will BJJ give me the discipline I'm looking for?

[MMAfighter]

Well I did that two week trial thing for BJJ and it's been a month since I've gone back because i haven't officially signed up. So I'm looking to be a better fighter and all but also am looking for discipline, last year when i did kung fu for two months in those two months my grades in school blasted up and i was doing great. Now what I'm wondering is will this apply in BJJ, will i be more focused, and more disciplined. When i did that two week trial i started to be able to do things I'm usually too lazy to do. But I'm not sure if that was because of the BJJ or because summer was ending, so form your experiences have you found yourself to be better mentally, has it helped you in things like school an stuff, and were you able to do things that you were too lazy to do before?

[Andrew Green]

Depends on the coach and training partners, not the style...

[Antares33]

Well said Andrew.

I would also say it depends on you. If you really enjoy BJJ and focus on it seriously you'll have the positive mentality to do things like finishing homework early and studying hard so you won't be compromising your MMA training. If you're kinda ho-hum on the whole situation it probably won't do much for you.

[hizaguchi]

Simply training in any martial art won't do much for your discipline. However, if you commit yourself to any one martial art for a long period of time (read: years), attending class regularly, training on your own at home, keeping at it even when you get bored, working out even on lazy days, and constanly striving for self improvement, you will develop the skill of discipline for yourself.

The catch is, just having the skill doesn't automatically make you better at staying on task and doing the things you know you should do. Just like staying with the martial arts training, persistance in other parts of life will still be challenging and require your attention and effort.

Martial arts training just helps you develop the skills to deal with a situation. It doesn't deal with the situation for you.

[Abbax8]

Justin,
I don't know anything about you, but since you asked I'll give you some advice. Your 16. Time to deal with life as an adult. If BJJ interests you go for it. If school bores you, it bored me, suck it up, get a good education in high school, find an area of study after high school that interests you and go for it so you can support yourself and afford to train in any MA you wish to.

Just because something is boring is not an excuse to slack off. Ask anyone with a job. There will be parts of it that suck. But you still got to do it. The trick is to give yourself as much of an opportunity now and in the future by doing the things that need to be done. Train hard, study smart, have fun. I bid you success.

Peace

Dennis

[Kim Chi]

Justin,
I don't know anything about you, but since you asked I'll give you some advice. Your 16. Time to deal with life as an adult. If BJJ interests you go for it. If school bores you, it bored me, suck it up, get a good education in high school, find an area of study after high school that interests you and go for it so you can support yourself and afford to train in any MA you wish to.

Just because something is boring is not an excuse to slack off. Ask anyone with a job. There will be parts of it that suck. But you still got to do it. The trick is to give yourself as much of an opportunity now and in the future by doing the things that need to be done. Train hard, study smart, have fun. I bid you success.

Peace

Dennis


Justin, Dennis gave you great advice. Discipline has to come from within. You can't "find" it or "buy" it elsewhere as if you were buying fertilizer for a garden. It is a by-product of pride in who you are and what you stand for, and the example that you want to set for others. If you have this pride, then discipline is no more than a personal decision on your part to excel in life. If you don't have this pride in yourself, it's time to do some objective soul-searching and find out why not.

[Luebbers]

I think I understand what you're getting at, and I think BJJ will help your discipline. When I've gone through periods where I'm not training, I come home from work, sit on my ***, watch TV, and eat. That's about it. I find that when I'm that inactive, everything becomes a chore - doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, whatever. However, when I am training, I get so used to the activity, that I find it difficult to just sit still and "veg" out like before. So even though I have less time, I find that I use more of it because I'm in a more active frame of mind. In that sense, I think BJJ will help you. It's very hard physically (or it was for me; I HATE bear crawls), and for most people, you really suck at it when you start. It teaches you that if you stick with something even though it's hard, you'll eventually improve and you'll find all new possibilities opening up before you. That's a valuable lesson to learn for life, I think.

[MarcoPolo]

I think what is being stated here is what do you mean by discipline? Self discipline vs. discipline. The difference? If you go to Rex-Kwon-Do and you do all the exercises and conditioning he says to avoid getting humiliated or hit, that's will instill some discipline. If you go to your BJJ Academy and roll even when you don't feel like it, push youself "mais um" to better your conditioning, or make yourself do coniditioning drills in your living room because you want to show better next time in class.. that's SELF discipline.. that's what you're after! ;)

[MarcoPolo]

Good advice! If school bores you, give yourself small rewards for pushing though.

I didn't like calculus or trig, but I did it because I knew it would help me get into a better
university, better grad school, better job, more pay.. blah blah blah

Did some people think I was a geek? I don't know, probably..

But this geek has travelled on business and had privates with Royce, Rickson, Carlson, Junior, Rey Diogo, Frank Mir, Erik Paulson, Dan Inosanto, and Randy Couture. If that doesn't motivate you to crack the books, I give up! ;)

[MMAfighter]

thanks a whole bunch you guys, i owe you all

[Bad Karma]

I HATE bear crawls LOL! I can't stand the caterpiller walks. Whoever came up with those was sadistic.


I didn't like calculus or trig That's good to know. I've got Calc coming when I can get more time for college courses. I may have to pm you - LOL!

Peace

[MarcoPolo]

Tony,

I made a deal with God.. if he would get me through Calculus, I would never use it again. He lived up to His end (I graduated with a 4.0) and i'm living up to mine! LOL!
Suffer on your own! It builds character! LOL!