However, some studies have shown play provides something more than survival training. Rough housing prepares young combatants for the vigor of the real world: battling for mates, defending offspring, hunting prey and escaping predators. So, play behavior must be very beneficial to have persisted in any genetic pool, otherwise natural selection would have weeded it out.Īs far as theories as to why mammals play, preparation is a central theme. Though it’s most often in good fun, play is certainly costly as a behavior from an evolutionary standpoint: it consumes valuable caloric energy and can be dangerous at times, accidental injury and even death are not out of the question. Playmates don’t often seek to seriously injure one another, they move from one exchange to another with curiosity, as if they were training. Though clawing and biting are certainly involved, the mainstay of mammalian play involves a frenetic battle for positional dominance – grappling. It’s more than these YouTube sensations though.įrom a young age, most mammals engage in some form of play fighting. We’ve seen videos of bears pummeling for underhooks, kangaroos securing chokes and cats performing back takes. So what makes jiu jitsu different than any other sport, martial art, or even style of grappling?Īnimals play. Those who have experienced the joy that comes from a great roll know that nothing provides the same experience as jiu jitsu.
Others call it “entering the zone,” a mental state where all of life’s troubles float away.īut can’t similar flow experiences be found elsewhere as well? When we’ve dislocated a rib and are off the mats for a month we certainly try to convince ourselves that we get that same great feeling running, swimming or doing yoga.ĭeep down, we know it isn’t the same though. Some describe it as a “flow experience” that makes time disappear. Something else separates it from these other activities. However, these benefits are often relegated into the land of “you can find this sort of thing with any hobby.” Indeed, you can find friendship within a cross-fit team, lose significant weight on a road bike, get that sought after endorphin rush by rock climbing, and gain great confidence training muay thai. We’ve all heard of the benefits of jiu jitsu: health, confidence, comraderie, mental clarity, etc. What really brings us back to the mats every day? What invisible force propels practitioners to drive hours in traffic, often bruised and broken, sometimes scheduling work and family around their training habits? For most, it is neither the danger of a street attack nor the prospect of glory through competition that brings them to the mats on a regular basis. However, in our goal oriented world, we often overlook the experience of training itself. Some train to medal in competition, striving to stand on top of that podium. Some train with the goal of defending themselves and their family.
Of course, it’s inevitable we ask this question: “why do we practice jiu jitsu?” The jiu jitsu community seems to be in a perpetual self-defense vs.
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