Jerry O’Connell recently opened up about his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu journey – sharing both the physical grind and the mental benefits that keep him coming back.
Fresh off a tough session, O’Connell didn’t sugarcoat the experience:
I got beat up so bad in jiu-jitsu the other day…
Some guy beat me up so bad.(He) did something to my neck… Love it though.
It’s the best thing. Why is it so fun?
Despite the punishment, his enthusiasm hasn’t faded.
And according to host AJ Daulerio, the appeal goes deeper than just the physical challenge:
I actually don’t think about anything when I’m there for that hour and a half.
I never want to think about my phone… It’s just empty.
O’Connell credited his coach, Jean-Jacques Machado, for shaping his experience:
He’s the best. That’s my professor. I love him.
I’m the worst in there (in the class). But they’re really nice to me.
Daulerio shared a lesson that stuck with him early on:
I tap and I tap early… And he’s like: “If you have space to breathe, you have space to escape.”
I kind of apply that to so many things now.
For O’Connell, reality hits hard when facing higher-level grapplers:
Yeah. I just tap. I’m out of there… It’s over.
When you’re underneath a black belt, it’s over… You got to tap.
You got to give up. You got to surrender.
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