The Fire

When I first started BJJ, I just got thrown in with a bunch of adults as a fifteen year old kid, that was jiu jitsu in 2003. You rolled on your first day even if you knew nothing, and you either survived or you left. That's not conducive to people wanting to stick around, but I also believe in giving people agency over their training. When you walk in our door with no experience, I will tell you when our basics class is and try to steer you towards taking at least a few of them before jumping into rolling. However, you are an adult, if you want to come to the mixed levels classes I won't stop you. What you should know is it's hard, it is a difficult path to jump into the mixed levels class and roll when you don't know what's going on. Most likely you'll get beat up, you'll get tapped, and you'll  be sore in places you didn't know you had places. It's defeating, humbling, frustrating, and all the other things you probably don't want to feel, but it's going to be that way. Psychologically and physically it is incredibly difficult to just jump in to grappling. It is however more practical, making mistakes in real time against someone who's resisting is always going to be the path to the quickest result. Just like immersing yourself in a language is the best way to learn. So then it is up to you to determine what path works best for the longevity of your jiu-jitsu career, stockpile knowledge for a bit and then execute when you feel more comfortable, or jump in to an admittedly frustrating initial period for a quicker knowledge gain. Neither is wrong, just be aware that it's not supposed to be easy.