I’m an exceptionally strong advocate of exercise and personally believe it to have positive effects on our physical appearance as well as our mental and emotional well-being. After a recent ‘encounter’ at a local establishment, a friend suggested that I try my hand at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. (For those that are unfamiliar, it is ground grappling with focus on positioning and submitting your opponent.) I couldn’t let he opportunity to try something new pass me by so I decided to give it a shot. The facility that I visited was called Combat Sports Center, located in Rosedale, MD. I’ll break down my experience into individual categories in order emphasize different aspects of it.
First Impressions – Before going to the school, I decided to do a little research on the subject. I was pleasantly surprised to find the website for Combat Sports to be easy to navigate and up to date. It had current information on both of the facilities that it lends its name to. (The main facility is located in Virginia and appears to be a bit more prominent than its sister school in Rosedale) I was able to get background information as well as qualifications for all of the instructors at the school and also bios for the competitive fighters that compete on the school’s team. They also had breakdowns available for all of their different martial arts programs although the emphasis did seem to be placed on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai Kickboxing.
Training day – The day I was scheduled to begin training finally came. I was pretty anxious about the whole thing, I had never done any kind of martial arts before and I’ve never been much of a fighter. The whole idea of grappling with a group of experienced strangers made me a bit uncomfortable. The building itself was nothing notable, a simple brick building with the Combat Sports logo on it. A few of the guys were running wind sprints outside. I walked in and straight through the building into the gym portion where I was immediately approached by the head Muay Thai instructor, Greg Dorsey. He acknowledged that I was new, had me fill out an information form and gave me some advice for the coming session. “Tap early, tap often, breathe, and when in doubt, tuck your chin.” I was immediately sent in to participate in the training session and was not restricted from participating in any of the activities despite my inexperience. The session included warm-up drills, learning and practicing three different manuevers that were all related to a single position, a sort of game that involved the players taking turns attempting to pass another’s ‘guard’ (defensive postion), and ‘randori’ or free sparring which is the application of learned techniques against actively resisting opponents who are also attempting to apply their learned techniques on you as well. The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor, Monroe Hall, was incredibly patient and helpful but still I felt like I was thrown into the deep end without knowing how to swim. I was consistently submitted by my more experienced opponents several times while I spent my time just attempting to get out from underneath them. The sparring continued for about a half hour. We switched sparring partners several times and sparred with each one for 6 minutes at a time. I had to sit out one round because I did not have the grappling cardio that these students had. This came as a surprise to me as I had thought the fact that I run on a daily basis would have been more than enough. With that, training was over and everyone shook hands and headed out.
Afterthoughts – I thoroughly enjoyed my training session at Combat Sports Center. Although the training was very intense, the students were very disciplined and I never felt like I was in danger of being seriously hurt. There was a feeling of mutual respect between all of the members of the gym and everyone was willing to offer advice on technique or constructive criticism. It was an excellent workout and I felt like I had accomplished something upon leaving the building. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu may not be for everyone, and it is incredibly rough but for those of you looking to supplement your workouts, build confidence, or learn a bit of self defense, I highly recommend you give Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Combat Sports Center a shot.
