August, 2008 I started jiujitsu. I can’t believe it’s been ten tears since i first stepped on a jiujitsu mat to learn the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I was in Japan at the time and working as an ALT, assistant language teacher in Shiga prefecture. I realized wrestling had a finite time line and wasn’t going to work as a conversation starter when people asked me “what is your hobby?” during English conversation lessons. (Little did I know jiujitsu would lead to the same predicament)
At the time I had a strong sense to find a lifelong hobby. A hobby being something that was healthy, fun, and involved a constant opportunity to learn. YouTube was my outlet to the outside world in Japan and I stumbled into the rabbit hole of gracie videos and martial arts clips on the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Helio Gracie documentaries, Arte Suave and the Pride Championships. I was much more attracted to jiujitsu as a martial art and not so much the fight sport of jiujitsu. Starting a martial art as a hobby seemed a good fit for me to venture into.
At the time, jiujitsu was quite limited, I sought out our Shiga-JET forum for advice on finding a dojo but the place I found was about 90 minutes away. About 60 minutes by train and a 30 minute walk from the train station. I was too cheap and broke to take a taxi, and not patient enough to figure out what bus to take to the gymnasium. After a few visits they were surprised to hear my commute and let me know there was a gym much closer to Minakuchi, where I was living. To my knowledge there are now about 4 bjj gyms in the area about 30 minutes away. CRAZY.
At the gym closer to home, a 20min train ride and 15min walk, I found solace. Initially there were four classes a week Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Depending on my schedule I could go 2 or 3 times a week. Practice was supposed to start at 9:30pm because everyone was busy working overtime, but that usually meant 9:45 or 10pm. When the economy tanked hard in 2009, practice started at 8pm. Regardless of what time we started, I would get home around midnight.
When I first started, Marcio Miyashita was the main coach and in December his brother, Michel Miyashita came back from Brazil to coach. Our team, Bushido BJJ, was a close group of friends who loved to train. Jiu Jitsu was an opportunity for me to learn something new, but more importantly it became a place where I would meet and mingle with people I would have never met. We spoke Japanese, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Everyone had a nickname. I don’t think I did, but people called me “Elio-ch” with four months of training I was asked if I wanted to compete. I didn’t know there were competitions, I didn’t know the rules either but “sure why not.” I won my division and lost in the finals of the absolute to a now famous bjj black belt in Japan. The finals match was the last match of the tournament and everyone was watching. It came down to the last few seconds, and there was some kind of controversy (I now wonder what bjj match doesn’t have controversy) where I was supposed to have scored points but the referee said it was out of bounds. It was kinda cool to see people stick up for you. To advocate for you and your win. I appreciated it even though I didn’t have a clue what they were saying.
I never envisioned the future that I am living today. At the time I was getting heavy into studying Japanese, taking a scholarship program on Japanese language and pedagogy through the JET program and I was thinking I would maybe teach Japanese in the future.
Fast forward ten years. I have been teaching jiujitsu as a full time career for more than seven years in
El Dorado Hills, CA and teaching for a total of nine. I received my black belt from professor Torregrosa in November of 2012. Looking back I was very lucky to have coaches that didn’t withhold information and taught everything, wishing their students to be their absolute best.
As the days and months passed and the hours on the mat accumulate, I’m still fascinated by jiujitsu. I’m struck at how deep the simplest positions are, and how studying the microscopic technique can lead to understanding the macroscopic concept. These big picture concepts are what we can take with us off the mat.
As a hobby and now profession, ten years of jiujitsu has …. well … I have to think about this, and want to say something profound like helped me understand humanity or realize the meaning of life. Not really. Something jiujitsu has certainly helped me with is in experiencing and embracing each moment in time. The moment you meet someone new, you win or lose a match, practice, the moment you want to give up, bliss, tranquility, the moment you tie your belt, taking a breather, disappointment, pain.
Each moment, regardless of how familiar or unfamiliar the person, only happens once. You don’t get a repeat. So, I try to make the most of each moment. It’s cliche but when you are grateful of the present, you realize the gift that it truly is.