If you trained jiu-jitsu his whole life, why would you trade punches on fight night against a striker?
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of using one's strengths in situations instead of engaging in risky behavior that goes against one's training.
Royce Gracie's quote suggests that if someone has dedicated their life to mastering jiu-jitsu, they should leverage that skill on fight night rather than choose to engage in a risky stand-up fight with a striker. It highlights the importance of utilizing one's strengths in competition and not compromising one's training for the sake of conforming to conventional expectations.
In practice
During a martial arts seminar, to encourage practitioners to focus on their unique skills.
I like guys who know how to implement a strategy. The ones who make a fight look easy. But there's no easy fight, even if you win in 30 seconds, that only means you were able to execute your strategy correctly and induced your opponent to make a mistake. Those are the champions. That's why they are the champions.
Martial arts in general were not made for a tournament, for points system. Martial arts were made to defend yourself in the street fight situation, not to score points.
The greatest tribute you can to pay to my father is to continue to train and share Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, remembering to never lose sight of the fact that what you do off the matt counts more than what you do on the matt.
I believe in pure jiu-jitsu. That's what I've done in the past.
A black belt only covers two inches of your ass. You have to cover the rest.
I thought my fire was out, and stirred the ashesβ¦. I burnt my fingers.
To be honest, I've never been interested in how many games I've done and seen. It doesn't mean anything to anybody. All I know is I'm eternally grateful for having been allowed to work so many games.
Drop guilt! - because to be guilty is to live in hell. Not being guilty, you will have the freshness of dewdrops in the early morning sun, you will have the freshness of lotus petals in the lake, you will have the freshness of the stars in the night. Once guilt disappears you will have a totally different kind of life, luminous and radiant. You will have a dance to your feet and your heart will be singing a thousand and one songs.
Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought.
We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It's a death trap.
The greatest victory in life is to rise above the material things that we once valued most
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