“Jiu Jitsu was designed to make you quit. Jiu Jitsu will find your weakness. Jiu Jitsuwill show your true colors. You can not fake jiu jitsu”. -Saulo Ribero.
Motivation: It is not strength, but desire that moves us.
By Guillaume Huni, BJJ black belt and head instructor of Kimura Academy in Serbia.
If you are (or were) a BJJ competitor then you know exactly what the title of this post is all about. For many competitive athletes just the idea of being able to compete is one of the biggest motivating factors behind playing sports along with the exhilaration of the competitive arena. Even though competitive athletes hate to lose, it is not winning that necessarily drives them but the enjoyment they get out of the challenge competition brings. For many people, competition is fun and a great challenge and can to motivate you to train harder.
The important question is why do we compete? What drives us? If your reasons for competitions are for vanity reasons such as boosting your ego, beating big names just to big yourself up, make a name for yourself by collecting medals, then you probably have the wrong intentions and that will translate in your performance. Even worse, with those motivation factors, the day you lose will be terrible because your intentions are not good and your ego wil be hurt.
I was watching a motivational speech by BJJ legend Saulo Ribeiro on bjjlibrary.com the other day and he asked his students a question during class: “After all those competing and winning everything there is to win in Jiu-Jitsu, why do I still compete at 41 years of age, and I’m all broken?” A few of his students tried to answer “Because you hate to lose?” Wrong, “Because you want to win more medals still?” Wrong! At the end, Saulo’s wife answered right: “Because you love it!” Yes!
There lies the true essence of what should be your reason for competing: Because you love it! You love the whole journey: preparation for the tournament where you’re training hard, everything hurts, you’re improving, you’re doubting yourself, you feel like a machine, you’re cutting weight. It makes you feel ALIVE. Having a goal means that you also start to eat better, you force yourself to sleep more, you’re more focused. When competition day comes, it’s all about reaping the fruit of your labour, going through the nerve wrecking experience of performance, and giving everything you’ve got, transforming yourself to get that win.
Loving the journey and crazy ride of competition means that win or lose, you will always take out the positive out of the experience. One should compete if their intentions are good, and for self development.
On the other hand, if one’s intentions are for vanity reasons, then there are chances that disappointments will happen as a result of possible defeats.
Adem Redzovic shares similar thoughts about competing in Jiu-Jitsu.
Check out the video:
