Have you ever had your jiu-jitsu school suddenly close or your instructor move away? It is more than a little upsetting when it happens.
For real jiu-jitsu addicts it is their second home where they go to train, see their friends, and pursue their favorite passion. When that suddenly changes it can really shake us up.
It is important during times like these not to get too emotional. Jiu-jitsu is not completely disappearing from your life. It is a temporary interruption.
Over the years of my jiu-jitsu career I have run classes in many different gyms. Some great, positive environments and some..eerrrr..less ideal situations. They have come and gone. But jiu-jitsu continues.
This is the longer range view we must have when there is a problem with your particular gym.
Long ago I was running classes at a traditional martial arts place in a city that did not have much in the way of available instructors. Before long we had assembled a nice nucleus of dedicated students who were starting to get addicted to BJJ. Unfortunately, the owner of the gym was a self-promoted fraud in kung fu and didn’t like the idea of someone stealing his shine. He terminated the BJJ program and I was forced to tell the enthusiastic students that their beloved BJJ classes were being cancelled.
Several of the students became extremely dejected. They had just started getting into something awesome and now it was canceled?! Some of the students were near tears.
I interrupted their protests and said “Now let’s hold on a minute. This sucks! But let’s remember that the classes at this place may be ending, but jiu-jitsu isn’t going anywhere!”
I explained that if we wanted to continue to train together that all we needed was to find a space with an empty room, find some mats, and we were back in business!
This made some of the students feel marginally better after the disappointment of the announcement and we started to protest less about the unfairness of it all and throw some ideas out for a new spot.
Sure enough, a few weeks later we found a place with a healthier atmosphere and were back to rolling.
This scenario has repeated itself multiple times in different places and as always, jiu-jitsu has remained.
If your school has some upheaval or big change, try to remember that jiu-jitsu isn’t going anywhere!
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