Such a good topic. I've been grappling with this topic for ages, especially when I first started training martial arts. I have come to a conclusion that aligns closer to what Joey said at the end. I believe you can be driven, chasing belts, be competitive, wants to beat everyone and be a monster on the mat. But still be humble and have the humility to not make it a big deal when you do tap someone.
Balance is always key… The reason humility is so important, and you briefly touched on this at the end (to know what you do not know), is that you need humility to admit your own insufficiency and ignorance, so that you are driven to improve your current state. That is the proper role of humility in this context. As opposed to the “egotistical” (exaggerated sense of self) person that thinks they already know everything and therefore doesn’t need to continually train and study.
Humility towards everyone is important. Accepting someone as superior isn't necessarily humility; that's just deference. Humility means showing a level of modesty and not parading yourself around as the best, even if you are the best.
Needed to hear this. Thank you. I’ve been a purple belt for a year and a half and although I do reasonably well in training, I wouldn’t describe myself as a savage like some purple belts are. I realised hearing this I’m being too kind when i roll and just play role. Game changer
I believe you have to have a pretty hefty ego to even get on the mat in the 1st place. The idea that you want to learn how to physically dominate another human being in a combat sport and believe that you can say a lot about a person. But it takes humility to get that ego smashed, arm barred, and choked daily throughout the learning process to keep showing up.
I was intrigued by jiu jitsu after hearing people like joe rogan and jocko willink talk about how humbling the sport is. After training for a good year now I think jiu jitsu mostly confuses your ego. Some days it’s inflated to a delusional point, other days have you completely reconsidering the stories you tell yourself that you identify with. Getting good at Jiu jitsu definitely will change your ego but it has the ability to make it better or worse, the individual that is training influences the direction their ego takes, not the sport itself
Ego is not bad. Ego is literally your concious experience. Complete ego death is what happens with high doses of psychedelics and very very deep meditation. You can’t exist or have social interactions without ego. The issue is when you cannot tell where your ego starts and ends or when the mind believes all there is to it is the ego itself. That’s literally the root of all mental illness, eating disorders, addictions etc. ego is the voice in your head, the little thought machine telling you things that you internalize as your own. And it also is what protects you think when you compare yourself to others. It’s one thing to think you are the best because you are exceptional, built different etc. it’s another one to think “well my training and athleticism was superior to all my adversaries, I train with the best and do the best and have some inherent qualities that made me win, of course I’m gonna be the best there’s ever been” that’s actually not ego, it is a sort of humility, because you accept that it was not fully in your control to win, it was decided by many factors, and had you made a mistake you would’ve lost. But you didn’t. So it doesn’t mean you’re better, but you’re still the best at x thing Ego is compensating for insecurity by using irrational ideas. For example if you suck with women and say “well it’s because I am so good at this sport and they are intimidated” Ego is copium
I think it's 50 50 depending on where your at right. So for the first few years yeah be humble relax it doesn't really matter. But if your shooting for pans, worlds, and professional event you need to have ego to compete. I think you need both to learn and to win
@agreen3127 yes and no. I need humility to take L's on the chin. I need to have an ego to be confident. With out an ego you can't have confidence. I'm not saying be cocky and an ass. I can have an ego that I'm better than this guy and I want to prove it.
Ramsey Dewey likes to say that martial arts is the pursuit of truth. Maybe you can have all the ego you want but if you think you're better or worse than you are it will hurt you. The ego problem in bjj is that you think you're at some level (your best days) but you're a bit below that, and you can't accept it, or you play yourself down so you don't have to feel this way. That's not the pursuit of truth at this point. If you know where you are, and are not satisfied and willing to improve, this ego won't hurt you i think.
Interesting convo fellas, I always thought "letting go of the ego" was being able to get submitted or submit someone and being able to seperate the "I" or constructed self from the submission. So if you get submitted, ok the answer is jiu jitsu, you submit someone it was just jiu jitsu. A few dudes that I think are good examples are Lachy, Rob Deagle, Jozef Chen (not saying that I actually know them). If you can't manage your ego you will inevitably think that every thing that happens to you or around you says something about you. Humble seems to be the ability to see the reality of others and yourself, jiu jitsu, whatever as accurately as possible knowing you will never truly see reality. An example could be understanding that you will get bashed by a white belt if you do this for long enough for example Rickson would get trashed by a D1 wrestler 1 year into jiu jitsu. But more than that that D1 wrestler could end up teaching Rickson something. I think Gordon might have said reality gives him confidence. Jiu Jitsu is just technique, the fastest way to technical mastery is to drop the ego be humble. If you want to win a medal or get your profile up, let your ego rule, break people mentally or physically, shit talk, use your connections to get a wild card even though you're over the hill or not even good enough to be on the hill.
