Armlocks hurt. This is one of the first lessons a person learns in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, right after they learn how to tap. Tapping is the pressure relief valve of the practice that, for the most part, keeps people safe. 

As long as the armlock is not applied too quickly, the person on the receiving end of it taps, and the person applying it respects the tap and lets go, the pain of an armlock is temporary. It goes a way relatively quickly once the submission is let go of. 

That is to say, if practiced safely, armlocks rarely lead to injuries. A person can get arm-locked hundreds of times over years of practice and competition without taking serious damage. This can cause practitioners to develop a false sense of security when it comes to submissions. There is a tendency, especially in practice, to simply accept the loss and move on. 

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this attitude, as it helps a person to not take training so seriously as to get upset about the many losses they will experience in practice. It also helps a person to continue training for a long time through all of the inevitable ups and downs that come with jiu-jitsu. 

Taking these losses too lightly, however, can become a problem. A person might grow so accustomed to losing that losing itself becomes a habit. It stops meaning anything and, therefore, offers no real motivation to improve. 

If it doesn’t bother a person at all to get submitted, they are likely to make the same mistakes again and again without being driven to change the behavior that is causing them to get put into this compromising position in the first place. For this reason, the idea that a person should “leave their ego at the door” before stepping on the jiu-jitsu mats is neither practical nor useful advice. Without some degree of ego, or at least a healthy amount of pride, a person will have no reason to improve. 

This is why, in my opinion, jiu-jitsu competitions are so important for skill development. On the mats in the academy, a person can roll, tap, and start over against the same person or group of people over and over again without any real sense of consequence. Being able to try again takes a lot of the sting off of the little losses experienced in the academy. 

In a tournament, however, a person really only gets one shot. If they tap, there are no do-overs. Add to this the money and time it takes to go to a tournament, and there are real consequences not doing one’s best. No matter what anyone says, losing in a competition match matters more than losing in practice, and it should.

The pain of a tournament loss lasts much longer than the pain of an armlock. This pain, really the effect of pride and the ego’s desire to win, is the motivational fuel for improvement. Channeled in the right way, it is a powerful tool for growth, as well as skill and mindset development. 

Of course, having too much pride, being overly sensitive about losses, and allowing this to affect one’s attitude and performance isn’t healthy either. The ideal is somewhere in the middle, where a person has just enough pride and ego to want to learn from mistakes and to improve, but not so much that one gets upset over losses. Armlocks hurt, but ultimately jiu-jitsu should be fun and something a person is able to do for a lifetime. 

Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity

To read my poetry and shorter writing, please visit Meditations of a Gentle Warrior and subscribe to receive my daily meditations in your inbox.