Post: #1

The guys already began practicing for a few weeks when I talked to the coach. He asked me how long have I wrestled yada, yada, yada. I told him never, but I have practiced brazilian jiu jitsu for over 5 years. He said see how you do in an upcoming tournament and we'll think about it.

I run the BJJ club at my school. We got a lot of wrestlers, and I beat them all. So I figure why not actually try wrestling for once. I'm in my last semester, and I'm 27 years old (took a lot of time off). This would be an interesting way to test myself physically and mentally. The mental part is going to be the hardest. Do I really want to wake up at 6am to lift weights? Do I want to be meticulous about what I eat? Do I want to stop drinking alcohol and taking drugs? The answer to all of those questions is no, but I will if I make the team.

The tournament is next Saturday and I have to be at 176 pounds. Right now I'm at 183. Should be easy enough to drop 7 pounds in about 10 days. My first open mat with the team is tomorrow. rawrrrrrrrr

Post: #2

Is it a D1 program? If it is it's going to be awfully though to be able to walk on especially with no prior wrestling experience. There was this guy who used to be in the UFC named Dave Herman who actually did manage to walk onto a D1 program (University of Indiana) and do very well but he's also a freak natural athlete.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/7/4/4491...university

Post: #3

Another thing is that BJJ doesn't really transfer well to wrestling. As a guy that's done both I would say wrestlers have a much easier time going over to BJJ/submission grappling then BJJ guys to wrestling.

And when you see you beat wrestlers do you mean you are regularly taking them down?

Post: #4

Ummm...... i wrestled 15 years, finished at the collegiate level. Are you going to wrestle in an open tournement? Are Div 1 2 3 or njcaa athletes gonna be there? Are they going to let you go to some practices first? At the surface this seems foolhardy, but if you really want to go because your interested in the sport then thats cool. Just to be clear college wrestling is not a hobby a pastime or a whimisical interest. Though admittedly i have seen some athletic phenoms with great balance and strength be somewhat sucessful with little training, just not many.

Post: #5

No it's a D3 school. We're ranked top 5 in the country, I think.

Yes, I regularly take them down. Granted these guys are only former high school wrestlers who now play ju jitsu, although several of them have been offered spots on the college team.

Its called Dan Gable, it's an open tournament, and yes, there will be at least D3 NCAA wrestlers there. No, I cannot practice with the team before hand. However, I do have some former wrestlers showing me the ropes. They just taught me how a match is structured. 3 minutes (starts standing), next start on knees, then on top. I'm going to banana split somebody, watch hahahaha.

I agree with the transitioning from wrestling to bjj. I wish my base was wrestling. Part of the reason for my interest in wrestling is that BJJ is fucking gay and I don't even mean that in the literal way . Who starts a fight by falling to their back? It's crazy and its weak.

The only thing I'm worried about is making 176. If I make it, I'll be fine

Post: #6

Totally agree with you and the lack of takedown skills that BJJ guys have. It's ridiculous that you're going to have an entire fighting system that relies on you and your opponent being on the ground and then not teach people how to get an opponent there. BJJ would be in much better shape if people spent more time drilling their double legs and less on whatever fancy guard is the flavor of the month.

The quality of D3 programs varies greatly. With D1, even a completely unimpressive wrestler at that level is still going to be a monster athlete. Anyone who can make into any D1 program as a wrestler is more athletic then like 90% of the general population. With D2 and D3 it's different. I know guys who were average to above average in high school that still made it onto a D2 program. One guy on my old high school team actually got benched his senior year and he still ended up wrestling D2 once he went off to college.

Post: #7

Yeah, the flavor of the month guard is really only applicable to sport jiu jitsu. Jiu Jitsu is very broad, but outside that limited context the tornado, inverted, de la jiva, x guard, etc become quite useless.

I agree with you about the quality of wrestlers in a D3 school, but we have a 2 time national champ, and I wanna soak up as much as I can from him.

Post: #8

Some tips to win your matches:

1) Get a takedown and ride 'em out. This means hold onto the top position while they work from escaping from bottom. You get a point for each minute that passes, I believe.

2) DO NOT roll to your back. You may want to do this since you're so used to it.

3) Be wary of chain wrestling! This means moves that can come off of other moves. Think about a guillotine to an omoplata to a gogoplata when your opponent is in your guard. Your wrestling opponent may clinch up then pull one side of your body forward while he shoots a swing single, grabs your leg, tries to run the pipe then when you hop forward to maintain balance he finishes his takedown with a high crotch.

4) NEVER CHOOSE BOTTOM! For God's sake man! When the ref asks you what position you want, choose takedowns (if you can CLEARLY beat him there) or just remain on top and ride them out!

5) Have a last resort move that you have mastered. When all else failed in high school wrestling, I always used a head and arm throw. I only pinned once with it but every other time I got the takedown.

6) Make it a battle of attrition! The reason why most wrestlers win is because they cut a shit ton of weight before their match. Therefore they got size on their opponents but in exchange, their cardio is fucked because they don't have a lot of time to rehydrate their body (severely dehydrated from cutting). The best wrestler in my high school never cut weight. Even though he was smaller than his opponents by 5-10 lbs., he made every match a war and his opponents ALWAYS ended up gassing out.

