When it comes to fighting either you come humble or you get humbled

winning and losing builds character. never losing or never accepting loss or believing that you will always win builds arrogance.

BJJ breaks down your ego continually. Just when you start thinking youre getting the hang of it, some kid will come along and tap you out in seconds. You never really get room to grow your ego at all. I do think you find arrogant assholes in any group tho, BJJ/MMA are not immune to this, but sparring and rolling are definitely a filter that weed out the worst ones

I was pretty cocky, overconfident and arrogant during my 10 years of karate, when I started Muay Thai I got extremely humbled. Still on the way to humbleness, which really is the goal.

This is why people believe their aikido will work perfectly "in the street" even though they have never fought anyone They just don't get exposed to any data that shows them otherwise

In my first week training with Maromba BJJ I asked the instructor a question while he was rolling and the white belt he was rolling with immediately closed a triangle and made him tap. Instead of the instructor getting pissed he was actually beaming with pride for his student for being able to close the triangle so quickly.

This is true to an extent, depending on the gym. There are certain MMA "bro gyms" where the environment is more like this: You are allowed to have an ego if you are better than most of the people there. If you have an ego or start shitting on people when you don't have the skillset to back it up, the enforcer will kick your ass until you shut up. If you are among the "top dogs" then it's socially acceptable for you to be self centered, arrogant, abusive towards others, ect. Most BJJ gyms aren't like this, but a few are.

I have done traditional karate, Judo, and BJJ. Part of the issue is also western interpretations of Japanese culture. Bowing to the front of the room and the hierarchy of belts imparts a sense of superiority, and potentially rigidity. As a Judo instructor, I also try to keep things light hearted and friendly, to break down some of the barrier between dan and kyu ranks. Thanks for the video!

when i started MMA i came from a 12 year long taekwondo background and so this whole time i thought i could fight and so when i walked into the MMA gym for the first time i thought that all these skinny kids would be super weak and bad compared to me but when class started and i saw a kid way smaller than me but similar age kick the pad and i heard and saw how much force came from it, I was shook but I was also hooked because i knew that my training sucked in comparison and so I've been doing it for about 3 weeks at this point and I've already learnt so much and im really enjoying it, i was also very surprised because everyone was so nice to me but in tykwondo people were only nice to me when i was a first degree black belt but before i was people treated me like they were better than me so its so strange how the no belts and the training can affect how people act towards you as a new person

Everyone has an ego. Its basic psychology. The key thing you have to remember in combat sports is that you dont have to be modest if you can back it up.

As a TMA teacher I find this video and your whole channel very inspiring :)

In boxing cardio broke my ego after punching and skipping for almost two hours you are gonna hate fighting

The toughest man I ever met was a 10th Dan Goju practicioner under Peter Urban. He was totally humble, kind, and respectful towards everyone.

I treasure my time in aikido as my first martial art experience. It saddens me that it ended up so "lost". Now I love muay thai. And have been humbled often!

I remember my first day at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. I had visions of what a phenomenon I was going to be. That illusion vaporized the first time I trained with an opponent. It's a cold dose of reality that many traditional schools lack.

It's much easier to fight the air in TMA and think of yourself as an unstoppable killing machine if you ever snap...lol

Even if you don’t compete in BJJ, rolling will humble you. I mean seriously, sometimes the warmups humble you.

Strange, I have found that the opposite is true. Even then, the proportion of martial artists with big egos have been relatively small in both realms in my experience.

I started lifting in 2017 and did for two years and was able to put good muscle mass and whenever I walk in the streets, I consider myself very tough and I was over confident on myself that I can take down anyone and then in March, 2020, I started mma training and man, the sparring, the cardio, the grappling that I have gone through has made me humble and also have realised that size don’t matter in fight and even now I hit gym and lift weights occasionally to increase my strength and there I see many muscle guys posing and thinking they are the toughest out there and I just smile and tell myself, that was me a couple of years back...mma has made me humble and confident in myself and at the same time has made me realise, “don’t judge a book by its cover”.

