Why are you a "grappler"

I just really like BJJ. I fell in love with it when I first saw it. After a break, I started to stray away from it. but then I saw a Roger Gracie HL, and immediately broke out the gi.
 
Well, I have recently gotten into striking as well, but the whole skilled fighting thing I find addictive and completely life affirming. The whole game, I just can't get enough...
 
roosterweight said:
Below you will find the reasons I train. It's a working list that I posted on my blog quite sometime ago. Some of the reasons are about self improvement, some about vanity, and others are really just statements about life.

Why I Train?

#1. BJJ is great exercise. Training is a full-body weight and cardio workout. In my late teens and early twenties, I was a long distance cyclist. I loved my time on the bike and wouldn't trade the lessons of patience and endurance that cycling taught me. Having said that, I would rather train in BJJ then lift, run, cycle, rock climb, swim, or throw/kick/hit a ball.

#2. BJJ satisfies my competitive nature. I'm a very competitive person, and the act of training gives me a constructive outlet.

#3. BJJ is difficult for me. I have to work - really work hard - to get better at BJJ. I think about it, train hard, and give it everything I can. There are many things I have a talent for and have come easily (academics, business skills, public speaking, etc), but BJJ reminds me that struggling to improve is an important aspect of life.

#4. BJJ accommodates my body type. As someone who is middle age, standing only 5'4" tall and weighing about 118 pounds, I'm not likely to succeed at football, basketball, or most other sports where I'd compete against people 5" - 12" taller than me and 50 - 100 pounds heavier. BJJ has weight divisions, making it perhaps the ideal sport for small guys.

#5. BJJ teaches me patience and perseverance. I was a blue belt for over five years, and expect it will take at least as much time to get promoted to brown. I completed my undergraduate degree in less time than took to go from blue to purple! It requires patience to keep coming to 3 - 4 classes a week and "plod" the road to greater skill and accomplishment.

#6. BJJ removes my anxiety. All my life, I've had anxiety and obsessive compulsive behavior. I found early on that I can moderate this anxiety and OC behavior with extreme physical activity leading to exhaustion or I can medicate it. I prefer extreme physical activity.

#7. BJJ forces intense focus and concentration. I love those life experiences where everything drops away and all I focus on is the task at hand. I'm not distracted by a work issue, not thinking about a conversation I need to have, not thinking about a home renovation. In my life, I've only experienced such intense periods of focus on a regular basis through three activities: training BJJ; cycling; and taking exams.

#8. BJJ makes me a more interesting person. Everyone has hobbies: reading, playing video games, working out, etc. But BJJ is one of the more unique hobbies someone can have. Looking at the rest of my life, it is a hobby most folks would not expect of me.

#9. BJJ introduces me to more interesting people. I don't recall a time when I've met a more eclectic and interesting group of people in one room. At my BJJ gym, you'll find people who have Ph.D's training alongside people who dropped out of high school after getting just D's. You'll find liberal peace-niks spending time with gun-toting conservatives. Law enforcement officers, convicted felons, business owners, government bureaucrats, construction workers, and doctors can all be found at my gym. And they all get along!

#10. BJJ overcomes my petty biases. Because of the great diversity of people BJJ exposes me to, my stereotypes are silently challenged and I find greater commonalities with all types of people now. My world view has broadened significantly because of BJJ.

#11. BJJ fills the time. Assuming a life expectancy of 74.5 years (CIA - The World Factbook 2002 -- United States), I have 652,629 hours to enjoy. Of these, I've used over half (I'm 39 years old). Between now and death, I will hopefully enjoy a little less than 330,000 hours and I need to find a way to use these hours. These hours can be meaningful or meaningless; boring or exciting. I'm going for meaningful and exciting.

Note: in writing this, I realized for the first time that I'm actually about half-way through this journey called life. I experienced a small existential crisis, similar to the feeling I get when I'm on vacation and it's halfway through the week.

#12. BJJ could extend that time. Fit people live longer. I'd love to make it past 74.5 years.

#13. BJJ teaches me that skill beats raw power. When I go up against a white belt who's 50% heavier than me but has no skill, I'm in awe of the fact that skill beats raw power. This is true throughout life: a genius who's never trained his mind is of less use than a person of average intelligence who has pursued education.

