There are a lot of different qualities a BJJ practitioner must possess in order to reach success on the mats.
And the most important one, according to Caio Terra, is the willingness to push against adversity.
Here is what the 12x world champion had to say in an interview with BJJEE:
Over the years, what I’ve figured out was that the one and only talent you absolutely must possess – the quality that you must have in order to succeed in life or jiu jitsu – is the inclination and willingness for hard work.
It’s far from easy, though:
Jiu jitsu is not an easy lifestyle, it is a difficult lifestyle. You must train when you’re sick and when you’re injured, you have to keep on studying the game…
You must keep on training not just when tired, but when you’re completely fatigued as well.
Plus, BJJ is not exactly the healthiest thing for your body:
Jiu jitsu is not the healthiest thing to do when you do it too much. I mean, sure, jiu jitsu is really healthy when done in moderation, like everything is.
But, doing it too much is not good for you.And I think it requires a lot of sacrifices in order to become a world champion, you know?
You have to do the things that others are not willing to do. You have to work harder than anyone in order to succeed.
Terra also shared some awesome advice when it comes to technique improvement:
Also, like I mentioned earlier, in order to achieve the best technique you can, you need to study and then you must drill what you’ve studied – and to observe, during the drilling part, whether the technique works or not.
Drill, but not just to drill. Instead, do it with some kind of a resistance.
After you do that, then you should try applying it in training.If it does not work in training, you have got to go back to studying again and look for the reasons because of which it didn’t work.
Then drill and train again. Repeat this process, until the technique works.
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