I started bjj Monday last week..so this is all pretty fresh in my head. I had never practiced martial arts..ever! Oh except 3 lessons of karate when I was about 10, but then I quit because it hurt too much. I'm also about 40lbs overweight so I was scared. Very scared. Anyways, to pick a school I tried 2. Most schools offer a free lesson, however this can be followed by a hard sell. The first school everyone was nice, place was clean, lesson was good (couldn't cmpare it to anything though)..but after class came the hard sell. It actually turned me off that school, and usually it would've turned me off the sport completely, but I was so incredibly sore the next day...I kind of enjoyed that feeling in a masochistic kind of way. So off to school 2 I went the following week, now knowing what to expect. First thing I noticed was the class size (6 of us). Now that could be the result of a bad teacher or high prices but it wasn't. Place was incredible. Workout was grueling, I thought I would pass out 10min into warm up. Everyone was nice, like scary overly nice, but they were all beginners at some point and knew the feeling. I picked bjj because I wanted to do hand to hand combat with people. I didn't really want to punch bags/pads or show up at work with a couple of shiners and a broken nose. One thing I can tell you as a beginner is that it's addictive. If I could go roll 5 times/week I would. These guys even though they are literally trained killers, are nicer and more fun to hang out with than my actual friends. If you don't have that feeling it's probably a sign that you've picked the wrong school. Now excuse me while I go ice my shoulder from last night's armbar.