Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a vehicle for personal growth.

There’s no shortage of people ready to tell you how Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) changed their life, or how it can change the lives of others. If you listen long enough, BJJ will sound like the cure for everything. And while it isn’t a cure for much of anything, it can be a significant engine of change in your life. But you have to train with these changes in mind; nothing will happen automatically.

Ego and character-building

Let’s get the two big myths out of the way first.

Many claim that BJJ is an ego eradicator; that is simply a false narrative. One only needs to look to the highest and most public-facing of the sport to disprove this theory. If BJJ were what people claimed, one might expect that the most elite athletes would also be the most humble. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Despite many beliefs to the contrary, there is nothing inherently humbling about BJJ. Many think because you “lose” so often in BJJ that you must become more humble over time, and while it could be possible, there is no mechanism in place that makes this automatically true.

Next is the claim that BJJ builds character. While a more accurate statement is that BJJ reveals character. You bring yourself onto the mats and will generally find that many of the components of your personality will be magnified and on display during training. Of course, this can be tempered with awareness and behavioral adjustments, but to suggest that some character improvement happens out-of-the-box will leave believers disappointed.

So if BJJ isn’t magic. . . what can it help with?

MANAGING FAILURE

The one thing you are guaranteed to experience during your BJJ journey is failure. Learning how to embrace and use failure can unlock benefits on and off the mat. By learning to fail quickly and adjusting your behavior based on the failures can accelerate your learning in many arenas. Learning to admit failure before it gets catastrophic can take what you learn on the mats into the real world to improve your daily life. Being able to identify failure earlier makes being successful come quicker; less time is wasted on solutions that won’t work.

PROBLEM-SOLVING

The athletes that achieve success at the highest levels in the sport will tell you: BJJ isn’t about memorizing techniques and movement patterns, it’s about understanding goals and concepts and being able to apply them to solve novel problems.

Nothing in Jiu Jitsu can be done the same way twice. Everything is a variation, and everything must be varied based on the attributes of both practitioners. The way you might armbar one person will be slightly different than the way you armbar the next. It’s the nature of the game. In fact, many innovations in the game have come from people who have to make adjustments and accommodations because of physical limitations due to injury or disability.

Learning to think at a more abstract level based on goals and concepts will allow the BJJ athlete to progress more quickly. Once you find a good approach and mindset with regard to problem-solving, you will find that all sorts of problem-solving opportunities off the mats are more manageable.

BODY APPRECIATION

Although your body is likely going to change a great deal when training BJJ consistently, at the moment, you are stuck with the body you have. Although some of your bodily attributes may change, many will not.

With that in mind, you will have to learn to use your attributes and leverage them to make you a better Jiu Jitsu athlete. Although there will always be days where you wish you had different attributes, when you are able to use your body — in its current state — to accomplish some of the amazing things you will in BJJ, you can’t help but appreciate the body you have.

Oftentimes you will become so reliant on your attributes when playing your game, that you can’t even imagine things being different. You learn to love the body you have, as it is, for all the cool things you can do with it.

SELF EXPRESSION

Even if such a thing were possible, doing BJJ just like your coach(es) should never be the goal. And if it is, you are missing one of the most important and impactful aspects of Jiu Jitsu: using it as a vehicle for self-expression.

There are innumerable ways to express yourself through BJJ. From your gi, to the types of techniques and positions you favor, to the actual way you apply certain techniques. Success in BJJ requires the athlete to adapt, personalize, and innovate.

Not many aspects of our lives encourage or even allow that level of flexibility and self-expression. Having a space and outlet to do that is an incredibly valuable opportunity.

There are many great reasons for training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but by far one of the most compelling is the ability to use your training for personal growth on and off the mats. It requires a level of intention, responsibility and openness to change that can be uncomfortable to many, but will yield a lot of gold for folks that are embrace it.

Take ownership of your training and don’t waste the wonderful gift and opportunity that lies ahead.