36 , butt naked with chip crumbs and empty beers around me , got it sorted <| sep |> It is extremely common for 1 st year grad students to start TAing first year courses and realize they don ' t know the content very well , or perhaps can ' t remember it very well . <| sep |> I set no goals . From the offset I was very much aware that I ' m not an athlete and with that I wouldn ' t pretend to be one , putting little effort into my physical fitness , but luckily my understanding of positions and mobility was there very early on . That helped a lot . Something I tell a lot of white belts is to try and understand where flexibility and mobility differ . If you know the limitations of your flexibility , then work around that . Make yourself more mobile to compensate where you lack that extra flexibility . That may mean creating new angles , or understanding how to turn on your core . There ' s no blueprint . Just show up and train . Don ' t focus on Tom , Dick or Harry . Focus on yourself and whether you were a better grappler than you were yesterday . If you weren ' t , then you still have something to work on .