Why Jiu Jitsu

Alright so, WHY JIU JITSU?

Goals

  Goal setting and pursuing, esp as a man, is very important, particularly from the mental aspect.  Every man needs a purpose, these are smaller purposes, things to strive for, things that will make  you grow as a person, not stagnate. 

Self defense

 EVERYONE, but again, esp as a man, should know how to defend themselves. Men should be ready and capable of protecting himself and his family.  Being able to fight is extremely masculating, and being scared of a man, especially in front of your family, is SO emasculating. 

Confidence 

 When you know, not think, but KNOW you are capable of fighting and defending yourself, your confidence will skyrocket.  I walk tall, shoulders back, look ANYONE in the eye. I’m not cocky or bullying anyone with it, but I feel no fear.  Ppl can sense this, whether it’s confidence or lack of confidence.  Women find confidence appealing. Men looking for a problem will not want that problem, they’ll want an easier problem.

Critical thinking

 Your way of thinking will more than likely change, unless maybe you’re older, and already have a well thinking mind, in which case you will probably fall in love with Jiu Jitsu quickly.  I was only 23 when I started, so I was still pretty stupid in life, but I quickly became aware of how it started rewiring my brain to think differently. I can’t quite explain, but I vividly remember realizing that I was thinking differently.  It basically taught me way better critical thinking skills.  You tell yourself whatever you want with most things in life and find a way to believe them.  Most people tend to find the “victim” excuse, which those types won’t last in jits, they will either quit very quickly, or they will kill that mindset.  On the mat, there is very little bs you can tell yourself as excuses for why something happened.  Caveat to that is something I used to do in saying stuff like “he only beat me bc he x or y”, things like “his technique was bad, he just muscled it”.  Also bs, and will also die over time if you stick with training.  But the original point is, bs karate no touch moves and all that is INSTANTANEOUSLY proved wrong.  You either learn that something does or does not work.

Tribe/Brotherhood/community

 This is a big one.  All of the big time men’s podcasts or minds on social media talk about this one a lot.  Human’s need a tribe, they need a group to belong with.  It’s evolutionary.  I don’t think I need to beat this one to death, but Jiu Jitsu is a brotherhood, or a community.  A good place will welcome you in right away, but even the places that don't, if you stick with training, put in your time, earn your skills, they will welcome you in.

Health

So there’s the obvious benefits, cardiovascular.  You're putting in work, sweating, exploding, these are the obvious benefits of a work out.  But there are also the less obvious ones…..Mental energy.  Jiu Jitsu is a thinking art, you have to use your brain a lot, and you will burn a lot of extra calories when you have to use your brain.  You hear about those stories like chess players burning 6000 calories/day.  

Mobility. When you are stiff and literally can’t do certain movements, training will start to force you into these positions a certain amount, but also you will work on this outside of jits because you want to be better.  Same with diet, if you eat like crap and then you feel like you’re going to throw up in training, then you will start to change your eating habits. 

Similar to the mobility training, over time you will learn rehab and prehab for injuries…..training is so fun, it will drive you crazy when you have to take time off for injuries.  Which leads you to doing your own research.

Passion 

 It is my opinion that finding your passion and pursuing it is one of the biggest goals in a  person's life.  This is something I didn’t even know until after I realized that Jiu Jitsu was my passion.  This again goes back to having a goal or a purpose.  I pursued it all the way, making it my life's work and opening a business.  This is my only job, my only income.  And my goals dramatically shifted from personal jiu jitsu goals, to goals for my students. Creating champions, mentoring on life and mentoring in business and in passions outside of jits.  That’s the exact reason I’ve started this youtube channel, which is quickly turning into a  new passion of mine.

Mental clarity

Jiu Jitsu is considered a zen sport.  This means you have to be completely in the moment, no other thoughts when you’re rolling.  It clears your mind, like meditating.  It releases pent up aggression that most men have from not using their body, sitting at a desk, day after day.  This mental clarity is a form of therapy.

Networking

 Similar to the point about being a tribe, you join a network of ppl.  I’ve seen so many people connect, and do things outside of training.  From just friendships, to business, or getting a job, connecting you with someone else who doesn’t even train.  

Infinite

 So this reason usually is what draws in a more intellectual type.  Jiu Jitsu is infinite.  You will NEVER stop learning.  There’s always a new technique being developed, you can always get better at what you already do.  

