I attend three to four Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) classes a week. During these classes instructors lead warm ups, movement drills then monitor student progress through live “rolls”. These rolls are five minutes long and provide opportunities for the newest student through the most experienced black belt to test their skills against one another. In reality this means the higher belts let us lower belts live. More deeply than the physical contest, these rolls take a person through the gamut of emotions. Fear, anger, frustration, joy and a plethora of other emotions. This to me is the true value of BJJ.
Always Learning in BJJ
Yes, I like that I’ve learned a few ways to defend myself and my family, but what I love is the process of tapping out, learning to feel moves coming or my opportunities to advance position and that BJJ allows my mind to be free of the day-to-day worries five minutes at a time. This love led me to research deeper into the history of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and highlight the people, process and progress related to BJJ’s development for the second episode of the ‘People, Process, Progress’ podcast.
I don’t claim this episode to be the definitive history of BJJ, but it’s a pretty good one and I appreciate the information available to me on the various websites I used for research.
As I state in the episode, there are many more contributors to BJJ than shown here, but these are the folks that time and again show up as the PEOPLE that helped build the foundation of BJJ. Through their PROCESS of training, teaching and even marketing the art and sport of BJJ became and still is a global phenomenon and a way of life for many. The PROGRESS one feels when they first submit someone or manage to not be submitted during a roll is exhilarating.
Thank you to every instructor, regular training partner and stranger I’ve ever trained or rolled with. You’ve helped me become a better person and get in better shape mentally and physically.
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