You are right. I experienced the same thing after training aikido for 13 years and I loved that. Its true, you have no idea where your limits are. You manage most of the techniques in an adequate way and they tell you, that will work in the street. How can you know better? Than I heard that my instructor got punched in the face by one of his students in a `just for fun free fight´, who was a 2nd dan Karate. I was wondering, how could that be. I talked to that Karate guy, who was a very nice person and he said, its unrealistic the way we train aikido or lets say the way we train real fighting situations. Today after having seen lots of your videos - Rokas - I think I understand better. Thank you. In TMA we train in a certain way - cooperativ, non resistant partner, traditional attacks ... Thats ok and its really interesting, makes you fit and sharpens your perception but its not a free fight with no rules... Instructors should know and tell this. Otherwise it leads to wrong imaginations of your abilities and to arrogance and ego.

In short: coz in MMA and BJJ, we got beaten up... A LOT... (in real life sparring ofc, unlike scammy sparring in most traditional martial arts)

3:14 Yeah this happened to me last monday. And I didn't think "what an insult" I thought "let the next guy get this one, I'm not getting tapped by a cheerleader in front of a bunch of strangers"

Haven't known that many modern martial arts practicioners myself, but what you said about TMA rings true since i'm a 3rd degree black belt in karate and while in the philosophy of karate ego is discouraged, the enviroment itself encourages it. So sometimes it's hard not to get swallowed up in the ego. Only when i started watching more martial arts on KZfaq i realized i was just a big fish in a small pond. And the only humble teacher i've known is my sensei. I trained with other people and i see that the system has already inflated their egos so high that they won't accept anything but what they teach as true. I hope once i open up my own school i won't fall into the same pitfalls that i've seen

Just looking at Rokus physically you can see a huge transformation. In his Aikido days he likes lean, almost frail, now he looks strong (particularly in the neck area). I realize that much of his journey has been mental, but he looks significantly more formidable now.

Thank you. Your channel is first class and your words of honesty resonate loudly with me. Ego is nothing more than a substitute for confidence when a person hasn't had the real-life experience of using their experience on the street or in the ring. I have trained in a traditional karate for many years but I was lucky in that my instructor always based his teachings on reality and focused on the more useful techniques in self defence. He taught me awareness, the reality of real life scenarios and that ego is simply counterproductive. I have dabbled in some pressure systems (including BJJ) as well and like you was humbled as an experienced karateka in the BJJ arena. This simply amplified what I already knew that in general traditional martial arts are sometimes misunderstood by those who practise them. They can offer an advantage in real life self defence but they don't work in the ring/octagon unless pressure testing is practised routinely. Unfortunately I have reached a stage in my life at which it's too late to address the deficiencies of my learnings. For me it's more important to accept them and make do with what I have available. I also dabbled in Tomiki Aikido briefly and although I didn't even scratch the surface, it was clear that the instructor and "senior" students were living with unrealistic expectations of their capabilities in the real world. What I'm trying to say is that it's absolutely fine for a young student to study any art but she/he must be aware of its limitations (psychological, technique, etc) and to appreciate that he/she has the option to cross train (including reality & psychological training as offered by Ian Abernethy etc) in other arts to optimise ability. if your sensei/sifu/instructor disagrees and tells you that you this approach is wrong or unnecessary, then walk away! ATVB

Ego is a matter of education. Pushups are a good way to cool down the star player, any sport involved. You were disrespectful? Do 200, counted. Classical army style. He will do it at most 3 times until brain registers it is bad :)

The example at 3:10 literally happen to me. With 59kg I had been training for 2 years but was the smallest in my bjj class, the next guy was 70kg, so sometimes it was hard to feel that I was progressing. A new huge pumped guy came in, when it was time to roll everybody formed pairs and we were the only ones left. I looked at my instructor and he said we're good for each other, I was very confused, the guy's arm was bigger than my leg, but the instructor doubled down and said, yeh yeh, go ahead. I ended up submitting him 3 times during that roll. That was the moment I really felt my training was really working, and motivated me a lot to continue. Unfortunately the guy probably had a big ego and never came back. And yes, everybody was really friendly, since then I no longer live in the same city but I still consider the instructor as a friend.

This video found my feed at the most critical time in my training and I cannot thank you enough for it. Your words are true.

Very true words, I was a traditional martial artist myself before I started BJJ. With that said, your movement in Aikido are still very beautiful too see. Even if it is more a dance between two people than a fightingsystem It is pleasing on the eyes to watch.

