by Todd Hester

With mixed martial arts around the world being watched, followed and commented on by people who really have no basis in the sport other than a desire to see two tough guys beat each other to a bloody pulp, its easy to get swept along in the mania and forget why we train and what grappling, jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts is really about. First of all, it isn’t about the fighting.

While it is undeniably interesting seeing two people compete who train in a style that we personally know – be in judo, karate, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, muay Thai, wrestling or whatever – that isn’t what took us into the academy or dojo in the first place. We can watch fighting without training in any martial art; but fighting for the sake of pure violence is basically immoral.

I’ll wager that the reason most of us got into our particular martial art was to improve, redeem, and transform ourselves. Then when we saw the difference it made in our lives we invited our friends to participate. Over time, this geometrical progression caused MMA to reach a tipping point and attract mainstream fans who wanted to know what the fuss was about.

When I started training with the Gracies in the late ‘80s I learned that family mattered most above all, you could train hard against people and still be their friends, and that there were things in life you could do that you never thought possible. It took me out of my comfort zone and gave me the courage to try all types of things. I had always wanted to be a magazine writer and photographer but never gave it a shot. But then, after training with the Gracies I suddenly realized that if I could get on the mat with Rickson, Royler, Royce and Rorion that I could do anything.

I got my friends involved and took probably 15 or 20 fellow Northrop engineers down to the Gracie Academy to try it out. I even used to have regular “parties” at my house where a bunch of us would watch “Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in Action,” then push back the furniture and roll around in a loose approximation of Rickson vs. Zulu – everybody wanted to be Rickson, of course! Within just a few months the changes I saw in my somewhat nerdy engineer friends (I’m including myself in that category) was amazing.

One guy, who had never had a girlfriend, started having parties at his apartment complex and was suddenly dating three or four of the local hotties. When I asked him what was up he replied, “What’s the worst that could happen? You ask them out, they say no, and then you move onto the next one. You know, just like tapping out and taking on the next guy.”

Another of my friends, who loved the stock market but who was afraid of losing the security of an aerospace job, one day announced he was quitting Northrop, moving to the Bay Area and getting his broker’s license. “You think I’m afraid of playing the stock market?” he told me. “I’ve grappled with the Gracies. If I can do that then I’m not afraid of anything.”

A third friend was a total and complete bookworm who was afraid to look anyone in the eye at work and was constantly abused by his manager. He wasn’t particular good at jiu-jitsu but he was quiet about it and so I thought maybe he didn’t like it. One day we were out driving and he accidentally cut someone off. The guy behind honked his horn, got out of his car at the next stoplight, and started walking towards us. I started to get out of the car but my friend stopped me. ‘This one’s on me,” he said.

He got out, faced the guy from 10 feet away, and went into the classic Gracie fighting stance with one hand low, one high, palms open, and weight on the back foot. The horn-honker stopped abruptly, spun around, and got back into his car. “Lucky for him,” my friend said as we drove away. “I was about to go Rickson on him.” Shortly after that he quit and moved back east to where he used to go to college – something he had talked about for years but had never dared to do.

What did all of them have in common? Redemption and transformation. They had redeemed their self-image and transformed themselves into people who could all of a sudden do anything – or at least have the courage to try anything. To me that is the true meaning and legacy of what MMA and jiu-jitsu are really about.