Why We Train 1/21/15

What do we get out of training? A simple question but one that never has a simple answer. Everyone trains for different reasons ranging from self-defense, self-improvement, competition, wanting to be an amateur/pro fighter, to well just because. Each person has a different reason and different opinion and you can go out and read literally hundreds of articles and blogs published about “The Path” of Jiu Jitsu but you can never really get a grasp of what that is until you start down that “Path.” Jiu Jitsu is one of the hardest Martial Arts to achieve the rank of Black Belt in, not just because of the ever changing techniques that are prevalent in the sport but because of the time commitment it requires. The average time it takes for a “Good” Jiu Jitsu practitioner to achieve this rank is 10 years………10 YEARS. That’s 10 years of getting taped out, getting injured, hitting frustrating Plateaus, waking up every morning with the Mat Ache (as I sit here with a hot pack on my elbow), replacing worn our gear, dealing with the smelly guy, white belts grabbing your fingers and toes, dealing with the bulls eye that lower ranking belts put on your back and of course finding the holes in your game so that you can shore them up, and hello, getting older. All of these obstacles and challenges are the reason why only about 30% (there are no hard numbers on that) make it to the rank of Purple belt let alone Brown and Black. Blue belt is where the most practitioners give up the sport for varying reasons. For those who push on and continue in the sport those challenges never go away but we find more benefits than hindrances that keep us going.

So what are those benefits? There are the obvious ones, physical fitness, increased stamina, confidence in my ability to “hold my own” in a fight on the ground. The ones that you will never see from the outside looking in are the ones that really keep me going. When you’re on the mat it not just you versus the person in front of you it is ultimately you versus you. You have to be able to think in the moment, problem solve, think three moves ahead, set a path of where you want to go and get there. Its finally hitting that move in a live roll you’ve been trying to land forever and suddenly it clicks in both head and body and there it is and you smash through another plateau. It’s about countering the counter, tapping someone out and getting tapped out and learning from it. It’s about rolling for 8 min straight to a stalemate and loving every minute of it and thanking your opponent for their time and effort. There are so many reasons to continue down that path but in order to understand it you have to first take the most important step on that path, and that is when your foot first hits the mat. I took that step and like so many others, I was hooked, I look forward to every challenge that will come my way over the next lifetime of training.

– Senpai Bird