What Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling and Life all have in Common

     This video is an reminder to us all on the importance of finding balance. In jiu jitsu and in wrestling we are constantly trying to maintain our base and stay in good balance. You could almost make the argument that the "game" of these grappling arts is about being able to take someone off balance while maintaining control of your own balance. Ironically, our training on the mat is both how to maintain your balance and get someone off balance, but also what to do when you completely lose your balance. How you react and face the fall or challenge after you've been taken off your center. How to fall without hurting yourself is one basic but good example of what we learn to do when we've completely lost balance. When learning how to fall we intentionally take ourselves out of balance to learn and regain ourselves from the experience. We have to make corrections, adapt and train our reactions by constantly doing what we ultimately dont' want to do. We do all this while knowing that it's inevitable to lose your balance and the only way to protect yourself is through consistent and proper training. Interesting to see that balance training is not in avoiding it from happening, but training your reaction knowing that it will happen.
     Life seems to work in the same way. We are constantly struggling and fighting to maintain balance with our work, family, friends, hobbies, etc. It seems interesting that most of our training is about how to maintain balance and hold a firm base instead of learning how to take the fall and recompose ourselves after a hard fall. The video is an interesting reflection of how delicate the maintenance of balance can be.
     The last few seconds of the video show how every single little thing has an influence and effect on balance. After an intricate seven minutes of stacking the sticks in perfect balance, the smallest, lightest, seemingly most insignificant part of the display, the feather, is removed from the stack. As a result, the stack of sticks fall right down to the ground. There is not a single chance for the sticks to maintain balance one the feather is removed. As insignificant as it might seem, the feather was an essential element in the display maintaining balance. It could be someone blowing on the feather, a gust of wind, a typhoon or a tornado that knocks the feather off. That is not within our control. What we can control is how we react to the situation and go back to rebuilding our balance. How we take the fall with the least amount of impact. Being confident with our training and knowing that we are able to regain our balance in as little time as it took for us to lose our balance.
   

Eliot Kelly 

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Train your Balance!