The 5 most important life lessons you can learn from Jiu-Jitsu

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After years of ignoring the hype, I became addicted to Brazilian JIU-JITSU after three months of training. It is not unusual for people to become obsessed with jiu-jitsu after training. Almost everyone ends up training for years, Sometimes decades, A feat that has become nearly unheard of in the fast-paced, Instant-Gratification society of today.

Is there anything about jiu-jitsu that makes it so appealing to so many people? So far, I have observed several things.

Firstly, many people are only able to focus entirely on their growth on a jiu-jitsu mat. Martial artists strive to improve themselves - as athletes, teammates, and people. Our natural inclination toward learning and mastery is enhanced by Jiu-jitsu.

Then there is the community aspect, which is lacking in our individualistic society. Today, so many of us work from home and spend all day in front of screens. In ways we are severely lacking, the mat brings people together.

Finally, there are the life lessons.

I learn something new every time I step onto the mat. Most of these lessons do not involve the more technical skills of jiu-jitsu, like getting past an opponent's guard or executing a new submission. Our lives have more to do with them than anything else.

Is there a way we can work toward our human potential and become the best version of ourselves we can be?

It can be accomplished through jiu-jitsu. These lessons can be learned through running, playing music, and pursuing art. Even though jiu-jitsu combines physical exertion, self-mastery, and community, it does bring out the best in us.

There are many things you can learn from jiu-jitsu, even if it isn't your sport. We can apply five lessons from jiu-jitsu to our daily lives:

REPETITION IS THE ONLY WAY THROUGH

There are many similarities between jiu-jitsu and chess. Hundreds, if not thousands, of submissions and techniques are used in the art. It is slower and more calculated than striking martial arts.

 

Despite knowing many of these techniques, black belts do not know them all. Most of the best will focus on mastering a few skills before developing their own style. As they progress, they'll slowly add new skills on top of the solid foundation they've built.

 

Thinking hard about what we're doing is always the first step toward learning something new. Repeated repetitions make it automatic, but only after repeated repetitions.

 

As a result of my jiu-jitsu training, I have quickly realized this. As an alternative to learning every possible technique, I focus on getting good at a few key ones and drilling them repeatedly until they become second nature.

It can be applied to every aspect of our lives to emphasize quality over quantity.

RELY ON LEVERAGE AND EFFICIENCY

Underdogs have a much better chance of beating a larger and stronger opponent in jiu-jitsu than in striking martial arts. Can we lift a person twice our weight? When someone is three times stronger than us, how can we choke them?

Leverage is always the answer to these questions. We can maximize our perceived strengths by relying on timing and efficiency.

There are several ways in which leverage can be applied to our lives:

• Focusing on skill, technique, and efficiency over brute strength and working smarter, not harder.

• We can achieve this by focusing our efforts on activities with high leverage - that is, activities that have the greatest impact on our lives

• The key to living a happy and fulfilling life is not forcing anything. Find another way if something doesn't work.

PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Practice makes perfect, as they say. However, this isn't the case. A particularly sweaty training session one night led my instructor to tell us that "perfect practice makes perfect.".

Time alone will not result in progress, according to many people. It won't help you achieve mastery if you spend all your time practicing poorly. 

The psychologist Anders Ericsson called deliberate practice practice that's "effortful in nature, with the main goal of improving performance rather than enjoying it."

To put it another way, we should practice perfectly on purpose.

It means drilling the same move repeatedly with intention in jiu-jitsu. Making mistakes, pinpointing what went wrong, and correcting them are all part of the learning process. Regardless of what area of our lives we practice, we can apply the same perfect practice method.

MISTAKES ARE HOW WE LEARN

My arm got caught in a double joint armlock the other day when I was rolling. A tapping signal is universally used in jiu-jitsu to indicate submission.

 

My training partner informed me that now I need to be on the lookout for kimuras.

Previously, I had protected my arms primarily to avoid armbars, another submission that can result in pain and, eventually, arm breakage if you don't tap fast enough. I have learned from my mistake to be more careful in the future.

 

As a result of making mistakes, our brains become neuroplastic, allowing them to adapt and change. We learn easily without having to put much effort into it up until about twenty-five years old.

 

By our mid-twenties, most of our brain patterns are solidified, but we can still learn well into old age. It's only a matter of working harder.

 

A Stanford neuroscientist, Andrew Huberman, believes adult learning involves getting frustrated with a process - then persevering.

Learning jiu-jitsu is no different from learning any other life skill.

FAILURES ARE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

"I know some of you were frustrated today," my instructor told us one day after class. It took most of us more than thirty minutes to roll after an hour of drills.

 

This is the most important thing to remember. The art of jiu-jitsu does not allow losing. It is either a winner who learns or a loser who loses."

 

This has been the most profound lesson I've learned throughout my jiu-jitsu journey. Before I succeed, I will experience a lot of failures. Once I begin competing, it will be impossible for me to win every match. It is inevitable that I will encounter frustrations and plateaus along the way.

I have learned from my experiences that failure is part of the process in other areas of my life as well. Prior to learning how to do pull-ups, I fell hundreds of times before I could hold a handstand, and I was punched a lot before I learned how to slip a punch. 

While I have failed at each of these pursuits, I have never given up. It took me a while to adjust my approach and begin succeeding more than failing.

It is inevitable that failure will precede success. It doesn't matter whether you're learning jiu-jitsu, picking up a new instrument, or pursuing your career dreams.

You will fail; you will adjust, and you will eventually succeed. Failures can be viewed as opportunities for learning and growth as long as you consider them as such.

George Leonard, author of Mastery and a lifelong learner, once said, "Learning is changing.". As long as we live, we must keep learning.