BJJ Motivation: "When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful"

"That's how it is in life, in business, and everything else. We all know that you have to get back up if you fall down, but what a lot of us seem to miss is that oftentimes when we think we are falling, we give up, and allow gravity to take over.  Most times, we are much closer to staying on our feet than we think."

The above quote was not taken from a Brazilian jiu-jitsu, sport psychology or even self help book. In fact, it was taken from a business marketing book but its message rang so true with jiujitsu and grappling that I wanted to share a quick story with you. 

Years ago, I remember being partnered up in Nogi submission wrestling class with an up-and-rising MMA athlete to roll under the head instructor's watchful eyes. We shook hands, fought for grips, underhooks and relative positional dominance then started rolling. I had him in my closed guard at one point and went for a sweep. I think it was a scissor sweep of some sort. His body moved in a way that told me that the sweep had succeeded but I found it impossible to follow him and get to mount or any good top position. I looked at his feet and realised he had indeed gone over but he had flipped his lower body and put his legs at an angle that gave him some structure to resist my follow-up, very similar to what Mr Roy Dean shows below at 2.25:



I then looked in his eyes and I saw a jiujitsu secret. I saw a drive I hadn't seen before in anyone. I saw a very deeply rooted desire to succeed and an unwavering denial to my wishes to sweep him. He wasn't going to let something as trivial as gravity keep him down. Sweep or no sweep, he was not going to go down.

Being a beginner at BJJ, that totally threw me. Within seconds he had passed my guard and tapped me. That last part is not unique of course, I get passed and tapped as day follows night, and I could have let the lesson go unlearned and slip between my fingers like a bad ninja but I realised that something different had just happened. Something beyond technique and leverage. Something beyond attributes. 

It was about having heart.

I'm sure most of you have already seen this motivational speech on YouTube, but it's worth watching again.

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ZHOO ZHITSU IS FOR EVERYONE!

Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

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