Multiple world champion and leader of Brasa, Felipe Costa discussed on his website Brazilianblackbelt.com, how he thought that champions could not be made but are in fact born.
He means that some people just have the champion mentality in them and that cannot be taught.
As I grow older I started to have a new perspective on that, today my understanding of a champion is not necessarily the person who gets the gold medal, but the person who has a champion attitude towards his life. From that perspective Im highly inclined to believe Champions are indeed born and not made.
I could get a thousand examples, Im just using myself because it’s BJJ related, I have failure a million times in life, both inside and outside the mats, but I always came back and tried again and I did that not because of what my instructor was saying, but because I had the champion’s attitude. Im not saying I was never motivated by my friends and teachers, but this kind of motivation last just for a while. It’s like a push, it only gets you so far…after that you have to keep walking by yourself, you are not going to far if you depend on a push every time you stop, you need to start to walk on your own at some point.
Does it mean that we can not motivate someone to change his mentality and attitude towards life (and sport, if that is the case)? No, I think is not impossible, but hard…but I could write another article on that.This article you are reading right now is more directed to the instructor or the competitor who is frustrated because he can not get his students or training partners as motivated as him.
Sloth Jiu-Jitsu: you can be slow and unathletic and still kick butt in Jiu-Jitsu.