Introduction
Greetings! Welcome back to bjjears.com. I was compelled to write a follow up to 2nd Month of Learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Growth Recap. As you can see in the table of contents below, this article will focus more on the “outer” aspects than the 2nd month recap which was about adapting to learning and acquiring BJJ instructions. We will discuss about the importance of regular attendance, opportunities, what community means for BJJ guys and gals.
Table of Contents
- Attendance
- New Opportunities
- Sense of Community
Automatic Attendance Habit for BJJ Classes
It takes 18-254 days to create a habit and 66 days (two months) on average for a new habit to become automatic. Interestingly enough this seems to be true from my experience. Coming onto the third month is like a speed bump; People fall off during around this time if they haven’t maintained the habit of going to class regularly for two months. A couple of faces I would see in the beginning either dropped out and stop showing up or they showed up only once in a while.
I myself have also missed a couple of classes and felt inconsistent in attendance at times due to outside forces such as invites from friends, visiting family or personal reasons.
The thing that makes me keep on going back though is that for the most part I look forward to going to BJJ class or Muy Thai class because I enjoy learning it and am at awe many times when I am in class absorbing new information. It is also good to relearn things as it makes it easier to stick in memory.
Opportunities Opens Up
What I mean by opportunities are that there were competition and sparing with another school available. There’s actually one really big event coming up in October that I have yet to buy tickets for but the competition is only for blue belts and up (recently got my 2nd strip as a white belt). I wasn’t ready for any of these opportunities nor had time to prep for these events.
The BJJ school that I go to also teaches Muy Thai and some Judo. We started to practice knees and elbows so that was new. Also, I learned two Judo throws one called the Uchi Mara. It is just so cool and satisfying to throw someone I can’t explain it. I would prefer to learn to throw someone rather learn takedowns which in my opinion leaves me too vulnerable to being attacked or injured 😊.
BJJ Community Immersion
No longer a stranger I felt that I could call this school a community. I’m not from this town and these are the folks that I get to spend time with while learning this amazing self-defense art.
What is a community? To me it is a team, a family, a brotherhood, and sisterhood. A place to learn, grow, have fun, and socialize.
Here is a list of things that makes it feel like a community:
- People would volunteer to bring crates of water bottle to class
- There’s opportunity to help work on the new school location
- There’s opportunity to help teach the kids class
- We have a group text
- Everyone is humble and respectful towards one another
- Coach would personally reach out through the phone to check up on me
- Coach would host extra classes on the weekends
- Coach would host events outside of class
I would have to thank my Coach for creating this amazing BJJ community.
Conclusion
For my 3rd month of BJJ, my BJJ skills improved drastically compared to month one or two – in particular I am more confident in the arm-bar, triangle choke, and defense. All of this wouldn’t be possible if I did not belong to this great BJJ community that I repeatedly come back to.
Ossu!
