CHICAGO, IL — Forty-seven minutes into his first ever Brazilian jiu-jitsu class, Marcus Webb — no relation, presumably, to any other Marcus Webb — pulled assistant instructor Dana Chu aside to ask which leg lock instructional she would recommend given his budget of “around two hundred dollars, maybe more if it’s worth it.”
He had, at this point, learned how to fall. He had practiced a single guard pass. He had been submitted by a 14-year-old during a two-minute king-of-the-mat round that he had not fully understood the rules of. He was extremely focused.
“I’ve been watching a lot of John Danaher,” Webb explained, in the parking lot after class, still in his borrowed gi. “And I’m trying to understand — is the entry system different with no-gi? Because I’m thinking gi now but I want a system that transfers.”
Chu, a purple belt with three years of teaching experience, confirmed that she recommended he wait. Webb heard this and nodded in the specific way of someone who has heard a thing they did not find useful.
He asked about heel hook mechanics on the drive home, according to his training partner, who had driven him to the gym because Webb does not yet own equipment and was trying out class before committing. He has since committed. He purchased a gi Monday morning. He purchased the Danaher lower body attacks series Monday afternoon. He asked in the gym’s group chat on Tuesday whether anyone wanted to drill entries. Nobody responded.
Webb is expected to show up to next week’s class with a strong theoretical framework and no functional guard of any kind. He will be dangerous in the way that a person is dangerous when they have learned a very specific thing and have not yet learned the ten things that come before it.
He’ll be fine. Probably.