PAUSE
by Scott Burr
A lot of you are using the current global health emergencyand its spate of temporary gym closuresto bone up
on your solo drills or peruse online tutorials. Teachers like Renzo Gracie and sites like Digitsu and Gallerr are
making some or all of their digital video archives available as part of a growing effort to maintain learning and
community involvement through the current unpredictable circumstances.
For many of you this will be an exciting time, and when your gym reopens you'll be practically beside yourself,
ready to get back on the mat and try out all your new techniques and tricks.
I would like to suggest, however, that this pause affords those of us in the Jiu-Jitsu community another opportunity which we would be remiss to pass up.
Newton's first law of motion states that an object in motion tends to stays in motion with the same speed and in
the same direction unless it is acted upon by an external force. I know for myself, this law comes uncomfortably
close to describing my life. Master Rickson told Joe Rogan, in an interview I'm sure many of you have seen: The
opposite of courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Unbeknownst to him or not, he was quoting a journalist
and commentator named Jim Hightower. The full quote goes: "The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is
conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow."
Or another way to put it might be: a person in motion tends to stay in motion, at the same speed and in the
same direction.
I once knew a guy named Enrique Montiel-Leon. He was an alternate for the US Olympic Wresting team, back in
the '90s. I was a junior in college, still trying to figure out who I was and what I wanted to be. We sat out on the
quad at my school and we talked about life, about figuring out your dream and setting a goal. He told me, "The
1 of 4
best piece of advice I can give you is this: Love your family, but pick your friends. Because wherever they are in
five years, that's where you're going to be, too."
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted just about every aspect of modern life. Its full impact on our national,
global, and personal physical and economic health is yet to be seen. But in its disruption it has also given us a
powerful gift. When we're in our lives, doing our routine and following our pattern, most of us are not thinking
about that routine. We're not looking at the architecture, we're just living in the building. And unless we're acted upon by an unbalancing forcea job loss, the sudden death of a loved one, an international pandemicwe're
likely to keep on as we've been keeping on, likely to continue as we've been.
There is beauty in routine, and there is grace in the small but noble dance we each do, making our lives. And
God willingthere will be plenty of time for that again, when the COVID-19 vaccine is developed or the cure is
found, and whichever of the biomedical giants got there first makes another few billion in profits. But right now,
in these few weeks, we've been given a pause.
It's not what we wanted, but here it is.
Plenty of people are going to spend this time digging through the absolute mountain of digital instructional
content that has been made available. And a big "Thank You" is due to those who have made it available, who
have donated the fruits of their time and energy and knowledge to quell our particular brand of mat-deprived
cabin fever. But before you rush to take it all in, to replace mat time with screen time in an effort to reconstruct
some kind of normalcy, allow me to make the following suggestion.
Loyalty, dedication, sacrifice, commitment to your teacher and your training partners, earnest desire for the
health, safety, and success of those around you: these are the hallmarks of a good student and a good training
partner. If that's the way you are then I want you on my team. But it's not a one-way street. You have every right
to expect the same from the team, instructor, and culture of the school where you train. In Jiu-Jitsu we spend so
much time talking about the principle of Seiryoku-Zenyo"maximum effect for minimum effort"that we sometimes move right past the fact that Jigoro Kano enshrined the principle of Jita-Kyoei"mutual welfare and benefit"right alongside it. To Kano's way of thinking, it was these two principles that made a balance: if the first
principle was applied without a check then eventually one student, perfecting his own technique past everyone
else's, would become the king of the school. But in such a situation other students become frustrated, being
used as a kind of living workout equipment for the dominant student. They would become disheartened, frustrated, resentful, and sooner or later the one student would find himself alone on the mat. Maybe you've experienced something similar yourself. But if the one student realizes that he needs his training partners, his focus then shifts from his own self-focused success to the success of the all. And so a culture can find balance, and
thrive.
