How did you get into submission grappling?

[brycelei]

For most, I'm sure it was the Royce Gracie influence but I coulnd't relate with him at all. Royce was a pure jiu jitsu guy and I have been a striker since I was a kid. For me it was when I first saw Nog vs Coleman. Nog was outstriking Coleman on the feet and totally dominated him on the ground. Nogueira had the best of both worlds and it really opened up my eyes. The triangle armbar combination was beautiful. I fell in love with submission grappling ever since and have never looked back. Striking almost seems like an ex girlfriend now.

[xhale of the shoes]

ufc 1

[VTXRaider]

For me it was UFC 2. I had wrestled for years and been in some various martial arts but when I saw Royce subbing everyone I knew it was time to refocus what I was training. Watching the final I would have bet the farm that Pat Smith was going to kill Royce, well you know what happened and that's when it started for me.

[morlach]

Ive been fighting people as long as I remember and a wrestler since elementary school. Ive been using RNCs forever, but when I started watching mma, I just picked up everything new and practiced it until it was instinct.

[Hammafist]

i wrestled my whole entire life and then i met mark kerr (he was my wrestling coaches roomate at cuse and there are pics of them in the documentary) he told me and my friends aboutu wat he did (this was the year 1999). I still didnt get into mma bc wrestling was such a big part of my life then over the summer of 2001 i went to j robison wrestling camp (the hell that it was) and i met a couple of wrestlers of wrestlers from purdue one notable being jon fitch, and i met there coach Tom Erikson and me and my friends at wrestling camp got our first grappling lesson...

the funny thing was i didnt get into mma until ufc 40 when one of my favorite pro-wrestlers ken shamrock stepped into the cage with tito...little did i know i would only hate shamrock and love tito only a year later

[Resin]

UFC 1

[skunknuts[ADR]]

Saw one of my friends doing it one day, and was interested in learning to break limbs, lol at immaturaty back in the day

[tobias]

just came naturally when i saw royce in ufc 1

[j.griff]

i started training with my mate who was judo champion, he started
up his own mma club ,i have hooked since then and that was five years ago
i'm sorry i never started mma/bjj sooner...........

[thunder126]

friend told me about BJJ, watched some videos ( Choke etc.), gave it a shot and liked it.

[kimo]

i was just a kid when UFC started, but later on in my mid teens i started doing Tae Kwon Do and my instructor who did alot of styles started going to Guy Mezgers school. I have gone more than a handful of times so i started doing that too
but things like school and work keep getting in the way, hopefully 2007 is a better year for us, he has said he is going to give it 100% and i want to take it more seriously as well

[HeelHook]

drunken wrestling with a budy that turned out to be a brown belt. I thought I had him till he tri-angled me. Went to class with him and got hooked right away

[hotnewton]

ufc 1 got me into it, then my friends and I just started grappling. I've never really trained with anybody good, I just mess around from time to time, but I can beat all of my friends in grappling matches (even the ones who have trained for real) but that has to do with my size and flexibility.

[UrbanX]

I was training in Daitoryu Aikijujitsu for a few years when I thought I'd try something different to expand my knowledge. I almost immediately gave up the Aiki and fell in love with the Jiu-Jitsu. I've since found a way to mesh the two and teach the wrist locks to my Jiu-Jitsu guys.

[boomboom]

to beat lango down

[brownsugar]

i trained in thai kickboxing...and then sparred with a guy with crosstrained and he started me into it...then watching the gracie's, nog bros and marcelo garcia i got hooked by grappling

[americana]

royce gracie amazed me and erik paulson in shooto finished me off. i wanted to learn it all .

[pbturbo]

UFC 1...realized my standup stuff wasn't going to cut it anymore. A new day started after watch that.

[alpha82425]

had previous injuries from hs...stop doing cardio but still lifted weights...got really strong but realized that it was because I was fat (5'11 260!!!) and then decided to do something about it...just kinda stumbled into it after passing a school by...now im 100 lbs lighter and retained most of my strength...all thanks to bjj

[nakedrear]

Honestly, I got my ass kicked in school by a larger more athletic guy probably about 3 years before I saw UFC 1. I didn't get totally pwned, but he got the best of me, and after that I just felt like shit because I had taken Karate and I thought I could take care of myself. So, when I saw Royce whooping up on folks that restored my faith in Martial Arts (jiu-jitsu primarily--of course) and that was it for me. From that day on I knew the little guy could win.