The first few weeks - natural assets.

From the third lesson on I was starting to make some good friends in the class and as there were some other new guys who all joined over the following few weeks I was already feeling like I wasn't the total newbie of the class (even though I was by far the unfittest person there) and I was actually finding that due to certain characteristics about my body, I have few natural abilties that could enhance my Jiu Jitsu game.

Firstly, I'm a shortass. I don't love this feature about me, in fact growing up it was always pretty annoying always feeling like "the short one" with your mates towering over you. I remember at an Almighty gig in Poole one time when I was young, me and my mate Steve were right at the front, and Floyd London, the bassist for The Almighty reached out with a plectrum to pass it to a lucky fan in the crowd. I was easily the closest to it but due to my previously mentioned shortass-ishness and the fact that my mate Steve was a rangy six footer, his arms reached out Inspector Gadget like and grabbed the guitar strumming device from the surprised band members hand. Anyway, with regards to Bjj my stumpyness is an advantage as my low centre of gravity makes me a very hard little nugget to sweep and I generally have the advantage when standing face to face with an opponent trying for a takedown. I have always had a pretty good base which tends to frustrate any rolling partners.

Second, I'm naturally flexible as hell. My legs especially. Remember when you were back at school and there was always one kid who could put his legs behind his head. That kid was me. It was kind of like a weird party trick that everyone used to ask me to do when we were getting pissed. Another act of insane flexibility related athleticism that I regularly perform was to hurdle ridiculously high things. You name it, I'd hurdle it. The big gate at our school, the railings down our local town, a picnic bench, tennis net. A couple of times during the height of my attention seeking ways I hurdled a Badminton Net. I know how totally unbelievable that sounds but I did it on more than one occasion. With witnesses. So, my flexibility is also a great natural asset to my Bjj game because often I can use the flexibility in my legs as an escape from mount. Sometimes when an opponent is sitting on me in mount and sitting up just slightly too much I can hook him off with one or both legs, most often landing in their guard but occasionally coming out sideways in the scramble and going straight into side control.  Other handy uses of having flexible legs are that I've never been tapped using any kind of leg lock.

My third handy attribute at that time was that by the time I got to rolling I was sweating like a pretty boy in a prison riot. This was a great help because opponents found it difficult to get a decent grip on me. I have recently been on the other end of this and it is very frustrating. About 5 weeks ago at my Bristol class I was rolling against a newbie who reminded me a lot of myself when I first started, bar the good looks (yeah right). He's a bit out of shape being on the wrong side of 15 stone, wasn't wearing a gi, and was absolutely soaking. I made the mistake of pulling guard on him to let him have top as he was new but then I couldn't get a grip on him he was so wet. In the end I only just managed to sweep him using a bastardized version of the rubber guard before time was called. I now realise just how frustrating the sweaty no-gi newbie can be.

Although not totally unbeatable characteristics to have, they certainly proved helpful  to my early development whilst sparring as I tapped out a lot less than I would have had I not possessed said attributes. Couple that with the fact that we had a good 7 or 8 new guys that started all at the same time and I was occasionally finding luck at a very early point in my Bjj journey, often tapping people out with the Americana, my one good technique.

Until next time \m/