Once someone decides jiu-jitsu is for them, rolling — free sparring with a partner — commonly becomes their favorite part. After you’ve gotten some fundamental knowledge down, it’s fun to try to apply that knowledge against a resisting opponent.
Even years into the journey, it remains fun and exciting. Some days, you’re playing your A game against a game partner; other days, you’re experimenting with new techniques you’re just beginning to learn. This can even change from roll to roll, as you switch from a challenging round against an upper belt from a more teaching-oriented round with a new person. There’s always something you can be working on, so it’s easy to keep it fresh.
This isn’t true of, say, drilling. I’m lucky in that I love to drill, and I think drilling is crucially important to improve your BJJ. But there’s no stereotype about “the guy that only shows up at class to drill,” and there’s definitely that stereotype about rolling.
To use a sports analogy: Everyone loves the game. Not everyone loves practice.
We don’t hear a lot about the opposite issue, though — which is when someone doesn’t want to roll. This happens, too. If this person is you (even if this person is only sometimes you), I have some advice.
The first time you roll, you should keep certain principles in mind. But what if you’re reticent to even get out there to spar? I find that reluctance to spar stems from two very different fears: fear of looking silly, and fear of injury. Let’s address the last one first.
Of course there is a risk of injury in jiu-jitsu, just as there is a risk of injury in any athletic endeavor. This isn’t something we can eliminate 100 percent. We can take steps to minimize risk of injury, but we need to have realistic expectations: this is a contact sport. Major injuries are thankfully rare, especially compared to other sports, but they do happen. It’s best to just accept that you’ll wind up with a sprained finger, gi burn on your skin, or something like that at some point. Don’t sweat it: black eyes look badass anyway.
Pick your training partners carefully. Generally speaking, the upper belts are the safest people to train with: they have the most body control and know what it’s like to be new. The newer, bigger and stronger a person is, the more likely they are to cause injury — not out of malice, but out of not understanding how to move and not understanding how explosive to be in a given moment. But every person is an individual, and you should trust your gut about the vibe you get from a person. Feel free to turn down rolls if you get the sense someone is out to “win” a roll at all costs, or prove a point, it’s totally fine to politely decline. The mats will be here.
Trust your coach. If you’re nervous about rolling because you’re worried about injury, your coach is best positioned to give you advice about the best people to train with at your gym. I mentioned the general tendencies I’ve noticed about, but there are exceptions: I have known upper belts that I wouldn’t recommend newer people roll with, and I’ve known new white belts that were big and strong but also super-gentle and safe to spar with, but the percentages certainly skew one way. Your instructor is best positioned to know who is who in your gym.
In fact, if you’re worried about sparring, I recommend you privately ask your coach if she or he will roll with you to get your feet wet. I love rolling with new people, because I can get a sense of who they are and what their goals are while trying to comfortably introduce them to sparring. At Bellingham BJJ, we generally have new people wait a few weeks before they even try to roll, and their first few sessions are with instructors or with trusted upper belts.
Let me be clear. Wherever you are in your journey:
It is completely OK not to roll. It is completely OK to roll some times, but not other times. It is also completely OK to be selective about your training partners.
We have to be realistic, though, about your goals: if your goals are to get in shape and have fun learning, coming to class and doing drills will get that done. If your goals involve self defense or competition, you do need to be rolling, and rolling regularly. Much of jiu-jitsu’s power and effectiveness comes from realistic sparring, day to day. If you want to be able to realistically defend yourself, you need to put yourself in situations where you can test your technique. But that isn’t everyone’s goal: only you can decide what you’re trying to get out of jiu-jitsu, and what your comfort level is.
If you see an injury-free person talking about how supreme their technique is, but you never see that person rolling with anyone, there is a good chance that person is selling something.
If you’re worried about looking silly or be embarrassed, don’t be. There are lots of levels to jiu-jitsu, and whoever the best person in a gym is, someone can make that person look silly. Much of what’s fascinating about jiu-jitsu is how much there is to learn. And everyone is focused on their own journey, so chances are if you’re nervous about what everyone is thinking after watching you tap … they’re actually thinking about how to do better at something else they’re working on.
