How Can You Make Your First BJJ Sparring Session Less Intimidating?

When anyone starts their training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, their first session is very different from their later sessions. Various people have different weaknesses, which are exposed when they first join BJJ. Some people are very nervous about their first class and are getting intimidated. Some are even so nervous that they start getting panicked over them. Others lose their confidence completely. Some practitioners cannot concentrate fully on the techniques and therefore cannot learn them thoroughly. So there are different issues associated with the first BJJ session for practitioners. But the most common among them is that the session is very intimidating for them. They are very scared of it. So you should know how to make your first sparring session less intimidating. Let's dive into these.

The first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu session is very intimidating for many BJJ beginners due to the following reasons:

• BJJ is very difficult to learn. This is the first reason that makes the BJJ practitioners scared in the first BJJ session. When they come to an academy for the very first time, they see others executing and practicing the techniques that they find very difficult to do.

• BJJ looks violent to beginners. The violence is also an important reason. They will see others getting submitted to the arm bars or any other position in which the risk of getting injured is very high, especially chokes. This is enough to scare them.

• We all have observed in our lives that we are more scared when we know nothing about the coming situation, compared to when we do know at least some of it. In the first session of BJJ, the practitioners don’t know anything at all. They don’t know what will happen to them and how they are going to face them. So this makes them even more fearful.

• Another common reason for BJJ practitioners getting intimidated is that they see others getting close to each other and doing anything they want to do just to win the match. This is a major fact, and this makes a lot of beginners very uncomfortable. Allowing someone to get very close to you physically and make any movement or technique against you is a major discomfort. So seeing this also makes the beginners very intimidated.

Now, we have come across the right question, especially for the beginners who are very determined to take BJJ as their career but are getting scared of it. As a beginner or even as a coach, you should know how to make the first session for beginners less intimidating so that they can have more confidence and can start their career without getting terrified. The following are some of the ways that you can utilize to make your first sparring session less intimidating:

• The first way to make your first BJJ session less intimidating is mental preparation. This is the first step you need to take, and this is probably the most ignored step by many practitioners. The reason is that they don’t think that mental preparation is also very important.

• But the fact is that mental preparation is not just important; it works as the backbone of your BJJ training. If you are not even prepared mentally, then you will not be able to do anything properly. So it is very important for you to prepare yourself mentally.

• But how do you do that? You can do this by following a common breathing method. This method or rule is the 4-7-8 rule. By this rule, you have to follow your breathing pattern or inhalation and exhalation according to the 4,7, and 8 seconds. So, for doing this, first inhale and breathe deeply for four seconds, then hold your breath for seven seconds, and then, after this, exhale forcefully for eight seconds. So this is how this rule works.

• For mental preparation, it is also important for you to keep your nerves under control. By keeping your nerves in control, you are avoiding getting scared or panicked, and this breathing rule helps a lot in this. So the first step is to do the mental preparation and keep your nerves in control by breathing rules.

• Visualization, or in the case of BJJ, fight visualization, is a very strong concept of fighting technique that many great fighters do before their matches. In this technique, they make a fighting strategy tailored specifically to their opponent. They do this by studying their opponent in detail. They see their interviews where they talk about their favorite techniques, positions, and even strategies. Also, they watch their matches so that they can better understand their opponent. Watching their matches gives a very detailed analysis, and this helps a lot to study them in detail.

• So once they have done this, they now know everything about their opponent, such as their favourite techniques or positions, most common techniques, the techniques that can make them trapped or get them in discomfort or difficulty, and their submission techniques.

• So now the fighters have a complete detail about how their opponent fights or grapples. According to this, the grappler makes a fighting strategy to better counter that specific opponent. In their mind, they repeat or revise all their movements and techniques. This is known as the fight visualization.

• Following the same pattern, you can also visualize your first sparring session by watching BJJ matches or training sessions. You can make a complete roadmap of everything in the correct order that is going to happen in your mind. This will make you ready to face all the things in your first session because you will already know what is going to happen.