I think you are trying to say that we misdefine and make things appear mutually exclusive when they are not. An ego can be humble and confident. Emotions, etc. often expose where the ego is situated in the moment.
In my experience vast majority of Americans are also disgusted by arrogance. I think it the lack of self awareness that often makes us appear otherwise.
Doesn't matter if you can support your claims. First off speaking in third person should basically be diagnosable. .... if you can't be humble on the outside while feeling everything else on the inside and controlling it, then you have missed the point. Honestly even yelling and flexing all your muscles after you win comes off as corny and unbecoming to me. ... stoic.. steadfast. .. not possessed by positive or negative emotions - that is the way. Self mastery. Ego doesn't have to be expressed through negative emotions. Beliefe in ones self is a good thing if it's predicated on love for ones self, but if it's predicated on mastering "the other" it will be rooted in negative emotions. With love, you are motivated by nourishing virtue (chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, kindness, patience, and humility), with negative emotions, you are possessed by vice ( envy, lust, gluttony, pride, greed, sloth, wrath)
You guys need slightly different intro. You always advertise the same thing and not only is it getting annoying and makes me NOT wanna buy from perry athletics but it also makes me believe that I already watched that video and go for a skip button. Please find your way around this. Maybe advertise in the middle of the video or something and maybe try to get 2-3 different sponsors to keep it less annoying. As aggressive as I may sound, I don't mean to come out rude.. just being honest. Hope no offense was taken.
The idea of being humble is such a cope by people that never achieved anything "You may be better at jiujitsu but I'm morally superior" Ironically it's their own ego that causes them to demand humility out of others, because they don't want to be reminded everyday that they're mediocre, So they need something they can latch on to to say I'm a better person
I have been told my humility can be mistaken for weakness. But I can’t help it. I’m not the guy who acts like he’s hot shit. I’m a purple belt and feel like an imposter. Definitely not the boasting type lol..
99% of high level grapplers I've met are arrogant. Nice people to talk with, but arrogant. Even as of this day, my purple belt instructor recently told us, he should have been a brown belt 4 years ago. I am now able to submitting him and beginning to make solid move on him, yet he never made mention of it. That makes me laugh. He's 26, I am 51, I've been through a lot of turmoil, storms and hardship in my life and know better than to say this to an entire BJJ academy. I don't even mention my 20 years of grappling, I stopped saying that I've wrestled (freestyle and greco) to students, they bring it up. We also receive a high level comp purple belt from time to time, and he's now talking of how long he should've been a black belt a long time ago. I am now realizing that if that is how high level guys are, I wont ever be a high level grappler then. If I possess nuclear power in my hands, I wont tell you. You'll just find out when we roll.
I think this conversation has missed the mark a bit. Ego is incredibly important for competition. If you don’t believe you’re the best in the world, you won’t compete like it. But, ego is generally your enemy in training. An egotistical person in training takes winning rolls as paramount. They will spam their favorite moves over and over again to ensure that they win the round, rather than focusing on their weaknesses where they may get beat, but they may learn. Egotistical players will watch a technique they know be taught and think oh, I know how to do this and not focus on it minimizing their opportunity to improve. Overall ego is good for competition, but generally bad for training.
You can, but many people have inherent beliefs that their best will never be enough to be the best in the world. If you don't talk with the confidence it's very hard to actually achieve it.@@agreen3127
Yeah you can be humble, just a normal person and a killer in BJJ. Being otherwise is actually bad, celebrating gym wins etc you won't make it to black.
As a newbie to jiujitsu I would say being humble is always good in any discipline or life in general. Especially in BJJ where there is always someone better who will choke your ass out when you start feeling like you are God given. Which is why I can not wait to see Gordon Ryan put out. So he can humble himself. If you are really that good your skill should be talking for you. You can remain humble and kill it on the mats. That’s what martial arts are all about. When I went to Japan I felt like people in the rest of the world are neanderthals, just based on how respectful and humble Japanese are. Never enough humbleness in my opinion. Think Mirko CroCop. Killer in the ring but never said one bad word or shown any signs of cockiness. Just be humble.
Such a good topic. I've been grappling with this topic for ages, especially when I first started training martial arts. I have come to a conclusion that aligns closer to what Joey said at the end.
I believe you can be driven, chasing belts, be competitive, wants to beat everyone and be a monster on the mat. But still be humble and have the humility to not make it a big deal when you do tap someone.
Balance is always key…
The reason humility is so important, and you briefly touched on this at the end (to know what you do not know), is that you need humility to admit your own insufficiency and ignorance, so that you are driven to improve your current state. That is the proper role of humility in this context.
