Training Environment

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I tend to like underdogs.

Those who came from a difficult background.

Those who have experienced hardships from early on in their lives.

Those who weren’t necessarily in a “great” (or even good) environment to get better at their craft.

They often seize an opportunity that others may miss.

They turn it into something bigger.

They work hard and smart (or just work harder than anyone else) to reach their goals.

They give us this hope that we could do just as well as them if we tried…

After all, their starting point may have been way worse than ours.

You have a bunch of people like them in BJJ as well. The BJJ players who grew up in a favela, etc. are obvious examples.

And then you have some elite BJJ players like Adam Wardzinski, Tommy Langaker, Espen Mathiesen, Lachlan Giles, and Craig Jones.

They probably grew up in a decent environment like many of us but didn’t necessarily have access to a high-class training environment.

Among these people, I’ve only met Lachlan. I visited his gym (The St. Kilda branch of Absolute MMA) in October 2017.

Here’s my bet…

Many gyms around the world are just as good as the gyms these folks train at.

They probably do have a handful of excellent training partners who could push them a lot.

At the same time, the majority of their training partners/students aren’t like that.

My experience at PSLPB was like that as well.

You have absolute killers like Tiago Barros and Hiago George. There were some up-and-coming brown & purple & blue belts who could beat average black belts, too (Thalison Soares and Diego Pato were such blue belts at that time).

But they were the minority if you consider the entire team of PSLPB.

Anyway… my point is:

Your training environment is probably good enough.

You could become competitive on a global scale in that environment.

What’s important is to train with a handful of enthusiasts who want to improve their skills and get better.

Of course, if you can train under great mentors like John Danaher or André Galvão or whatever, that will help. There’s no doubt about it.

But IF you are inclined to think that your training environment isn’t good enough…

… AND that you cannot get better without having a famous coach or killer training partners…

Think again and try finding ways you could get better even in that environment of yours.

That would be more constructive.

After all…

Whenever you have a choice to complain, you also have a choice to do something about it.

Choose well.