I was a teenager when I first read a very quirky book called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
In this story, an Englishman and his alien friend walk into a spaceship to escape an exploding Earth and set off through the stars.
While journeying, they are helped by a very useful travel guide that has the words “DON’T PANIC” emblazoned on the cover.
I think about that book cover all the time in jiu-jitsu.
If you’re training with quality people then it’ll be pretty common to be in deep trouble.
You might be struggling to escape a deep submission, fighting to make posture to pass the guard, getting mangled by someone stronger, or getting outclassed by someone technically better.
That’s just life, and I don’t know if there’s a way out of your dilemma in the moment.
No matter how bad the situation gets on the mat, freaking out is almost never the solution.
IF there IS a way, then you’ll ONLY find it by remaining calm and tactical.
NONE of these situations are made better by wild, unthinking thrashing.
Instead, keep thinking and like the book cover said, DON’T PANIC!
I’ve often argued that jiu-jitsu gives you many tools you can use in everyday life.
And those tools are even more important during times of extremis.
I’m no monk, but whatever emotional discipline and calm I’ve managed to cultivate has been hugely helped by getting mangled in jiu-jitsu. It’s helped develop my skills for sure.
But that emotional discipline has then frequently saved my bacon outside the dojo as well.
Some of the more dramatic examples include
- Trying to control my breathing in a smoky warehouse fire, looking for fellow firefighters trapped under debris,
- Staring down the mortality barrel as both my kidneys shrivelled up and died in 2014 from a genetic condition…
- Floating beside my overturned canoe in a cold, remote lake on the first day of my 1,000-mile solo trip through the Far North…
Now obviously I’m still around, so there ended up being solutions to all those problems.
But I don’t think I would have found those solutions if I had been freaking out and panicking in all directions.
So be a good galactic hitchiker and DON’T PANIC!
Cheers,
Stephan Kesting
