I guess you could say growing up as a painfully shy, skinny kid, filled with large amounts of anxiety, and no self-confidence was a bit of a challenge. From the age 5, until my late teens, early 20s, I was extremely socially awkward, not at all athletic, and never stood up for myself. It probably didn't help matters that I was an only child as well. On a happier and more positive note, all of that began to change with 2 pivotal events in my life.
There were 2 defining moments that captured my attention and thrust me headlong into my lifelong love of martial arts, and the martial arts lifestyle. The first time was in 1987 when my then-girlfriend and I rented this action movie, Above the Law, with a gentleman by the name of Steven Segal in it. Sure I had seen Enter The Dragon as a kid but the action I saw in this movie was unlike anything I had seen before! Watching Steven Segal move and control his opponents the way he did was for me something mystical, almost magical. I also loved the fact that he was extremely self-confident, stood up for what was right, and didn't back down from anyone. When I found out the art Steven Segal practiced was Aikido, I went out and tried to find a place to start training right away. When I finally found someone to train with and started talking with them I soon discovered that perhaps Aikido wasn't the art for me after all. I then decided that maybe Shotokan Karate was more up my alley so I enrolled in classes at the local Y. Thus began a 6-year journey, of study, training, and developing myself both physically and mentally. My self-confidence began to grow and as a result, I began to push myself and start to step out of my comfort zone
The other defining moment occurred on November 12th, 1993, and the airing of UFC I on PPV. I must say that when I first heard of the event I, like thousands of others thought there was no way this was going to happen. There was no way I thought, that they were going to televise an event where martial artists were going to actually fight one another with no rules!!! I decided to throw caution to the wind and order my UFC I PPV. I remember sitting on the couch watching these martial artists actually fight one another using the various styles they had trained in. I was completely blown away! I couldn't believe I was able to see the various martial arts styles pitted against one another, and from that, being able to see which one was actually effective. These fights, which allowed headbutts and kicks to downed opponents were not for points but actual combat with limited rules. It's funny to look back on it now but the guys you thought were going to win and win easily, were all defeated by a skinny unassuming young man from Brazil named Royce Gracie. After watching that event it soon became clear that the style I was currently training in was not nearly as effective as I had thought. This single event changed my whole perspective of what constituted an effective self-defense system, and thus changed the very trajectory of my training and life.
Within a few years, I had totally embraced jiu-jitsu as my art and decided to dedicate my life to studying and teaching this wonderfully effective art. One of the things that drew me to jiu-jitsu besides being so effective, was the fact that it was difficult to advance in rank. On average it takes 10 plus years to go from white to black belt, for me it was 17 years. Because of this jiu-jitsu has a high attrition rate, with only about 1% of those who start out actually make it to their black belt. Through my 24 plus years of training, I have learned an incredible amount about myself. I have learned that I am self-confident, tenacious, persistent, resilient, focused, determined, and compassionate This experience has forever changed my view of myself and my capabilites. This in turn has positively impacted every aspect of my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment