Nobody likes to be submitted in training or in competition, but there is a famous saying “There is no losing in Jiu-Jitsu, you either win or you learn”.
BJJ black belt Josh Vogel, gives some good advice on how to positively react the fact of losing in Jiu-Jitsu:
I’m no sports psychologist, but here are some things that help me deal with some of the ego bruising which I’ve felt in losing competition matches and getting tapped in training.
I know it’s not supposed to matter what happens in training, but if I’m being truthful it bothered the hell out of me getting caught by people when I was a white, blue and purple belt. I still don’t like it but the stuff in the video has helped me take the sting out of it and use my ego to improve, rather than being a destructive or unhealthy thing.
For Vogel, he deals with defeat in the following 2 ways:
- Have a clinical approach to Jiu-Jitsu. If someone tapped you, they did you a favour because they exposed a flaw in your technique and it’s something you can work on to fix.
- Channel that into something productive. Use that energy to study footage, to go to the gym the next day, drill harder, and do the things you need to do to solve that problem.
Here are some sayings that BJJ black belt champion Paulo Miyao lives by. He shared them with GRACIEMAG (In Portuguese).
These are great sayings that you can use in your everyday life.
– Nothing is impossible. Life is hard for the lazy.
– When you feel like judging someone , run towards a mirror. Then you see that you have faults too.
– The law is to train , train, train – until the lamb becomes a lion .
– Never let anyone tell you cannot do something . If you have a dream, go after it. There are people who cannot win and say that you also will not win. If you want something, go after it.
-If you did something really good , you should look to do another wonderful thing, and not settling for that for long . Just find out what will be next .
– The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants in life is merely the will to try and the faith to believe that it is possible.
– The master in the art of living makes little distinction between work and leisure , between mind and body, between education and recreation, between love and religion. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does , leaving it to others to decide whether it is working or playing . He knows he is always doing both simultaneously.
– So you lost ? Shut up and train more.
Here is 5x BJJ world champion Bernardo Faria‘s new series, No Gi Pressure Passing. Building on the incredible success of his Pressure Passing instructionals in the Gi, this system will bring that same pressure to your No Gi game! Get it here!
