Jiu Jitsu brings us together, sharing it all on the mat
The brotherhood that forms between you and all of your training partners is hard to ignore. It’s also hard to explain. There is just a personal connection that forms when you spend a certain amount of time in the academy, training, and gaining knowledge with other people. All of your triumphs, and failures are on the mat for everyone to share. The playing field is leveled and we all become equals on the mat there to learn and advance. Literally sharing all of our blood, sweat, and tears.
The Jiu Jitsu brotherhood is real but how did we get here?
The brotherhood of Jiu Jitsu just happens, despite the fact that we all came to this place for different reasons. As human’s we don’t do anything in life without motivation. These motivations are what drive us, they are the forces that shape our lives. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is no different, we all make the call and step on the mat for different reasons.
The driving factor to learn Jiu Jitsu isn’t always clear… but it will be.
I still remember the very first day I figured out that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was something I needed in my life. The motivation that day was very different than the motivation I hold today. With a long history of trying many forms of martial arts, it wasn’t quite clear to me what exactly I was looking for. Then I found BJJ and it was like a light switch being snapped on. I wanted to learn something that worked exactly like it was supposed to and was still unique. These two factors were clear and present and are relevant today. My motivation has changed since I began though so now I train for two different reasons. First, I love to learn, the intricacy of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu allows a lifelong learning process. And second, I want nothing else more than to teach other people the beauty of BJJ and help them fulfill their own motivations.
Competition or Self Defense
Not long after the popularity of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu exploded and everybody began their individual learning journeys, two distinct groups of people surfaced; those who trained to compete, and those who trained to defend themselves. To this day, these two motivations are the defining factor for an extremely large portion of people who are learning Jiu Jitsu. This doesn’t mean the two motivations are not connected or don’t complement each other. Many people have both goals in mind but with an emphasis on one or the other.
A Martial Art for the intellectual thinker
As I mentioned above, I love learning this art. When you have a love of learning new things, you tend to gravitate to those things that challenge you in some way. The things that have many levels of thought provoking techniques and theories are the things you may search for, like myself. The intellectual thinker is naturally drawn to this form of martial art for that exact reason. In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you don’t just learn techniques and moves, you learn those techniques, why they work, multiple applications, defenses, counters for defenses, alternate applications, and the list goes on. I think it’s easy to see where this is going. If you are looking to have your mind challenged and learn something deep and on many levels, I may have just found your motivation.
Is it a beach body or a Jiu Jitsu body?
As I am sitting here writing this, Thanksgiving is literally tomorrow. We all know what happens on Thanksgiving right? We eat, we eat a lot! This also motivates us to give those extra pounds back to the universe. Well guess what…. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu does that too. Sometimes I think there isn’t anything this Martial Art can’t do. We all understand that physical activity burns calories and burning calories can drop body weight. I have once had a student come to me and tell me this: “You know, I run about eight miles a day and I am beat after just 5 minutes of sparring here, what’s up with that?”. I’m gonna just leave that one right there.
Motivations abound and the list just keeps rolling along
If I continued to write about this subject I would be sitting here all day, I would miss Thanksgiving tomorrow, and I would probably wake up with my head on the computer and still not be finished. The beautiful thing is that the motivation you have is yours, it’s unlike anyone else’s. This is what drives you, and you alone. It doesn’t matter what it is, it doesn’t matter if anyone else understands it. What matters is that you fulfill that motivation and you feed your need to train. Maybe it’s a quest for confidence, a need for a new hobby, or something as simple as a time filler on a Tuesday night. This is your journey, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is just here to help you achieve the goals you set.