What does it mean to survive?

Everyone has fears, and every beginner practitioner  in  Jiu-Jitsu at any Jiu-Jitsu school will be accompanied by those fears when first stepping onto the mats.

It might be claustrophobia, pain, or suffocation. In each situation, the student defeats these fears by facing them over and over again while practicing Jiu-Jitsu and at any moment, the student can tap to signal an end or stop to the fight/practice and start over again and give it another try, with this practice, over time the student gradually frees himself/herself from the cycle of fear.

This is a natural process of mental conditioning and it works for every student.

Through this dynamic the student overcomes fear and also the instinctive tendency to fight and waste energy. The fear is gradually replace by confidence, empowerment and peace in stressful times. Liberating the practitioner from insecurity.

Survival on a physical level is just an extension of this mental conditioning. Although there are physical techniques to be leaned that I will show you how to use them for survival, in the process you will learn how to get used to being physically attacked, being pressured or crushed and slowly  becoming comfortable with uncomfortable situations.

Therefore, survival will depend on the mental aspect of becoming comfortable under the pressure of physical techniques application.

It’s important to realize that survival is the aspect that bring us closest to one of the  founders of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Helio Gracie. Due to his small stature, Helio was forced to learn how to survive against larger and stronger opponents. Realizing that he would not ne able to out muscle these opponents, Helio instead looked for ways to survive. He was aware that it took much less energy to thwart his opponents advances than it took to escape. His goal was simple, he may not win the fight, but he wouldn’t lose, he would survive.

The result of Helio’s adaptations was astonishing, by focusing on the use of leverage as a tool for survival, Helio helped develop Jiu-Jitsu into a art that could benefit a smaller person in a fight against a much larger opponent.