An Instructor's Mission by Rickson Gracie




Back in 1996, Rickson Gracie of the famous Gracie Jiu Jitsu family taught a seminar in Chicago Il.  I had the pleasure of being there. It was my first in person experience in that art. After watching the first few UFC's, like many people, I became very interested in Gracie Jiu Jitsu, so when I had the chance to go to a seminar I jumped at it! 

I still remember how I felt during the experience. Rickson was the real deal! It was a huge seminar. A gymnasium full of a few hundred guys. Rickson could have beat us all, yet, he was the humblest one there!

A long time ago, Rickson gave Graciemag a long, thorough interview about his career, ideas and philosophies. He spoke about the role of instructors and the essential mission of those responsible for teaching the art. 

"The life of the martial artist is, first of all, to serve. It's to help, it's to be a person who participates in the community," he taught. "The martial artist, therefore, has to be a positive person, and not an individual who feeds war and confrontation. A person who, through this power — which is the power of technique and the power of ideas — manages to benefit all of society, and not just their circle of students."

Rickson went into more detail: 

"I see that my functions as fighter and teacher have always been similar. The distorted image that the fights carry makes people believe that our goals are just a knockout, a win, a trophy. But when you learn to see the martial art as a whole, you then learn to accept a defeat, to forgive an opponent, and to be more patient and levelheaded. You also learn to apologize just the same as you don't run from a fight if it comes to that."

To Rickson, all that is learned at the gym, training, asking or teaching, can be carried over to life at large.

"That's when you understand the essential mission of the teacher," he added, "by realizing that the weakest person at the gym is also the one who needs help the most, and is the student whose life will be most gratifying to alter. Sometimes, in the midst of all our wealth of information about jiu-jitsu, teachers bypass these moments of joy and only focus on teaching the guy to win championships and get tough — but our mission goes far beyond."

Wise words indeed!



To join me on my path of being a Protector, a PeaceWalker go to https://sixdaydefense.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Uncomfortable Situation

Image
  Funny pic (and movie) about a not so funny situation… In training as in Life, it’s better to treat people with dignity and respect. However… What does that look like in the moment? Being that I’m teaching a Women’s Assault Prevention and Response Workshop this weekend - it’s probably a good time to talk about… Uncomfortable Situations Let’s talk about training at the academy for a minute… We run open co-ed classes at the local academy. What does that mean? Men and women train together, but we don’t stop there. People of different skill levels, backgrounds, ethnicities, sexual orientations, careers, religious beliefs, political affiliations, ages, injuries, pre-existing conditions, life experience, training expectations etc. etc. train together! We ALL work together! Overall, I think it’s better this way. Of course sometimes there’s static, you know, conflicts, and misunderstanding. When something happens, most of the time it’s just that, a misunderstanding… Sometimes people simply do
Read more

The Shot Heard Around the World

Image
Even though many could see where all of this division and hatred in our country was leading to, when we witness the actual violence, realty once again floods in and has a way of shattering the comfort of our complacency, if only until the next headline. Some may find all of this shocking, others may see it simply validating their own fears. Regardless, of your political views, we have to take into account what this level of violence can do not only to the former President and his family, but what does to the state of our entire Nation. Yesterday as news broke of former President Donald Trump being shot, I can’t say that I was entirely surprised. Saddened, but not surprised. Regardless of your political stance, this act of violence is a dark reminder of the dangerous consequences of a society steeped in hate and division. Our collective heartbreak should not be about politics, but about the division and hatred that fuels this erosion of our humanity. We live in a time where traditional
Read more

Cutting Through the Static

Image
  Me and the crew at Venue 3 Two after a PeaceWalker Conflict Communication Workshop Remember in the old days when you used to listen to the radio on a road trip? No, not digital or streaming. I’m talking about old school FM radio. When you’re putting some miles on and crossing state lines. The radio stations you listen to don’t broadcast far enough for your entire trip, so you have to channel surf to find new channels as you move on down the road. You continue to push the search button until you hear a song in the genre that you want so you can lock in a desirable station for a spell. Sometimes you’re listening to a song you really like but the station is fading… The static starts feint, almost imperceptible, than grows in intensity to the degree that you can no longer ignore it. If you really like the song, you try to hang on as long as you can, listening to the tune through the white noise and times it cuts out completely, hoping to hear as much of the song as you can before the sta
Read more