• The third way is to read the body language of your sparring partner. There are many studies conducted across various parts of the world that give us the conclusion that most communication we do with each other is through our body language. It means that we do not understand each other with our words as much as we do with body language. This is how prominent and important our body language is.

• With the body language, we mean that we transfer our feelings or thoughts to another person without using any words or verbally. So it is non verbal form of communication that is even more dominant than verbal communication. This can be through our gestures, posture, signals we are making with our hands or body, or movements. This is what we call body language.

• So you need to read the body language of your sparring partner. This will make your session much easier. You will come to know how your partner moves themselves, executes the techniques, makes the strategies, and other things like these. You can easily counter the moves and actions of your opponent. This will also help you in the proper execution of the moves and techniques.

• It is a universal thing that there are always some rules and regulations for everything. It does not matter where you are going and what you are going to do; you will have to follow the rules whether willingly or not. These rules are established to keep the discipline.
  Similar to these, there are some rules and regulations that govern the training or sparring. There are some rules that are written clearly and everybody knows them. But besides these clearly written rules, there are some others that are not very clear, but everyone follows them. These are often called the code of the ring. In BJJ, there are also some codes and ethics that you need to follow. Some of them are the following:

• You should know the intensity of the game. You should know how fast you are going to make movements and execute techniques, or make transitions, or scramble to other positions. You should have set your own pace for the game. This pace must be very easy for you to follow and act on. Once you know and decide your pace, stick to it throughout your game and don't make any mistakes in it.

• You should not put your ego in sparring because if you do, you will either get seriously injured or lose. There is no other option than this. When you think that you are getting trapped and going to be submitted, and you are left with no other option than to tap, then you should tap. You should not wait and try to escape the situation because this can get you seriously injured, which will keep you out of the game for many weeks or even months, depending on the extent of your injury. So keep your ego at home.

• The fifth way is to make a proper routine, schedule, or set of tasks to do before the sparring. All of these tasks must be focused on helping you to better adapt to the sparring session and do it in the most effective way. You can do a lot of things in a pre-sparring routine to prepare yourself for the session and to do it better.

• The first thing you need to do is to warm up for the sparring before actually doing it. This is very important for you to do. The reason is that most people do it in the morning, straight after waking up from sleep. When you awake in the morning, you are not fully alert and active. You need time to get active completely enough to do the sparring effectively.

• Your muscles are relaxed in the morning after you wake up, and when these are relaxed, you cannot spar easily or in the best way possible. So you need to contract these muscles so that you can activate yourself.

• The best way to do that is the warm up exercise. These exercises are very light exercises that have the primary purpose of making yourself completely active and contracting your muscles. Once your muscles are contracted and you become active, then you can easily do the sparring.

The first BJJ sparring session is often very intimidating for the BJJ practitioners, particularly for the beginners. But this happens most of the time and with many practitioners. So that is not the thing to really worry about. You just need to find out the ways to minimize this and implement those ways in your BJJ game. So try to follow the above ways as much as possible, and this will greatly reduce your fear or nervousness. You will be able to do the sparring in the best way possible.

The first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu session is very intimidating for many BJJ beginners due to the following reasons:

• BJJ is very difficult to learn. When they come to an academy for the very first time, they see others executing and practicing the techniques that they find very difficult to do.

• BJJ looks violent to beginners. They will see others getting submitted to the arm bars or any other position in which the risk of getting injured is very high, especially chokes.

• In the first session of BJJ, the practitioners don’t know anything at all. They don’t know what will happen to them and how they are going to face them. So this makes them even more fearful.

• Allowing someone to get very close to you physically and make any movement or technique against you is a major discomfort. So seeing this also makes the beginners very intimidated.

The following are some of the ways that you can utilize to make your first sparring session less intimidating:

• Prepare yourself mentally and keep your nerves in control

• Visualize your sparring session

• Read the body language of your partner

• Follow the code of the ring

• Make a pre-sparring routine and partner negotiation