grocery store, etc.

People are the most interesting things in the word.

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