As opposed to the “egotistical” (exaggerated sense of self) person that thinks they already know everything and therefore doesn’t need to continually train and study.
Gordon Ryan shows humility towards John Danaher. He accepts him as his superior. That is the humility that is important
Humility towards everyone is important. Accepting someone as superior isn't necessarily humility; that's just deference. Humility means showing a level of modesty and not parading yourself around as the best, even if you are the best.
Needed to hear this. Thank you. I’ve been a purple belt for a year and a half and although I do reasonably well in training, I wouldn’t describe myself as a savage like some purple belts are. I realised hearing this I’m being too kind when i roll and just play role. Game changer
I believe you have to have a pretty hefty ego to even get on the mat in the 1st place. The idea that you want to learn how to physically dominate another human being in a combat sport and believe that you can say a lot about a person. But it takes humility to get that ego smashed, arm barred, and choked daily throughout the learning process to keep showing up.
You need enough ego to.keep you driven to get better and enough humility to understand the learning never ends
I was intrigued by jiu jitsu after hearing people like joe rogan and jocko willink talk about how humbling the sport is. After training for a good year now I think jiu jitsu mostly confuses your ego. Some days it’s inflated to a delusional point, other days have you completely reconsidering the stories you tell yourself that you identify with.
Getting good at Jiu jitsu definitely will change your ego but it has the ability to make it better or worse, the individual that is training influences the direction their ego takes, not the sport itself
Ego is not bad. Ego is literally your concious experience. Complete ego death is what happens with high doses of psychedelics and very very deep meditation. You can’t exist or have social interactions without ego. The issue is when you cannot tell where your ego starts and ends or when the mind believes all there is to it is the ego itself.
That’s literally the root of all mental illness, eating disorders, addictions etc. ego is the voice in your head, the little thought machine telling you things that you internalize as your own. And it also is what protects you think when you compare yourself to others.
It’s one thing to think you are the best because you are exceptional, built different etc. it’s another one to think “well my training and athleticism was superior to all my adversaries, I train with the best and do the best and have some inherent qualities that made me win, of course I’m gonna be the best there’s ever been” that’s actually not ego, it is a sort of humility, because you accept that it was not fully in your control to win, it was decided by many factors, and had you made a mistake you would’ve lost. But you didn’t. So it doesn’t mean you’re better, but you’re still the best at x thing
Ego is compensating for insecurity by using irrational ideas. For example if you suck with women and say “well it’s because I am so good at this sport and they are intimidated”
Ego is copium
I think it's 50 50 depending on where your at right. So for the first few years yeah be humble relax it doesn't really matter. But if your shooting for pans, worlds, and professional event you need to have ego to compete. I think you need both to learn and to win
Ego gets a bad connotationbecause people use the term wrong. A person needs confidence to compete at anything. Confidence comes from preparation.
@agreen3127 yes and no. I need humility to take L's on the chin. I need to have an ego to be confident. With out an ego you can't have confidence. I'm not saying be cocky and an ass. I can have an ego that I'm better than this guy and I want to prove it.
Hahahahaha... I love the final statement: "choose your side!" Hahaha
Ramsey Dewey likes to say that martial arts is the pursuit of truth. Maybe you can have all the ego you want but if you think you're better or worse than you are it will hurt you. The ego problem in bjj is that you think you're at some level (your best days) but you're a bit below that, and you can't accept it, or you play yourself down so you don't have to feel this way. That's not the pursuit of truth at this point. If you know where you are, and are not satisfied and willing to improve, this ego won't hurt you i think.
The ego determines whether it is confidence or arrogance.
Interesting convo fellas, I always thought "letting go of the ego" was being able to get submitted or submit someone and being able to seperate the "I" or constructed self from the submission. So if you get submitted, ok the answer is jiu jitsu, you submit someone it was just jiu jitsu. A few dudes that I think are good examples are Lachy, Rob Deagle, Jozef Chen (not saying that I actually know them). If you can't manage your ego you will inevitably think that every thing that happens to you or around you says something about you.
Humble seems to be the ability to see the reality of others and yourself, jiu jitsu, whatever as accurately as possible knowing you will never truly see reality. An example could be understanding that you will get bashed by a white belt if you do this for long enough for example Rickson would get trashed by a D1 wrestler 1 year into jiu jitsu. But more than that that D1 wrestler could end up teaching Rickson something. I think Gordon might have said reality gives him confidence.
Jiu Jitsu is just technique, the fastest way to technical mastery is to drop the ego be humble. If you want to win a medal or get your profile up, let your ego rule, break people mentally or physically, shit talk, use your connections to get a wild card even though you're over the hill or not even good enough to be on the hill.
