Why Choose BJJ?
It’s natural - I’ve always been drawn to sports and activities that are simple. Who can run the fastest? Who can throw this big heavy rock the furthest? Who can strangle whom? I suspect these simple sports (track and field, lifting, martial arts, archery) have ancient roots. They are primal, natural, require minimal equipment, and are deeply biological. Grappling, in particular, is done naturally across the globe by fathers with their kids, and every inhabited continent in the world has a native form of grappling! And not just in humans. Other social mammals like primates, bears, lions, and wolves can be found wrestling and rolling around to develop strength, coordination, and solidify social bonds. A good rolling session strikes a chord deep within our biology for human connection that is often neglected in the modern world.
I enjoy watching basketball, and I respect most athletes, but for the most part I can’t shake the thought that most modern sports are just people in a field playing with their balls.
Anybody can do it - Do you have a body? You can train BJJ. Kids are welcome. Women are welcome. There are war veterans with missing limbs and PTSD who use BJJ as therapy (see We Defy Foundation). Blindness does not exclude you from BJJ — everything can be done by feel. Hearing is also not required so the deaf are welcome. All are welcome.
Older adults are welcome. I have several training partners in their 50’s and one who is 68! When it comes to your body, it’s important to use it or lose it. You may assume that rolling around on the mats will cause more harm than good, which is certainly possible if you’re reckless or particularly unlucky (no activity is 100% risk-free). But if you train intelligently with thoughtful and attentive partners, then your strength, cardiovascular endurance, and mobility will increase with time. These physical attributes contribute to joint health, stability, reduced pain, and longevity. I truly believe that BJJ can extend your lifespan.
It’s so much fun - This is what got me hooked. It is a live action 3D chess match using your entire body. Your body is the controller and you are playing the ultimate 1st person adventure. You will spend sleepless nights trying to solve technical problems you encounter against your most challenging training partners.
Do you want to be engaged more intensely than almost anything else in your life? Try simulated murder. You will become addicted to the post jiu jitsu endorphin-fueled euphoric sense of accomplishment. Congratulations, you didn’t die!
Self Defense - The only way to learn how to defend yourself from being attacked is to be attacked. There are a lot of theoretical situations that arise when learning classic “self defense” techniques, but the techniques don’t really work when adrenaline is pumping and your attacker is resisting. A really angry person can walk through tasers and gunshots, so the cute little wrist lock you practiced 6 times last year is going to fail. Even a kick to the nuts will probably just make your attacker mad.
Techniques we learn in BJJ, however, work against everyone. Applying a strangle for 10 seconds will knock out the biggest and strongest man alive. Over time, technique and mechanical principles turn your body into a limb-snapping machine. But these techniques must be practiced regularly with a resisting opponent so that your nervous system learns how to anticipate and manage natural reactions that your attacker will exhibit. Once your technique becomes second nature, your body will automatically anticipate these reactions and will respond without thinking. No joke, it feels like a superpower.
These skills are especially beneficial for girls and women. I believe that for many women, experiencing an attacker’s strength and aggression for the first time can be extremely sobering. The jiu jitsu mats are the best place to feel the strength of an attacker, become accustomed to the (literal) pressure, and train your body to respond effectively in a safe and controlled environment. My personal mission is to ensure that my daughter knows how to escape bad positions and how to strangle a man 5 different ways before she goes to college.
Healthy Ego - Almost everybody who lacks BJJ experience vastly overestimates their ability in a fight. It’s completely understandable, because you don’t know what you don’t know. But stepping on to the mats for the first time is almost always a life-changing experience. You will be completely helpless against somebody who knows what they’re doing. The blue belts will probably tie you into knots, and you won’t realize it, but the black belts are going to be playing with you as if you were a child — even if you are big and strong and tough. If you are willing to adopt a beginner mindset and you are curious to know what it feels like to effortlessly control another human, then keep showing up. The experience will completely break you down and show you how vulnerable you are. Then, it will build you back up. After years of training, you’ll know that nobody can hold you down (except for maybe the 250lb brown belt in the room), and you will be reborn with a balanced and healthy confidence.
Beginner Mindset - You are going to lose. A lot. But after you’ve been tapped out by scores of arm bars, you start to see them coming. Once you see the early warning signs you stop making the same mistakes. This is the learning process and it applies to everything. Jiu jitsu teaches you to use losses and failures as opportunities to grow. You adopt a beginner’s mindset and you are unafraid of making mistakes because they actually hasten your development.
Off the mats, you no longer get insecure when criticized, because having mistakes corrected is a good thing: your criticizer is helping you. All setbacks, challenges, and adversity in your life come with a silver lining in the form of a lesson that will help you improve as a person.
Staying Present - You also learn to live in the moment. Thinking about the future or the past becomes a distraction that leads to physical consequences on the mats. Learning to stay present is a muscle that gets stronger with use, and you can apply it off the mats too. When stress emerges or negative thoughts threaten to drag you into an emotional pit, you become skilled at nipping them in the bud. Take a breath, look at the sky, and ask yourself, “how am I right now?” You’re usually pretty good. And if you’re not good, it’s usually no worse than being stuck in side control under that 250lb brown belt, and you survived that. So this too will pass.
When you’re able to stay present, you spend less time stressed, depressed, anxious, and angry about things that have already happened (the past no longer exists) or some imagined catastrophe that might happen later (the future does not exist yet either). Your elevated mood becomes contagious and spreads to those around you. Everything gets better. It is a positive feedback loop (Ha!)