Today I tried Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for the first time at Roger Gracie Academy in Al Barsha.
To be honest, I have been approaching this for a long time. My children have been going to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for three years, and all this time I have been nearby, but as if on the other side of the glass. I brought it, waited, looked, and took it home. I saw how they grow, how they get involved, how they change. But he didn’t go out on the tatami himself.
And today it came out.
I’ll be honest right away: the first training session was very difficult for me. Much heavier than I expected. From the outside, all this sometimes looks like something technical, almost calm. But when you find yourself inside, you quickly realize that this is a serious burden. You get tired almost immediately. Breathing becomes difficult. It’s as if your body is separate from you, especially if you haven’t done anything like this for a long time. And at some point you realize that you won’t be able to “slip on character” here. Everything here very quickly shows what shape you really are in.
But there is something very honest about this.
I liked that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is not about showing off strength. It's more about attention, control, patience and the ability not to panic when it's hard. And it was hard there. Very. Both physically and, in a sense, internally too - because you immediately confront yourself without any excuses. Without the usual role of an adult who keeps everything under control. You're just a beginner on the tatami. And this, oddly enough, is a useful feeling.
Probably something else struck me even more. After this training, I looked at children completely differently. When a child goes to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for three years, it is no longer just an after-school club. This is work. This is discipline. This is a constant repetition of the same thing. This is the ability to endure, lose, collect and go out again. As long as you look at it from the outside, you seem to understand everything. But when you go through at least one training session yourself, you begin to respect this path much more deeply.
And I caught myself thinking that I really want to stay in this. Not because I suddenly decided to urgently become a fighter. But because there is something right for life in this. Especially now, when you want to put yourself back together: body, head, routine, discipline. Less fuss, less internal noise, more simple and real things. Movement. Air. Job. Children. Sport. Repetition. Slow progress.
And this weekend we are going with the children to a competition in the emirate of Fujairah. For them this is an important event, but for me it’s another opportunity to look at all this not just through the eyes of the parent who brought it and is sitting in the hall, but with a little more understanding of what they are going through.
In general, today was my first step. Difficult, sometimes awkward, definitely not heroic - but real. And it seems very timely.
Roger Gracie Dubai XThe ForgeRoger Gracie is one of the greatest jiu-jitsu competitors to have ever stepped on a mat. A 10x Black Belt World Champion and a multiple MMA champion, Roger is one the most decorated fighters of the modern era, and a member of the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation Hall of Fame Description on the website: https://www.rogergraciedubai.com
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