Inner Strength Jiu-Jitsu

Today, we're diving into the world of jiu-jitsu and exploring the powerful concept of "inner strength." As practitioners know, jiu-jitsu is not just about physical prowess, but it also requires mental and emotional resilience. In this video, we'll be discussing how jiu-jitsu can help develop your inner strength and how it can positively impact your life beyond the mat. So, let's get ready to roll and uncover the secrets of inner strength in jiu-jitsu!

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm professor Mike Martin. I'm a third degree black belt under Caio Terra. I'm the owner and operator and head instructor at Strong Heart Academy.

We’re in Phoenix, Arizona at 32nd street in Union Hills. We want to come check us out today. I want to talk about the very last of our 21 truths that I came up with.

Jiu-Jitsu and Life

These are things that I think are really important for Jiu-Jitsu and for life. The very last one is strong heart means breaking.

Your limits. Okay. So I was listening to excerpt of a book about a lady that did research on, on kids and adults that seemed to be successful.

And one of the things she said was grit was the thing. The number one thing was grit. In your ability to overcome obstacles, push through have diligence through those things.

And when I named our school strong heart took me a long time, to come up with this name and just trying to emphasize that belief system of that true grit belief system.

And there are times where it's just very easy to give up. And people say, oh, it's not an option to give up.

Well, really, it's the easiest option is to give up. You know, you, you want the mindset of like, oh, it's not, it's not an option.

But the truth is it is an option. And your ability to push through those things can make you way more successful than others.

You know, the people that can go far that push more do more. I've been watching a ton of interviews with tier one operators they would call them.

Do You Want it More?

So Navy Seals even the Rangers Air Force controllers Delta Force. These guys. One of the things they all seem to have in common is like they're, they want it more.

Like to pass the qualifications is always about your ability to kind of just push farther. And in these courses, they seem to always, they're going to find your limit and then where you will break.

And then will you go a little bit more. And I remember hearing, I had actually had a book on one guy years ago, Navy Seals.

And he, he said his trick was just whenever he needed to go farther, he just would say 10 more seconds or one more minute.

And then it was just one more minute or one 10 more seconds. Can you go 10 more? Oh, I can go 10 more seconds and 10 more seconds 10 more seconds or one more foot.

Instead of like this long goal of like, I got to get 18 mile road marks or whatever. It's like, hey, can I get to that tree up there?

How Strong Can Your Mind Be?

Let's just make it to that tree. And your mind will go, okay, we can make it to the tree. And, and so much of this is, is how strong you can be your mind.

Sometimes our mind is our, it's our greatest weapon. And it's also our greatest enemy. And, you know, depending on how you're kind of built, you know, could be your past or just genetics is your willingness to do more and go farther, study more, push harder, train harder, those type of things.

And so those are, those are important to me. And those are important for me to emphasize, especially the kids. It's one of the greatest lessons I think that I can teach kids is that you can always do more.

And whenever you think you can't, you actually have way more, you know, David Goggins had the famous thing. You had like 40 more percent, you know, whenever you're done, you actually have 40 more percent.

Because your body only does what the mind will allow it. There's certain times where your body will shut down, but it's not where your mind says it is because your mind is trying to, you generally it's, it's avoiding pain and the thought of death.

Okay. And so it's just trying to keep you alive. So pain is not seen as progress and difficulties are not always seeing as progress in your brain.

Your brain is like, well, you know, this could lead to death. And so it is as extreme as that sound.

That's just kind of how our brains are wired to keep us alive for this, you know, however long we've been around.

I said survival mechanism. So, you know, your ability to kind of trick your brain and go, hey, I think can you go, can you go a little more?

Can we go 10 more seconds 10 more seconds. I like to watch the clock when I'm wrestling when I'm really exhausted.

I'll try to go, hey, there's only, you know, one more minute in the match one more minute. Can you go one more minute?

Just push one more minute and try to get to that end. You know, when I'm really exhausted, just we're like, oh, I just let this guy win.

You know, those are, those are the negative thoughts that your brain will talk to you and talk you out of things.

Strong Heart: Pushing Your Limits

So pushing your limits, you know, that's what we talk about. Strongheart is about pushing your limits. And I thought about, you know, people say, oh, he has heart.

That was my first thing. So I was like, oh, you know, there's brave heart. Well, I can't call it brave heart.

That was a movie. You know, I'm not going to get the license for that or something like that. But I thought the same kind of concept like, and then there was a movie.

No one lying heart. And you know, but it just I didn't like lying heart as much. I wanted, but I did want like strength and the strength of seeing that as a strength, not a weakness.

Your your ability to go more, do more and not give up and not just give up so easily. And some of you of us learned to give up easy and parents, unfortunately, a lot of modern parents are just very easily okay with their kids quitting things.

And it's okay, you know, you know, that you didn't get an A you got a B or it's okay, you got a C instead of a B and it's like, no, it's not okay.

Like you could you could have done it better. You know, we should we should want more and expect more of our kids and not crush them for failing.

But like, hey, it's okay to fail, but you should have done it better. And you can and I know you can do better.

Setting Expectations

And setting those expectations and then for me is like my kind of I feel as my responsibility as a structure is like to teach people, hey guys, you can do more than you think you can't.

And it's a very powerful, very powerful feeling when you learn that you can go that much farther break those limits.

We set limits and limitations in our mind of what we think is achievable. I've talked about this before about the four minute mile and and how they didn't think it was possible and tell one guy did it.

And then once the guy did it like a couple more people did it right away. And so when you set that limit for yourself, you know, it's it's like self-fulfilled prophecy, you know, like well I can never do that.

You know this is where I'm at, you know, well, yeah, whether you believe you can or can't, you're right, that's a head and forward saying.

And I believe it to be true. So because if you say you can't, you won't go farther than that limit.

You set that limit for yourself. You will not go any step farther. And so it's it's you know, obviously we want to be realistic, but you know that you can go a little bit farther than the limit you've already set for yourself.

And you should know that like whatever that limit is 10 more seconds. You know, 10 more dollars, five more steps, eight more push ups.

You know, whatever it is, it doesn't matter what it is. Try a little bit more push a little bit harder.

How Growth Happens

And then this is how growth happens. You know, when you're lifting weights, you're trying to get stronger. But if you never add weight to the bench, if you never add weight, you're just going to be stuck at whatever it is you're stuck at, you know, curling.

Oh, I can only curl 10 pounds. I can only curl 20 pounds, 35, you know, whatever. Everyone that can curl 100 pounds, which is an extreme amount of weight started a little less.

You know, at one point he was a baby, you know, like the, so you inch, incremental, like small steps increased to get better and better better.

And that's pushing those limits and not setting the limits for yourself. You can set a goal and then you're trying to beat that goal really, you know, some people just want to meet the goal.

I tend to try to push and surpass my goals.

Conclusion

So just a conclusion, it's one of the last things on my list of my 21 truths.

It is the last one on my list and it's just to understand that the name of my school is basically to break your limits.

Do more than you think you can. That's having a strong heart. And I'm not alone in wanting to quit things and not going to do the best I thought I could, but it's a constantly reminder for myself and hopefully for others that strong heart.

That's what it means, guys. That's what it means, strong heart to push yourself to do more and to break your limits.

Thank you. Peace.