3 rather unusaul reasons to get started with martial arts

Alexander Matschl
Nov 1 · 4 min read

Hi, I’m Alex and I am the founder and headcoach of Apis Martial Arts in Munich, Germany.
In this short article I want to give you a couple of rather unusual reasons why martial arts in general and Brazilian jiu jitsu in particular could be the perfect sport for you to pick up.

I hope I can show you a couple of reasons that you never actually thought about and will therefore leave out some rather obvious ones. I am for example very convinced about the effectiveness of BJJ in self defense situations and have some firsthand experience with it, but since I am living in a city as safe as Munich, it’s simply not my main objective.

But now, as promised, on to the reasons you might not have on your radar when thinking about starting BJJ.

1. Full contact but low impact

When I was looking for a martial art, I had little clue of what I was searching for but one thing was clear to me: Instead of doing choreographies or katas as common in many traditional martial arts, I wanted a real combat sport with full contact sparring and the option to compete. Ending up in an MMA gym, I started training Muay Thai and BJJ at the same time and did both simultaneously for the first couple of years. Both those sports were definitely fitting my before mentioned requirement. The deciding difference between striking arts like Boxing or Muay Thai and grappling arts like Judo, wrestling or bjj is the nature of physical damage you do or do not take. While all full contact sports will inflict some damage, the likelihood of acquiring brain trauma (CTE) over the years of training is much higher with the striking arts. Put shortly, I enjoy being able to go all out and have realistic sparring in every training session without risking the health of my brain. An amazing side effect is the possibility for people of all age-, belt- and weight classes to compete in a safe and responsible manner with often less than a year of training. That is if they want it, of course.

2. The community and the lifestyle

The next reason is one of the major ones why people actually stick with bjj for many years, but often times comes surprising to outsiders. One of the main motivations why people pick up any new sport or hobby is, besides the obvious health benefits, the social aspect. Although most wouldn’t have martial arts on their list, I can report from personal experience, that bjj has the most welcoming and positive sports community I ever witnessed by far. A lot of Jiu Jitsu people train quite a bit and made it their habit to drop in at local gyms whilst on a trip and are almost always more than welcome. Often times you will connect with people quickly and regularly friendships are created that reach far beyond the boarders of affiliations or different countries. I myself trained in many different countries like Croatia, Norway, Austria, Portugal, the Netherlands, Canada and the US and basically travel nowhere without bringing my Gi. On the other hand, I also take pride in being a good host when people visit my gym.

3. Basic human instincts

There are common things, that move and fascinate people from different countries, cultures religion and social classes all over the world. Fighting and learning are two of those and both happen to play a big role in Brazilian jiu jitsu. On every schoolyard in the world kids, mostly boys, test their power and engage in rather harmless scuffles but also adults can rarely deny the appeal of man to man combat. A boxing- or mma-fight on tv, a fight scene in an action movie or even a brawl at a local fair, we will at least take a short look. BJJ gives us an opportunity to try ourselves, test our skills and fight while providing a controlled and safe environment that protects us from negative consequences. It`s an exciting and eye-opening experience that no one should miss.

The second point is learning. Many of us reached some sort of degree and afterwards settled for a career with constant progression but without any new impulses. But those new impulses are needed, as constant learning and improving is, historically speaking, one of the biggest, if not the biggest driving factors of human civilization. BJJ as a fairly young martial art with it’s wide ruleset gives us the opportunity to explore new techniques and details in every single training session. Even after many years of training you won’t run out of those eye-opening moments when finding new aspects or details of already known positions. So, as a friend of mine likes to put it: “When was the last time that you did something for the first time?”

So much for my short list of reasons to start bjj. I know that those factors make a big part of the appeal that bjj has for me personally and for many others as well. As I mentioned before, there is probably a thousand more reasons to get into bjj and I am happy to hear yours in the comments. Also, if you are ever in Munich, you are more than welcome to stop by for training. For more info and training schedule, check out:
https://www.apis-martial-arts.com

Alexander Matschl

Written by

BJJ brown belt from Munich, Germany. Just opend my own gym and will some stories and experiences that I make along the way. https://www.apis-martial-arts.com

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