Do you feel too old to practice jiu-jitsu, like you missed your window or something? Maybe it's just a matter of adjusting your goals to have more fun.
A student, who had just earned his blue belt at the age of fifty, told Rickson that he felt he had fallen in love with jiu-jitsu too late, and asked for help with the feeling that his body didn't follow his will to evolve. The master answered thusly:
"I feel the same, man. My mind is, like, flying in jiu-jitsu, and my body's just fading away, so... There's a balance there. Of course, you're not a kid anymore, and your goals in jiu-jitsu are supposed not to be the same as when you're eighteen or twenty. So you don't wanna bring jiu-jitsu into your life to give you injuries, to give you stress, to give you disappointments, to feel like you're supposed to be younger and stronger—that's not exactly the path you wanna go in jiu-jitsu.
"You wanna go into jiu-jitsu to feel comfortable under uncomfortable circumstances. You wanna be there just to enjoy yourself and play in a family environment with other guys, and share knowledge, and have a good workout. And you wanna go there not to feel stress and get hurt; you go there to be flexible, to breathe, to be gentle, to have a great time. And that, I think, is the purpose of jiu-jitsu for you at your age, in your belt right now.
"So enjoy it, be relaxed; take your ego, put it aside; take your commitment to be competitive, aside. And allow yourself to enjoy it with stronger guys, weaker guys, training soft, training hard—and spend the jiu-jitsu lifestyle to the end, man. Let's go together, to the end, in the jiu-jitsu lifestyle."
Comments
Sensacional. Esrou querendo começar (tenho 49) e estava com muitas dúvidas. Depois de ler isso, sei lá, me deu até um ânimo.
Thank You!
I am over fifty and I’m trying do training with my son couple days per week. Gives confidence and satisfaction!
Obrigado