This is my story from bullied kid to world's worst competitor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and is inspired by @eneismijmich. You can read his post here: https://steemit.com/martialarts/@eneismijmich/muay-thai-kickboxing-and-how-does-it-feel-for-a-total-beginner

Life before martial arts

When I was a kid I used to watch action movies. I was always interested in martial arts and would have wanted to train some martial arts. But I was very shy and skinny kid and didn't know where to practice.

After school and weekends I used to fight with my and my little brother's friends. Normally it was just innocent wrestling on our yard. Sometimes though fighting get very serious and we had some kicking and boxing added to mix with wrestling. I remember one time I got kicked to nuts and my balls bruised. My balls hurt like hell few days...

Source: medicaldaily.com

Before high school I played two years soccer but quit it because didn't get any playtime. Even though I was 10 years old coach didn't give me much time to play. Now I would say thank to him because I wasn't very good soccer player.
I wanted always run trough the field and score. Never didn't pass the ball to anyone. No wonder my coach didn't let me play. At the moment I'm very happy that didn't continue playing.

Source: feelgrafix.com

After playing few years football(soccer) in elementary school I went to junior high school. Those three years in junior high school were worst years in my life. My previous friend and few others started to bullying me. I was easy target to them because I was skinny, small dude. When I was 14 years old I weighted 39 kilos (86 pounds) and I was 157 cm(5'2) tall. Fortunately I had some friends in school so managed through junior high. In that time I didn't really had any hobbies. Most of the time I played on the computer.

14 year old me

Kimura Shukokai Karate

Those days in junior high wasn't fun but hopefully I got rid of bullying when I went to high school. In second grade of high school I was introduced to karate(Kimura Shukokai Karate) by my friend and that was the first time I really liked something. I went to almost every training two years straight before I had to do military service. Military service here in Finland lasted 6 months. After military service I continued practicing karate for one year. I earned my green belt in KSI but after that I had to move another place and I couldn't continue training there.

Source: shukokai.fi

How I started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?

In military service I got introduced to Brazlian Jiu Jitsu by one of the cadet. Also at the same time I started to watching UFC. It was UFC 88 or 89 which I saw first. I was trained karate so I knew some stand up fighting but I wanted to also learn some ground fighting. Because of the cadet I registered next Brazilian Jiu Jitsu basic course.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (aka BJJ) is developed by Brazilians Carlos and Hélio Gracie. It is combat sport and self-defense system which adapts techniques from traditional japanese jiu jitsu and judo. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu focuses on the ground fighting. In the match you try to defeat your opponent taking him/her on the ground and forcing him/her to tap by doing joint-lock or choke hold. Submission wrestling is similar to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but you don't wear a gi.

Picture from my first match which I lost. I'm in the white gi.

Competition rules

There are different organizations in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but usually there are three ways how you can win the match: submission, by points or by referee decision.

There are also different weight classes and belt ranks.

Belts: white, blue, purple, black, (black/red, red/white & red).

Weight classes (men): -64kg, -70kg, -76kg, -82,3kg, 88,3kg, 94,3kg, -100,5kg & +100,5kg.

Match duration: white belts: 5min, blue belts: 6min, purple belts 7min, brown belts: 8min and black belts: 10min.

How to get points?

2 points: Takedown(throw), Sweep, Knee on belly

Many of the take downs or throws are adapted from judo or wrestling.

Here I got handled by three times Finnish Judo Champion. I didn't know that before match. Maybe it was a good thing. Starts from 13 seconds.

Here I try to submit my opponent with shoulder lock called kimura but I end up sweeping and got 2 points getting from bottom to the top. Starts from 3min41sec

Knee on belly or knee on stomach. Source: watchbjj.com

3 points: Guard passing

Guard passing means that you pass your opponents legs to the side control or mount and hold that position 3 seconds.

4 points: Mount or back mount

Mount. Source: bjjee.com

Back mount. Source: graciemag.com

I was worst competitor in the world

I started BJJ almost 7 years ago and was hooked up right away. I remember trying arm bars after the first class. It was cool to see how easily with proper technique you can manipulate other person's arm and eventually broke it if opponent doens't tap out.

If you are on the facebook you can see what happened in Olympics. Brazilian girl didn't tap out in Judo and broke her's arm: https://www.facebook.com/JoeJiuJitsu/videos/608508345994440/?pnref=story

After 9 months of training I decided to try compete. I was nervous as hell in the first match and remember squeezing my opponent as hard as I could. Eventually I end up losing my first match. I get caught by armbar!

I lost my first match and was very sad. I think I drank quite a lot of booze after my loss.

But I was hooked up in the competition. I continued training as usually. Next tournament was 4 months later. I went there and was as nervous as in first match. Ended up losing by submission again. Once again. Wasn't fun but I didn't stop competing.

Third tournament was 2 months after second. I went there with same anxiety and nervousness but this time I didn't tap out. Ended up losing my first match by points. After this tournament I thought that I won't compete anymore. I messaged to my coach on facebook about not competing. I was quite sure not to compete anymore but he encouraged to continue competing. He told me many good reasons to continue: losing doesn't matter (there is no losing on BJJ, only learning) etc. He managed to me continue my competition career .

After that the same pattern repeated itself. I went to tournament, was nervous as hell and lost first match. It took me about 15 matches to get even a little bit relaxed but I still haven't won any matches or even score points! I scored my first points on match number 17 but didn't win that match.

Eventually I lost 21 matches straight before first win! I had to compete 3,5 years and 21 matches without victory. I bet this is some kind of world record.Here is the match:

Now I have competed in about 55 matches and almost all of them you can find from my YouTube channel. I haven't won any tournament yet but now I'm very motivated to win Finnish Nationals in the end of the November!

I am purple belt and I compete in -70kg weigh class.

Me on the right. My cousin on the left. We started at the same time and got promoted at the same time

Do you train any martial arts or do you know anyone who had worse record than I had? ;)

Follow me here: @vorsseli

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/lukotettulukottaja/

Happy steeming!