#14. BJJ makes me aware of my body. Most people walk around without any aches or pains, and they don't think "I'm lucky that nothing hurts today". With BJJ, some days I'm sore, some days I'm not. Some days a joint hurts, some days it doesn't. Regardless, though, I'm always AWARE of whether I feel pain on a given day.

#15. BJJ teaches me respect for the human body. What a magnificent and beautiful machine the human body is. It can roll, flip, throw others, etc. But move one joint a few degrees in the wrong direction and it's out of commission.

#16. BJJ is primal. The word primal comes from the latin "Primus" (nominative, singular, masculine) for "first". BJJ, like all combat sports, was "first". Before we had bats, balls, frisbees, sticks, pucks, bicycles, etc, we had just our own bodies. Therefore, testing ourselves against another human could only be done through some form of combat sport.
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You just got a new blog reader. Great stuff.
I agree with every one of your points. For me, having an engineering background, I would add that the physics aspect of bjj appeals to my 'analytical' personality. Every practitioner should recognize how leverage works in the case of, say, an arm bar. However, such ideas can be taken much further. When I get my opponent in a scarf hold or an S-mount, I am the Chinese Finger Trap and they are the fingers. The more they struggle the more they simply anchor themselves in the position. Similarly, when I get a perfect sweep, I sometimes go home and think about the leverage that I used.

Check it:
In boxing, when you beat your opponent, you are the hammer and they are the nail. In bjj, when you beat your opponent you are the crowbar and they are the nail. Get it?

I swear I just made that up. 'Roosterweight' you inspire me.
 
I Started BJJ 2 1/2 years ago and It was for allof the reasons listed here. I keep training now because it is like a family. The people you train with and compete with will be life long friends and that is just like family. I think if you are training somewhere and you don't feel this then you should change Gyms.
 
I always enjoyed rough-housing with my asshole guy friends. We'd wrestle all the time and I would join in on things that weren't very lady-like. I like the idea of fighting and competing but on a more technical level and not getting punched in the face. Jiu Jitsu is so much more than a sport, a cardio work out, a war of strength-- it's using your head. It's ironic that I've never played sports before and I once had a gym membership that lasted 6 months and I never stepped foot inside the whole time. I was just a girl scout! But now I enjoy beating up and choking people..and the reciprocated.
 
i think becuase i love the unlimited ceiling of potential and growth this sport offers, your always learning something new no matter how good you are.

and also competing, something i love and something im good at.
 
Really nice post roosterweight, I read every word.
 
I grapple because I love it, plain and simple.

The joy of winning competitions, getting in great shape, helping others improve their game, and introducing the sport to people is just a side bonus.

I have grappling goals... Win a major comp, get the bb, open a school. But at the end of the day, it makes me happy and I have fun... That's what keeps me on the mat.
 
Because Judo was free through my school. Also to become a more well rounded martial artist.
 
#3. BJJ is difficult for me. I have to work - really work hard - to get better at BJJ. I think about it, train hard, and give it everything I can. There are many things I have a talent for and have come easily (academics, business skills, public speaking, etc), but BJJ reminds me that struggling to improve is an important aspect of life.


My reason too! But not only because it's a struggle, but because you can see your progression, you can see that hard work pays off!
 
I'm a grappler because I got too old to stand & bang with the kids.
I was still winning fights but I was taking a week (or more) to recover.

Enter a "gentler" way of whoopin' up on the kids.
Maybe when I hit my 60's (all too soon) I'll hang it up.........
Nah, that don't sound like no fun.
 
I was very fit but was starting to lose my focus without an actual athletic outlet. I wanted to do something very physically challenging, that I could do for decades, was very realistic, and my wife didn't want me getting the "drain bamage" from something like kickboxing. So I tried a Judo class and a pretty little brown belt tossed me around like a ragdoll. Getting owned like that being so much bigger and stronger made me instantly fall in love with Judo and it's only gotten stronger since.
 
Sorry in advance for the tl;dr.

As I get older, BJJ (and wrestling/judo) are more a way to keep fit and learn something at the same time. It's a great way to stay fit because you don't really ever stop learning, and the competitive, cerebral game nature of the sport gives it lasting addictiveness. In a lot of respects it is a perfect game - easy to learn the basics but very difficult to master. The shortest time you can become a world champion is 3 years, doing it full time, if you are BJ Penn. For everyone else, it's got more than enough longevity.

There is also the self defence aspect that is potentially useful.

