6 weeks, 6 months, or 6 years? lol
Discussion
I just mean in a fairly short period of time you’ll have an increasingly upward advantage over a larger number of people who have no experience at all and then that plateaus for a while etc
Makes sense🫡
Real talk, you'll get a little better every class.
At a serious school with decent competency around you'll be 3-5 years until you are one of the adults in class. That should be around late blue or early purple belt. 10 years of regular training for a black belt.
It isn't some weird elitism either. There really is that much depth to the sport. As an athletic dude it'll probably take you a year until you are really doing the sport and not just fighting every roll. After that you actually start to learn.
TLDR, go do it. I hope to see you on the mats one day.
My issue is picking the right fighting style but at this point anything is better than nothing
Grappling over striking hands down. You'll get more full force sparring with less risk of injury and especially less brain injury risk that way. Every street fight ends up on the ground, better to get there on your terms and be at home there than be a pure striker who is lost the minute they fall down.
I think BJJ or Judo, I have done a little Judo but focus on BJJ by a wide margin.
The school I attend works towards an integrated "grappling" knowledge base. So no strikes physically dominate your opponent is grappling; BJJ, Judo, various sub forms of Wrestling.
Traditionally those are isolated in this way.
BJJ, ground dominance, submissions to win (I can break your arm here and you can't stop me so you say uncle), light on takedowns, most places start most rolls seated. Sometimes GI and sometimes no GI.
Judo, takedowns without grabbing the legs,vthrows, pins and submissions as winning conditions depending on the rule set. Always a gi. Mostly standing.
Wrestling, pin(shoulders flat on mat cannot get up) to win no submissions, grab the legs for a lot of takedowns, never in a GI. Rarely available as a class for adults. Mostly starting standing.
BJJ is probably the most complete sport because of the amount of time spent on ground submissions and controls. There is a lot of complexity there, BJJ has the slowest black belt because of all that extra complexity for submissions. My school is mostly BJJ but they teach both wrestling and judo takedowns and have rounds starting from standing in a lot of classes. It is not the only school moving towards a combined grappling curriculum and that is the future of the sport.
Hopefully that can help you ask good questions and pick between schools near you. Definitely hit me up if you have more questions.
Striking is really fun. A friend of mine taught me some basic boxing techniques but you’re right I’m taking on unnecessary risk. I’m not a small guy but there are definitely bigger guys that have better reach and more power. My friend is 6’4 and over 250 pounds. I don’t really have a chance going blow for blow against him but a good grapple of his elbow is more doable.
Big boys have an advantage grappling too. Rough estimate is 20lbs is a stripe worth of skill. Of course not every 20lbs is the same.
If you know how to fight and they don't though, that is a different matter.
The skill of blocking collar ties and lapel grips transfers to blocking strikes. Strikers don't learn any skills that translate into a takedown defense.
So much fun to repeatedly block then takedown when I get to play with the people I know who are TKD blackbekts.
Also, 2 ish years for TKD or karate blackbelts instead of 10 for BJJ. Easier to add striking at any later date to round it out.
I never heard of 20 lbs to be equivalent as per stripe, I'd strongly argue against this. Size matters but not to that degree some people despite their size are still tremendously vulunerble under the guise of BJJ.
No magic and not hard and fast. Just a rough estimate of how much skill weight can cover up between 2 trained opponents. So far it is a decent guess based on my mat time.
Stretch it out a bit and see. How much training to consistently beat an opponent with 100lb weight advantage but no fighting experience? About a blue belt. I'm a bigger buy and 80lbs is definitely enough to get tough rounds with smaller guys a full belt ahead. Guys my size a belt ahead I need a bit of luck and to have my A game fit perfectly into their biggest weakness.
Every person is different cardio matters and not every pound is muscle. I know a white belt former wrestler who requires my A game to survive even though I've got 60lbs on him.
Two opponent sounds like one would need to just run away! but I rolled with this guy just a few days ago and he has a few weeks xp and probably 80 lbs more than me and he is very much vulunerble. I have another guy slightly less rank, which means nothing in terms of stripe but a 150 lbs advantage and it depends on the position whether he can dominate eme or not. If I'm on top of we are on our feet I have an advantage but if he is on top of me then it's like getting mauled by a bear.
At that point you need to use street fight tactics. Eye gouging, scratching, biting whatever 😂
In judo if you land a throw where your opponent lands flat on their back it is an instant win. The reasoning is someone who doesn't know how to fall on concrete is dead or unconscious if that happens to them, without mats even a trained person may be fucked. A good takedown can be over in a second.
For multiple serious opponents I think hard throws is probably your best bet.
Or...
ya if they're trained they can do that too but even better by holding those positions better and takinf their time to do all of the above.
Do it all, striking and grappling.
Every fight starts on the feet and usually ends on the ground. That’s why joining an MMA gym is your best bet. You’ll get exposure to every aspect of fighting.
A lot of pure BJJ gyms have people start on the ground, so they miss out on key skills like closing the distance, executing or defending takedowns, and dealing with strikes. They also don’t learn how to roll with punches, which is obviously crucial in a real fight.
As for striking, just make sure you’re training at a solid gym where people know how to spar properly.
BJJ)/ wrestling then do some Muay Thai. it doesn't hurt to be well rounded. There are gyms that do combos like Muay Thai, Wrestling and BJJ.
Smart
From my experience as a purple belt, you always kind of suck lol.
It usually takes about 1–2 months just to start learning the “language” of grappling. If you’ve never done it before, it can feel super weird at first. Getting used to basic movements like bridging and shrimping usually takes about a month, depending on how often you train each week.
Give it around 6 months, and you'll already be way ahead of the next brand-new person who walks into class.
Very much so!