Written by Shimon Mochizuki, BJJ Black belt under Leo Vieira since 2008, Head instructor at @artesuavedk, Founder of @mokahardware
New to Jiu Jitsu and not new to life
If you’re new to Jiu Jitsu and are over the age of let’s say 35 years, this is for you. If you’re new and under 35, you can also use this. Here are some things that you should do, so that you don’t lose motivation and limit the risk of injury.
When you start, I recommend that you don’t train more than two times a week. You might be able to handle more than that, but your body might not. I did a blog post about this in 2017, but it is in danish!
Do some sort of prehab training. Strength training at least once or twice a week. I try to get two sessions in a week, and that keeps me active on the mats and injury free. Without it, I’m not sure that I would be able to train as much as I do. My strength sessions are no longer than an hour. If they were longer I would never get them done 
Have great Ukemi (Break falls), they are going to come in handy, when you’re getting swept or thrown, this way you won’t be afraid of falling and hurting yourself. You will get swept a lot!
Invest in having good escapes from mount, side control and back mount, you’re going to spend a lot of time in these positions anyway.
Get good at playing guard, because like I said, you will get swept a lot, and if you’re not afraid of playing guard and you have good Ukemi, then you won’t take risks, by fighting to stay on top and then falling, when you’re no longer in control of how you will fall and might get injured.
Work on your guard retention, because you will spend some time on your back. This will also help you play a more open game on the bottom.
Accept that you will get submitted, your guard passed, back taken, mounted and in general loose most if not all rounds of sparring
Tap early and tap a lot, it doesn’t matter, it is all a part of the learning process.
Training is not a fight! If you fight all the time this will hamper your ability to learn and try new things.
Have fun it is going to be so much easier to learn
I see way too many people come in and fight way too hard and with little regard for their own safety, maybe because they don’t know that they are in any danger or that they get caught up in the moment. And they end up getting injured or injure someone else. White belts are the most dangerous people on the mats, and they don’t even know it!
If I could go back these are some of the things that I wish that I knew or did back then. I hope that you can use this in your journey!
Always keep learning! Never stop!
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