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Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Gyms Walking into a martial arts gym for the first time can feel intimidating.

Simon Sinek recently interviewed Mike Gervais for his A Bit of Optimism podcast. Mike is a psychologist who has worked extensively with wealthy individuals and high-performance athletes that include Olympians and the Seattle Seahawks organization.

If you ask ten people why they train jiu-jitsu, you’ll likely get ten different answers. They may do it to stay in shape or for self-defense. Others may say that it makes them more confident or it’s a mental reset from the day’s drudgery. Still other people simply love the camaraderie and have a strong friend group at their gym.

The first day of jiu-jitsu class is probably the hardest. It’s not because you’re going to train the hardest and it’s certainly not because you’re going to get hit the hardest. It’s because you will have to walk into a new gym where you may not know anyone and you will have to be absolutely terrible at something. More than that, you will have to be terrible in front of all those people.

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu gi is a training uniform that was adapted from the keikogi, which loosely translates to “practice clothes.” According to an article on the history of Keikogi, “Keiko” stands for ‘practice’ and “gi” represents ‘clothes’ (Gatling, 2021). Therefore, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu gi describes the dress, clothes or uniform used in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ). 

BJJ legend Marcelo Garcia shares his philosophy after his recent comeback. He discusses his unique no-gi strategy, his cautious approach to leg locks, and why respect is a core value in modern jiu-jitsu, with or without the gi.