First Day of Jiu Jitsu in Hervey Bay!

My first post on my new website, and my first Jiu Jitsu class in Hervey Bay!

Still learning alot about all of thing – it’ll come with practice but more on that another time.

After I moved to Urangan, I trained for the first time. My friend Pillage and I have always spoken about training together and it’s finally our time! I chose a gym that fit both of our schedules well – “BJJ Hervey Bay”

I was both hyped up and nervous, and I was ready to start. Eager to see what the inside looked like, what the culture would be. Previously I’d come from another gym in Deception Bay which had one of the best cultures and atmospheres I’ve ever been around and I was worried it wouldn’t shape up the same…

We met the coach of the day Joel after we awkwardly stood around waiting for the kids class to finish. He seemed nice enough, he was very welcoming, as were the others we ended up meeting during the class. Pillage is quite new to gi-based BJJ, he’s only ever practiced a little no-gi, so I was gearing myself up for a bit of a slow start. That is exactly what I hoped for anyway, after not training for 3 months I was curious what my stamina would be like.

I focused on my breathing during the drills and took it slow. We were drilling from quarter guard – This is not something I have had much experience with so it was a little awkward for me. I was hoping to come in and show my big white belt potential! But learnning something new was enjoyable, that’s why I’m here in the first place!

We learned some moves to take something like “quarter mount” and turned that into a back take from a roll through… I’m going to have to get better at describing these things if I’m going to write about my journey. Maybe it’s just that I’m tired.

While drilling, Pillage hurt his knee, so we took timely breaks for him to rest. Just a matter of bending in directions he’s not used too I imagine (and being hit by a bus doesn’t help lol).

For the first time, Pillage and I rolled together in some ground sparring. That was pretty chill. He’s very intense to roll with! 100% effort the whole way. I tried to stay calm and just weather the storm with defense and breathing before getting to some advantageous positions. He attempted to broke my guard a few times with elbows in my thighs, but he mostly made contact with muscle, which didn’t hurt enough to make me release at the time but I think I’m paying for it now! The bruises are already forming.

I won’t talk about who “won” because it’s all just learning together tbqh. I rolled some others in the club, I got some taps, I got tapped. It was a great experience overall and my brain was ticking over and the cobwebs were slowly coming off the gears. I really can’t wait until next class!

Hoping to be back at it again tomorrow for the fundamentals class.

Finished my first Jiu Jitsu class with a smile