#185 How important is getting out of your comfort zone in BJJ?

Like the sport of BJJ, life continues to evolve before our eyes leaving us with two main choices. Growth or stagnation. As the cliche saying goes “If you aren’t going forward you’re going backward.”.

At our gym which conveniently says, “It’s not a gym.”, there is a canvas on the wall with beautiful artwork done by my friend AK which reads “complacency kills”. It is a mantra that was used by him and my brother in Iraq as a reminder that death was quick to follow those who let their guard down. Although we are not in the Marines, every day we can also choose to grow or keep the training wheels on while others pass us by.

In the sport of BJJ it’s fairly common for a practitioner to, at a certain level, apply only the skills which he or she are already skilled. This unfortunately decimates much opportunity for growth due to the lack of attention to weak areas.

Imagine if as a young kid who took up the sport of basketball you only practiced the shots you were good at for example, never working on the ones you struggled with.

We all know how foolish this sounds but even for the most skilled of practitioners this can be difficult to overcome. Oftentimes this has to do with the ego. One’s desire to win in training and beating their partners or white belt students can actually take away from progress which often comes through challenge.

You could say that for a high level practitioner of the sport getting out of your comfort zone is everything if your goal is to improve above all else. No matter if you are the king of your practice room, the day will come where you are faced with a position or situation of which you are not familiar spelling victory or defeat for you.