Turning losing into winning in jiu jitsu

Turning losing into winning in jiu jitsu

Turning losing into winning in jiu jitsu is one of the major lessons to be learned. You can’t get better at anything in life unless you are willing to take a chance and fail first. Many of our greatest sports teams and individuals have lost first. That lesson taught them how to win. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitors and practitioners receive valuable feedback from every mistake, loss and failure. You are taught where you are weak and what to do and not to do in the future.

Mistakes are opportunities

The great Albert Einstein once said “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” Mistakes are guidelines and opportunities to do things better. They have the power to turn you into something better than you were before. There are 3 things you should do about a mistake: admit it, learn from it and don’t repeat it. Every mistake we commit is nothing more than a lesson.

A lesson from the great Royler Gracie

I spent over 15 years training with the Royler Gracie team and heard Royler tell this story of his father, Grandmaster Helio Gracie, numerous times. It was training with his father and brother Rickson Gracie that Royler started taking competition seriously. Helio Gracie would encourage him to compete by saying “If you win, I will give you 5 dollars. If you lose, I will give you 10 dollarsâ€. At first Royler did not understand his father’s intentions, but later he learned that this was his father’s way of taking the pressure off his back, instilling a competitive spirit. Contrary to what common sense would suggest, the lesson was imparted that winning provided a feeling so superior to losing that even financial disincentives couldn’t dissuade from putting forth the best effort.

Student learns lesson

I have a student who just learned this valuable lesson. Last month, my Academy entered a tournament trying to win a team title for a teammate who is battling cancer. ( You can read more about that here: https://njbjj.com/lyndhurst-martial-arts-no-one-fights-alone/ ). My student Steve competed in his first tournament along with some other whitebelts. He didn’t have a good day while many of the others did and was frustrated and disappointed by his performance. Steve used that performance to drive him since then and turned a loss in a tournament into a positive, using it to drive him to be better. Not many can do that finding out where you are weak and he has been working his butt off to be better in those areas. Since that tournament, he has passed many of the students who did win or did better than him at the tournament. Hence, many times, losing a tournament in the beginning of your training can be the best thing for you.

Professor Chris Savarese

Anyone who would like to try a free class under Professor Savarese, please call 201 933-5134.