“Fear is a natural, protective emotion triggered by perceived danger, activating the body’s fight-or-flight response through adrenaline and cortisol. It stems from the brain’s amygdala, which treats both real threats (physical danger) and imagined ones (psychological stress) similarly, causing physical reactions like racing heart, sweating, and alertness.”
Fear can keep us safe by preparing the body to face or flee from danger. In jiu jitsu, you can flee by butt scooting but eventually you’ll have to engage because your opponent will try to hyperextend your limbs or choke you. Fear can also stop you from doing activities that are great for you. But lets back it up a bit, and talk about fear of starting your journey in grappling. We all want to be badass martial artists because we grew up watching Bloodsport or Baki the Grappler or Pride FC or George St. Pierre make his historic UFC championship run. Maybe we used to wrestle in high school and want to relive the glory days on the mat, but we’re forty years old and can barely make it through the warmups. Or maybe we had a traumatic event and want to learn how to defend ourselves because we’re sick of being a b*tch and want to learn confidence and self mastery and how to be an Alpha Cool Chad.
Whatever your reasons for wanting to join the grappling journey, fear is there lingering in the background every time you think about trying a free trial class. Of course it is. Considering a martial art is to consider grabbing and throwing and choking and hurting strangers every week. On purpose. We like to stay in our bubbles of comfort but to embark on a grappling journey is to come to terms with being close and on and over and under other peoples bodies sweating and coughing and spitting and whatever else a nasty human body can do. I’ve been doing jiu jitsu so almost five years and I still get that tiny lovely anxious feeling in my stomach sometimes while stretching on the mat. Because my body knows what is about to happen. A legal Fight Club. And not to mention the nervousness I feel before and during a BJJ competition.
Fear is your body’s reaction to an immediate threat, like a new brown belt who is at least twenty pounds heavier than you just asked you to roll at open mat and you know you shouldn’t spar with him but you also love grappling. Anxiety on the other hand is your reaction to an uncertain threat of future, like what might happen if you pull guard on that brown belt because there is no way in hell you’re going to try to wrestle him because you remember what happened last time.
We should feel fear when we join jiu jitsu. But it should be a healthy fear. A healthy fear of knowing if you do a technique wrong you could really hurt someone or yourself. A healthy fear of being too close to strangers because you don’t know what they are like on the mat. A healthy fear of not wanting to disrespect the gym and instructors.
A healthy fear in jiu jitsu keeps us safe while we learn the art. It’s a balance of respecting the risk of injury and not being too afraid to train. A balance I am still learning, because in the heat of a good roll that competitive nature can feel great but the ego can consume you so be careful. Remember most of you reading this and myself include joined this to have fun so lets make sure that FUN is our main focus. And to those who haven’t joined yet don’t be afraid, sign up for a trial class and see what your body can really do.
There and Back 