How jiu jitsu changed my life

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or BJJ for short, is a martial art that some people call “human chess” for its complexity. It’s one of the most complex martial arts and it could take years to reach the black belt even for a skilled wrestler.

I’ve never been in a real fight in my life. And so I never really learned how to properly defend myself.

That started being a problem even in my professional life. There once came a moment, where I had to make a call with a CEO of a big online project, which we had to migrate to our servers. And I realized I am too afraid, for some reason, to make the call. I procrastinated with it for about an hour, even when I knew it would take only a minute. When I finally made the call, it turned out fine. No problem. Smooth. But I knew I have to change something to be more confident next time. There was no logical reason for me to be afraid, but I still was.

Then I had some problems with my boss. Lot of the time I came up with a proper response to defend myself a few minutes after I needed to say it.

That needed to stop. I never knew that my inability to properly physically defend myself translated so much to everyday interactions.

Then, one day, a though popped into my mind: “What if I sign up for judo classes?” I had some defense training before, but it was mostly just krav maga and karate techniques, that I forgot few months after. This time I wanted to go all in.