Training jiu jitsu, like carrying a firearm gives us confidence that we can handle ourselves in the majority of the bad situations that may come up as we are living our day to day lives.
Let’s face it, the reality is, for most of us, we will likely never encounter a situation that puts us in extreme danger requiring the use of our trained skill set. As the saying goes, I’d rather have the ability and not need it, than need the ability and not have the tools or training. Another favorite: “Violence is not the answer, but it’s an option”.
In my opinion the biggest factor that contributes to why arguments escalate and become bigger problems than they need to be is, ego. It seems that many times it becomes an ego contest. We have a need to “win” (and typically a skewed view of what winning really is in these situations). We need the satisfaction of knowing we had the last word, that the spectators viewed us as the alpha in the situation.
The reality is in most any situation we can simply close our mouth and walk away from the altercation and that would be the end of it. We spend a lot of time talking about this in concealed carry classes. In some states before using lethal force you have a duty to retreat if possible. While that’s not necessarily the case everywhere, and it certainly is different if we are talking about a street fight over using a firearm, but the fact remains the same, if the situation can be avoided, why not avoid it?
It’s better to have the skill and not need it, than need it and not have it. Regardless of why we train, by default we are becoming better at fighting, and more capable of defending ourselves. The streets are a weird place. Anything can happen. You don’t know what the other person is capable of. You don’t know if they have a weapon or not, and if they do, what weapon. Remember, no one wins in a knife fight. Don’t let your ego be the reason you get a whisky bottle smashed over the back of your head by some guys friend.
Let the mats be your proving ground. I feel like if you’re training hard, live training hard, and even competing when possible, that is enough proof of your ability and you’re then less likely to need the ego stroke of random people and their opinion of you and how you handled the situation. Spoiler alert, as the saying goes, it takes a bigger man to walk away from the fight.
At the end of the day if you’ve been training for any length of time, the reality is you are probably more than capable of defending yourself in mostly any self-defense situation that may come up, and that’s an excellent skill to have, should you truly need it. Don’t risk your safety in an uncontrolled environment unless it’s absolutely necessary.
By BJJ Fanatics Authors, June 03, 2019