Why am I (primarily) a grappler as opposed to a striker? Because I value my brain and to train striking frequently in a realistic fashion (e.g. taking hits to the head) is not good for it. Maybe if all I did for a living was unskilled labor, it might not matter.

That's not to say that it is useless to learn striking, it was fun when I did it and I had a talent for it. I think I've done enough that in a self defence situation I would do well purely with striking against most non-trained or even minimally trained opponents. It's useful for every grappler to know how to strike or defend strikes well enough to clinch, at least. And in a self defence situation, if you are in a position to strike you are probably in a position to run away, which is a better option. Or run and get a weapon, if you are defending your house.

With grappling you are not getting brain damage (well, you will take some accidental blows to the head occasionally on a crowded mat, but it's negligible really). So you can just keep getting better over time, with realistic sparring, with only mashed fingers and toes, separated ribs, potential neck and back injuries etc. to slow you down. With most of those it's an acceptable risk.

There is another reason why grappling is great, and I'll get to that reason soon enough, but I want to cover self defence first.

99% of self defence is situation avoidance, if you are smart. If you are in a position where you might be attacked by multiple opponents, 99 times out of 100 it could have been avoided completely if you had your wits about you, and you aren't being a douche. The other 9 times out of 1000 you should be able to talk your way out of it. e.g. "Whoa. Slow down. What's the matter? Dude, I've got no quarrel with you. I admit you're tougher than me, you don't have to prove it...".

For that other 1/1000 situation, you are best off evading the other person. I've lived over 3 decades and spent enough of my twenties in bars and nightclubs, and so far I've never been in a situation I could not avoid, diffuse or evade. It's probably not even 1/1000, especially if you are even just a bit taller/bigger than average (people won't usually want to risk it).

There is an area that is not really self defence, but it is often a motivation for learning the fighting arts. Consider a situation where someone is trying to physically intimidate you. You are pretty sure that they are not armed, and have no friends around who will intercede on their behalf. I think this will happen far more in a typical person's life than the hypothetical "someone wants to kill you and you must react to kill him before he kills you" that is frequently used to sell TMA.

So, someone is trying to physically intimidate you, and they have started it. They've talked some shit, and maybe they are pushing you or shadowboxing at you or something like that. If they have done some TMA, they have reeled off their TMA achievements in order to intimidate you (this is good - it helps you better predict your chances of beating them). Both you and him have to balance a few things - your future reputation, how you will feel about yourself as a man, the legal ramifications of what you do, the physical risk to yourself, the risk of your opponent taking revenge on you later, and also the likely outcome of the confrontation based on an estimation of your abilities and his abilities.

If you judge that your opponent will probably take you, then you should avoid fighting. It's too risky. But if your opponent is of similar size or smaller, then you will end up with a reputation as an easily intimidated wuss if you walk away from such encounters. That just encourages other people to try and intimidate you, which you don't want. You also probably start feeling like less of a man for not doing anything about it.

So, there is a motivation there for learning how to fight and doing a martial art with realistic sparring. If you do that, you will get a feel for how good you do against random Joes off the street who come in with no training, and how much size and athleticism matters. You will also get a good feel for how you will do against other trained opponents. So with training, the percentage of people you can successfully handle will rise. Your estimation of who you can take successfully will also get much better.

If you are good, this will give you confidence to not be intimidated by most people, and also not to fear physical violence as much as you did before. If anything, your confidence (and even a smile of eager anticipation to be able to finally use something you have trained years for with no opportunity to use... until now!) in the face of physical intimidation will speak volumes to most people.

So, faced with someone trying to intimidate you, here are some options:

