Rickson Gracie on evolving as a teacher (part 3)

 Rickson's unique trajectory in Brazilian jiu-jitsu contains many, many lessons for students and teachers. A recent interview gave the master ample time to go over the decades of work that have culminated in making him the teacher he is today. Here's the second part of what he had to say (catch part 2 here):
 

"In this evolutionary process, I see today a possibility to have a great student for one year or two, and have him never spar or fight with anybody else; it's just the understanding of the practice, the ability to do; and sometimes, for him, it will be the best practice he can have, avoiding him quitting, avoiding him getting hurt, but keeping him sharp in his mind, because he's not there to fight; he's there to just brush his mind, feel confident about his life, and go on as a father, as a lawyer, as a restaurant owner or whatever. So, jiu-jitsu plays a very important role in anyone's life. 

"And for me, I'm still motivated, because my biggest motivation today is finding ways to add a very interesting pattern for people who are not like fighters; because, in the past, my idea was 'fight to win'; now, I'm very motivated to change my strategy to 'win without a fight,' because that copes with my reality; and the jiu-jitsu I use today, I'm still using it to become more comfortable in life, become more happy; and a lot of my jiu-jitsu-effectiveness training, I stopped using because my body cannot handle it anymore. 

"But that doesn't mean I'm not very motivated to keep teaching jiu-jitsu the way I feel like it can be acceptable for others, and have a format of jiu-jitsu which can translate into a significant gain without loss in anything. That means the practice of jiu-jitsu can be almost for yourself only, an invisible matter for you to grow without having to prove anything to others, without having to check your ego or your frustrations, your competitiveness; so we can have jiu-jitsu without those elements, and it'll still become a very empowering thing for the human race."