CHISELED

If you’re new here and don’t know, training Jiu-Jitsu is an intense physical and mental challenge that requires a great deal of dedication and hard work. For one to excel in this martial art, they must undergo significant physical and mental transformation. Much like a pearl is transformed under extreme pressure, so is a Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. It is an activity that pushes one to their limits, both physically and mentally, and requires one to constantly refine and improve themselves. It’s a humbling journey of constant learning and evolving; of constant wins and losses. But I cannot express how happy I am to be on this journey.

If I have learned nothing else in the last few years of training Jiu-Jitsu, that there will be times that you will be pushed to those limits, and it’s in those moments that you truly learn something about yourself. Maybe for some, it’ll be something they have never known. For others, it’ll just be confirmation of characteristics you had some inkling they were lying dormant deep within yourself. But it’s the pushing, the resisting, the pressure, and the stress that reveals these things we must learn about ourselves.

A while back I came across this quote: “Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor,” by Alexis Carrel and saw how it is particularly relevant to the process of training Jiu-Jitsu. The training involves pushing one’s body and mind beyond their comfort zone, breaking down old habits and building new ones, and enduring the pain and discomfort that comes with the process of transformation. But no matter how much sweat and effort your coach pours out, it’s really up to you. You have the chisel in your hand. You must put in the work to remake yourself.

Like a sculptor working on a block of marble, a Jiu-Jitsu practitioner must chip away at their limitations and refine their techniques through constant practice and repetition. This process is not easy, and it requires discipline, perseverance, and a willingness to endure the suffering that comes with the journey. Our coach says that it takes something like 500 repetitions of a technique to even come close to considering saying you’ve mastered it. Think about that. If a technique takes even 30 seconds to complete, you’re looking at 4 hours of constant repetition to complete 500 reps. Not 4 hours of class time. Not 4 hours of working back and forth. The timer stops when you pause to reset. The timer stops as you adjust your gi. The time doesn’t tick by unless you are drilling the move. It takes time to chisel away at marble- it takes time to progress in this art.

But this art, Jiu-Jitsu, is a generous art, as it offers suffering at nearly every turn. Not only is the time sacrifice a form of suffering, but so is the constant opposition that takes place. Even if we are training with our best of friends, there is a primal thing happening. We are training to fight. To kill, maim or destroy our opponent. It is only civilized in the fact that we may tap to the submission. We submit to our opponent that had we not requested the combat to cease, they would have done grave bodily harm or death to us otherwise. Suffering is part of Jiu-Jitsu, but it’s what leads to grown.

But it is on us to not allow the suffering to go to waste. Yes, we have partners, teammates, mentors, coaches and professors to guide us on our journey, but much like a Sherpa guiding you up a mountain, it’s a trek that requires you to take each step on your own power. We are given everything we need, but it’s up to us to put the hammer to the chisel.

Then, just as the sculptor eventually reveals a masterpiece from the block of marble, the Jiu-Jitsu practitioner emerges from their training with a transformed body and mind, honed skills, and a greater sense of confidence and self-awareness.

So I want to thank those who have guided me on my journey so far in Jiu-Jitsu. It’s been a challenging journey of self-improvement and has required me to embrace the suffering that comes with it. But through the process of training, we, as practitioners, can emerge as a stronger, more skilled, and more self-aware individual, much like the sculptor creates a masterpiece from a block of marble.

So as much as I want to thank those who gave me the tools, the materials, and the guidance to do this work, “I want to thank me for believing in me, I want to thank me for doing all this hard work. I wanna thank me for having no days off. I wanna thank me for never quitting. I wanna thank me for always being a giver and trying to give more than I receive. I wanna thank me for trying to do more right than wrong. I wanna thank me for being me at all times, Snoop Dogg you a bad motherf**ker.”

Thanks for reading.