Would add the boxers and kickboxers I've met to this. Without ego I mean.

I literally experienced this very thing tonight with my uncle (tradional kung fu and silat) and me (Muay Thai, San shou, Capoeira, Folk Style Wrestling, Boxing). He demonstrated a technique from a kata where the guy punches you and you block and dislocate his shoulder before taking him down. ALL I DID, was ask wouldn't it be much more efficient to simply slip and counter with a uppercut to the liver. He literally said his technique was more efficient cause it leaves the opponent disabled and I said well punching someone in the liver leaves them disabled and disagreed stating if a professional fighter punched him in the liver he would get right back up. And then told me how am I gonna argue with a master(him). Smh

That picture you put up when you said "the little lady is choking you out", I had the honour of having her teach one of my first bjj classes not even knowing who she was 😅 she is a legend

I think ego is more about how you interact with the world and the feedback you receive(whether other people encourage/discourage it), rather than your hobbies or professional pursuits.

I've been training jiu jitsu/MMA for 3 years now and although it'd be a bold face lie to say everyone I've come across was a cool person but it's hard to be an asshole or full of yourself when you're constantly getting beaten beat up by people you train with or have more experience. Constantly getting humbled is good for the soul

Great videos, i guess I have been lucky to train with humble people in TMA and that they keep humbling me from time to time. The journey is endless

Great video. Good to see you back.

I never had an ego doing Kung Fu for 14 years. I think part of it comes from the fact that I actually never felt confident in my skills I probably knew deep down inside that most of it was not effective in an actual fighting situation.

I train judo for a year and I am the smallest of the adult group (77kg, 182cm) and I get defeated by 16YO blue belt, 110kg yellow belt (I am yellow belt myself) guys I train with A LOT. Not to mention randori with our black belts (then I get beatten smaller, older guys in a blink of an eye). I get better over time and I sometimes get a win here and there. This is pure satisfaction but doing randori 3 times a weak teaches You to be humble and... Realistic.

As a Judoka who has also practiced several years of MMA and BJJ, I tend to agree with most of these points. I think what it comes down to is the ability to pressure test your skills. Traditional arch they don't pressure test or have sparring usually tend to have some of the most arrogant people, I have found. And, although there is a lot of elitism and perfectionism in Judo, I feel that getting routinely ragdolled by upper level practitioners has definitely helped me to put myself in place.

Words of wisdom. I practiced and taught traditional Kung Fu for 10 years before transitioning to a more modern, MMA-based training regimen, and can absolutely attest to the cultivation of large egos in the higher ranks of TMA. The opposite tends to happen as we are exposed to real knowledge and skills; we realize how much we still DON'T know, which is essential to continued progress. Acquiring real skills builds strong confidence balanced with humility. Otherwise, it's just arrogance. Thanks for sharing, Rokas! - Patrick Fulop

I'm fortunate enough to have found a traditional style Dojo that teaches actual fighting, once you reach a certain rank fighting is mandatory, and hardcore. As you mentioned, we also have a level headed Sensei with lots of combat experience both on the street and in full contact competitions. Juijitsu and Karate being It's main foundation. I hope one day more TMA schools get out of the stone age and evolve before they die out and are lost

Before I got into an mma, I was an insecure loser who tried to play tough and get into fights, even though the other guy would've easily kicked my ass. After learning in an mma gym, I'm terrified of fighting at all and would rather do anything but pick fights.

The people in my school(Singapore Polytechnic) Judo Club, most of them are arrogant and toxic individuals

I think that remaining in touch with reality is the key to integrity, which is why sparring is so crucial

7:53 Well, I have been completely beaten at a taekwondo sparring match with a lot of blows in the head, maybe not dangerously hard but still hard enough to make me feel very uncomfortable.

I had an experience. I started a new style of martial art and after doing Aikido for some time, i was pretty confident in myself. Then I sparred for the first time (since aikido does not spar) and I was instantly 'humbled' lol

I have two brothers that teach in Taekwondo and they made 2nd Dan and stopped practicing patterns, one-step basics, and started watching KZfaq videos. They lost the respect of all of the junior students, sparring with no control and then one of my older students of the same age and rank returned and they decided not to come back until he left. I explained to them being humble and respectful is very important and to knowing your tenets is a must. They have since calmed down quite a bit.

