Jiu Jitsu Drop Out
A Sherdog post got me thinking about the astronomical drop out rate of jiu jitsu students. It has to be over 90%! I have been training for two and a half years, and have seen truck loads of new faces come and go. WHY?
- Ego: You will get beaten badly. You will get beaten often. You will get beaten badly quite often, and for a long time. Many people can’t accept this, and leave.
- Injury: A martial art comprised of joint locks and chokes can hurt. Training is essentially a live fight. Bumps, bruises, scrapes, and mat burn is expected. Mangled joints, deep cuts, and broken limbs are rare, but possible. The Gentle Art, indeed.
- No Instant Gratification: Americans want immediate results, yesterday. Some martial arts award black belts like McDonald’s sells Big Macs. On average, a black belt in jiu jitsu takes 10 years… if the student is dedicated.
- Personality: Most people don’t enjoy subjecting themselves to a strenuous, challenging, humbling activity with a near vertical learning curve for one day, let alone years.
Any other reasons you can think of? Price? Close contact with sweaty men? Ring worm/impetigo/staph?????
How about the shear fact that most people are just lazy asses and can’t handle any type of training, let alone something with as much discipline as BJJ. Money can become an issue, but again, if you want it you will make a way to do it. People afford what they want to afford!
Tim McTee - March 26, 2010 at 8:13 pm |
[...] Learning to have patience is essential in BJJ. For starters, as Jeff said in his post Jiu-Jitsu Drop Out you won’t be in BJJ very long if you don’t have some to start with. Patience is [...]
Patience Is a Jiu-Jitsu Virtue | JiuJitsuMap.com - April 5, 2010 at 10:24 am |