When I was in high school, we (the student body) referred to a particular group of students as “burnouts.” These were the guys and gals who wore the soiled jean and leather jackets and/or who were generally people the average student would avoid. They all smoked. Most of them did some sort of drug. A good portion of them held a sorry disposition. None of them were aware of their reputations though, which made the entire ordeal rather entertaining. They were the burnouts who hung out with themselves and we were the rest who hung out with ourselves. Two groups divided by starkly different cultures. Everyone ended up pretty decently though, so I’m guessing it was a kid thing – being all divvied up like that. As adults, we smile at one another and generally get along just fine.

I actually haven’t come across this question all too much in real life, but from what I understand and can see on the internet, the question is a very popular one. Is BJJ hard to learn? I get it. There are tons of people out there who might want to learn the sport or fighting style or self-defense framework – whatever you want to call it. And walking into a gym for the very first time to find answers can be fairly intimidating. I remember when I did that. I knew nothing about jiu-jitsu and I knew nothing about martial arts in general. I still made the call though and now, who knows how many years later, I’m still going strong. None of this helps you though. You still want to know if Brazilian jiu-jitsu is hard to learn. I’ll answer that question below.

If you’ve read any of my other Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu related posts, you already know that I’ve been training for what seems like ever. And since I’ve hung around for as long as I have, you’d think that the conversation about being bored with the sport has come up once or twice. The thing is, it actually hasn’t. It’s never come up. I’ve never heard one person during all the years of my training say, “Hey, this is actually becoming a bit played out. I mean, how many times are we going to do the same things over and over again?”