Does BJJ build character or expose weakness?

If done consistantly with effort, build character for sure.
 
What I see a lot of is these guys who come into my gym at night... they say they've been wanting to do this for years... watched the UFC... see TUF on Spike.. take a class schedule and a flyer... sometimes they even take an intro class. They get tooled and realize how hard it really is to be there... and never come back. We probably get maybe two to five guys a night come in to check us out... add that up for four nights a week.. after a good month that's over a 100 people. Maybe two or three will join. It's an ego breaker for sure. It comes down to the fact that people just don't want to accept that they aren't as tough as they thought after they get tooled...
 
everyones got an ego just remember not to let it get the best of you when things don't always fly you're way.
 
Mojorisin99 said:
Do you feel like BJJ can make a person mentally stronger or are they already pre-disposed that way? Often you see people who think they are tough until they take a class and quit. Can a person with no mental toughness build it through BJJ?
Click to expand...


Excellent Excellent quesiton.

When I first started, I had the "tough" mentatlity. I'm very physicall stronger than most people, and I used to just "Overpower" guys. But then some of the better grapplers who werent as strong as me and even smaller than me used to submit me so fast that it made me feel "weak"

I hated that feeling, so I really studied their BJJ. I watched what they did in bad positions, how they handled bigger stronger guys like me, and I improved. Now I don't use my "power" so much, but more my brain. BJJ is a thinking man's martial art. We get so many "idiots" in our gym who "Know a few BJJ moves", then they come and can't land any of them because they have no concept of positioning.

Position before submission as we say in our gym.
 
you just said something about thinking Helio Gracie once said it's easier for people who don't think do well in bjj opposed to those who think too much......


i dont know what's that's all about but i study everyone who i roll against.
 
I think what BJJ gave me (and a lot of people) is calmness when I'm in trouble, like being in bad position, opponent almost getting a submission, 250 lb dude sitting with his weight down on my chest. Instead of getting a panic attack and not be able to think now I just gather my thought and work my way out of trouble. This attitdue can actually extend beyond the mat and to real life situations.
 
Certainly changed my life. I didn't have a lot of mental toughness when I started and beat myself up a lot, I was getting hammered all the time. But fast forward 31/2 years, been a blue belt for 12 months and training regularly 4-5 times a week. Doing BJJ has carried over into my life as well, it has helped me stick things out and given me a real sense of calmness and maturity.
 
I've personally met 2 black belts I thought were pieces of shit. I've met several purple belts that hurt people on purpose. I've seen people shove one another in BJJ gyms and get angry over rolls.

I've also seen big old fat old ladies walk away from car accidents and people drag themselves into a hospital bleeding, because they had to, or up all night taking care of someone.

I don't think there is any correlation at all between being good at drills associated with fist fighting (BJJ) and being a good person, in any way. BJJ players are the same mixed bag of good and bad people you have anywhere.

The reason people think BJJ builds positive mental qualities is because that opinion was expressed often enough by someone good at fist fighting, and some people would believe that kind of guy if he said the earth was flat.

Be a stranger in someone else's gym and pass one of their purple belts guard or threaten a sub. Sometimes he'll roll like normal and act like a human after. Sometimes all that "leave your ego at the door" bull crap gets exposed for the hypocrisy it usually is, and they start flailing and spazing, maybe even red faced and crying.
 
Holy smoke big necro.

Bjj makes you better at submitting people.

End of the story.
 
Necro. I think it's more than making you just good at submitting people. Sure it does that but I think bjj is hard. If you are weak minded and just keep showing up that in itself is tough. I've seen dudes come in talking a big game then leave their first class.
 
Starting to train was what changed my life. I started with running and it helped me a lot to relax and to manage my life more tightly. When you stay busy you feel better about yourself and training helps also a lot.

After that I started to do strength training and then kickboxing

BJJ is just my favorite activity to date and by far the thing that I'm the most obsessed about.


For the mental toughness, every sports will help you to build it, for me being in trouble in a roll is nothing compared to wanting to die in the last mile of a 3 hours run or putting on gloves to do a full contact spar.
 
I think it reveals more than anything else.

After competing in wrestling and BJJ, the only thing I learned was never to judge someone by their height, weight, body language....

I learned the most innocent looking people can be dangerous.

As for confidence, I don't feel it gave me any, besides being confident I can pin or submit someone.
 
Damn, this thread is like a window to the past when people on f12 actually liked Jiu Jitsu.
 
It helped me get rid of some of my anxieties
 
SummerStriker said:
I've personally met 2 black belts I thought were pieces of shit. I've met several purple belts that hurt people on purpose. I've seen people shove one another in BJJ gyms and get angry over rolls.

I've also seen big old fat old ladies walk away from car accidents and people drag themselves into a hospital bleeding, because they had to, or up all night taking care of someone.

I don't think there is any correlation at all between being good at drills associated with fist fighting (BJJ) and being a good person, in any way. BJJ players are the same mixed bag of good and bad people you have anywhere.

The reason people think BJJ builds positive mental qualities is because that opinion was expressed often enough by someone good at fist fighting, and some people would believe that kind of guy if he said the earth was flat.

Be a stranger in someone else's gym and pass one of their purple belts guard or threaten a sub. Sometimes he'll roll like normal and act like a human after. Sometimes all that "leave your ego at the door" bull crap gets exposed for the hypocrisy it usually is, and they start flailing and spazing, maybe even red faced and crying.
Click to expand...
i agree there's some assholes out there and dodgy pricks but the gym i'm training at (have been there almost 3 years) is like family to me. my coach has helped me build into the person i am today, no longer am i a 30 year old "boy" who wanted to give up easily. he has helped changed my attitude towards bjj and towards life, but having said that i've been at other gyms where it wouldn't have helped me much at all and would have driven me to quit.

i've heard that gyms nearby to me where a brazilian black belt has given someone a promotion to brown on the condition that he would help him run the gym, now as soon as that said brown got his black not long ago, it looks like he has pissed off and started his own academy.
 
How can you build your character unless your own weeknesses are exposed and shored up?
 
I think it made me more humble. I never had an ego but I thought I'd do a lot better than what I did for some reason. After my first class I learned that was not the case haha.

More than a year into it with training 5 or 6 times a week I can say I'm in better shape and made a lot of friends there and am more confident and happy. It's true whay they say about exercise and mood improvement. I've had clinical depression since I was 20 but could never take meds due to aide effects. I go to BJJ and the exercise and friends I have there make me feel better than I've ever felt.

So yeah... Its been great to me so far
 
It depends on you. I've seen some guys become cool as shit, I've seen some guys turn into arrogant cocksuckers. On the competition scene is where u really see the negatives
 
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