The first part makes sense. My introduction to BJJ was with a mixed group of many different skill levels. I had no experience rolling at all, and so I spent most of the next few months just learning not to get my ass handed to me. It seems like if you're exposed to what *can* be done, and how far you have to go (and instructors who can explain your weaknesses and how to overcome them) you're going to approach your skill from a position of looking upwards.

I agree with this. I trained Karate for 7 years and my ego got destroyed in less than a week of boxing

Well done! 👏👏👏

Just a detail ; it'd be more accurate to divide between "Martial Arts that include honest sparring" and "Martial arts that don't include honest sparring". Plenty of TMA include good sparring and competition too. Kendo has a crazy amount of sparring which is very humbling even at the higher dan grades ; Taekwondo, Karate, some styles of Kenjutsu, some Judo/Jujutsu dojo and so on include pretty good sparring.

Connor McGregor and Rampage Jackson - very humble. Said no one ever

Thank you for shining an honest light on martial arts. There are way too many Bullshido vids out there & too many people believe what they see.

I trained in boxing & old school tkd simultaneously which was extremely beneficial to me because of it I would easily transition & compete in every striking martial art competition

I totally agree with this video. The owner and main instructor of a local school I trained at for a while perfectly embodies what you're talking about in the video. If you heard him and others talk about him, you'd think he's invincible. His ego has totally went to his head. I refused to continue there. I wanted to say to him "if you're so good, then go compete in mma".

This is exactly what my recent discovery is. I could’t agree more.

Makes sense. There are many more reasons. But this was solid.

When I started judo 1981 my first litte competition was a club championship. Think I weighed 32 kg had a white belt and met a girl. Blue belt and she tossed me around like a ragdoll. Ippon, after 30 seconds or something. That put my ego in place 😄

I agree. Most of the people that I met that practice kung-fu with me are very full of themselves. But I noticed that in my school at least when you get to black belt the teachers decide to make tests harder base off each person's limitation and no one's ego survives that. Unfortunately most of them quit after that because they where never taught to be humble before.

My first time at a BJJ class went like you said. Although i'm only 5'8 and was 23 at the time I powerlifted for many years with over a 1000 pounds total of my (S/B/DL). In addition when my friends wrestled I never lost. I went against one of the coaches for my first opponent.... yeah.. I got crushed like 5 submissions in 5 minutes then after I went against a blackbelt who purposely used the same choke every time and he tapped me out like 5 times in 5 minutes. I think having a growth mindset is important cuz right then right there I was hooked I need to learn these moves and abilities these other guys obtained from BJJ. Im sure some people would have just given up and made the decision that they would never be good at BJJ since they aren't capable of losing. Needless to say I was very very very humbled that day and it honestly changed me for the better.

I think it's mainly got to do with physical competitive sparring and testing as to whether it works or not

I absolutely agree with this video!

This video is so very pious. BJJ has skipped over becoming a TMA and moved directly into being a cult.

I guess that's why I met mostly very kind and humble people in my Pencak Silat courses in Indonesia. We had sparring and the teacher was asking us to take part in competitions.

I’ve started training boxing and BJJ over a week ago and almost immediately I learned just how little I actually knew about fighting. I knew I wasn’t a black belt going in to BJJ so I had my ego in check and luckily I did because when we started rolling I got paired with a purple belt and almost immediately he pulled guard on me and had me in an arm bar and I had him outweighed by about 60 pounds.every class comes with a side of humble pie!

this is actually very true, considering i started off in itf taekwondo and the experience i had there

Nice described, as a kid I use to believe that if you realy learn to fight then the fight will looks like from Van Damme or Jackie Chan movie, nice, spectacular. Proces of wakeing up is long, all kinds of "believing" are similar, dogma is picture in your head, picture that blocking your sight. Fight is like life, its alive, and if you are exposed to real fight it gives you life it self, its no time for dogma, no time for thinking, its about survive and if you taste even split of second without ego, separating is understanding and understanding is beggining of end of ego.

judo always gets left out of these discussions. Judo is traditional martial art, which involves live grappling in every session. Actually BJJ is a traditional martial art too, with a history as long as the likes of TKD and complete with Gi, belt rankings and bowing. The distinction between these branches of martial arts really is "conceptual" Vs reality.

