Today I wanted to write about something I have been wanting to write for a long time.  Why do we train BJJ? I bet for everyone is a different reason. Today I will tell you mine.

It wasn’t always this way. I started like most… I loved the sport I thought it was fun , addicting, and challenging. As I saw me put more hours in it I started getting better and receiving recognition from coaches, friends, teammates and training partners which encouraged me and fueled me more onto the pursuit of excellence in the sport. I wanted to become a World Champion!

Life happened like for most individuals and I made a family based decision that separated me from my teammates. I moved to Naples, FL where I had to start my own school Third Law BJJ of Naples, FL . When this happened I had to take some steps back to then proceed forward. I had to develop students and an infrastructure where I could compete with the best in the world. My goals became more diversified. Now I didn’t just want to be a World Champion, I wanted to develop World Champions as well which is a completely different story.

When I have sat down with my coaches we have been crystal clear about how my decisions to open my own school affected me as a competitor . We have agreed that the odds are against me unless something drastically happened.

I understand that but I keep pushing for two reasons. Number one I know must people quit two feet away from striking on the gold mine, they quit just right before they make that breakthrough and a long time ago I decided I didn’t want to be that person

The second reason is because I truly believe human existence is a journey where the challenges in the journey are what brings us happiness not the destination. Once achieved we wil always emabark on a newer journey.

So probably it might make sense to abondon something when it looks harder than ever or just like it may never happened to concentrate on something that is more achievable nearby but then again …what if you were that close? What if you where two feet away from striking gold?

Then again what is the prupose of abondoning one journey for another? In the grand spec of things it is NOT ABOUT JIU-JITSU! It is about the journey that Jiu-jitsu can provide for you. There are many ways to look for a challenging journey outhere…like opening a new business, etc…I just happened to really like the one BJJ provides.

At the end of the day BJJ is a way to purify my character, and soul. It is a way to test myself and find out what else I have within me to discover. I personally believe that live should be mainly about self discovery and improvement in what ever field you are in.  If you are in jiu-jitsu …well congrats because you will really enjoy it (the lifestyle( at the same time)

Roberto Torralbas

The BJJEngineer