Learn To Win

When I first started training BJJ, it was common for beginners to participate in live sparring rounds on their first day. As that student progressed, how they were recognized for belt promotions was based on how well that person performed in the training room on a consistent daily basis within their peer belt group.

The White Belts that were consistently winning and submitting people would receive stripes on their belts, the same for Blue Belts and so on. As a beginner, it was natural for me to regularly fail and get submitted multiple times within any given round with any of my more experienced training partners.

After a while, this became an extremely demoralizing and frustrating experience for me because I was losing way more than I was winning. And because promotions were only awarded to students who submitted their training partners on a consistent basis, I associated my progression and belt promotion in Jiu-Jitsu with winning.

But by focusing on winning, I took a training path that hindered my ability to learn, understand and integrate new techniques towards mastery. If something wasn’t working well in live sparring, I would abandon it and only focused on the techniques or moves that were working and helping me win - this is one of the reasons why I was a White Belt for 7 years.

The hardest thing I've had to learn in Jiu-Jitsu is that I'm going to fail - and I'm going to fail A LOT. I’ve come to understand that if I want to get the most out of this amazing martial art, I needed to experience and develop the full range of my practice by embracing mistake-based learning.

When I was able to put my insecurities away and focused on seeing my mistakes as opportunities to improve, I came to understand that mistakes are like a little puzzle that when you solve them, gives you a gem.

If you don't mind failing on the way to understanding, you'll learn a lot and increase your effectiveness in Jiu-Jitsu (and a lot of other things too). But if you can't tolerate losing, you won't grow. The key is being aware of not letting your need to win become more important than your need to understand. That is how our ego gets in the way of mastery and is the single greatest barrier to progression.

Over the years, I’ve witnessed people who embrace their mistakes and weaknesses substantially outperform their peers who have the same abilities but bigger ego barriers.

Every mistake that I’ve made and learned from has saved me from thousands of similar mistakes in the future. As Thomas Edison once said, "I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that do not work."

That's how I started to expand myself and grow as I worked through the process of integrating failure with learning. By knowing my weaknesses and connecting the dots between them, I was able to recognize patterns and really deepened my understanding of the art of Jiu-Jitsu, and also my own capabilities as a human being.

When I prioritized learning as more important than winning, I discovered that my training partners were not a threat to my growth and development. On the contrary, my training partners are my greatest assets and are to be treasured - because without them, I would not have the same opportunities to explore my weaknesses and strengths.

I realized that we all need each other and that we can all learn from one another regardless of age, gender, culture, rank, skill or experience - and that's when my fear of failure went away.

This is our core focus as a Certified Training Center (CTC) of Gracie University - helping people learn Jiu-Jitsu by maximizing their learning potential and skill acquisition in an egoless training environment.

Our classes are taught through a formulated approach of chapterized curriculums, controlled training exercises, and age-appropriate teaching methodologies that are skill-specific for each of our training programs of Gracie Bullyproof, Women Empowered, Gracie Combatives and Master Cycle.

Our main goal as training partners and instructors is to help one another deepen our understanding and mastery of Jiu-Jitsu together in a collaborative, fun, safe and structured training environment dedicated to learning.

How we do that is going to come down to how well we’re able to give each other ample feedback by clear and concise communication. So if something works, great! Let us know so we can do more of it. If something doesn’t work, please point it out so we can troubleshoot it together and make the necessary adjustments that’ll work for you, because we’re here to help.

Learning, practicing and training Jiu-Jitsu is an active and collaborative partnership with the community of people around you. As Rener Gracie said to me once, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Learning together is how we will win and go far in reaching our goals in the things we want to pursue, both inside and outside of the training room. Please leave a comment below or email us at info@tricitiesgjj.com and let us know what are your goals and how we can help you attain them.