Great video

im a 2stripe bjj blue belt and everytime i think i got the hang of it i get humbled I LOVE IT !

Someone forget BJJ is traditional martial arts & Gracie family isn't known for their humbleness

Hey Rokas! Try FMA. It will expand your experience on your journey! Wish you the best!! Shalom

This video is very intelligent. You should put out a documentary.

"No idea truly survives contact with reality." Quote from a game I'm designing. Sums up this idea pretty true. Plus the main characters of that game want to gain ultimate power over the ego which entails being able to destroy it on a whim. They want to be in a state where they don't even need to fail in order to attune both their inner and outer reality. As a bonus, most are HEMA practitioners and the ones that aren't usually come from other....competition-centric TMA's like wushu and kendo.

Good lesson on Psychology and frustration with the world...

In all my years doing TKD, I only met a handful of people who I'd consider "arrogant", and they usually didn't stick around. For the most part, people were humble, especially on the competition team. But the people who always had the biggest egos always seemed to be people who I knew outside of martial arts, claiming they knew this art or that one, but could only demonstrate the most basic techniques that you could find in any "self-defense" video

Because the one who has to defend ineffective martial art a lot, will be under stress and anger 😠😠😠

Because u learnt what a real uppercut/choke feels like when you held your chin up around

Great videos.

Perfect 👌👌👌

I am a kyokushin practitioner..And I learn to be humble always

those Aikido mouvements were very beautiful, thought. I think the purpose of Aikido was to do beautiful kata, and that's why it's called Aikido (armonic, or beautiful in japanese). Of course it was inspired of real fight joint locks, but then it create an art (or a sport) with aestethic purposes only.

2nd degree black belt in Japanese Shorin/2 schools, 3 years of aikido across 4 schools, 3 years of TKD/2 schools, 2 years of Kung fu/2 schools, 4 years of BJJ/MMA/4 schools. You are spot on. TMA instructors tend to strut around like peacocks. One instructor would brag about his 'bar fights over the weekend', another would brag about 'defending against 4 dudes' (Aikido)...when I pressed him on this (ie. ''how?'), he had me and 2 other students come up to demonstrate...other 2 were 'devoted students'. Me? Not so much...6th dan in Aikdio had no answer to a resisting opponent trying to take him down. I switched to BJJ/MMA. Worked with some actual 'names' in the sport. Not one bragged...not one strutted around like a peacock..one would roll with me for fun (would whip my ass, but we had a good convo while rolling). Super nice guy. Never had ANY experience like that in TMA. Thought I was the only one who noticed/was jaded...thanks for this.

This remind me of the times I practiced judo, because it was a weird fusion of the two worlds. My teacher was 70 years old and one of the rare red belts in Brazil, and there was a 13 ou 14 Years old girl who was a Panamerican Champion once. But there was also a lot of people who did only light spar and never got a single competition. The difference between the people who constantly spared with our teacher and said girl to the more "casual" guys was so big that even being a casual myself (was doing it only because it was free and I was overweight) I was pushed over to the competitive side just because the others are totally assholes.

Every Kyokushin blackbelt that I've ever met has been super humble. They've also all trained or competed in K-1/Glory-style kickboxing, though, so that could be a factor.

Okay this video is very good and makes some good points. But I must tell you I ran a A traditional martial arts school and I must tell you at the higher levels we would do free sparring employing kickboxing and boxing techniques.I also had some college wrestlers in my classes who I would allow to teach some grappling to students.On top of all this we did some very strenuous calisthenics workouts.My point is in this day and age you don't have to stick to 1 style and only that style You can mix it up even in traditional school.That's up to the instructor!

MMA does not shatter egos, rather it builds them more so than most TMAs. I've known many TMAs and MMA guys who have used their martial arts on the streets. Most of the MMA guys who found themselves in these ended up in in some kind legal trouble, in some cases, jail. The TMAs didn't and there was a reason for that. In legit TMA schools, appropriate use of force is emphasized and you are trained only to use the required amount of brutality. In more TMA than MMA schools, I've seen teachers cover the legal side and how to put you in the best position in the aftermath of a defensive confrontation This is why those TMAs got out of their situations, they knew how to fight without getting in trouble. MMA guys just wanna be tough then cry like a bi*** when they're facing 2 years for assault or excessive use of force.

