I have been training in Muay Thai for a couple of years now, and while I absolutely love it, I have been a bit restless and ready for a new challenge. I am fortunate to train in a gym that has only top level professional fighters as instructors, so I have seen some awesome mixed martial artists at work. After some internal debate did I want to concentrate on my hands and focus on boxing? try judo? maybe do a boot camp? I decided it was time to give Brazilian Jiu Jitsu a try.
I have always admired masters of BJJ Technique. The focus, strategic thinking, and mental and physical agility required to perfect this martial art are extraordinary. Even a slightly misplaced hand may mean the difference between winning and losing a match. The absolute precision required of the BJJ athlete combined with the necessity of creating strategy on the move is profoundly challenging.
I am someone who likes to understand things and be good at what I do. This makes starting a physically and mentally challenging martial art from scratch somewhat problematic for me. So I decided that I would take a couple of private training lessons in basic BJJ Technique before beginning to roll with the class. It is one of the best training decisions I have ever made.
My instructor is Steve Headden, former ISCF Middle Weight World Champion. Steve is a former Army Ranger, a professional MMA fighter, five time Pan American Medalist, and two time World Games Champion with black belts in both Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Basically an all around Bad Ass, and here he is teaching me the basics of BJJ Technique. I am seriously lucky. The best part about it is that he is an awesome teacher and one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. Definitely the speak softly and no need to carry a big stick type.
For our first lesson, Steve suggested we do some basic self defense so that I could get a feel for how BJJ Technique can be useful in real world situations. What an eye opener! I am not a skittish person. The area I grew up in is not easy, I have lived in New York, traveled in the Middle East, Latin America and other parts of the developing world. I know how to be aware of my surroundings, not put myself in dangerous situations and if I do happen to be in a difficult situation I can handle myself. On top of that I have been studying Thai Boxing for a couple of years. I am no expert, but I am not a push over either. All my thoughts of being able to handle myself went out the window as Steve used a couple of simple moves to get me to the ground and incapacitate me before I had any idea what was going on.
Steve then proceeded to show me how to counter these attacks and we moved into learning some of the vocabulary of BJJ Technique: Guard, Half Guard, Mount, Side Mount, Rear Mount and North South. All in all it was a very full hour and I was seriously glad I had brought my notebook. It was everything I hoped it would be, physically demanding, mentally challenging and the promise of becoming even more so. . . . I can not wait until our next class.
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