KEEPING UP WITH MINNESOTA TOP TEAM

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From Jon Grilz, BJJ Instructor at Minnesota Top Team

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From Minnesota Top Team's BJJ Instructor, Jon Grilz:

 

The other day I found myself in a bit of a quandry: for the first time in all my time doing BJJ, I didn't have my belt. It was an honest mistake. I left my gi bag in my wife's car on Saturday and hadn't expected to have the time to roll come Monday. I was wrong... and s*** out of luck.

But I really wanted to roll, so I knew that sacrifice was needed. I have several Moya Brand gis (my favorite) and each gi comes with a complimentary white belt. Until that point they had always stayed in their original packaging, strewn around my house. I really didn't want to wear any of my actual previous belts, so I figured, what the hell?

In turn, I stumbled across an interesting scenario that kind of played out like a scene from Undercover Boss: The BJJ Edition.

Rolling at a gym not my own, there were those that knew me, but the lower belts didn't. I felt no need to tell them my actual rank, instead opting to just roll. I mean, what difference does it really make what color your belt is? No one would know the difference if it was no gi.

What I experienced was something unexpected: they rolled really hard. That isn't to say that when I actually wear my appropriate rank that other grapplers don't roll hard, but there was a different kind of urgency to it. Maybe it was due to rolling against someone with a brand new, still stiff white belt or maybe it was just rolling against any old white belt, but there was a different kind of tenacity to it all. Positions that I have otherwise experienced grapplers giving up the sub lead to immediate and long-lasting resistance.

It was an interesting moment and it made me think back on my own BJJ past. I remember rolling with one of my first instructors, still a white belt and getting a loop choke sunk in pretty well. It was a good grip and he had to actively defend, then I just let it go. There was something about the idea of tapping him out that made me give it away. It was the only time I ever came close to subbing him and I gave it up.

To this day, I couldn't fully explain why. I don't think it is something necessarily held by everyone, but it was kind of like the idea of beating your dad for the first time at a game of one-on-one or something. Like if you won, that meant something more that maybe you weren't ready to handle.

This may be a bit over-dramatic in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu terms and maybe it was just some good old Minnesota nice kicking in, but there was definitely a different feel to it all. Like I had my place on the hierarchy and that was that.

And it was total bulls***.

Rank is earned through success, failure and a lot of mat time. As I've said before, it takes a lot of tears to turn that white belt blue. A lot of blood to turn that blue belt purpl

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Jon Grilz is the Head Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Coach at Minnesota Top Team; here's how BJJ changed his life.  

You hear it all the time, "Jiu-Jitsu saved my l

life." Sometimes you even see the tattoos.It's a saying that you will get used to hearing from just about everyone that sticks with the game. 

And I'm no different.

I started as a boxer and kickboxer. I'm old enough to have played in the game back before MMA or muay thai was legal in the state so I got used to smokers and fighting on the rez *shudder*.

BJJ didn't come until years later when I held on to some short lived dreams of stepping into the cage. I have no wrestling or other grappling background so I knew I needed something.

On top of other things, I was working in a cubicle 50 hours a week and watching my mood get worse and worse as the days went on. By Friday, I didn't want to talk to anyone, not even my own wife.

Being on the mat changed that. It was my outlet, a way for me to get out the tension of the week and a great way for people to break bad news to me. Just like the saying in the movie Fight Club, after rolling, the volume just got turned down in the rest of life, I could deal with anything.

But it's more than that. It went further for me. I started to get to know people in the game, not just in my own gym. I travelled to gyms, talked to the head instructors, got to know about the game itself, not just in my little corner. I started to find a voice that I didn't know I had. 

I've been an introvert my whole life, quiet in school, not the kind of kid that really liked to be noticed. In BJJ I found myself, the person that I wish I had to courage to be earlier in life. 

The fear in the rest of life drained away because I knew that when I was on the mat, I was free. I was the only one to control my own destiny. My mistakes were my own and only affected me. I found courage and motivation in my efforts and my pursuits. I learned to stand up and be accountable.

I became a better husband, a better son and I like to think it prepared me to be a good father.

You will learn a lot of things with jiu-jitsu, far more than just passing guards or stringing together submissions. You will learn your character as a person (for better or worse). You can lie to yourself and everyone else as much as you want, but the mat will always find the truth in what kind of a person you

are.

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Jon Grilz is the Head BJJ Instructor at Minnesota Top Team. Check out his latest blog about BJJ affiliation vs. cults. 

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Topics: bjj st paul, bjj minnesota, jiu jitsu mn, BJJ MN, MN Top Team, jiu jitsu st paul

There is an old cliché in poker that says, “If you can’t pick which player at the table is the sucker, it’s you.”

Topics: bjj st paul, jiu, bjj minnesota, jiu jitsu mn, BJJ MN, jiu jitsu st paul

Topics: bjj st paul, bjj minnesota, jiu jitsu mn, BJJ MN, jiu jitsu st paul, bjj mpls