A friend of mine who is a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu practitoner and a Yoga teacher recently sent a question to me.
His question basically boiled down to balancing his own BJJ and Yoga training and improvement with those of the people around him.
This question speaks to me because as an instructor I’m incredibly passionate and find so much happiness on the mats. As I say in the video. Nothing makes me happier than being in the trenches with my guys. Being as sweaty and exhausted as them.
But that passion has to be controlled to some degree, otherwise it’s easy to get away from you and you’ll get the ill effects of over training. Things like fatigue, injuries even slight depression.
In my situation as a BJJ instructor who was incredibly passionate. I had a hard time dialing it back because I felt almost guilty. I wanted to be in the gym with my team doing Brazilian Jiujitsu. But I realized that me being beat up and exhausted isn’t useful to my students and it’s not useful to me.
So my advice to Derek in his drive to be a good coach, balancing his own BJJ and Yoga training, meanwhile building up those around him, is to pull back a bit. As a coach, whether for BJJ or Yoga, we are able to serve our students better and in a more meaningful way if we are healthy and refreshed.
So Derek I hope the answer helps.
This is not specifically a BJJ only question. But I did this video because if you’re a BJJ coach falling into this over training / over teaching trap. Be careful not to overdo it. The lesson is still the same. You’re passionate about BJJ.
But there is a real truth in too much of a good thing.
Thanks!
-Chewy