1. Bluff and have no skills. This is not my style, and I'm not good at it. Good luck to you if you have success with it, but be prepared for someone to call it. Bluff with enough people, and someone is going to kick your ass.
2. Do nothing. There is a good chance that nothing will happen, but you will almost certainly feel a little less like a man afterwards. Other people may want to intimidate you too, as you become known for being easily intimidated.
3. Go for it, without training. This might work if you are huge and athletic. But if you are huge and athletic, no one is going to try and intimidate you. If you aren't huge, attacking with no training may lead to getting your ass kicked by someone with more skill. At the very least, your estimation skills won't be very good without much practice, and if you are out there kicking people's asses regularly you are just a lowlife thug.
4. Train in striking arts. Assuming you have some good TDD, you increase the odds in your favor. However, this requires you to be hit first, risk being up for assault if you hit first, ask if they want to settle things with their fists, or a willingness to boast about your striking resume in order to not have to fight. Other negatives:
  • If you get into a battle with a trained striker, you both are going wind up with some damage.
  • To train realistically is bad for your brain in the long term.
  • If you bloody someone up, they are going to resent it. Possibly even to the point of coming back to visit you with a weapon.
For these reasons, striking as your only strategy it has a lot of negatives.
5. Train grappling arts. Even without basic striking, you can probably get the takedown. Every BJJ school I have been to has wrestling or judo as well, so there is no excuse not to learn enough of that so that you can get the fight where it needs to be. With some basic striking you will have confidence to setup the takedown if your shots get stuffed. Depending on where you live, most people will have no TDD, no wrestling top control, and no BJJ skills. And if they do, you probably already know who they are.

BTW I am not a lawyer, but I suspect that compared with bloodying up someone's face, the law will look more favorably on a (gentle) takedown and positional domination.

Grappling also puts you in the position of being able to respond to escalation of violence with equivalent or greater violence, but not having to initiate. Once you have someone controlled on the ground, your response can run the gamut of letting them gas and feel helpless, to choking them out and everything in between. They are completely at your mercy. And more to the point, the other person is either aware of this, or at least can be rapidly educated. That is the beauty of grappling. It is a steel fist in a velvet glove.

A striker facing a grappler knows that if he initiates strikes he will be at a legal disadvantage, especially if he dominates. He also knows that if he initiates strikes and is taken down and dominated, the grappler will probably take an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. And also add some interest on that as well. So, if he wishes to stay on the right side of the law, he is forced to play the grappler's game. It is a no-win situation for him.

I would also suspect that grappling is superior to striking from the perspective of the other guy wanting to get even. A bruised ego is a lot easier to get over than a bruised ego + a broken face.

Again, I think it is best to be mild mannered in life, but it is nice to have options for those who would intimidate you.
 
Thorpedo said:
I dont like getting punched in the face but like to compete
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This, but I also do not like punching other people either.

Also you can go balls out almost every day and the injury risk is minimal, compare that to lifting (maxing out every day will burn you out) or striking (concussions for everyone!).
 
kung fu kenny said:
I started with a stand up traditional martial art to begin with, saw BJJ, realised how badly one of those dudes could f me up and thought "that is a better martial art I'm learning that now". Started and realised it is also wicked fun as well.
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^^^this! I stopped into the local Barre, had a bb in Karate and got utterly owned. Two weeks later a noob showed up and I owned him, (I know it is just a gym win, but I think I learned more in two weeks than I did in a year in the dojo) the rest is history.
 
Started martial arts in general after watching enter the dragon...kenpo to muay thai to boxing to bjj
 
I started BJJ after having cancer. After rehabilitation from the cancer I realized, although I was healthier in the sense that I didn't have cancer, I was unhealthy in the fact that I was 30 lbs heavier and almost sedentary in my lifestyle. I decided that I needed to change this. And I also needed the motivation.

I checked every martial arts school in my area yet my work schedule did not permit me to take any of them. The last place I checked was a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy, and after sitting in on my first class, I fell in love. And lucky for me, the class schedule fit my work schedule. I signed up that day.

I only got a month in before my cancer came back and I had to withdraw. I had surgery on 10/25 and now I'm rehabilitating. I don't know when I'll be able to practice again, but if anything I at least want to sit in on class and observe.
 
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Ygrasshopper said:
I started BJJ after having cancer. After rehabilitation from the cancer I realized, although I was healthier in the sense that I didn't have cancer, I was unhealthy in the fact that I was 30 lbs heavier and almost sedentary in my lifestyle. I decided that I needed to change this. And I also needed the motivation.

I checked every martial arts school in my area yet my work schedule did not permit me to take any of them. The last place I checked was a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy, and after sitting in on my first class, I fell in love. And lucky for me, the class schedule fit my work schedule. I signed up that day.

I only got a month in before my cancer came back and I had to withdraw. I had surgery on 10/25 and now I'm rehabilitating. I don't know when I'll be able to practice again, but if anything I at least want to sit in on class and observe.
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Wow that's pretty crazy. Glad you are rehabing. Hang in there and good luck.
 
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