That's why usually traditional martial arts have some kind of philosophy to encourage people to train their minds as well... not only to become a better "fighter". Btw nice vd keep it up!

Excellent!

People who study modern martial arts tend to be more humble and less arrogant because they get humbled early on through real sparring matches. You instantly become aware of your level and your ego is destroyed, you accept this and you train to improve. This is the main difference between modern martial arts and traditional martial arts, there is hardly any sparring in traditional martial arts, and only a few of them actually work effectively. Edit: yeah, i posted this comment without watching the full video yet, you explained it perfectly.

I have found it in both,most grappling schools I left because of ego ,looking to beat the Hell out of newbies rather instruct and educate .in traditional schools I found big heads I like to say ,not going to fight but want to brag about how bad ass they are . from aikido to karate. For me I have met more humble people in reality styles like krav maga or Kali ! Good stuff and stay humble and healthy!

When I first started martial arts I tried taekwondo. I always did everything right. I got cocky, got my ass kicked then quit. Later on I started doing karate, muay thai, ninjitsu, and bjj. That person I used to be is long gone and I'm a better person because of it and I have mma to thank.

After sparring and having experience in Boxing and Wrestling and some kickboxing styles. Yes.

i remember my first sparring match. i lit up my senior for about 45 seconds. i was doing very well landing clean hits and pushing him around the ring but due to poor form and incorrect striking technique i gassed out and got knocked around the rest of the round lol. i had a backround in street fighting. i used to get jumped a lot and learned to fight very violently and aggressive due to always being outnumbered and having that kill or be killed mentality. it def taught me how to take a beating and i thought i was a bad ass cuz i was mean and fought to really hurt people fast and hard without rules. the ring was humbling. im a lot more arrogant now that i have a few years of amateur mma and boxing under my belt but i at least have respect for the sport the other fighters and know i have limitations that i have to break through.

I'd say Muay Thai should be on the list, i went from Karate to Muay Thai and was very quickly humbled very respectfully with a head kick. Can't deny how traditional Muay Thai is, centuries old and still observing traditional things like the mongkon, the music at shows, the wai kru and the emphasis on respect with fighters bowing to the crowd

Things may be different in Europe and/or the US nowadays, but here in Brazil, at least in the 90s and early 2000s, every now and then we'd hear in the news about a BJJ practitioner who'd lose his temper and attack someone over a minor traffic accident, or even BJJ gangs that would roam the streets looking for trouble. Of course, that might be just the result of biased media coverage, but I wouldn't say BJJ had a good image back then - I remember being interested in ground techniques back in the day, while at the same time being put off by the bad reputation BJJ had. As for BJJ destroying egos, it might be the case that you simply happened to have met the right people. After watching your video, I came across Hong Nguyen's account on why he switched from BJJ to Judo. He talks about how much better Judo is in terms of teaching, sparring, progression, etc. as well as how much more humble black belts are towards white belts. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/r8eJorGUqa3Ym2Q.html Of course, I understand both your account and Nguyen's are based on personal experience and don't necessarily represent the whole of either MMA/BJJ or Judo. But they're food for thought all the same.

Thats why Kyokushin does it for me. Its heavy on sparring and pressure and at the same time focused on traditional values.

I've found that through humility I've grown a ton. I'll spar with a guy, he'll do something that I have trouble getting around, then I'll ask my coach or watch videos on KZfaq learning how to counter what he is doing. Example: I'm tall, and southpaw. I sparred with a tall southpaw the other day that may actually be a couple inches taller. It broke my brain. So, now I'm learning more about how to deal with taller fighters. Some of your best growth comes from challenges

I Will do pressure testing in some form when I start teaching classes. My students WILL experience pain sometimes, as I did. It Will be done safely and gradually. I will probably not have many students, but they Will be of quality. Currently I am only learning and teaching JKD from Tommy Carruthers to my kid brother. Its one of the 3 styles that I decided to focus on. You cant learn to fight if you dont fight. You have to learn to improvise, take a hit and keep going. I Will make shure my brother and my future students learn that and understand the proper methodology.

Maybe it humbled McGregor last night.