Every grappler remembers the moment they realized they had absolutely no idea what they were doing. For Kevin James, that moment came fast, and it nearly ended with him grabbing a training partner by the throat.
The actor and comedian, who now trains as a blue belt, opened up about his rocky introduction to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. What he described wasn’t a smooth first step into the sport, it was a full-on panic attack disguised as a grappling class.
James explained that during one of his earliest sessions at Beverly Hills Jiu-Jitsu, a training partner pinned him chest to chest, burying his face against the man’s gi. The pressure and lack of airflow sent him into a tailspin.
“I remember my one, probably the first class, a guy grabbed me and held me just against his chest and my face was in his gi, in his chest. I couldn’t breathe,” James recalled. “I didn’t know what to do so I reached up and I was like grabbing his throat, which you’re not supposed to do, but I was panicking.”
Despite trying to keep his composure in front of everyone else on the mat, James admitted the fear was very real in the moment.
“I was gone. I was gone. I was like, oh, I didn’t know. I just played it off, but I was gone. I was going to tap from a chest.”
Rogan didn’t let the story pass without pointing out that this kind of reaction is far more common than people think, and it isn’t limited to nervous beginners. He noted that even seasoned black belts run into the same smothering pressure in competition.
“People do that in black belt tournaments, a smother choke,” Rogan said. “Like people smother tap people. Big guys would get on top of people and tuck them in between their pecs.”
That comparison landed with James, who agreed the sensation goes beyond simple discomfort.
“I feel like I’m drowning. I’m done. It’s scary,” James said.
The exchange captures something almost every practitioner experiences on day one. Nobody steps onto the mats for the first time already in control. There’s always that initial moment of feeling trapped and disoriented, reaching for an instinctive response that ends up being the wrong one, whether that’s grabbing at a throat, freezing up, or simply panicking.
Rogan closed the topic by framing that early discomfort as a necessary part of the learning curve rather than something to avoid.
“If you can learn defense of that, then you’re always going to be safe,” he said.
A freelance journalist with more than seven years of experience covering a wide range of topics, with a focus on delivering accurate, engaging, and well-researched reporting. He studied at the University of Birmingham, where he developed a strong foundation in journalism and communications. Martin is a 10th Planet BJJ brown belt and has been training for approximately 10 years and a keen follower of submission grappling.
