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I will always remember that initial grab that Jiu Jitsu had on me when I had first started training over ten years ago. Back when I began, the first day was much like being thrown into a pool without knowing how to swim. For most, that type of introduction is seen as harsh and uninviting. However, for me, it captured my attention unlike anything else. Whoever I was paired with for sparring, absolutely ran through me like a father wrestling with their son. The idea that someone can have the skill to manipulate my body to where I can't move and continue to apply either a joint lock or choke leaving me no choice but to tap out, was to me, a superpower.
This brings me back to the question why is Jiu Jitsu so addictive?
What do we desire that makes this so?
It's a complicated and multilayered question. One desire that stands out as somewhat universal, is the desire to be competent, to be good at something, especially if that something is respected by others. Being very good at something gives you a sense of pride and humility, which are two energies admired by many. Jiu Jitsu has a powerful part to play in this desire. Like most sports, Jiu Jitsu has a difficult learning curve which can cause a lot of people to turn away from it and pick a potentially simpler discipline. However, it is the challenging times, the tough sports, the things that are difficult to learn that will give you a real and fulfilled sense of accomplishment and success. In Jiu Jitsu, if you stick with the training and put in the hard work, you will go from the first day of not being able to stay balanced to the later months/years of being able to shock your training partners around you with technique and skill.
Jiu Jitsu also has such depth in terms of what type of grappler you want to be. There are so many types of combinations and strategies that you can forge alongside your professor and training partners. This is another reason why once you dabble in Jiu Jitsu, you get addicted to finding out how you fit within the sport and what your style of game can be.
Many find great stimulus in the strategy of this art: the ideas of when to attack, transition, jump, turn, lift etc., and taking all these chaotic movements to blend them together to create what looks like music in visual form. Every style of Jiu Jitsu should, if made into music, sound beautiful with rhythm, story and harmony all playing together perfectly. It is very easy to get lost for years in simply trying to understand the nature of how Jiu Jitsu works! It’s an amazing thing.
NOTE THIS...
In Jiu Jitsu, the ceiling of how good you can get has not been seen yet because we are permanently stuck in the present. You can take all that has been discovered in Jiu Jitsu by those before you and set off on an adventure to discover more while making the techniques you already know just that much more efficient and elegant.
Maybe YOU can be the next highest potential we see. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
Most don’t take up Jiu Jitsu and stay with it forever, but maybe you will. Some might pick it up for a few months or years however, even short periods of time can give you a basic understanding of self defense. And that is the essential skill to have before taking your addition to Jiu Jitsu further.
Once you get the Jiu Jitsu bug, it’s hard to stop.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.