Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is very hard and often frustrating to learn. Especially if you’re a beginner, you might feel like you’re not getting better at all. In this article I want to give you the 7 biggest reasons why BJJ is so hard and what you can do to make it easier.
Is BJJ hard for beginners?
BJJ can be challenging for beginners, as it requires a significant amount of physical and mental effort. The techniques and movements involved in BJJ can be complex, and it takes time and practice to master them. However, many beginners find BJJ to be a rewarding and enjoyable experience, and many gyms offer beginner-friendly classes that can help new practitioners learn the basics.
Why is BJJ so difficult?
BJJ is considered difficult by many people. Some of the reasons why BJJ can be challenging include:
- Complex techniques: BJJ involves a wide range of techniques, including submissions, escapes, and positional control, that can take a long time to master.
- Constant adaptation: BJJ is constantly evolving, and practitioners must continuously adapt to new techniques and strategies.
- Physical demands: BJJ is a grappling-based martial art that requires a high level of physical fitness. It can be physically demanding, especially during sparring or live training.
- Mindset: BJJ requires a specific mindset that is based on humility and perseverance. The art is designed to teach you to be humble and to understand that you are always learning.
- Wicked learning environment: BJJ is what we call in artificial intelligence a ‘wicked learning environment’: even if you do things right, you might still lose. Especially against more experienced players. Therefore, you probably won’t realize that you did things right, so it’s hard to solidify your learning.
- No natural ability: Humans aren’t naturally good at ground fighting. We’re bipedal animals and we’re used to walking, not to shrimping.
- Thrown in the deep end: Most BJJ schools don’t have a dedicated beginner program where you only train with other beginners. Usually you just spar with everyone. That means that you lose almost every sparring round in the beginning, which makes the sport feel very hard. But really, you’re just training with people that are much more experienced than you.
How can you make learning BJJ easier?
You can make learning BJJ a lot easier by investing in the right resources. On the top of your wishlist should be my course Blue belt in 1 day, in which you learn to only focus on easy techniques that work on beginners. After that you’ll want to get Submeta, which is a video instructional platform that’s insanely high quality and very low price.
Also read: Submeta Review – The Best Place To Learn BJJ Online?
How hard is it to learn the BJJ basics for self defense?
It’s relatively easy to learn the basics of BJJ for self defense. That’s because for self defense, you only need to become better than peope that don’t train BJJ. And as I explained, humans aren’t naturally gifted in ground fighting. So even with 3 months of training, you’ll be much better than 95% of people that never trained.
How hard is it to get a blue belt in BJJ?
It’s very hard to get a BJJ blue belt, much harder than to get the first belt in any other martial art. It takes most people 2 to 4 years filled with frustration and hardship. That being said, anyone can earn their blue belt if they just keep training. You usually don’t even have to pass a formal exam, you just have to show continuous improvement to your coaches.
How hard is it to master BJJ?
It depends on what you mean by ‘mastering’ BJJ. If you mean getting a black belt, then it’s quite hard. It will generally take 10 years and many people will quit before achieving this. But your personal definition of mastery might be different and easier than this. For example, if you want to be a ‘master’ in the sense that you could teach the basics to beginners, this would be considerably easier.
What’s the hardest part of jiu jitsu?
It’s very subjective and personal what someone thinks is the hardest part of jiu jitsu. Many people think guard retention is very difficult. I personally have a lot of difficulties with takedowns. Other people are good at control, but not at submissions. Ultimately, I think the hardest thing is to keep going even when you feel like you’re not improving.
