While Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, as a self-defense technique, can certainly teach you how to fight – in sports events or in real-life situations – it also teaches us that it’s essential to ask ourselves ‘what are we fighting for?’.
We’ve been traveling through the road of Jiu Jitsu for a while now. And at this point, we can tell you with certainty: winning a match against an OPPONENT we deemed stronger is one of the coolest feelings you’ll experience.
But, sooner or later (sooner if you’re lucky), you realize that the most important fights in our lives aren’t the ones we wage against someone else. But the ones that happen everyday inside ourselves – to overcome our fears and insecurities, to be better to ourselves and to the ones we love.
We’ve made all this digression to say that, once again, it’s time to talk about a recurring issue in our communities and schools, that’s a concern of all parents and a hurdle in the path of our kids: bullying.
So, in this article, we’ll talk about how Brazilian Jiu Jitsu can HELP fight this problem, as a self-defense technique and as a philosophy. And, by this introduction – the longest in this blog’s short history – you’ve probably already got the ideia of what we have in mind.
Beyond the school, outside the mat
Most times, a well thought answer makes an aggressor think twice. (Hélio Gracie)
We probably can all agree that the right education is essential to our kids’ development and that it can, most times, determine how they’ll go through life. That APPLY to their personal success and happiness, of course. But also to how they’ll treat the people around them and how they’ll shape their communities, years from now.
“We raise our kids not for ourselves, but for the world” and that sort of thing.
The right education comes in many forms. There’s the formal kind of education that happens in the schools and prepares kids to become good professionals and responsible citizens.
But there’s also the informal education that takes place… well, pretty much everywhere. It doesn’t have a structured curriculum, like in the classroom, but it works with the kids’ own interests and knowledge to construct new ones.
And to imbue values and features that will serve them in their lives, such as respect – to themselves and to others -, balance, tenacity, curiosity and empathy.
In the football team, for instance, kids learn about the power of teamplay and hardwork, discipline and hierarchy, tenacity when facing a defeat and temperance in victory, and about how every particular talent of every teammate is indispensable to win.
That’s the same thing with Jiu Jitsu. In our mat, kids learn about strategy and patience, perseverance and humility, inner peace despite the turbulence outside and clear thought despite the ODDS, respect and empathy, self-confidence and trust, and it goes on…
Values that, we believe, are essential to fight bullying – on both ends.
Read more: What are the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu belts?
Self-defense as self-respect
A true Jiu Jitsu fighter doesn’t walk around pushing down. Ours is a fight to neutralize aggression. (Hélio Gracie)
If you read other articles on this blog, you’ve probably realized that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of the most effective and efficient self-defense techniques in the world.
It’s development was based in the ancient samurai technique of Jiu Jitsu, but adapted by Hélio Gracie around the 20th century in such a way that anyone could use it to defend themselves, no matter how stronger or larger the OPPONENT.
With that in mind, sure… if your kid is being bullied at school, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will definitely teach him – not JUST how to carry himself in fight – but how to reliably kick some asses in order to defend himself.
However.
This workaround not ONLY won’t solve bullying, but it will also serve as a new start in the CYCLE of violence and resentment and insecurity and unresolved issues… that started this whole problem in the first place!
Our APPROACH to self-defense, especially when it comes to our younger students, is always that the ability to fight works – first and foremost – as part of a more comprehensive process of developing their confidence, empowerment and self-knowledge.
More than anything, we’re proud to say that School of Jiu Jitsu’s mat offers a SAFE SPACE for students in their path to discover and develop strategies and values that will help them face challenges in every aspect of their daily lives, in a healthier and peaceful way.
That serves kids that are on the receiving end of bullying, but also to “bullies” themselves. There are many complex factors that can lead a kid to bully, as a response to other issues.
And we believe that Jiu Jitsu – and the values in which this martial art is based – offers a path to kids to build-up their confidence and discover different tools to deal with conflict other than their fists.
Do you want your child to feel safer and stronger? Schedule a trial class at School of Jiu Jitsu and try our system for free.