My Reason

I hear a lot of talk around reasons. Usually they’re pretty broad. In a motivational coach speech at the beginning or end of class, they may ask us to remind ourselves of our reasons for starting Jiu-Jitsu. Whether it is to lose weight, build self-confidence, get fit, learn self-defense, to become a world class competitor, all of us have a reason to step out onto those mats. Earlier, I talked about the ‘Benefits Of Jiu-Jitsu’ which was vastly from a Veteran’s perspective. And most of those benefits remain true as to my reason(s) why I’ve kept this thing going for as long as I have. Really, why I can say I’m still training, the reason I keep going at this point is because it has become part of my lifestyle- it was a hobby, now it’s a lifestyle. But even with that, it being a lifestyle and all, it’s not what my life revolves around. Yes, things I’ve learned in Jiu-Jitsu have penetrated nearly every other part of my life, but it’s not everything to me. I don’t intend on quitting, but if something were to happen and I had to stop training tomorrow (I cannot fathom what that would be, but go with it) I would miss it, but my identity as a man would not suffer.

Anyways, lets talk about reasons. In my earlier blog, I mention physical fitness, mental health, camaraderie, self-confidence and further development of life skills as being benefits to Jiu-Jitsu. But I honestly didn’t know all of that when I started. Thinking back to the beginning, it’s almost hard to pinpoint my reasoning.

I first dabbled in Jiu-Jitsu in the military. On my first trip to Iraq, I became buddies with a guy who had wrestled in high school and had started training in Jiu-Jitsu at some point. He started showing me some of the basics, and about once every other week or so, when our days off would align, we would grapple at the gym. When I returned home, our unit had started training some of the Gracie Combatives curriculum. I don’t know exactly where we pulled out ground fighting from, but I know a majority of it stemmed from there. I was not a certified “Combatives Instructor,” but had a good foundation in martial arts, and picked it up pretty quick. I assisted in nearly every Combatives course that two different units held. One of those units, we’d have a few days of teaching Jiu-Jitsu based principles for 16+ hours to cover all the shifts. At one point, we were told that the 4 cadre who regularly taught this curriculum would be an equivalent of a blue belt in an actual gym. It quickly became one of my favorite things to teach and learn. It’s probably where the seed was planted. By the time I was at that level, I was in a unit that was pretty constantly on the road, and I could not justify paying for a monthly membership to catch a class or two each month, and they only gym around wasn’t interesting in working out something more flexible for the GI’s in the area.

After separating, we moved across the country and I knew from my upbringing, I wanted my kids involved in martial arts. I started looking into the options in my area, looking for the style of Karate that I grew up learning. To my disappointment, a lot of what I found was a little McDojo-ish . I was not impressed. I started to think of all the martial arts since Karate I had been introduced to. Karate as a kid, Jiu-Jitsu, Krav Maga, Systema, and some other various arts that were all cut and pasted to fit into some sort of defensive tactic training for military and law enforcement. So I started looking for Jiu-Jitsu programs for my kids. We found one and my kids have been part of it ever since. It was years, as I struggled with jobs and career path post-transition, until I was able to get my entire family involved. But that really doesn’t ever point to a reason why.

I suppose if you boiled all that down, the reason would be my family. Getting all of us into this art has given us all something in common other than our last name. I mean, I’ve seen family that are all die-hard fans of a sports team- my family are hit or miss when it comes to sports. Jiu-Jitsu became my family’s thing. It’s something we can bond over. Something we can all talk about. Something that when our kids talk about it, we actually understand it.

So, what’s your reason? Let me know.

Thanks for reading.