Blog#5 Hammers and Nails

One of my students sent me a video with Jocko (former navy seal and Bjj expert). He was finishing up rolling and he said a very worn but truthful statement in the Bjj community, ‘sometimes your the hammer and sometimes you are the nail, today I was the nail, Both are needed for building'“. that last little bit I had not heard before and to me took the statement from a negative and added a powerful positive spin on it.. Similarly I have recently heard the full saying of William Shakespeare, “jack of all trades master of none, but sometimes is better than a master of one”. Both of these are statements that had a perceived negative component but when looked at holistically feel very different to me. With Jocko’s statement of both the hammer and the nail needed for building, it left me feeling extremely optimistic about the days in training where you are struggling to express your best Jiu Jitsu, there are just some days on the mat where nothing is going right, and things are breaking down fast, after practicing this art for 23 years I realize that no one roll will dictate my worth within my overall journey through this art, and even the days that are a struggle those days may actually be helping me build the foundation that my future game will rest on , similarly when two pieces of wood are joined together by a nail you now have a structure that can hold weight like in framing a wall . This understanding can then penetrate into my life where perceived difficult times where one feels like the hammer is coming down on you may at the time feel incredibly opressive may be the very thing that creates the joint and provide the stucture to move forward through a difficult situation.

Just Train

M