- School choice matters. If you think you may be at the wrong school, you probably are. If you’re thinking about quitting, consider trying a few other schools first. The art is for everyone, but not every school is for everyone.
- You can choose to be a part of the community, or a straight customer. Both approaches are fine and it’s a large spectrum, but if you want longevity in the art, leaning toward the former helps a lot with that.
- Most of your training time is in the plateau.
- Your fashion statement is not appreciated as much as you think. Wearing fancy gis and rash guards is OK, but don’t spend too much time, money, or energy on it.
- Strength training is important. Don’t stop that. (Or start, if you’re not already doing it.) Flexibility training is not very important unless you have absolutely none. Don’t worry too much about it.1
- Your instructor gives you half. You get the what (technique), how (detailed step by step instructions), and why (principles). But the other half is up to you, and you learn the rest with time on the mat. The other half is made up of timing, minimum effective effort, energy conservation, grit, etc.
- Someone good at jiu-jitsu is not automatically good at teaching jiu-jitsu. Transferring knowledge is a skill and doesn’t just come with a black belt.
- Helping with cleaning the mats is appreciated but always optional.
- After learning the basics, you’ll need something other than “learn self-defense” to sustain you. Some ideas are mastery, fun, fellowship, personal development, curiosity, or whatever you can think of. Spend some time on your why.
- Be careful who you listen to and what advice you take. Generally, people aren’t careful thinkers and believe and repeat things that just “sound right.” Wherever you are, you’re surrounded by people like that. That includes your jiu-jitsu school. And your teacher is the one you need to question the most.
- The belt ranking system isn’t standardized. A blue belt at one school isn’t the same as one from another. It’s actually not even useful to compare students at the same school. Don’t worry about it too much.
- It’s a hobby.2 Treat it like basketball, golf, tennis, video games, etc.
- Think long-term. Getting your blue belt in a year is worthless if you quit a year later. Train forever because the biggest returns come at the end.
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Maybe controversial, but maybe not. Years ago, I’d argue the opposite, but I’m a little smarter and a better thinker now. In a few years, maybe I’ll learn more and change my mind again. ↩︎
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Unless it’s not. But I suspect if you’re reading this, you don’t care much about sport jiu-jitsu as a participant. ↩︎