10P, competition, and translation to other aspects of life
I already posted this somewhere else, but someone I respect very much advised me to post it here. Hope you enjoy.
Just thinking about this post, I already know it will be a little long. Just bear with me, and I apologize in advance for the length.
So…I got into jiu itsu because I wanted to compete. I started off with a free 30 day trial at a self-defense based school, and while it was pretty cool, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. The next school I tried out on a 30 day trial was a 10th planet school, and that’s where I stayed. While competition was not hard-pressed…it was certainly encouraged and promoted.
Since that time, I have gotten a little bit of crap from self-defense focused jiu jitsu practitioners. Mind you, I have nothing at all against a person choosing jj for self-defense, in fact, I find that to be an admirable reason to get into (and stay in) jiu jitsu. In the main though, I have found (through my limited experience) that some self-defense based jj folks really frown upon completion based (sport) jiu jitsu…even refusing to acknowledge it a jiu itsu at all, and calling it submission wrestling instead. Well…let me tell you how competition focused jiu jitsu helped me in my career.
I work for one of the largest chemical companies in the world (sometimes it’s considered the largest, depending on what you are measuring exactly). I started off with this company working on night shift, running machinery, with only a high school diploma. Throughout the years, my company has allowed me to get an education, and they have offered me great opportunities. I am now on the leadership panel at my site, I have a couple of degrees and certifications, and I’m doing well…but deep inside, I’m still just some dumb kid who feels in over his head.
A few weeks ago, our site got news that we were going to receive a very prestigious award. They needed a few people to fly to our cooperate office in New Jersey, and make an acceptance speech on live TV that was broadcast globally. This was huge…and they (for some reason) asked me to be the one to make the speech. I used to have a huge problem with public speaking, that I have beat over the years, but the most people I had ever spoken to at a time was probably 30 or 40, and those were my peers for the most part. This thing…this acceptance speech, would be broadcast live, and would be done in front of an audience of around 150 people…all “suits” from corporate. This felt bigger than me or my abilities, by a long shot.
I had felt this feeling before though, and I immediately said “sure, whatever you guys need me to do”. I shaved, got a haircut, and started searching the internet for the best place to buy a suit. I had worn a suit twice before…once at my wedding, and once to my grandfather’s funeral. This would be the first time I would wear a suit for business purposes. The feeling I had was very similar to my first jiu jitsu tournament….when I first committed myself. I was worried about making an ass of myself in front of people who are important to me. I was afraid of being a joke. But I was more afraid of quitting. I’d rather fail than quit.
My speech had to be about 2 minutes. I wrote it, my plant manager revised, I revised it again, and we finally settled on finished product. This was Friday morning, and I had to make the speech Tuesday morning. That gave me 4 days to memorize the speech, buy a suit, pack my shit, learn how to tie a tie, etc. So…on my way to jiu jitsu Friday night (a half hour drive), I recorded the speech several times until I could do it without messing up, then I played it back through the stereo over and over. I did the same thing on the way back from jiu jitsu…re-recording it and making minor adjustments. Saturday I went for an hour bicycle ride, and I played the speech through my earbuds over and over the whole time…that’s about 30 time for you mathletes out there. When I got home, I recorded the speech again in my garage a few times, all the while visualizing a huge crowd in front of me. I even visualized messing up, and how I would recover. I focused on my breathing and even used the calming breathing techniques that Lonnie Jones taught at the 10P southeast training camp a few years back. I listened to this speech over and over on the airplane, and I practiced it in the hotel room. The morning of the award ceremony, I snuck down to the venue and stood on the wood floor of the stadium, and I looked up at all the wooden stadium seats, and I practiced the speech in my head, imagining the stadium was full.
The feeling leading up to this was exactly like waiting around for your matches to start at a jiu jitsu tournament. I began to get more anxious every time another important person came into the room, or when they adjusted the video camera, or anytime they explained how things would go down. There was a real threat of making an ass out of myself, but you know what? I have faced bigger threats than that. At this acceptance speech, there wasn’t going to be anyone trying to choke me or out hustle me or bend my joints in ways they aren’t intended to bend…nothing but me staying on my game. I even told this to my plant manager when he asked me if I was nervous.
The time came, we’re live on camera, the dude giving the award says, “I think the best thing to do now is to give Brian the microphone and have him say a few things about the project”. He hands me the mike, and I slowly say to everyone, “Good morning”. In unison, the whole crowd responds, “good morning”. It felt like the start of a jiu jitsu match, it was real…I was in the “now”, but I had been here before, and I destroyed! I had one small flub, but other than that I killed it. I received a standing ovation. After the event, I had people telling me that if they ever had to deliver a speech that they wanted me to write it, etc. It went well, and it did things for my career that I probably won’t even realize until a decade or so has passed. But how else did jiu jitsu help me here?
That was jiu jitsu work ethic son! To be more specific, that was competition focused work ethic. When you have a tournament on the calendar, you are no longer training for some potential threat at some ATM that may or may not ever happen…you are training for a very real thing, you know exactly when it’s going to happen, and it pushes you. You drill technique, you work on your weaknesses, you get your cardio in, etc. You don’t talk during drilling, you drill. You get to class with a different mindset, you’re still having fun, but you’re ready to do some work, and you need your teammates to be in that same mindset. I can honestly say, without tenth planet jiu jitsu, I really don’t think I would have been able to perform nearly as well as I did. So this stuff translates to other parts of your life…even uppity up corporate stuff. Thanks.
