Nothing makes a martial arts instructor happier than to see the changes and results in their students. 

It only takes one review of your school with a student gushing over how they have fallen in love with the school and what it is you teach to make you feel like you are actually doing what you had hoped.

I’m in my 38^th year in the martial arts now. Given that it is my own life and what I’ve always done I don’t usually think much about it. It is when other people find out how long I’ve been at this that I realize just how uncommon and kind of cool that approaching the 40 year mark in studying martial arts really is. I also know just how important the martial arts has been in my life. I’d be completely lost and adrift without it.

I’ve trained in a lot of martial arts over the years, the list looks something like:

• Judo
• Japanese Goju Karate
• Okinawan Goju Karate
• Kobudo
• Aikido
• Tai Chi
• Iaido
• Shorinji Kempo
• Western Kickboxing
• Boxing
• Wrestling
• Muay Thai
• Wing Chun
• A variety of SE Asian martial arts
• Balintawak Eskrima
• Kali
• Jeet Kune Do
• Silat

The list probably goes on a bit more than that with some arts that I studied a bit more tangentially. Jiu-Jitsu came into my life as a result of my pretty close to life-long study of the teachings and life of the man I call Guro, Dan Inosanto. Being a student of likely the greatest martial artist of all time, has side-benefits, like the opportunity to train with other legendary martial artists as happened with Jiu-Jitsu in my life.

Jiu-Jitsu changed my life from the first time I got to try it out, when I was 42, in a class with coral belt Master Jean Jacques Machado. Ever since that first class I haven’t been able to stop raving about how great Jiu-Jitsu is and the power and potential it has to change people and their lives for the better.

Most martial arts will improve your life but not all will have the same kind of profound impacts on your life that Jiu-Jitsu has, if you are being taught properly and in a school which does it right.

I think there are a few reasons for this:

• Jiu-Jitsu is hard
• Jiu-Jitsu is gratifying
• Jiu-Jitsu is intimate
• Jiu-Jitsu is tactile 
• Jiu-Jitsu is therapeutic 
• Jiu-Jitsu never lies
• Jiu-Jitsu is extremely human

I could write pages about any one of these points and that probably is the power of Jiu-Jitsu. Any one of these things is the reason why people who come to class can’t get enough of it. 

In this day and age where we believe that texting is communicating and that sitting at a desk is ‘work,’ Jiu-Jitsu puts you face-to-face with what it feels like to be a human, dealing with our human baggage, with other human beings. It becomes a relationship with not only other people that will make you feel better every single time you do it, but with Jiu-Jitsu itself. You will feel like Jiu-Jitsu itself has become your BFF. Literally.

I love the martial arts. That is probably why I have a school (Captain obvious). I love everything about all of it – for me at this point in my life and my training I just love to learn and train and keep at it. I think it keeps me happy and sane. I think it keeps me in shape. I think it keeps me young. I think it keeps me healthy. When you put all of that together you can see just how important training can be for someone.

As much as I love all martial arts and will continue to train in as many things as I can for the rest of my life, I am also a realist, I know that not everyone is like me. This is where I think that Jiu-Jitsu fits in perfectly.

Let’s face it, people are busy. Time that they can devote to training is limited for the most part.  Jiu-Jitsu is a gateway in a big way for all the benefits that a person can gain from martial arts training and in a package that has huge benefits.

The problem is that not all Jiu-Jitsu taught today and not all people or schools teaching it are providing the same product. Make sure that the Jiu-Jitsu you are paying for is the one that has the magic to it.

Find a great school, not just a good one. Not one that looks at you as a dollar sign.

Find a school that will change your life.

Jean Jacques Machado Jiu Jitsu Victoria can be that for you. 

Give us a chance and you will see for yourself. 

Start today!