A man can leave the jiu-jitsu, but jiu-jitsu will never leave the man.”

We who practice jiu-jitsu know how this sport may involve us, make us love it and, literally, cannot leave our lives. There are some people that can’t imagine themselves not training. Others who made from the art of teaching a way of living. And how many keep themselves in shape thanks to the hours of training on the mats?

As in any sport, pain and injuries, unfortunately, are part of our long journey. The first signals are some calluses on our fingers, then some pain in the knees and back, a peeled ear, then the other one… Well, these are some scars that teach us to live and deal with their consequences. However, the physical youth – and let’s make clear that we mean the physical one – is left behind, the body ages and some questions start to come up like, “Am I getting too old to continue with this?”

Well, the white hair starts to show up, our old belt is discoloring… so, what should we do? Should we stop or keep going? The answer is absolutely not an easy one. We get to a moment in our life that we start valuing some other factors and things around us. But, after all those years of training, we do look differently at that ‘holy’ moment rolling on the mat. We think about the family we built in the dojô, about our friends and histories that were born there.

We, from GB, believe that there is no ‘time’ to stop. Actually, there is a moment to overcome. The overcoming of problems, of cruel doubts, and coming to the certainty that the mat will always be there, waiting for you.

“A man can leave the jiu-jitsu, but jiu-jitsu will never leave the man.”

OSS