Dear athlete, in case you were by now still unaware, let me break the news for you: training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) will NOT be the easiest thing you do in your life. Quite the opposite. It may actually be one of the most challenging things you ever endeavor yourself into doing.
Here’s some things that WILL happen through your time training:
- You will get submitted, face many people better than you, and lose time and time again.
- Your growth will plateau, making you feel like you’re not getting better before you find your way again.
- You’re going to have bad days where you feel like you can’t do anything right.
- You will probably lose in competition.
- You will have days where you don’t feel like getting up to go train.
- Your professors and coaches are going to be hard on you at some point.
- You are going to have to push yourself harder than you thought you could go.
- …and so much more.
ALL of us go through this. The only difference for black belts is that they’ve gone through it 1,000’s of times more than white belts. But we are all the same. And we are all in this together. All practitioners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will face their share of adversity and that’s okay. So if you find yourself going through some challenges times on the mats, the first thing we want you to know is this: you are not alone.
Something magical happens to you as a person when you face these types of obstacles and come out the other side having survived – you get tougher.
Through adversity, you develop resiliency and that is something everyone needs in order to become a champion – both on the mats and in life. And the more you through these tough times, the more you condition yourself not to ever quit:
Now here’s some of the things that will happen throughout time as develop your resiliency through challenging situations:
- You will face people tougher than you, learn how to adapt, then adjust, then eventually win.
- You will go realize that learning in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu comes with plateaus. As you develop your techniques and your training partners adapt, you will be forced to develop ever more, fueling your overall growth.
- You’ll take the good days with the bad. Life has plenty of both so you’ll learn how to develop an even keel and be prepared for both.
- You’ll keep competing. Yes, you might lose. But you’ll always win or learn.
- Even on bad days, you’ll push through and train. Even when laziness wants to win out, you won’t quit without trying.
- You’ll learn how to deal with criticism and use it to get better.
- You’ll learn how not to quit.
- ….and so much more.
So to conclude, we hope you realize that adversity is part of training, and also a big part of life. You can’t always control what happens to you but you can always control how to adapt and respond to it. Through this process, we hope you become a champion both on the mats and also in your everyday lives.
See you on the mats!