I hope you do well. Good luck! And post a video on the forum.

Post: #9

My friend told me to always choose bottom because it is so easy to stand up.

As for the war of attrition, my style is always aggressive. This takes a toll of both people. Unfortunately, I just found out abuot this today. Guess I gotta start running everyday in order to cut that 7 pounds

Post: #10

It also helps for that extra pound by buying a half pound of skittles, chewing them up in your mouth and spitting the build-up of skittle spit juice into a cup every minute or so. You go through a half a bag of that and you're losing water weight via spit. Also, chewing gum will shave off ounces of water weight, but not so much as chewing up and spitting skittles. You can do this all in a sauna and gross people the fuck out.

Post: #11

Interesting thread. I've done BJJ for about the same amount of time and I'd equate myself to the skill of a high school wrestler in terms of pure wrestling. Everyone's training experience is different though, I'm sure you have some legit no-gi skill if you feel confident enough to do this. Best of luck.

Side note, I had a no-gi match against a D1 wrestler in a no-gi jiu-jitsu tournament once. He tapped me via neck crank from my half guard. I had less than a year of training at the time so I was happy to have just survived as long as I did!

Post: #12

(11-06-2013 01:59 AM)Edmund Dantes Wrote:  2) DO NOT roll to your back. You may want to do this since you're so used to it.

I think that right there is going to be the toughest thing to get used to.

Post: #13

so I went to the open mat today. There were only like 1 or 2 guys from the team there, but I out wrestled everyone including guys that outweighed me by 30 pounds. I did get taken down once but it was because I tried this flying squirrel move that I saw online (bad idea) and the guy snatched me out of the air and dumped me.

It was cool though, I recruited a few new members for my jujitsu club and everyone was excited to show me things and shout at me when I was doing something illegal, like holding my hands together when I had someones back.

Anyways, I could make 174 but I don't feel like losing 10 pounds in 10 days. I'll just wrestle at 184.

Post: #14

(11-06-2013 12:10 AM)bounce Wrote:  The guys already began practicing for a few weeks when I talked to the coach. He asked me how long have I wrestled yada, yada, yada. I told him never, but I have practiced brazilian jiu jitsu for over 5 years. He said see how you do in an upcoming tournament and we'll think about it.

I run the BJJ club at my school. We got a lot of wrestlers, and I beat them all. So I figure why not actually try wrestling for once. I'm in my last semester, and I'm 27 years old (took a lot of time off). This would be an interesting way to test myself physically and mentally. The mental part is going to be the hardest. Do I really want to wake up at 6am to lift weights? Do I want to be meticulous about what I eat? Do I want to stop drinking alcohol and taking drugs? The answer to all of those questions is no, but I will if I make the team.

The tournament is next Saturday and I have to be at 176 pounds. Right now I'm at 183. Should be easy enough to drop 7 pounds in about 10 days. My first open mat with the team is tomorrow. rawrrrrrrrr

Good luck man.
I'm a blue belt in BJJ and I've never trained in wrestling.
At my school we work takedowns every practice so mine are ok. I think BJJ can be effective in wrestling since we kinda know what movements can set us up to win or lose. We know how to stay on our side so we don't get pinned and we can work sweeps. I don't know the rules of a wrestling match but I don't see why you couldn't work any sweeps.

Edit: Thinking too much like a BJJ fighter. Doing a sweep would be a last resort...haha. Guess it would be more of a side control escape that you could do.

Post: #15

Sweeps will definitely work to your advantage if you get put on your back. You'll just have to be quick about it, obviously.

Post: #16

i am going to abandon almost all of my bjj technique (or at least try to). If I am on the verge of being taken down , allowing the take down and then instantly working for a sweep is very risky and low percentage. Wrestlers have amazing bases and dont get swept easily even in straight sport jujitsu.

The problem I had with my old gym, and the problem I have wish sport jujitsu, is the guard pulling and starting from knees. I guess its good for sports jujitsu but thats it. At my club, which is all no gi, I implemented an "always start standing" rule. Pulling guard and/or starting from knees is fucking gay and impractical, even in sports jujitsu as many competitions are taking a point away for pulling guard.

One thing I do have to remember is that submission holds are highly useful as a control mechanism, I just have to remember to not try to finish. At jits class last night all the guys were fully supportive and excited about my transition to wrestling. They are all so eager to teach me and I feel like I'm learning so much so fast. However, a few of the bjj purists are getting upset that I havent shown any jits techniques lately, but i think they understand that its just temporary.


Here is a list of ways that BJJ has definitely helped my wrestling.
1. from top position it is super easy to get a hook in and finish a banana split pin.
2. when i sprawl and avoid a take down the darce setup is right there and can be used to plop the guy on his side. From there I swing mytop leg over for the mount and pin.
3. Kimura to escape bottom position and get to feet and use kimura to take opponent down, ala Sakuraba vs Renzo gracie

thanks for the advise everyone