#446: How Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Will Make You a Better Man

People who start learning jiu-jitsu... 90% of people who walk into a school, what are they looking for? They're looking to be able to defend themselves against someone who wants to take something from them—take their dignity, take their property, take their kid. If someone wants to threaten you, you should be able to defend yourself and not get hurt. And even if they're bigger than you are, you should be able to do that—because someone will try to take something from you, even if it's your dignity... You have to be able to stand up for yourself.

I think the people who are most likely to get into a fight in society are the people who are least prepared to get into a fight. And the people who are most prepared to get into a fight for their life are the people who are least likely to get into a fight.

People tend to overestimate their fighting capability. That's one thing I know, for sure, is that, by and large, especially men, tend to overestimate their ability to prevail in a physical fight for their life. They think they know and are capable of more than they are. They're not. If you don't know how to fight, you have no idea how to fight.

It's just a better odds to engage in a fight when you know jiu-jitsu than when you engage in a fight and are relying on karate, Taekwondo, kung fu, boxing, kickboxing. Any art that relies on knocking someone out relies really heavily on a perfectly positioned and perfectly thrown punch or kick, meaning the distance has to be perfect.

Once we grab ahold of our subject in that situation, we find a way to grab and drag that person into a ground fight. And the reason is, standing up, two people, if you're six inches taller than me, standing up, that makes a big difference. But once we're on the ground, we're all the same height. Not only that, once we go to the ground, I have four appendages. If I know jiu-jitsu, I have four appendages, four limbs, that I can use to my advantage ... And the person who does not know jiu-jitsu, when they fall to the ground, they only have two limbs. They only have two hands to operate with.

The most deadly Navy SEALs and Delta Force operators never overreact to anything, and the most deadly MMA, fighters never overreact to anything, and the most deadly jiu-jitsu black belts never overreact to anything because they're not scared. So, people who overreact are scared. And this is not private, confidential information; the public knows this.

Self-defense doesn't just mean protecting yourself from getting punched by the other guys; self-defense means avoiding the fight at all costs because of the possible variables that could come into the fight that you could have never predicted could be the ones, ultimately, to defeat you, right? You don't normally think about that. You think of losing to the opponent. No, you lose to the circumstance, you lose to the environment, you lose to the bystander who kicks you in the head because it's his friend that you're fighting and you didn't see them.

Kids target kids who don't know how to stand up for themselves or who won't stand up for themselves. You have to set boundaries and you have to stand up for yourself or you're going to get bullied for the rest of your life. It's that simple.

Impossibilities are just techniques waiting to be discovered—and that's the greatest benefit of practicing jiu-jitsu beyond self-defense.

Never just trust the name. Never just trust the name on the storefront at a martial arts school. Go to the school, and don't discredit them because of a name, and don't credit them because of the name—even if it says Gracie. Go to the school, look at the school, and make sure it's the right fit for you by watching several classes, by looking around, seeing if the vibe is right. So, by and large, let the experience outweigh any name on any storefront.