BJJ Culture

 It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 7 years total time since I started jiujitsu. I preface total time because with many things that happen in life there are always interruptions, via injury or idk, moving from one state to the other because your job dried up where you were. 

Seven years being a part of something and you definitely get an idea of what the culture is of the thing you’re a part of. Make no mistake about it, jiujitsu has its own culture. That culture is intertwined with MMA culture (mixed martial arts). In no particular order here are a few characteristics of jiujitsu culture:

1. Everyone listens to Joe Rogan’s podcast. Ev. Er. Y. Bo. Dy.

2. A whole lot lean to the right side of the aisle politically. A whole lot would describe themselves as being anarchist.

3. A whole lot love guns. Talking about them, shooting them…talking about shooting them.

4. Most don’t like watching any other sports but MMA or jiujitsu and oh boy, do they watch a TON of MMA or jiujitsu.

5. After a set amount of time into the art you’re never going to shut up talking about it. 

I have gained a lot of peace recently about what my place is in jiujitsu. This place includes not only my place within the school I attend but also with my place within jiujitsu culture. My resolution? Surrender. Let it all go. In the grand scheme of things I am one dude there training, learning, and trying to get better. I will absolutely spend a huge chunk of my time helping out those who don’t know the things that I do. I want to be a servant leader that way. If someone gains something from the words I say, awesome! If not, that’s cool too. I’m going to keep coming day after day, week after week until I look back and see that I have changed from the worm that I am into a beautiful jiujitsu butterfly. That’s a funny clause to type.

None of where my present mindset lies involves worrying about what I cannot change. I’m not there on the mats to convince someone their political beliefs are wrong. I believe that I have made a decent amount of my stance politically pretty clear but if I haven’t it’s very similar to my jiujitsu philosophy: I’m going to leave people the hell alone and do me. If you see me and think that I am a beacon, follow me. If you don’t, cool. I’m going to shine regardless. Because while I understand a lot of the jiujitsu mindset, I can’t say I subscribe to it as a lifestyle.

Way too much of the mindset involves an overinflated sense of self-worth. My instructor Steve has a (I’m pretty sure it’s borrowed) phrase of “If you’re not training self-defense of some sort, you’re not being peaceful. You’re being harmless.” I agree with that by the way. But just because you know self defensedoesn’t give you some license to be a dick, either. It doesn’t give you the right to look down your nose at people who chose not to learn self-defense. It doesn’t make you a “sheepdog” and others “sheep”. All it means is you chose the journey of self defense (again, a journey I feel is very much worth taking). That in itself doesn’t make you better than anyone. Excepting yourself.

I shouldn’t be too surprised I think this way. I grew up reading Spider-Man and truly do believe with great power comes great responsibility. In the wrong hands, that power manifests in all sorts of ways. In enough wrong hands it can affect a culture. That’s a good place to stop because I realized that I could write a whole lot about this subject. And probably will. Rogan alone…man.