A good ol' fashioned ass kicking...

Today I got my ass kicked by a brown belt named Yuki. It seems that every time he tells me I'm getting better, he kicks it up 8 notches. I am beginning to learn that once you get to that level you almost have a infinite amount of levels. But back to the point. It is important in jiu-jitsu that you get your ass kicked, plain and simple. In a sport that involves technique to succeed, it is very rare that you find a natural talent in the art of jiu-jitsu. And even if the person is a natural, they probably won't have technique. So the most important part of learning jiu-jitsu is getting beat up. You can come to class 7x a week, eat, sleep, and poop jiu-jitsu and still not get good if you aren't getting whupped up on. My professor once told me that if you're going into the gym daily and you're always beating up on people, how will you learn what to do when the guy you go against cannot be beaten so easily...this was a profound statement because for awhile that was my only purpose in the gym, try to beat people. This was done to improve my aggressiveness, but still for a good two months, it killed my progress. To some this may be pretty intimidating to hear, but in a sport that involves live sparring/training...it is imperative that you get beat up. In fact, the more you get beat up...the better you get. Besides, if you don't get beat up, how else will you learn how to dish it out when you're a brown belt? lol