It definitely requires a special type of person to actively train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Only 3% of the people who start training will eventually get to black belt.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is growing at an amazing rate worldwide. More people are training in all corners of the world. BJJ is evolving. ‘Jiu-Jitsu for everyone‘ and ‘Keep it playful‘ are phrases that are used by 2 major BJJ academy chains. It means that Jiu-Jitsu can be trained by the general population: from kids to the serious BJJ competitor to the middle age accountant who wants to lose weight and learn to defend himself. Also by ‘keeping it playful’ they become more creative with their Jiu-Jitsu, they avoid injuries and are able to roll into their 90’s.
The idea is very good. We want to spread Jiu-Jitsu all over the world and we also want to train for life and avoid injuries.
Is Jiu-Jitsu really for everyone though? Think about all the people that started training and gave up within a few months. Who is to blame? Was the instructor not encouraging them enough? Did they not like the academy and team? Did they get injured and got scared?
Tom DeBlass said it best:
“I think the answer is simple, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is hard.
Most people look for the the easiest route to their desired goal. For example, instead of continuous healthy eating they look for the new fad diet or weight loss pill.
I have news for you, there is no quick fix in Jiu-Jitsu. It takes years of dedication in order to achieve your Black belt. During that time you will face many obstacles.
The easiest thing to do for most people when facing an obstacle is to quit. With this mentality most people die without ever reaching their full potential in any aspect of life.”
Rener Gracie recently received a message from a BJJ student who was thinking about quitting. He was tired of getting smashed consistently in training at his academy which was very competitive.
Rener answered the student:
“If you feel like you have to survive your school, you’re at the wrong school. Tell me what city let’s work together to devise a plan that will save your Jiu Jitsu future. If we don’t figure this out, you’ll end up quitting for the third (and not likely final) time.”
He then added:
“This is one of the most common DMs I get, and it always hurts. It’s amazing how the martial art that our grand masters designed to empower the weak against the strong is taught so poorly at BJJ schools around the world that it deters the very people that it was intended to serve. If this has happened to you, don’t give up, there is hope. If you order your favorite pizza, and it shows up folded and crumbled in the box, you don’t blame the pizza, you blame the delivery man who dropped it.
Similarly, if you commit yourself to learning jiu-jitsu, and it ends up being one of the worst experiences of your life, jiu-jitsu is not to blame, rather, the instructor – who had no clue how to introduce you to this amazing martial art in a safe, structured and encouraging manner – is at fault. Jiu-jitsu IS for everyone and anyone who tells you otherwise is misinformed or they simply never learned how to teach (or both), in either case, they don’t deserve you as a student. If you are one of the countless people who have ever tried BJJ at a random school and quit for any of the reasons listed above, DM me your story and your location and I’m gonna help you get back on the path, so you can learn the are that was entirely designed for YOU!
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p.s. If you are a BJJ instructor/school owner who has no clue why your students are quitting as quickly as they show up, and why your school is stuck at 127 students even though you’ve been open for 22 years, DM me as well. We need to talk.”
Related
Rener Gracie on ‘Pure Gracie Jiu-Jitsu’ Taught at Gracie Academy instead of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
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