Gratitude as the Foundation of Progress in Jiu-Jitsu

In BJJ, we often focus obsessively on position — guard, mount, back control. We are taught from the earliest days that position precedes submission. This is true in the technical sense. But in the broader arc of your training life, disposition precedes everything.

Two people can be in the same physical position — one will be calm, observant, and opportunistic; the other will be frustrated, impatient, and careless. The difference is not in their bodies, but in their minds. Disposition shapes perception, and perception shapes decision-making.

Here, gratitude plays a role far greater than most people imagine. Gratitude is not a sentimental afterthought — it is, in a real sense, a performance enhancer. It is the mother of all virtues, because it changes the lens through which you interpret the countless small frustrations of training: the endless repetitions, the injuries, the plateau periods. A grateful person can frame these as opportunities, rather than obstacles.

For example, celebration is simply gratitude in action. Every time you acknowledge a small victory — escaping a position you used to get stuck in, surviving longer against a tough opponent, discovering a detail you had missed — you are reinforcing the mental habit of looking at the “donut” rather than the “hole.” You see what is present, not what is missing.

Life, like Jiu-Jitsu, is filled with monotonous phases. Travel is a good analogy: the act itself can be boring, the airports tedious, the waiting endless. But if you can view boredom as unappreciated serenity, you open the door to creativity and insight. In Jiu-Jitsu, those uneventful periods where “nothing happens” are often the times when subtle awareness develops — when you stop being overstimulated and start seeing.

The great masters of the past often sought solitude to cultivate clarity. In our own way, every time we train without drama or excitement, we are doing something similar. Gratitude turns that quiet work into the very foundation of our progress.

So remember: position precedes submission — but disposition precedes position, and allows creativity to arise.