On Quality
When walking into a BJJ school many people are first drawn to the visual aesthetics that might commonly indicate that “this is a good school.” Is the facility nice? Are there a lot of people? Does it have good reviews? And while all of those things can indeed be helpful markers, they can also be misleading. The gentrification of our sport has expanded the way we offer Jiu-Jitsu as a service. It is now commercialized in a way that it couldn’t have been 20 years ago. BJJ is no longer an obscure, underground activity. It has become quite mainstream and in greater popular culture, the “cool” martial art. It’s important to learn how to perceive Quality directly rather than rely on external indicators. If one lacks a sense of Quality it is much easier to feel lost and not know what you are actually experiencing.
Beyond superficial signals, what is the Quality of the experience? What does Quality mean to you?
I encounter a large number of students whose sense of what is “good” becomes too reliant on what others think; others being their teachers or their peers. Part of this could be due to the fact that BJJ attracts a lot of socialized adults. Put simply, the more socialized someone is, the more likely they are to assume that what’s right comes from consensus rather than internal conviction. I’ve seen all too many times that students are inclined to mimic behavior over taking responsibility for their own. Comfort and social pull can often cloud what is of actual Quality because we tend to prioritize what is familiar. There is also the tendency to expect that your teacher should tell you what is good. In that framing, you are forfeiting your ability and right to judge for yourself and you project the responsibility onto someone else. So how do you take responsibility for your own development? And how can YOU tell what is Qualitatively good? What does a good teacher look like to you? Part of taking responsibility is learning to assess even your teachers with your own criteria. Perhaps you don’t know, and that is a fair admission. We overlook Quality all the time without ever pausing to consider how much it matters in our self-expression.
Cultivating and becoming aware of your orientation to Quality is important because it becomes your internal North Star. When the world doesn’t make sense you are less bothered by it because you know what matters most to you. It prevents you from being distracted or disoriented, inspires your actions and fulfills or satisfies your needs. Your criteria may not make sense to everyone else and that’s ok. It is your unique sense of Quality that builds depth, integrity and purpose.