I think you are trying to say that we misdefine and make things appear mutually exclusive when they are not. An ego can be humble and confident. Emotions, etc. often expose where the ego is situated in the moment.
In my experience vast majority of Americans are also disgusted by arrogance. I think it the lack of self awareness that often makes us appear otherwise.
Doesn't matter if you can support your claims. First off speaking in third person should basically be diagnosable. .... if you can't be humble on the outside while feeling everything else on the inside and controlling it, then you have missed the point.
Honestly even yelling and flexing all your muscles after you win comes off as corny and unbecoming to me. ... stoic.. steadfast. .. not possessed by positive or negative emotions - that is the way. Self mastery.
Ego doesn't have to be expressed through negative emotions. Beliefe in ones self is a good thing if it's predicated on love for ones self, but if it's predicated on mastering "the other" it will be rooted in negative emotions. With love, you are motivated by nourishing virtue (chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, kindness, patience, and humility), with negative emotions, you are possessed by vice ( envy, lust, gluttony, pride, greed, sloth, wrath)
You guys need slightly different intro. You always advertise the same thing and not only is it getting annoying and makes me NOT wanna buy from perry athletics but it also makes me believe that I already watched that video and go for a skip button. Please find your way around this. Maybe advertise in the middle of the video or something and maybe try to get 2-3 different sponsors to keep it less annoying. As aggressive as I may sound, I don't mean to come out rude.. just being honest. Hope no offense was taken.
The idea of being humble is such a cope by people that never achieved anything
"You may be better at jiujitsu but I'm morally superior"
Ironically it's their own ego that causes them to demand humility out of others, because they don't want to be reminded everyday that they're mediocre, So they need something they can latch on to to say I'm a better person
I have been told my humility can be mistaken for weakness. But I can’t help it. I’m not the guy who acts like he’s hot shit. I’m a purple belt and feel like an imposter. Definitely not the boasting type lol..
Not boasting isn't being humble nor weak necessarily. A mute can be confident
99% of high level grapplers I've met are arrogant. Nice people to talk with, but arrogant. Even as of this day, my purple belt instructor recently told us, he should have been a brown belt 4 years ago. I am now able to submitting him and beginning to make solid move on him, yet he never made mention of it. That makes me laugh. He's 26, I am 51, I've been through a lot of turmoil, storms and hardship in my life and know better than to say this to an entire BJJ academy. I don't even mention my 20 years of grappling, I stopped saying that I've wrestled (freestyle and greco) to students, they bring it up.
We also receive a high level comp purple belt from time to time, and he's now talking of how long he should've been a black belt a long time ago. I am now realizing that if that is how high level guys are, I wont ever be a high level grappler then. If I possess nuclear power in my hands, I wont tell you. You'll just find out when we roll.
I think this conversation has missed the mark a bit. Ego is incredibly important for competition. If you don’t believe you’re the best in the world, you won’t compete like it.
But, ego is generally your enemy in training. An egotistical person in training takes winning rolls as paramount. They will spam their favorite moves over and over again to ensure that they win the round, rather than focusing on their weaknesses where they may get beat, but they may learn. Egotistical players will watch a technique they know be taught and think oh, I know how to do this and not focus on it minimizing their opportunity to improve. Overall ego is good for competition, but generally bad for training.
But why does one have to take the idea/view of being the best in the world. Can one take the path of simply just doing the best that they can?
You can, but many people have inherent beliefs that their best will never be enough to be the best in the world. If you don't talk with the confidence it's very hard to actually achieve it.@@agreen3127
The top professionals in any sport should be petty, vindictive narcissists who hate losing. It adds tremendous entertainment value.
first
Dang it, close 2nd here. And my ego is ok with that
I see you've played Knifey Firsty before
You did! You son of a bitch you finally did it🥳
Yeah you can be humble, just a normal person and a killer in BJJ. Being otherwise is actually bad, celebrating gym wins etc you won't make it to black.
As a newbie to jiujitsu I would say being humble is always good in any discipline or life in general. Especially in BJJ where there is always someone better who will choke your ass out when you start feeling like you are God given. Which is why I can not wait to see Gordon Ryan put out. So he can humble himself. If you are really that good your skill should be talking for you. You can remain humble and kill it on the mats. That’s what martial arts are all about. When I went to Japan I felt like people in the rest of the world are neanderthals, just based on how respectful and humble Japanese are. Never enough humbleness in my opinion. Think Mirko CroCop. Killer in the ring but never said one bad word or shown any signs of cockiness. Just be humble.