Why Do Jiu Jitsu Beginners Feel Lost When They Start Training?

It is a common thing that you might also have observed many times that when you enter a new field, you feel lost. You will also feel nervous, a little bit panicked, and this is all because you don’t know anything about that field. So this feeling of getting nervous and overwhelmed is justified and not something you should be ashamed of. The same experience you will have in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Although this is a very gentle and beautiful martial art, beginners in BJJ always feel lost when they are starting their journey. This is a typical white belt experience. But what are the reasons behind this, and how can you minimize this by following some of the best ways? Let's discuss this concept in detail and try to solve your confusion.

• If you have never experienced the first class of BJJ and are aiming to take it soon, you should prepare yourself before the class. Prepare yourself mentally and physically. The BJJ first class experience is just like taking a cold shower, but in cold weather. It would relate even more if you take a cold shower during the season of snowfall.

• For a fresher, keeping their first steps on the mat is not a very nice experience. The reason is that they will see a completely new world in any martial arts academy, particularly in a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy. You will see people fighting against each other and trying every possible strategy to dominate their opponents and so to win the match. They will see unique Gis which every practitioner in Gi BJJ needs to wear.

• Everywhere, there will be practitioners who will be learning new techniques and moves. Some of these moves will be easy, whereas others will be difficult. In that situation, even an easy move will be enough to create tension in the minds of beginners.

• You will also perform and exercise some drills on the first day, but all of those will be the basic ones, and you might make blunders in that too, and that is all because of the first day experience.

• On the first day of BJJ for beginners, the cognitive load becomes essential. Cognitive load is simply the load you can bear in your brain relating to information processing. In other words, the amount of information your brain can hold for processing at a specific time is known as a cognitive load. It must be managed and kept in balance. It must not be so high that a person cannot manage it. If it is too high, the load starts to interfere with the thinking process of your brain. 

• During the first day, a practitioner is holding a lot of information, and so that load is getting here after every few minutes because everything is new for them. So they should be managing that load and trying not to learn all things at the same time. Your brain needs time before it makes a particular learning into your muscle memory. If you keep adding a lot of information, then you will forget it easily.

• Scientists and researchers have done a lot of research on learning and its science. Just think about it for a while. We know nothing about a particular thing, and then after learning it, it successfully becomes our muscle memory. Is it not astonishing and wonderful? It certainly needed research, and there is now a lot of information available on that.
• Learning is a process in which our brain processes any new information that we have never come across, and ultimately, we become familiar with it. Let's take an example. Go back to your childhood days in which you first started learning the alphabet, A to Z. Before learning, you did not know what A or B was, but after some days of learning, you became familiar with it so well that it is stored in your brain. So this is known as the learning.

Researchers have classified learning into its four stages. The following are those stages, and in the right order.

The first stage is known as the unconscious incompetence. This is the initial stage, or the first stage, in which you do not know anything about a subject. So this is a stage of complete unfamiliarity. In this, you don’t even know how much you do not know about a subject.

The second stage is known as the conscious Incompetence. As the name indicates, you become conscious of the extent of your learning about a subject. Now you know which parts you know and which parts are unknown to you.

The third stage is conscious competence. In this, you have learnt about a subject sufficiently that you know everything about it. But it is in the conscious stage, which means that you need to think hard when you are going to recall that information or to perform any move. So, it is still not the best for you.

• Now, that is the stage we should be hoping and striving for. It is the last and final stage of the learning process and also the best one. It is named as unconscious competence. In this stage, you can perform a move that you have learnt without thinking enough. You don't need time to think. You can easily perform it without any difficulty and without forgetting the steps.
• So ideally, the learning process should be continued until you have reached the final stage, which is unconscious competence. Your learning becomes your muscle memory, and that is the ultimate goal of everyone. The same goes for BJJ. Make every technique your muscle memory so that you can perform it even under pressure.

We know that for every problem, there is always a solution. We just need to look for it and implement it in our training. You do not need to look for the solutions themselves because the following discusses some tips for you to add to your BJJ training, especially during the first few weeks.

Most BJJ beginners are introverted, and they have a lot of questions, but they don’t ask the instructors. This is very important for you. You should ask any questions you have to the instructors straight away. Don’t think about others, that they will laugh at you if your question is so basic. You should be focusing on yourself and your journey. You are not there to keep yourself quiet and pass the time. Take it seriously and try to improve your BJJ by asking questions.

A training journal is a type of journal in which you write details about your BJJ training daily. In the context of Jiu Jitsu, you need to write everything, ranging from your strengths to your weaknesses. If you think you are weak at some parts of a technique, note it in your journal. Also, write your goals on it and measure your progress. This will keep you motivated over a long time and you will continuously learning and improve. So instead of feeling lost, you are now actively learning and know what you are doing.

Another tip is the visualization techniques. In visualization, you use imagination. You imagine yourself performing any particular technique or skill. This is also known as the mental preparation or mental rehearsal. This is the technique that is used by many fighters to prepare for their upcoming match or fight. This improves their fighting techniques and strategy. So you should also do visualization to learn the techniques.

The fourth tip is to focus on the fundamentals. Fundamentals in BJJ mean the basic techniques and moves that every grappler learns initially in their journey. But some grapplers ignore them by considering them as unimportant. This is the wrong approach. You need to focus on all the fundamentals and make them your muscle memory. These are called fundamentals for a purpose. They will make a strong base for all your techniques, which you will learn after them. With a strong base, you will also have good learning, but with a weak base, your learning will also be very weak. So don't ignore them.

Another important thing is a goal. You need to have a goal that you can follow and measure your progress accordingly. The goal must not be of very long duration, such as when you are starting as a white belt, but have a goal to get promoted to the red belt. This takes decades, and so you cannot measure your progress. Instead of this, you should try to make short goals, such as learning five techniques in one month. So make a goal, measure your progress, and make continuous improvements.

• You cannot call yourself a failure if you are feeling lost as a beginner. This feeling means that your brain knows what you don't know and what you need to know. Your brain is challenged with certain things and is trying to focus on that.

• It also means that you are striving or struggling to get good at something, and this is not at all a failure. Imagine that you are not feeling lost as a beginner. Is it a good sign? No! It is a sign of failure.

• You are not trying to learn the things. Your brain is not challenged with the things it should be, so when your brain is not processing any information, then you will not be able to learn any new things because you are not focusing on it.

• Many beginners in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu get panicked because they see a lot of things that they do not know, and they are blank in their minds. This is a very wrong approach to the start. This is because when you start anything, you are unfamiliar with it. You know nothing about it. This is not something you should panic about.

• But the fact is that if you start working on anything, you will progress gradually, and things will become easier for you. So you need to accept the blank state of your mind. But also keep trust in your struggles that they will soon bear fruit.

• Stay humble and calm. You should remind yourself again and again, or every time you get panicked over your blank state, that every black or red belt was once a white belt. So the beginning of the BJJ journey is the same for everyone.

• You should be ready to get help from others when you are confused about any technique or a step of a technique. You should be hesitating about doing it. Learn from your colleagues who know something you do not know, and also from your seniors and instructors, because they have spent years on it. So they can guide you better about it.

If you are just starting your journey in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, then feeling lost is not a thing that only you think. It is common and is actually a sign of success at the start. When you are beginning, the only thing you need is focus. Your brain should be trying to learning new things and that is all what you need. If you have got this at the start of your career, then you are doing well.