How many times have you heard full contact Rugby is for everybody? American Football? Or even full contact ice hockey? (shoutout to Zachary Y Kerr, PhD for stats in ‘College Sports–Related Injuries — United States, 2009–10 Through 2013–14 Academic Years’). Jiu Jitsu is a full contact sport much like the ones mentioned above, yet you will see people saying it’s meant for everyone. Unfortunately I think we’re kidding ourselves when we say it’s a sport for everyone.
Right off the bat, you're asked to start off at a super low on the totem pole rank and by rightly so.... Second, you are jumping into a highly demanding physical sport that requires extreme physical punishment. You're going to be super sore every day for a long time. You're going to learn movements that are unorthodox. You're going to have to physically try to break arms, pop shoulders, choke someone unconscious, hyperextend their limbs and control larger more fit adversaries. Grasping the very basics of this can take a minimum a few years. Once you become a blue belt and you begin to learn a thing or two you're already in a bracket that is known for people quitting. That's right, more blue belts quit in Jiu Jitsu than any other rank. Seems like the odds are already against you.
Chances are if you’re doing Jiu Jitsu, you have to have something wrong with you mentally. Most people are playing with balls in their free time (think Volleyball and Tennis) or watching Netflix. How weird would it be to hear that Steve from Accounting likes to practice maiming and killing others in their free time? For most well-adjusted individuals the thought of recreational simulated murder on other living breathing human beings should be repulsive, yet a lot of us take joy in consensually strangling and almost maiming our friends irreparably. This isn’t even mentioning all the various aches, pains and injuries we incur with our frequent practice. Training hurt and sore is more common that you can imagine. A lot of people, rightfully so, have an aversion to getting any type of injury, yet here we are slapping tape on ourselves and hitting the gas.
The benefits of jiu jitsu are amazing. You can become in amazing shape, your able to defend yourself especially on the ground, your constantly engaged in chess like physical wrestling combat puzzles that have an exponential set of circumstances. Keep in mind your adopting the ability to simulate murder as welll as the art of hyperextending limbs. .
Jiu Jitsu will more often than not take and take without ever giving back. You’ll climb hurdle over hurdle only to be met with plateaus and injuries with each reward being placed further and further apart. Jiu Jitsu is for everybody until it's not. I'm gonna go ice my neck if I can remember or unless I get distracted watching a danaher video….
Truly Yours, anonymous White Belt