New Beginnings
Hello and welcome to bjjears.com! You may be wondering what came about of this name so here’s the story…
My name is Sa and I started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) and Muy Thai at the end of May 2021. I had practiced Tae Kwon Do for a year when I was about 11 years old and in my mid twenties started doing Chigong Kung Fu for about 4 years. I was never really interested in grappling, wrestling or the likes until I started taking curiosity of it with the rise of popularity of BJJ, Muy Thai, and Judo seen in MMA from big names like Rhonda Rousey and Connor McGregor. Not to mention Jacko Willink and Joe Rogan who are big influencers mentioning the growth they have gotten from practicing BJJ.
Because of all the commotion that I’ve heard constantly about BJJ and because I had free time I wanted to try the sport out.
I visited a couple of MMA gyms (2) initially during and post COVID-19 because I was feeling cabin fever and lacking discipline day to day. At the time these gym offered BJJ but I didn’t want to do it. I liked striking and was comfortable with my kicks and punches.
Initially I noticed the puffed up, ugly ears of MMA fighters I see on screen and so I did some research on these ears. Turns out they were more common with grapplers and BJJ. I had called them BJJ ears because I didn’t know any better but it turns out they were called cauliflower ears. Then I intentionally wanted to avoid the sport because I didn’t want to get those ears! Also I never understood what these MMA fighters were doing hugging all the time which bored me.
Next thing you know I wanted to challenge myself, get in shape, and reap the benefits that I heard from Joe and Jacko so I chose to try BJJ. I was in a very dark time and knew that training in martial arts will help me get disciplined and joy in life so I signed up for BJJ hoping to reap the benefits that I heard about.
But since I started training only one month in and going to class regularly at least 5 times a week I felt the symptoms of these BJJ ears so I was obsessed with taking care of them. It was not fun but this website came about to document my journey with BJJ but it all started with this obsession with trying to prevent permanent damage to my ears.
So here we are into bjjears.com where I hope you enjoy your stay. Listen, learn, and lead while you read articles about my experiences of what it is like to be a part of the BJJ community from the perspective of a newbie white belt and thanks for dropping by.
Ossu!