Introduction

First of all, I must open this article telling everybody: I’ve never been a sports guy. At all.

Through all my childhood and teenage years, I never fit at any sport I ever tried. The list was huge: soccer, karate, swimming, judo, running and even basketball (even though I am a short guy).

Early Adult Life

At some point, in the beginning of my adult life, I caught myself lifting weights on a regular basis. I started feeling great, energized and my body started to change in a positive way, as well my health.

Despite all the advantages, working out was still a boring task for me to do. Don’t get me wrong, I still lift weights to this day and I strongly believe that building muscles is the best way to secure a comfortable lifestyle when I get to an elderly age. It just doesn’t feel like my sport.

UFC and Inspiration

We are talking about the early 2010’s and UFC became a huge thing at that time. I quickly became a fan and never missed a single fight from Brazilian athletes. That’s when I learned about Demian Maia.

For those who don’t know him, Demian is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu legend. He is a former World and ADCC (most important Jiu Jitsu championships) champion and has beaten many of the toughest guys in the sport. Right after he accomplished amazing achievements in Jiu-Jitsu, he transitioned to MMA and started a beautiful journey in a very dangerous territory.

To watch Demian fight was mesmerizing: he would quickly grapple out some amazing athletes, take them down to the ground, dominate them and go for a submission. Pure art. It was like observing a ballet or another kind of very coordinated dance. Some of those fighters were helpless and we are talking about very well trained top tier guys.

I needed to check it out myself.

The Beginning

Back in those days, I lived in a very small brazilian town called Casa Branca and there was only two Jiu Jitsu gyms available. I did my research and found out which one was known for being home to town’s best competitors. That was the moment I met my first teacher: Té Bueno.

I signed up for an experimental class and found out I was helpless too, at least if I was to face a trained fighter. A whole new world just unfolded in front of me. I had no clue about what to do, how to move, position myself, defend basic moves or even how to pace a sparring session. Despite being clueless of what just happened, I ended this first session telling myself this one thing: one day, I’ll be a Jiu Jitsu black belt.

That’s when my journey began.

I went through white belt, competed, developed my skills based on my own abilities, became a pretty good guard player at first and the most important: never stopped training since then.

Unlike other sports, I stuck to Jiu Jitsu in a way I had never before.

The first reason was the approach I had to the martial art itself: for me, it was not like other combat sports where you memorize a bunch of moves you can use. It was more like a chess match, where you are put in some uncomfortable situations and have a bunch of available tools to get rid of it.

The second reason was the sense of community. Even though I sparred with my partners in a competitive way on a daily basis, the bond between me and them got stronger every session. I made a lot of friends at Jiu-Jitsu, it almost felt like a secret society or something. It was funny to cross them outside the gym, wearing their regular clothing in the streets and thinking “this guy could kill half of the city with his bare hands if he wanted to”.

To the point when I started to train Jiu-Jitsu, I was a pretty undisciplined guy. Jiu-Jitsu taught me an insane level of discipline, which wraps elements like hierarchy, showing up everyday, following the gym’s rules, respecting your partners and even teaching the newcomers, as I became more experienced.

This discipline Jiu Jitsu brought to my life had a big influence on many other aspects: work, dieting, health, ethics, being a better husband and son, financial…I wouldn’t know how to tell all of them.

Achieving the Black Belt

Time went by, blue belt came, I moved to a bigger city and never stopped training. Then came the purple belt. And the brown belt…and the black belt, which I got from a sport’s legend called Andrei Agostinho.

And that changed the whole thing.

10 years after my start, I became a black belt. Holy fuck! That thing I told myself at the very first session just happened and I couldn’t believe it.

This gave me a whole new perspective about my role at Jiu-Jitsu and that’s when I took some time to reflect on my journey.

9 Lessons

Here’s the main learnings I had in my reflections:

1. As a black belt, I have the responsibility to be an example and it doesn’t mean showcase crazy skills. It means to help people through their learning process, contribute to a better training environment and stick to a good behaviour outside the mats;

2. To be a tough fighter is cool, but it’s not all about it. Of course I like to beat my training partners in a sparring session, but it doesn’t make any sense to go full madness against a father of two who is training to deal with his daily stress or a newcomer who is trying to lose some weight. Being able to read everyone’s intentions and know how to balance my intensity is also a skill;

3. Humbleness. One day you are beating the shit out of everyone. The other day, a 16 years old is making you doubt everything you know. Jiu Jitsu keeps you humble on a daily basis and this behaviour is transcended to real life;

4. I surely got more resilient. When you beat people or get beaten everyday, a tough meeting or a rude person at work doesn’t shake your nerves at all;

5. I trust my people and my people trust me. When sparring, we literally put ourselves in situations where we could kill or get killed. There is this code of honor where, when you are being submitted, you tap and your partner has to let go. The level of trust you build by putting your life into other person’s hand is crazy;

6. Long-term development is powerful. Like everything in life, a black belt has to be earned, it can’t be bought. Don’t rush yourself towards titles or status. Trust and enjoy your process and you’ll achieve huge things without even realizing;

7. Don’t stick exclusively to what you’re good at. When I was a white/blue belt, my guard was a pretty strong tool. The issue was that when I was put into a different situation, I felt lost and got beaten up. Putting myself into positions I wasn’t good at made my Jiu Jitsu improve more than beating people. Learning is far more important than winning, especially in a training room;

8. It took me long, but I learned to listen to my body. As you can imagine, through my path to black belt, I have piled up a bunch of injuries. At first, it sounds tough when you just ignore them and get to train injured. But, as time goes by, it gets more serious and hurts more. If you are injured, take some time to recover and come back when you’re fine. You must feel a little gassed out, but your jiu jitsu is still there;

9. Last, but not least, have fun! Jiu Jitsu is the only martial art in which you can hang out with your friends on a weekend, spar a little and have some barbecue and beers after a session. You don’t see that much in Karate or Judo. I like to say Jiu Jitsu is Surf for martial arts;

Final Word

And if you ever get to the black belt, remember: that’s when the journey really starts. Oss!