Published: January 12, 2026
Practice Days
We know the main struggle in BJJ is longevity, and that the attrition rate is horrendous. But after just a few months we’re all convinced we’ll be the ones to make it. The simple act of staying in the game, finding our way back to the mats every time we’re pulled from them.
Most of these factors that pull us from the mats are outside our control, but some are up to us. The true crime is when nothing is pulling us from the mats, but we push the mats away ourselves. The day we’re just a bit tired, or running late or would have to leave early, or nursing an injury. Every seemingly insignificant little choice we make within our control is a vote for who we’ll become, and therefore a reliable indicator of future choices following the setbacks that will be outside our control.
This feeling we get, and that all the others before us had, it’s the same feeling the weaker version of ourselves feels right before they walk away for the last time. Longevity is built by reframing our feelings and stacking the mini victories, avoiding the sneaky and slippery slope of justification. What separates us is what we do when we get these feelings. What we do in response to these feelings tells us if we’ll last, and it adds a vote to our habits poll. We’re literally confirming that our last class wasn’t our final class, and sets us up for many more.
Everyone that quit before us had a last class, and their reason for not coming back isn’t exceptional. People that do last also have those factors influencing their decisions, but they just choose to stay. We WILL be pulled from the mats, but our habits when we’re not will influence us in those moments to either return or drift. We can use these as “practice days” to train ourselves to be ready for the proper knee jerk responses when we ARE pulled against our will. It’s a way of building future upsets into our plan….premeditatio malorum. We don’t feel ambushed when it happens. We calmly wait for our opportunity to get back to it, because that’s what we’ve conditioned ourselves for, instead of taking our tempting opportunity to quit.
