Self-Defense (But in a Different Sense)

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People often wonder about how effective or practical BJJ can be in a self-defense context.

And also which style is “better” than other styles when it comes to self-defense.

You hear this one often enough as well:

“Oh, that move won’t work in a self-defense situation”.

Thankfully, I was never involved in a situation where I had to use my BJJ skills against an aggressor who had an intention to harm me.

I suppose that’s the case with many of you as well…

… unless you’re in a profession where you have to deal with potential violence OR you live in a place where violent crimes happen frequently.

Anyway…

I bet most BJJ practitioners hardly run into situations where they have to defend themselves.

But I also bet that most BJJ practitioners run into another kind of “self-defense” situations.

And in such situations, they can use their BJJ lessons to “protect” themselves.

Who are your opponents here?

Well…

Real-life problems.

It can be as simple as tackling new tasks at work.

Or dealing with some relationship issues.

Or perhaps something direr like recovering from a severe accident.

We all go through hardships, and what you learn in BJJ can give you a better perspective to deal with such hardships.

After all, BJJ is a problem-solving game in a way.

You are presented with various problems, and these problems are physically and mentally demanding.

You learn how to solve them and test if you can actually solve them.

You will get used to this seemingly simple process of making mistakes and correcting them.

Going through this process over and over, you will improve your skills.

You develop your mental toughness as well.

Of course, what’s required in solving real-life problems may be totally different, but when you are aware:

1) You suck in the beginning

and

2) You can get better by practicing

You are in a much better position to wrestle with hardships in life.

(And you can tap if it’s too much as well… you can start over again.)

I think this kind of problem-solving attitude + mental toughness is way more relevant to most of us who practice BJJ than getting cornered by a group of villains with various weapons.

Now, I’m curious… how do you use BJJ in the sense of what I wrote in this post?