Get fit, get smart, get better and have fun

I remember watching UFC 1 for the first time. I watched it with Russian commentary and the way the sport of Mixed Martial Arts was called in Russian was “fighting with no rules”. Or to put it in proper English, “no holds barred”. It was obvious however, there were some rules. Basic at first, but still. Biting, eye-gouging, and groin strikes were prohibited. A curious fact — the same rule set was applied to Pankration — the Ancient Greek martial art, closest to the concept of mixed martial arts.

But it was not the relatively barbaric nature of the sport that caught my (and frankly, everyone else’s) attention. It was that the first UFC events seemed to give a definitive answer to the eternal question of which martial art was supreme. And what an unexpected answer it was. It was not boxing, karate, wrestling, or any of the stranger martial arts that were represented (believe it or not, a participant of UFC 3 claimed to be a ninja).

A smaller guy wearing a white kimono would defeat larger, stronger, scarier opponents one after another. He would choke them unconscious, or apply joint locks that made them grimace in pain and surrender. And that is how the world was introduced to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

I won’t go into the history of the sport, but instead try to make a case for why everyone (yes, that is precisely what I mean) should, as a minimum, give it a shot and try it.

1. Self-Defence. This is, perhaps, most obvious, but Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (hereafter BJJ) is the tried and tested self-defense method. No martial art offers a guarantee, but BJJ comes pretty close. Robust and sometimes counter-intuitive techniques and principles for staying safe when in a fight, for restraining or even immobilizing an opponent, tested methods with which one could render even a much bigger and a stronger opponent unconscious, are a few of the reasons why BJJ is a great choice if you are looking to learn self-defense.

Beyond self-defense, if you ever want to be a professional MMA athlete, it is simply impossible to succeed without adding BJJ to your repertoire of techniques. Need more convincing? Here is a fun fact — John Wick may not be a great role model to follow, but he uses BJJ extensively in fighting.

2. Physical Benefits. BJJ is simply a fantastic exercise. Whole books can be written about this subject, but I’ll try to keep it to a paragraph. You will inevitably become stronger, leaner, improve your cardio. BJJ offers a whole-body exercise, so you don’t just improve your physical attributes, but your body functions better overall. Much better. In BJJ training you essentially engage in regular combat simulations (through sparring sessions, which are called ‘rolling’), which does wonders for your endurance. After all, you are sparring against fully resisting individuals.

You will discover a range of unexpected physical benefits as well. Your movement just gets better. It is hard to quantify this, but you will have better balance, flexibility, and mobility. You will be surprised to discover how much more efficiently you can move. You will develop body awareness you did not have before. You will sleep better. Here is a personal example of the unexpected benefit of BJJ — as I got older, I was starting to feel that my feet got weaker. Almost every friendly football match would end in pain in my feet. Now, years later and with several years of BJJ practice, my feet are so much stronger.

One more benefit is developing comfort with physical contact. We all have our personal space that we don’t like being invaded and it is important to develop a sense of comfort to physical contact. Multiple psychology studies have confirmed that touch, physical contact is essential to human beings. Now, in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has robbed us of one of the most natural senses, which has a range of emotional and physical health benefits. Touch is fundamental to humans and BJJ can help you re-discover the power of physical contact.

3. Stress Relief. Let me tell you, after a few sessions of BJJ sparring, you realize something about our daily life. Most of us, city dwellers, have gone soft. We are stressed out when we have too much work, too little work, too little money, too much money when we make someone mad when someone makes us mad, the list goes on. Every day our lives feel like they are spiraling out of control. This is exacerbated by the news cycle that seems to be designed to do one thing — keep us in a state of continuous stress.

When you do BJJ, two things will happen. Firstly, even those of you who do not believe in meditation will discover what BJJ will do for you, essentially what meditation does for its practitioners. It will calm your mind, take your focus off of the things that stress you out, and make you feel better by just providing you with physical exercise. Secondly, it will create a much-needed sense of perspective. You thought finishing that report or replying to that e-mail was stressful? Well, how does that compare to sparring with a 110 kg opponent who seems to be slowly smashing you into the ground? Having an actual physical challenge a few times a week dramatically changes how you view and respond to stress. You become more patient, more relaxed under pressure, and less likely to panic in critical situations.

