The Sacred Stone: Martial Arts and Your life

Its interesting to hear others experience with martial artists as its so varied from person to person. It ranges wildly from sport to tradition, from daycare alternative to self defense. Everyone enters the circle of martial arts for a different reason and gets different things from it. I personally came to it for self defense and stayed for the sport aspect. My father did taekwondo as an attempt to bond with my brother and when my brother stopped showing up my father stayed as a means to get fit and have a social life.

There are almost flavors for martial arts that are seemingly custom tailored to catch people who have certain tastes. Most Judo clubs are for all intensive purposes solely sport dojos and focused on tournaments and competing under the fixed rules. Karate is seen as a great way to teach your kids respect and have fun. Kravmaga forgoes all the pop and circumstance of belts, and focuses almost solely on self defense and "Street" encounters. There are cardio kickboxing classes whos primary goal is fitness and sometimes tout self defense. These are gross overs simplifications and I am ignoring a lot of the nuances for the sake of brevity but for the most part certain styles do have stigma and branding associated with their flavor of cool aid.

Despite all these differences and flavors of kool aid, the one underlying theme I find in martial arts is the common thread of devotion and sometimes fanaticism it can seem to instill in its participates. To the non initiated its just some hobby or everything is "karate" or "kung fu" But to those who do experience martial arts and stick with it it becomes something special.  I find this especially true amongst novices who its "clicked" for. I find nothing is as loud and and happy to talk about its new martial art as a newly minted lower belt. And there is nothing wrong with that! Its good. Many of the people who I know who participate in martial arts consider it a pretty significant point in their life till it no longer is.  If you gym only costs 100$ a month you are paying around $1200 a year to participate and that adds up pretty fast as far as hobbies go once you add in gas, gear, and tournaments. 

So what is it that makes martial arts such a large part of many peoples lives? Why do so many people flock to certain styles over others? How big of a deal is your marital arts practice to you?

5 Reasons Why You Should Compete in BJJ

The concept of not competing is a pretty foreign concept to me now a days when it comes to martial arts. Who could blame me? My very first martial art as an adult was Judo,which is very sport oriented. Everyone in my old judo school competed, it was an unspoken rule and there was a very large amount of peer pressure to go and compete. So I was surprised when I switched over to BJJ and realized that there was a significant number of people who didn't compete on a regular basis. I heard multiple reasons such as injuries, cost, time ect which are all valid. But to those who just don't see the need to or are afraid Let me give you some reasons why you should give it a try.


1: It Gives you a set goal: Anyone who has ever wanted something can tell you that there is a certain fire and energy that you get when you truly want something. The waves of emotion and the pure catharsis that you get when you get your first win, medal or submission is something thats truely unique and you won't get anywhere else. Its addictive and once you get your first taste, you work twice as hard to get your second. Drills will improve your game but when you have a reason to do them other than just that distant concept of wanting to get the next belt it just adds a certain upmh to it. You know that the last time you lost because of X submission you so you drill that abit more. Its easy to lose motivation and a lot of people fizzle out before blue or purple and having a healthy competitive drive will keep you on the right track. 

2: Lets you test what you've learned : I'm sure many of you have heard this argument before, and there is a good reason why. Its a valid reason. Everyone has the occasional hard roll in class or deals with spazzy whitebelt, but you can't mimic the intensity of a match where there is ego, medals, and glory on the line. Adrenaline cores through your body, your hands get clammy and you go to work. In most cases the person you are up against isn't normally from your gym and you get to work your game against someone who hasn't had a chance to learn it in and out yet. Its a clean slate to see what works and what doesn't. When you are in the gym people start to get wise to your tricks and go to moves and eventually increase their defense to it. Ideally after that happens you offense increase and you create a positive feedback loop that makes you both grow. The downside is sometimes it can feel pretty stagnate and its hard to feel like you are getting better because you both are growing. Tournaments are the prefect place to break free of that and get to use you A game and see just how strong you've become!

3: It can give you credentials : As much as I hate to say it belts only mean so much and there are some BJJ schools that give them out based solely on time on the mats and attendance. Skill varies greatly between people and If you ever want to open up your own club or school it could be helpful if you have a tournament background to market yourself. If I have to chose between two instructors and I'm on the fence I'll probably go with the one with more tournament experience. Why? Because that shows me he is the real deal and knows what it takes to succeed. Belting criteria differs from school to school. There is only one way to get 1st place.

4: Great bonding experience: Despite switching Gyms/Dojos I'm still incredibly close with most of my old training partners. Driving down together sharing a hotel room and rooting and coaching each other is a team building exercise like no other. I'm extremely shy and so its not really common for me to talk to other people and so I generally keep to myself. While you may be casual acquaintances with some of the people you train with, when you compete together you tend to get closer. Plus you end up with some pretty fun stories and tales. I've stayed in houses in the mountains with no electricity or heat in the middle of winter trading ghost stories, crashed at a friends beach house and listed to the waves, and been stuck on the side of the road broken down on they way back waiting for rescue. When you and your team mates are all getting ready for the same tournament you get to prep each other and push each other to new heights.

5. Its FUN: If you practice the art you must like rolling somewhat. So go on and do it!