Art

 The art aspect of jits i feel is so under appreciated.  Jiu Jitsu can be so beautiful.  You don’t have to only train for self defense, you can train strictly for the art of it, learning how to fight can just be a bonus.  Everyone argues that certain sport techniques are stupid or whatever they say, which is wrong and will be a future video of its own, but that's only because it's a martial art, that they say anything at all.  No one would ever say  riding a bike is stupid bc you can do that in a real fight, bc you don’t bike to learn how to fight.  But there is the art aspect of jits to be considered, especially if you’ve trained as long as I have.  I don’t need to stick to fundamentals to be able to protect myself in a street fight, most ppl have never even grappled a day in their life. 

Super power

Jiu Jitsu is a super power.  This has been said before on podcasts, but it most certainly is a super power.  Once you get decent, if you ever get into an altercation when someone who does not train any grappling, it’s like taking candy from a baby ONCE you get the fight to the ground.  Everyone who has never trained before will do one of a couple of things, the most likely being turning over and giving you their back. They will feel so helpless and you will have complete control. The opposite of that, which sometimes scares ppl, is when you start jiu jitsu.  

The first time you go with a legit purple belt or higher, and you realize you’re a helpless baby...this is exactly how my journey started.  I tried out a little jiu jitsu club, and everyone there was brand new like me.  Unlike me though, I was young and in really good shape, quite strong for my size.  I also had a delusional amount of confidence, because I had been watching UFC since I was 8, and I thought I already knew every jiu jitsu move out there, which was just the basic submissions.  To make it worse, because of my confidence, little bit of knowledge and the fact that everyone else was also brand new, I did basically beat everyone there.  So there I had proof in my mind, I am that good at jiu jitsu.  Luckily for me, my schedule changed and I wasn’t able to continue at the little club on base, so I decided to join an actual academy.  So I checked a place out that I ended up joining.  I was watching the class and picking out the students I thought would be my tougher matches, but I’ll beat them all for sure. I remember thinking to myself, I’ll get my black belt in probably like a month.  Anyways, I took my first class, and the way they did it there, I did a private with a purple belt and another brand new young guy, also his first night. All we went over was some very basic fundamentals.  In my head I was thinking yea yea yea, I know this already, let me roll so i can show you how good i am.  The purple belt actually did let us roll, which I would recommend not doing with my current knowledge, but again, it was proof I was right after I submitted him.  I could tell he felt the same way during the private, he just wanted to roll so he could beat me.  After that private lesson, I was allowed to join the beginner class, but when we started rolling, both the beginner and the advanced class rolled all together.  I was thinking Finally!, time to show them what's up.  So I partnered up with a purple, in my mind I was thinking this guy isn’t even a black belt, this will be easy.  We were both right around 170 lbs, but he was a little older, around 30 I would guess, but he wasn’t in particularly good shape, where I was pretty shredded at that point of my life.  Then we started rolling...it was probably a 5 minute long round…I did not beat him.  He did nothing but triangle me, probably 5 or 6 times.  That was when I learned that Jiu Jitsu was not what i thought it was, and I was not the bad ass I thought i was.  All I kept thinking after was “if i was about to fight him in the streets, I wouldn’t 100% thought I’d fuck him up.  And then he could’ve literally ended my life and there was NOTHING I could do about it.  It’s after that realization that most guys have one of two thoughts: either omg i need to hurry up and learn this so it doesn’t happen in the streets, or i’m never going to do this again and run away from something that hurt my ego so bad.  Thankfully, my mind had the first thought. 

Discipline

Pretty straight forward, but Jiu Jitsu is not easy.  It’s hard and it’s hard work.  Going day after day creates discipline.  Jiu Jitsu is extremely fun, especially once you get good, but the fun aspect is what makes it easier to be consistent, even though it’s hard.  There’s also a huge benefit to consistently doing hard things, but that will be its own video in the future.

FUN

 And finally, but briefly mentioned in the last benefit, Jiu Jitsu is extremely fun! I get that it’s not for EVERYONE, but most people find it very fun.  As a kid wrestling with my friends or dad was about the most fun thing in the world to me.

Conclusion:

 So I had more areas I wanted to cover, including why Jits vs any other martial art, excuses for not starting/continuing jits, how to start, and how to stick with it. But I think this will be long enough on its own, and those will be separate video’s in the future.

Check back next week for the follow up letter hitting the other topics I mentioned in the “Conclusion”.

If you enjoy content like this, please check out my personal YouTube channel at @GilAlcocer17.

I also have a JJI youtube channel at d@The_JiuJitsu_Institute and please follow our Instagram @thejiujitsuinstitute

-Gil