I have to laugh when a person comes to me in one of my seminars and asks me when they will know they have learned enough and can stop taking classes. Believe it or not, this is a question that I get more often that you would think. Why it makes me laugh is because learning never stops in Gracie jiu-jitsu. To this day, despite being “born on the mat” I am constantly learning new moves and finding out surprising details about “old” moves.

The key to being able to constantly learn is to enjoy yourself. I always go to the academy without any worries about winning or submitting anyone or building my own ego. I go to the academy simply to enjoy the moment, hang out with the people there, and to train and learn. I have always loved being in the academy and I think that openness has helped me to have a forward-looking and progressive game.
New students, as well as those who have been training for years, should keep that in mind. Think of being like a kid when you go to train. A kid has no pressure and no ego and just wants to have fun with his friends. If you train with that attitude you will keep an open mind and learn quickly.

I’ve been teaching since I was 14, but I didn’t become an instructor until I was 16. Back then I was a purple belt and I would assist Rickson in his classes and cover for him when couldn’t show up to teach (usually when the waves were good at the beach!). At 17 I earned my brown belt and at 18 I got my black. At 17 I assumed a front-line position in the academy because Rickson left to move to the U.S. and I had to teach full time. In terms of time spent this means I’ve been teaching for 23 years.

I learn a tremendous amount from being an instructor. Teaching forces you to look carefully at methodology and learn the details of each technique. You have to go to great depths to understand a technique in order to be fully able to convey it to someone else. When you teach, you not only have to be able to explain the technique so the student will understand it, but you also have to see the technique from their perspective. This means seeing the difficulties they have in learning it and then find a way to correct, adjust, or modify the technique so they can apply it to their individual game.

You have to be like a mirror and visualize everything from both sides and understand everything from both your and your student’s perspective. You have to see the obstacles and the solutions of every problem. But often the problem is simply that a student is so busy being serious that they forget to have fun.

One of my techniques to get students to relax is to talk to them and make fun of things in training even when we are sparring. I do this because people often take things too seriously and even in private lessons will forget about having fun and train as if their lives depended on the outcome of that session. So what I do by talking and joking around is to break that frame of mind and distract them in order to show them that jiu-jitsu should be fun. When you’re having fun, the learning will come.

For more information on Royler Gracie or to schedule or contact him about upcoming seminars go to www.roylergracie.com.