Jiu Jitsu

As some you may or may not now, the host family that I'm staying with has Martial Arts gym in our backyard. I've been training almost everyday since the day I moved in with my host family and I have fallen in love with Jiu Jitsu. In class, I go up against huge guys that have been training their entire lives so for the first few months I was just continuously getting beat up. There were so many times when I wanted to call it quits but it's kinda hard to do that when there's nowhere to hide. I wake up everyday and look out my window and see the gym.

In my time of training Jiu Jitsu(and losing a lot), I came up with a saying that motivates me to keep training. "If you can't win, then you can't lose." I’ve argued with a few fellows about whether it makes sense or not so I'm going to explain it. In my training, I go up against guys that have far more skill and there’s no way for me to win. Even though I knew I’d ultimately lose, I wouldn’t allow them to beat me easily. If you are going to beat me down, I’m gonna at least make you earn it. Instead of saying from the get go that I’m not going to win, I say that I’m not going to lose so that maybe I’ll have a chance at beating my opponent.

I try my best to look at these fights in a more optimistic perspective. The glass is half full rather than half empty. This outlook works for everything in life and has made my experience here worthwhile. As I continue to train and get better, I have decided to enter into a Jiu Jitsu tournament at the end of the month as a way of gaging how much I have truly learned in Jiu Jitsu. I have put so much blood, sweat, and tears(literally) that I want to see how far I've com. I can’t wait to tell you how it goes!