Making Progress In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

"Keep Treading" by Jody Clark. This hangs in the ICBJJ academy. https://www.jodyclark.com

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is often considered the most difficult martial art to become proficient at, let alone develop expertise in. On the one hand, Jiu-Jitsu can be very powerful when applied correctly and a little bit of Jiu-Jitsu can go a long way. People with very little Jiu-Jitsu training can soon best their friends in friendly grappling matches and may even be successful in a small real life self-defense situation. Compared to those who don't train Jiu-Jitsu, the student who has 6 months to a year of training can be quite formidable... sometimes.

The difficulty comes when you begin to measure your abilities and knowledge not just against those who don't train, but when you measure them against fellow Jiu-Jitsu practitioners. What's more important than how you stack up against others is how you stack up against your previous self. This is the metric of personal progress and while it may be difficult to keep this in perspective, your personal progress is the most important metric in all of Jiu-Jitsu. 

Making acceptable levels of progress at any new endeavor is both difficult and important for practitioners. Unfortunately, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu  is notoriously difficult for people to make progress in. There are many reasons as to why this is, but there are at least two specific reasons that are absolutely critical and which are both under the direct control of the student.

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