What is Jiu jitsu really about? More than anything else Jiu Jitsu is about compensating for inequalities in physical attributes between different people. The day we are conceived we are thrown into the genetic lottery which will determine our size, speed and many other physical attributes. The day we are born we are thrown into the hands of fate which will determine much of our development. By the time we are old enough to think we start to note that many or perhaps even most of the people around us have considerable physical advantages over us. So often everyone else seems faster, stronger, more flexible, heavier, taller, longer reach – the list goes on. It can reach into mental attributes as well. Our peers seem more confident, smarter, more aggressive etc etc. We are left looking at ourselves in the mirror as ungifted in comparison. JIU JITSU IS OUR ATTEMPT TO USE MECHANICS, TECHNIQUE AND TACTICS TO COMPENSATE FOR OUR PHYSICAL AND EVEN MENTAL SHORTCOMINGS. Leverage can make a weak person strong. Good position can make a strong person feel weak. Anticipation can make a slow person fast. Precise pinning can make a light person heavy. Good off balancing can make a heavy person light. Strangleholds can pacify even the most aggressive people. Success over time in training can make a coward brave and the timid confident. There are many things in life in which you have little choice. Jiu jitsu is a means by which you can make a stand and redefine who you are through study and training. In this sense the choice to study Jiu jitsu is your chance to overcome all those areas of your life in which you felt you had no choice and in which it seemed you were disadvantaged. I've seen many things in the course of my life but perhaps one of the most remarkable has been the degree to which the study of Jiu jitsu grips so many people from so many backgrounds with a passion and enthusiasm for participation and improvement that I don't see in most sports, where most involvement is simply as a spectator or as a game that is fun to play rather than as a way to change who they are.