We've all been in relationships where we give more than we get. We give because we imagine that one day
we'll get everything that's coming to us, or we give because we've invested the other party with all the power
over our selfhood: they say we're good and we feel good, they say we're bad and we feel that we're bad.
It's possible that you are in the perfect Jiu-Jitsu school for you. The culture fits you like a glove. You're training
what you want in the way you want with the frequency you want. You're getting what you want out of your JiuJitsu experience, and your context is getting the same from you. If this is the case, I'm glad to hear it.
But it's also possible that you're not where you want to be. The training is more focused on self-defense than you
want it to be. Or sport moves. Or MMA. The instructor doesn't seem to care about you. Or he or she seems to
care, but only when you act like the kind of student he or she wants you to be. When you perform the role of the
aggressive takedown artist or the pressure passer.
The whole experience may have an uncomfortable, familiar ring to it: a parent asking you, "Why can't you be
more like your brother?"
Listen to me. Jiu-Jitsu doesn't matter. Life matters. Where you put your energy, what kind of contexts and experiences you put it into, matters. It is frighteningly easy to spend your time and your energy chasing somebody
else's life, trying to fulfill somebody else's idea of who you're supposed to be. My advice to you is this: Stop. This
is your life. Your Jiu-Jitsu journey is your own, and it is allowed to be whatever you want it to be.
So before you download that newly-free lapel guard instructional out of some vague sense that it holds the key
to success on the mat and beyond that, to everything you've ever wanted
Pause. What do you want out of JiuJitsu? What inspires you? Where do you want to focus your time and energy?
Because the truth is the Jiu-Jitsu doesn't belong to your instructor, doesn't belong to the world champions,
doesn't belong to the toughest guy in the room. You can't earn ownership of it, either, because it's already
everyone's. It's yours, right now. If you want to be a world champion, if you want to spend your life on the mat,
you are Jiu-Jitsu. But if you're fifty years old and you just want to drill positions with a handful of trusted training
partners, you are Jiu-Jitsu, too. If you're seventy-five and you want to practice the self-defense with no resistance, as an activity for your mind as well as your body, you are Jiu-Jitsu. Jiu-Jitsu is all of it. Jiu-Jitsu is all of us.
You don't have to earn it. It is you already. So where do you want to put your energy? What is the practice that
makes your heart shine?
People attribute some of Brad Pitt's best lines in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to F. Scott Fitzgerald on
the basis of the fact that it was Fitzgerald's story that inspired the film. The reality, though, is that the credit goes
to screenwriter Eric Roth for the beautiful and powerful sentiment: "Its never too late
to be whoever you want
to be. Theres no time limit
You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing
I hope you live
a life youre proud of. If you find that youre not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.
So take a moment, while the world is on pause. Take a moment and ask yourself what you want, what you care
about, what inspires you. This is your journey, your life. You're allowed to make it whatever you want it to be.
SCOTT BURR is a black belt professor, first degree, in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu; he also holds black belt rank in Kodokan
Judo and the Korean art of Kuk Sul Do. He is a MaxwellSC-certified Pro Trainer, and holds Level 1 and Level 2 certifications in both the MaxwellSC Kettlebell and Bodyweight Training systems. He is the author of the novels
Bummed Out City and We Will Rid the World of You (forthcoming), the fitness manuals Suspend Your Disbelief
and Get a Grip, and the health, fitness, and martial arts-related essay collection Superhero Simplified. He is currently working with American Jiu-Jitsu legend Richard Bresler on Bresler's Jiu-Jitsu memoir, tentatively titled
Worth Defending. He was the head instructor at The Fight Gym, a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu school and strength & conditioning facility located outside Cleveland, Ohio, for over a decade. He now runs Enclave Jiu-Jitsu, a martial arts
community and private training facility located in Northeast Ohio. Connect with him online at www.EnclaveJiuJitsu.com or on social media @EnclaveJiuJitsu.