Most of us who read a site called Cigars, Cars & Guitars have the same problem. We’re very good at buying things for our hobbies and a lot worse at actually doing them. The guitar collection keeps growing. I’m fairly sure my torque wrench has seen less action than the biscuit tin. Somewhere along the line, the hobby became the shopping.
That’s why I keep coming back to a pastime you can’t buy your way into. There’s no limited edition mat and no boutique gi that adds ten points of skill. You turn up, a dude who’s been doing it for years puts you in a hold, and you find out how little your credit card matters.
What Is Gracie Jiu-Jitsu?
Brazilian jiu-jitsu gets most of the attention, but the Gracie version has a slightly different emphasis. It started as self-defence, built on the idea that a smaller, weaker person can control a bigger, stronger one using leverage, timing and position instead of muscle. That’s a decent pitch if you’re over 35 and your last athletic achievement was a slightly heroic game of touch footy. If you want to see it taught properly in Melbourne, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in St Kilda East is a good place to start looking, because the whole school is built around self-defence and principles rather than strength and speed.
I’m sceptical of most fitness marketing, where every gym is somehow elite and every instructor is somehow a legend. So I ask a simpler question. Who taught the teacher?
Zero Point and the Rickson Gracie Lineage
Any gym can hang a belt on the wall. What I think matters more is who taught the instructor and whether they’re still learning. At Zero Point, the Melbourne head instructor, Greg Parker, is a black belt and a private student of Master Rickson Gracie, and he keeps going back to train with him. The school’s founder is also a certified instructor with the organisation Rickson set up to preserve his approach. That Rickson Gracie lineage is no guarantee you’ll enjoy yourself, but it probably means the people teaching you are learning from the source and not from a clip of the source.
Why Jiu-Jitsu Beats the Gym for Your Head
The underrated benefit is mental. When a guy is working on your arm, there’s no spare brainpower for the inbox. It’s one of the few hours where nobody can email you, and plenty of people seem to find that does more for their head than any meditation app. The fitness turns up as a side effect rather than a chore, which is a better deal than a treadmill and a podcast.
It’s also a problem you solve with another person, who’s busy solving you. I’d compare it to learning to tune a guitar by ear. You start to feel things you couldn’t at the beginning, and it’s oddly satisfying when it clicks.
Is Jiu-Jitsu Too Hard for Beginners?
Everyone says they’re too unfit, too old or the wrong shape, and beginner classes exist precisely because of that. Zero Point’s Fundamentals class is built for newcomers and teaches you to control a larger opponent with technique rather than strength, though it’s just as useful for experienced students sharpening the basics.
The fear of being the worst person in the room is the main thing keeping guys out of the room. You will be the worst person in the room. That’s the point of a first class, and everyone else on the mat has been exactly where you are. Better still, the free trial class means the financial risk is roughly zero, which leaves only the risk to your pride. Frankly, it could do with the exercise.
What to Know Before Your First Class
A few practical things. Ask the gym what to wear for a first class, trim your fingernails, leave the watch and jewellery at home, and bring water. Tell the instructor about any old injuries before you start, and if you have a health condition, check with your doctor first. Most importantly, tap early and tap often. Tapping isn’t losing, it’s the system working as designed, and it’s how you get to come back on Thursday.
We’ve written before about the things that get better with age, from guitars to whisky to the occasional leather jacket. I’d happily add any hobby where being 45 isn’t a disadvantage. Jiu-jitsu qualifies, and unlike the guitar collection, I doubt it’ll need a bigger room.
Have you ever tried a martial art as an adult, or did the fear of looking silly win? I’d love to hear how it went.
