BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU Class

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) has influenced people all over the world is by developing and improving the confidence in men, women, and children of all ages and sizes.
BJJ is one of very few martial arts that are called “alive.” This means that the art requires its participants to actually make the techniques work on a resistant opponent. That resistance, that possibility of failure being confronted on a daily basis leads to a greater level of confidence.
When training BJJ, you learn to try things despite the fact that they may not work for you right away. Confronting failure on a daily basis and realizing that failure is simply a learning opportunity and not an end leads participants to see life in a different way.

One of the first differences you will notice after you begin training is how easy it is to lose weight and keep it off. Jiu jitsu works every muscle in your body so you will notice a difference almost immediately. And the best part is that you will not even notice how hard you are working! One of the most difficult aspects of training for weight-loss is that too easily we focus on how much time we are on the treadmill or how many calories we have burned. But with BJJ, your mind is focused on technique and facing off against your partner instead of staring at a blinking screen of information. In fact, many of the top athletes in the sport actually came to jiu jitsu as a way to lose weight and then discovered a deep love for the sport and made a career out of it.

If you’ve ever seen the pictures people post after training BJJ, there is always one thing in common – a huge grin! That’s because jiu jitsu is an excellent way to alleviate stress from work and life. Even when you come in to the academy with something weighing on your mind, it is quickly forgotten once you begin to roll. And the aggressive nature of jiu jitsu allows us to let off steam in a controlled atmosphere. Feeling upset with your boss? Frustrated with your partner? The BJJ mat acts as a therapy for many people – a third space where the only things that matter are learning a new technique and trying it out in live sparring. Suddenly the problems we face off the mats don’t seem so insurmountable.

The first time you step on the mat at a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy you will immediately be aware of how little the average person knows about basic self-defense and the ineffectiveness of our basic instincts. Not to worry! The fundamentals of jiu jitsu are also the basics of self-defense. It is a common misconception that striking will win out when two people get into a brawl, but in actual altercations, punching is not nearly as effective as closing the distance and controlling your opponent. That is why many law enforcement officers go through specialized programs that were developed from BJJ techniques. The reason is because many times, the safest way to diffuse the situation is through BJJ techniques. Of course, the first defense against attack is confidence and knowledge – which you gain and develop as you continue your training.

Just like in life, you do not always win in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and sometimes class can be very frustrating when we feel like we are not improving. But we need this challenge as well; otherwise how will we deal with the inevitable disappointments and set-backs we face in life? Although BJJ is an art that allows smaller practitioners to win against larger, stronger opponents, sometimes things do not go our way. In these situations, we learn to address our ego and improve our ability to handle adversity. This develops the strength of our character and our patience. BJJ is not a straight uphill climb to black belt, but a series of improvements and plateaus. It is during these plateaus in our progress that we work on our humility and patience. Without it, success is elusive – both in life and in BJJ.

Once again in the domain of physical benefits of Jiu-Jitsu, we have to at least mention flexibility and mobility. after all, we all know someone who turned up to class as brittle as a rock. A couple of years in and they’re now doing cartwheel passes and full splits. There are some enormous physical benefits of rolling and training BJJ in general. Yes, injuries area part of the sport as well, but the benefits of mobility certainly outweigh the small knocks we pick up along the way.