Those who have never been in contact with the gentle art cannot imagine how this sport can transform – in all respects – an individual. Initially, the learned techniques, some less pounds and the first degrees achieved are the stimuli that lead someone to continue. After some time, he/she adds a differentiated value to those moments before the so-anticipated training of the day.

You start waking up every day already thinking about that training moment. When this starts to happen, you can be sure that this is the love for the art gaining some space in your life. Thereafter, the ramifications that the jiu-jitsu lifestyle offers to you will be expansion of your character. But how is this possible? People from outside and who have never worn a kimono do not understand. But we can explain to them and to you who may have not gotten one of our principles.

For those who do not deeply get the power of this sport, jiu-jitsu will simply work as any other physical exercise. But after all, what is doing jiu-jitsu? Those who limit themselves to the physical and educational part of the sport are wrong. Doing jiu-jitsu is not only about the self defense techniques and the belts that identify those more or less skilled and experienced in the dojo.

“The cooperation between the mind and the art may convert frail men into super beings”

– Grandmaster Carlos Gracie

Jiu-jitsu is a daily practice that will always add something to the character formation of the individual. Sometimes, when we know a little more than the fellow who just started training the day before or have some difficulties to learn, we are tested. Not by the knowledge. Involuntarily, in some cases, people tend to see themselves as superior to others. Managing the ego is not such a simple task. Learning that – regardless work, group, sex or age – we are all equal on the mat, is a slow and gradual process.

In the gentle art we learn every day to grow as human beings and as athletes. Having the humbleness to improve with the beginner student and absorb the experience transmitted by the older ones is a sign that you are evolving in a field where many people may have not even learned the basic “ABCs”. Achieving success on and off the mats is not about being recognized for your force or technical excellence. Achieving your objectives is also learning habits that will make you be remembered for your attitudes towards other people.

This kind of learning does not come from a lesson plan specifically designed for that. Helping people to improve their spirit is something shared since the very beginning of the BJJ. The Great Master Carlos Gracie, before going down in history as the father of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, gave us one of the most beautiful teachings: “The cooperation between the mind and the art may convert frail men into super beings”

With these words we learn and teach far beyond the technique. Doing jiu-jitsu is much more than simply training or sweating a little. Doing jiu-jitsu is to evolve in a sphere where many people pass their whole lives without ever “graduating”.

 

OSS!