4. You Become a Better Person. I will do my best to describe this, but you develop confidence and humility at the same time. A strange combination perhaps, but oddly enough, you get better at both simultaneously and, balance these out. If you are shy, you will become tangibly more confident. if you are, however confident bordering with arrogance, BJJ training is very quickly going to bring you back to earth. If you resist humility, it’ll be beaten into you. It is as simple as that — without humility, you simply cannot get better at BJJ.

BJJ also develops grit and improves your discipline. And not for some vague reasons, but because again, if you want to get better at BJJ, you just have to have grit and discipline. There will inevitably be moments when you will feel that the pressure is too much, you will feel physical pain, you will get injured. Your ability to not only persevere but thrive under pressure is crucial to ensure continued commitment to BJJ. Nothing improves your BJJ better than regular BJJ training. The mat time is key. Finally, grit and discipline are two things that will be transferrable to other parts of your life — work, relationships, everything.

5. You Become Smarter. Perhaps not the most obvious benefit, but BJJ has a range of underrated benefits for your mind. Firstly, it is not an accident that BJJ is referred to as “human chess”. It is a very cerebral sport with hundreds, perhaps thousand techniques and because every human is different, the way we develop our BJJ game is also uniquely ours. No two BJJ matches are ever the same, even when the same opponents square up. Just training won’t cut it. BJJ forces you to do some thinking, to reflect about your game, about your techniques, about your reactions to opponents’ techniques.

Practicing BJJ also teaches you how to learn, how to acquire skills. You will check YouTube videos, watch instructionals, ask higher belts for advice, amalgamate all of the acquired knowledge into your own unique BJJ game. You can transfer your learning strategies to other disciplines, including not only other physical skills but language learning, mastering a musical instrument, pretty much anything else.

BJJ training will also make you better at problem-solving. The famous UFC commentator Joe Rogan once described MMA (and fighting in general) as “problem-solving with dire physical consequences”. As you improve at BJJ, and the skill level of your opponents gets better, you will be constantly confronted with positions and moves that you will have to figure out ways to deal with. Significantly stronger opponents, opponents who have much longer limbs, opponents who just don’t tap to particular submissions, opponents who have a kind of a guard that you seem unable to handle. Each one of these challenges will force you to find creative and innovative solutions. This is a practice that will come in very handy in other aspects of your life.

6. Becoming part of a Community. We all belong to communities at our workplaces and our places of residence. But these do not always become tribes of like-minded people. With BJJ, you enter a world of people who come from all walks of life — lawyers, doctors, salesmen, professional athletes — people who love BJJ. The people you will meet come from different parts of the world, cultures, religions. There will be the random 110 kg man who wants to lose weight, the 50 kg woman who wants to learn how to defend herself, an 8-year-old who wants to be able to deal with a school bully, a 55-year-old who just wants to be more fit — all in the same room with, say, a professional fighter preparing for his next bout.

This goes beyond your local gym. Anywhere you go in the world, you can find a BJJ gym, just show up, train, and meet like-minded people. You will discover that even when you meet world-class athletes, champions, and best coaches, they are simply people who are in love with BJJ and you can attend their seminars, train with them, and have a chat.

You may think that you are in just for some training, but over time, you might be drawn to competition. As you get better and better, you will also start giving tips and advice to the up-and-comers and who knows, maybe someday you will start teaching.

7. Fun. Yes, it is not always fun at the beginning. It is not fun to feel like you are drowning, that you are helpless against somebody who is 20kgs lighter than you but seems to have four arms and four legs. It will also not be fun when you get injured. You may quit because it will get tough. But when it gets tough, go back to everything you have read up to this point and understand this. Nothing valuable in this life comes without effort. Many things in life don’t even guarantee success if you do make effort. But if you commit to BJJ, the results are pretty much a guarantee. And in addition, you will start enjoying training, sparring, learning, figuring out solutions to the problems your opponents pose, you will get addicted to the feeling you get during and after training.

So what are you waiting for? Go train and have fun!