"Your Gym is just different"
Those words came out of my buddy’s mouth as he sat on the mat taping his fingers before a recent training session at the gym.
“Different how?” I shot back, sounding like I was doing a poor impression of Joe Pesci from Goodfellas.
He laughed.
“Easy, there, it's a compliment,” he replied assuringly. "What I mean is, for as much as you talk to your guys about stuff like 'what it takes to be a champion' or 'having high standards' and 'wanting to be the best,' you also talk about things like 'gratitude,' 'having perspective,' and 'not being afraid to make mistakes.' You really try to give your athletes the best of both worlds."
Made me feel good to hear that because honestly, that's the goal.
I’m sure sometimes when people read the stuff that gets posted on the gym’s social media channels, they think that we’re contradicting ourselves or talking out of both sides of our mouths.
I mean, what could things like 'not being afraid to make mistakes,' 'gratitude,' and 'perspective' have to do with finding success on the mat?
Well, the truth is, developing things like an athlete’s gratitude, perspective, and helping them not be afraid to make mistakes will help you find more success and enjoy training more.
Look, wrestling and jiu-jitsu are hard enough on their own. Pinning and submitting another person is a very difficult task. They become significantly more difficult when you have to battle your opponent and your own thoughts/mindset at the same time.
As a matter of fact, the mental part sometimes carries just as much, if not more weight than the physical. Our bodies are made to work. They are designed to be able to output effort (just how much or how little is up to the individual, but in general, the body can handle work). But when the mind quits, the body shuts down.
So for us at No Limits Grappling Academy, it's not a 'one or the other' type of mentality. We like to take a holistic approach and build the athlete mentally and physically so that they are able to deal with whatever demands they are faced with on the mat, which will then in turn, help them to deal with any difficult situations they face off the mat as well.
We get that these aren’t things you normally see posted about sports like wrestling and jiu-jitsu, but hey, I guess we are just... different.