jiu jitsu anyone?

[Farah636]

I just signed up to take jiu jitsu classes at my rec center...mainly because I was looking for something to spend my 50% employee discount on that's allotted to me once every quarter. Plus, I've never taken any form of martial arts before, and I've always wanted to. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone's ever tried it before and what their experience was? I don't know much about it except that it's Brazilian (how perfect, I'm taking Portuguese this quarter too! ) and a self-defense/combat sport. Having absolutely no experience with martial arts, I was wondering if you get a serious sweat going? The class meets for 1.5 hours 2x/week. I'm excited about starting, though I'm a little worried about the time commitment; I've academically stretched myself thin this quarter. Again.

 

[handels]

That sounds awesome! I did Taekwondo for years. I'm not sure how similar jiu jitsu is, but I definitely got a great workout with TKD. Although we did some pushups and situps, it was mostly a good cardio workout and I did weightlifting on my own.

So, you're not really spending extra time with the class, rather you are multitasking your workout with some credits. Good work! Have fun!!!

 

[LauraMax]

I took ju jitsu in my 20s (it's whereI met my ex hubby, in fact). The exact system was shorin do kenpo ju jitsu. There are a lot of different systems out there, but I believe the basic philosophy of all the ju jitsu systems are the same. It's basically a combination of martial arts & street fighting, using the momentum of your opponent's body weight against her/him. So you kind of get a sampling of everything--martial arts, boxing, grappling, and all out street fighting which is essentially self defense gone over the top--you learn how to get out of sticky situations with some pretty serious & potentially crippling moves.

I took it for about 3 years & really loved it. I got booted from the class b/c I just couldn't get into the spiritual side of it (3 minutes of meditation was like an eternity of torture for me). But I still remember most of what I learned, esp. the self defense part.

It's a really great workout too, esp. when you work w/the heavy bag. I say go for it, & let us know how you like it!

 

[DixieGirl]

My 11 yr old DS practices this type of martial arts and loves it. If I had more time I might join the adult class...maybe one day!

 

[Farah636]

Just had my first class today. It was AWESOME. Mind you, I almost twisted my foot during the warm-up (shuffling around the room, criss-crossing the legs...and I'm just awful at moving laterally!! I tripped over myself! lol) and I felt very slow when it came to learning the techniques, however, when we got to live grappling, I felt I did well, mainly because the instructor said to do whatever we needed to do in order to get our opponent to submit....so I did. And successfully pinned my opponent to submission every single time. I attribute it to being super feisty, and to being uber strong, thanks to Cathe!! My instructor also seemed impressed with my strength, though not quite as happy about my partner and me giggling the entire time. Still, it was fun.

Aaaand unrelated, but my instructor is Brazilian, so I rushed up to him to speak in broken Portuguese after class. Practicing my speaking skills in different languages always puts me in a great mood.